C/O 2021 considering lateraling to NYC - do I have to retake the bar? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Basically title. My understanding is that experienced attorneys can become licensed in New York without taking the bar if they either:
-have a passing UBE score not more than 3 years old; or
-have practiced for 5 of the last 7 years.

I passed the UBE in a non-NY jurisdiction in July 2021 and have been practicing in that jurisdiction for 3.5 years at this point, so I guess I'm both too experienced and also not experienced enough to be trusted, and would have to re-take the bar exam if I wanted to lateral to NY? Any loopholes or nuance that I'm missing here? 3-5 years seems like a common lateral point, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been in this situation.

[Moneytrees]

Basically title. My understanding is that experienced attorneys can become licensed in New York without taking the bar if they either:
-have a passing UBE score not more than 3 years old; or
-have practiced for 5 of the last 7 years.

I passed the UBE in a non-NY jurisdiction in July 2021 and have been practicing in that jurisdiction for 3.5 years at this point, so I guess I'm both too experienced and also not experienced enough to be trusted, and would have to re-take the bar exam if I wanted to lateral to NY? Any loopholes or nuance that I'm missing here? 3-5 years seems like a common lateral point, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been in this situation.

Yes, you'll have to retake the bar exam, as well as take the New York Law Exam. It sucks but that's the deal if you lateral before your 5 year mark.

[Anonymous User]

Basically title. My understanding is that experienced attorneys can become licensed in New York without taking the bar if they either:
-have a passing UBE score not more than 3 years old; or
-have practiced for 5 of the last 7 years.

I passed the UBE in a non-NY jurisdiction in July 2021 and have been practicing in that jurisdiction for 3.5 years at this point, so I guess I'm both too experienced and also not experienced enough to be trusted, and would have to re-take the bar exam if I wanted to lateral to NY? Any loopholes or nuance that I'm missing here? 3-5 years seems like a common lateral point, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been in this situation.

Yes, you'll have to retake the bar exam, as well as take the New York Law Exam. It sucks but that's the deal if you lateral before your 5 year mark.

OP here - I ended up not lateraling, but after looking into this a little more I don't think this is fully accurate. In case anyone is in a similar situation in the future and comes across this thread, my understanding, which someone at the NY state bar confirmed, is that I could have made a petition for UBE admission under NY COA Rule 520.14 whereby strict compliance with the 5-year requirement can be waived due to undue hardship. Obviously there's no guarantee that the bar would actually grant such a waiver, but from my conversations and a few reddit threads where people made a similar petition, it sounded like using this rule for this situation is relatively common and generally granted.