Waiving into Bar in State w/o Reciprocity w Current State Forum

[MantisToboggan]

What is the process like to move from one non-UBE state to another if they are not listed on reciprocity and you've been practicing for less than 5 years? DM me for info on which state to which state, but I don't believe you need the exact info if you've experienced this before

[HillandHollow]

It's state by state. Some have a pure years in practice requirement, others have an attorneys' exam or something similar. Gotta go to the state's bar page.

[nixy]

And some will make you sit theor bar exam no matter what (I think this number is dwindling but not yet zero).

[RedGiant]

What is the process like to move from one non-UBE state to another if they are not listed on reciprocity and you've been practicing for less than 5 years? DM me for info on which state to which state, but I don't believe you need the exact info if you've experienced this before

You need to check this guide--it has the resources you need to figure this out:

http://www.ncbex.org/publications/bar-admissions-guide/

GL!

[QContinuum]

It's state by state. Some have a pure years in practice requirement, others have an attorneys' exam or something similar. Gotta go to the state's bar page.

And in some cases, notably CA (though CA never lets anyone waive in anyway), the attorneys' exam is much riskier/harder to pass than the full bar, because the full bar lets you use your score from the MBE portion to offset some of the randomness in essay grading.

But generally, if a state doesn't offer reciprocity with your current state and it's non-UBE (or even if it's a UBE state but your UBE score has "expired" for that state's purposes), your options are limited to either first waiving into a third state that offers reciprocity with both your current state and the new state, then waiving in to the new state from the third state; or just taking the bar (or attorneys' exam) in the new state. The third-state option is actually not uncommon - there are a good number of CA-barred folks who waive into D.C., then use that to waive into NY. But you'll still need to satisfy the length-of-practice requirement - there's no getting around that.

[FND]

this is state specific.

some states require you to take their bar exam, no matter what
some states have a separate exam for experienced attorneys
some states let you waive in with as few as 3 years of practice, some states make you wait a lot longer - but read the fine print. VA requires 3 years practice, but you must have been admitted for at least 5 years

The details also vary from state to state. Some require the practice all to be in the same state, other states just care about the total. Some states include time worked as in-house counsel, other states specifically exclude time worked as in-house counsel.

There's more minutiae, particularly around the edges. Look up the specific rules for the state you're interested in