DC or New York Bar Forum

[Anonymous User]

I will be graduating this year and am trying to decide whether to take the DC or NY bar. I will be clerking for two years after graduation (mistake #1) and I have an offer for after clerking from the DC firm where I worked last summer, which I have a while to accept. Basically what has changed between summer 2020 when I applied for and got my clerkships and now is that fully remote work seems much more attainable. The main reason I am bummed I'm clerking (besides the huge pay cut) is the lack of possibility for remote work. The DC firm where I have an offer is making everyone go back to the office. An NY firm that I turned down for this past summer (mistake #2) recently announced that they are going completely remote permanently, and I think NY firms in general seem the most likely of anywhere to become remote permanently. The issue is where to take the bar. Again because of my decision to clerk, I will be paying for my own bar prep. The main advantage of taking the bar now is $11,000 extra (after tax) my second year of clerking. I also don't know if I would have time after clerking to study for the bar before starting a firm job. DC and NY are both UBE states as of now, but NY is leaving the UBE at some undefined point in the future. DC is also making it much harder to transfer UBE scores after March 31, 2022--you'll have to have worked for three years first--meaning transferring an NY score to DC in two years I'd be SOL. Since I don't know where I'll be working two years for now, I have an offer in DC, but ideally I would want to work for a (probably NY) remote firm, where if anywhere should I take the bar? Or do I just back out of clerking, beg NY firm to take me back, and go live off the grid?? I apologize if this is too convoluted.

[Wubbles]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the DC bar change makes it so they will no longer accept MBE scores in the same way as they accept UBE scores, essentially cutting off the easy pathway for getting barred from Florida, California, etc. I think transfer of a standard UBE score is still going to be available going forward (otherwise it wouldn't be a UBE, it would just be a DC specific bar exam).

[Anonymous User]

I thought they were making it so you had to have worked three years before you could transfer? But I find it all really confusing.

[Wubbles]

I thought they were making it so you had to have worked three years before you could transfer? But I find it all really confusing.

Perhaps I'm reading it wrong but let me know if you're seeing a different source on the rule changes (https://www.dcbar.org/news-events/news/ ... trict-bar-) and (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... D_JT6JiCof)

[Anonymous User]

Yep, I am just a dummy. Thank you!! This basically solves my concerns.

[Wubbles]

Yep, I am just a dummy. Thank you!! This basically solves my concerns.

No worries! Your post made me worried about whether I needed to immediately apply to DC.