" Wei Jia v. Board of Bar Examiners, 427 Mass. Rule 3:01, § 6.1.1, as appearing in 433 Mass. See also Rule V.1 of the Rules of the Board of Bar Examiners, supra (“There shall be a rebuttable presumption that nondisclosure of a material fact on the candidate's application[s] to the bar, law school or undergraduate school is prima facie evidence of the lack of good character”). Thereafter, in November of 2007, Mitchell commenced this action in the county court. Learn more about FindLaw’s newsletters, including our terms of use and privacy policy. To perform its work in the area of approving law school programs, the ABA has adopted "Standards for Approval of Law Schools" (approval standards). MEE Test Dates. The board determined that he was not qualified for admission and recommended that the petition be dismissed. the court agreed to, and did, request the ABA "to give attention to the issue of distance learning, with a view towards incorporating online methodologies into the [ABA's] Standards for Approval of Law Schools." His appeals were unsuccessful. Rule 3:01, § 3.3, that a person seeking to sit for the Massachusetts bar examination have graduated from a law school that has been approved by the American Bar Association (ABA), where the applicant's record (i.e., that he was a graduate with highest honors of a wholly online law school that was authorized by the State of California to grant the degree of juris doctor, and an admitted member of the bars of California and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit) satisfied the purpose of the rule, which is to insure an appropriate level of legal education; and where the ABA recently undertook a comprehensive review of its approval standards to consider online distance learning. In Mitchell's particular case, two considerations combine to persuade us that we should waive the law school accreditation requirement set out in S.J.C. Ante at 582, 585. See Matter of Tocci, supra at 545, 547 (denying waiver to sit for bar examination even though fact that applicant had to attend different law school from accredited one he enrolled in was not his fault; applicant made informed decision to attend unaccredited law school and recognized difficulty he would face). [Note 9] And we have noted that "there is a 'direct rational connection between the requirement of graduation from an accredited law school and an applicant's fitness to practice law.' 777 , 783 (1998) (Wei Jia), quoting Tocci, 413 Mass. 754 (1981), provides as follows: "Each applicant shall have graduated with a degree of bachelor of laws or juris doctor from a law school which, at the time of graduation, is approved by the American Bar Association or is authorized by statute of the Commonwealth to grant the degree of bachelor of laws or juris doctor.". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 754 (1981), be amended to permit attorneys to sit for the Massachusetts bar examination if they are admitted to practice in other States and were graduated from American law schools that, although not ABA-approved, are authorized by State statute to grant law degrees. Facts. In the interim, I am concerned with the potential for having to assess large numbers of graduates from other online law schools. 542 , 546 (1992) (Tocci); Novak v. Board of Bar Examiners, 397 Mass. In the statement of agreed facts, the board stipulated that Mitchell "received his undergraduate degree, Bachelor of Science in Law, from Concord in July 2002." Thus, this court's consideration of the issue this plaintiff presents has been thorough. While someone who knows the applicant well should write these recommendation letters, family members or relatives are discouraged, and in some states barred, from doing so. Some state bars require these letters be dated within a specific period of time. As previously announced, the Board of Bar Examiners will expedite the grading of the exam and its character and fitness investigations so that results may be released by mid-December, 2020. I write separately because I disagree with the court's conclusion that, given the American Bar Association's (ABA's) pending comprehensive review of schools and programs using online distance learning, equitable considerations weigh in favor of granting the plaintiff a waiver to sit for the Massachusetts bar examination. This court exercised its equitable power to waive the requirement of S.J.C. In his application, Britton disclosed that he had been “wrongfully terminated” by two employers, and that he had brought multiple lawsuits involving separate incidents against former employers, attorneys, police officers, and a media outlet alleging, among other things, wrongful termination, violation of civil rights, defamation, breach of contract, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process. 1301 (1997), an attorney licensed in another State who is eligible for admission on motion satisfies the educational requirement for admission if he graduated from a law school that is either approved by the ABA or "authorized by a state statute to grant the degree of bachelor of laws or juris doctor" (emphasis supplied).
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