California Bar May Consider Campus Protests in Moral Character Review For Licensing Lawyers
Isn’t this a policy that should already be in place everywhere?
Reuters reports:
Calif bar considers campus protests in moral character review for lawyer licensingBar admission authorities in California will consider applicants’ participation in campus protests on an “individual basis” during the moral character process, following an internal review.A State Bar of California working group, which took up the issue of whether and how the bar should continue to weigh applicants’ participation in campus protests when determining if they have the moral character to become licensed attorneys, said that evaluators must be careful to exclude protected political speech or expression, according to a memo, opens new tab slated to be discussed by the state bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners on Friday.The working group declined to endorse any blanket policies regarding campus protest involvement, instead concluding that moral character reviews should look at the “specific facts relevant to the individual applicant” and take into account relevant state and federal precedent.The state bar handles lawyer licensing in California, which has the nation’s second largest population of attorneys behind New York. California licenses up to 6,000 law graduates each year. In addition to passing the bar exam, aspiring lawyers must undergo a moral character review — a process similar to an extensive background check — before they can practice.Brandon Stallings, chair of the state bar’s Board of Trustees, in May directed staff to examine how it weighs participation in campus protests by bar applicants following a wave of unrest related to the war in Gaza that began in October 2023.In April, for example, pro-Palestinian students disrupted a dinner Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky hosted for graduating students at his home — prompting questions over whether the students had crossed a line.
Hat tip to the TaxProfBlog
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