New York Bar Eligibility

dealerwa · 10-01-2013 7:50am #1

Hi All,

Could someone tell me the process of applying for the New York Bar. Well I know all about the foreign evaluation process etc but unsure on a couple of things.

I have completed a three year law llb degree part time in Dublin. I believe that they require a three year full time or a four year part time degree. Although, a good few in my class did the New York Bar, even though they studied the exact same as me and part time. It asks on the evaluation whether i studied full time or part time. The course was three nights per week and 4 hours per night. Whereas many of Ireland four year courses are only 2 nights per week.

Have they lied and said that they studied full time? Do we need to provide a letter from the college regarding studying part ot full time etc. Do they even check in New York. I live in a foreign country now and am not in contact to ask them.

Also, I have read that your law school needs to send your transcript results is that true or can I send them myself when I receive them from the college.

Please help

silenceisfoo · 11-01-2013 3:43pm

Hey if you go to the bar website you are asked to fill out an initial form which will say whether you are eligible to sit the exam or not. I don't think they get to in depth as to whether it was full time or part time.
You have to send a letter from either kings inns or the law society as well saying you are eligible to sit your own country's bar. It's only a quick thing and you can generally pick it up.
Your college has to sen a copy of your results in a sealed envelope. Again if you go into them and have all the info you can generally get it done there and then. Maybe make an appointment to see them. THen finally a copy of your degree certificate- not sure but i think a photocopy will do. Whatever you send the bar you will not get back. Remember to apply in plenty of time as it can take months to process your application-stressful studying for it and waiting for approval to sit the exam at the same time.
you need anything then PM me.
Foo

Strawberry Fields · 11-01-2013 4:01pm

Sorry for thread hijack but while your there, do you need to have a law degree to sit NY bar as that's what I thought or will all 8 FE1s suffice without one.

NoQuarter · 11-01-2013 4:13pm

Strawberry Fields wrote: »

Sorry for thread hijack but while your there, do you need to have a law degree to sit NY bar as that's what I thought or will all 8 FE1s suffice without one.

You need a law degree. Fe-1s are completely and utterly useless outside Ireland.

Strawberry Fields · 11-01-2013 4:19pm

Yeah typical. I thought that alright.

silenceisfoo · 11-01-2013 5:28pm

May be worth your while looking into a law degree if you want to do it. check out the accepted law degrees and then just do one of those, preferably the shortest one. i think griffith or independent colleges stick mainly to the core subjects and would at least give you the option and a part time programme.

Procrastastudy · 11-01-2013 7:47pm

silenceisfoo wrote: »

May be worth your while looking into a law degree if you want to do it. check out the accepted law degrees and then just do one of those, preferably the shortest one. i think griffith or independent colleges stick mainly to the core subjects and would at least give you the option and a part time programme.

GCD would be very short when you take into account the semesters. If you want a good grade on the exams however it's a little too short to do PT imho.

dienbienphu · 11-01-2013 9:30pm

Procrastastudy wrote: »

GCD would be very short when you take into account the semesters. If you want a good grade on the exams however it's a little too short to do PT imho.

how long should one spend preparing for them?

Procrastastudy · 11-01-2013 9:33pm

dienbienphu wrote: »

how long should one spend preparing for them?

Semesters are only 12 weeks long (to be fair you get a week in the middle and a couple of weeks before the exams so 15 weeks). Still seems a bit short to me but then I'm full time and pretty lazy.

How some of the guys in PT, who aren't the youngest group in the world, pull off 2.1s, assignments and still hold down a full time job is beyond me.

gilmag · 15-01-2013 12:57pm

I have a law degree but its not approved to sit Kings Inns, am I still eligible? From what I can see on the NY bar website you just need to be able to practice law in your home country and your degree must be in law. It does not differentiate between solicitors or barristers. Has anyone with an LLB from UCC or a B.Corp Law from NUIG been allowed to sit the exam? From my reading they meet the qualification but I've been told by others that your law degree needs to be kings inn eligible.

FreudianSlippers · 15-01-2013 1:37pm

gilmag wrote: »

I have a law degree but its not approved to sit Kings Inns, am I still eligible? From what I can see on the NY bar website you just need to be able to practice law in your home country and your degree must be in law. It does not differentiate between solicitors or barristers. Has anyone with an LLB from UCC or a B.Corp Law from NUIG been allowed to sit the exam? From my reading they meet the qualification but I've been told by others that your law degree needs to be kings inn eligible.

I'd be surprised if the LLB from UCC wasn't eligible for the Inns?!

Procrastastudy · 15-01-2013 1:47pm

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

I'd be surprised if the LLB from UCC wasn't eligible for the Inns?!

+1 Do you mean you are missing a required course like Admin Law or Jurisprudence? You can just sit them as a seperate module AFAIK.

NoQuarter · 15-01-2013 2:06pm

Whether a degree is eligible for the King's Inns is of no relevance as to whether it's eligible for the NY Bar. If there is no guidance on the NYC website then you will have to e-mail them.

FreudianSlippers · 15-01-2013 3:43pm

NoQuarter wrote: »

Whether a degree is eligible for the King's Inns is of no relevance as to whether it's eligible for the NY Bar. If there is no guidance on the NYC website then you will have to e-mail them.

Of course; my comment was more in relation to the previous statement that the UCC LLB wasn't KI approved.

silenceisfoo · 15-01-2013 3:59pm

I am eligible and have the corp law and llb. You need to have the llb from galway with the corp law. For some reason UCC llb is not recognised pretty much anywhere. I know someone who did the degree and it is causing huge problems.

Procrastastudy · 15-01-2013 4:01pm

Bloody hell I honestly thought I'd be coming back here telling the Cork boys how wrong they were but;

(25) LL.B. University College Cork; and national University of Ireland, Cork (from 2010)

from the schedule of approved degrees for the Inns. Very Odd.

EDIT could it be that the 2010 bit only applies to NUI(C) - it must be or how could they be no 25 on the list? Ah and I see the BCL is listed. I'm calling BS on UCC law degrees not being approved for the KI.

NoQuarter · 15-01-2013 4:39pm

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

Of course; my comment was more in relation to the previous statement that the UCC LLB wasn't KI approved.

Apologies, my comment was for gilmag who seemed to imply that there was some correlation beetwen the NY bar not accepting a degree if the Inns dont.

FreudianSlippers · 15-01-2013 5:22pm

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Bloody hell I honestly thought I'd be coming back here telling the Cork boys how wrong they were but;

(25) LL.B. University College Cork; and national University of Ireland, Cork (from 2010)

from the schedule of approved degrees for the Inns. Very Odd.

EDIT could it be that the 2010 bit only applies to NUI(C) - it must be or how could they be no 25 on the list? Ah and I see the BCL is listed. I'm calling BS on UCC law degrees not being approved for the KI.

To me that would indicate they switched to giving the BCL at some stage. AFAIK the LLB & BCL are the exact same qualification and standard, so perhaps it's just the 'new' degree on the list but they still would accept your 'old' LLB?

New York Bar Eligibility

Comments