strong>Unfortunately there is no easy answer for foreign lawyers who wish to practice law in the United States. The issue is a very complicated one because all lawyers that wish to practice law in the United States must be admitted to the Bar of the State where they intend to practice law and the US bar system is administered at the state level.
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You must first be licensed to practice law in one state and after compliance of rules framed under another state of the United States, you can or cannot be permitted to practice law in that state unless there is a reciprocity between the states.
This means that each US state (and the capital, Washington D.C.) sets its own rules for bar admission and the question “can I move to the US and be a lawyer?” has, essentially, 51 different answers. If you are taking the bar as a foreign lawyer this translates to drastically different admission standards among the different states, so a fair bit of homework is in order. Broadly speaking, however, US states fall into one of two camps with some significant outliers.
In the first camp are those states which require all bar applicants – domestic and foreign – to earn a Juris Doctor(JD Degree) from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association. Because no schools outside of the US have received this accreditation. In practice this policy means that fully 23 states will not consider graduates of foreign law schools as eligible for admission to their state.
If this is the case for the state this can be a lengthy and difficult process, requiring admission to (and completion of) an ABA recognized law school. [Although foreign educated lawyers are not eligible to be admitted to the bar of these states directly, a system of reciprocity between states allows those admitted elsewhere in any other State of reciprocity in the United States itself to practice, eventually, in any state.]
In the other camp are the five US states which allow a foreign lawyer to take the bar: New York, California, Alabama, New Hampshire and Virginia. These states allow some foreign-educated lawyers to take the bar examination without earning their degree locally. In this case, however, foreign-educated lawyers must begin the process by getting their law degree reviewed and analyzed by the American Bar Association (ABA) with an option to complete either JD or LLM degree from ABA approved Law school.. Easier said than done, it can take up to a year for the foreign law credentials are even assessed.
Once reviewed, the application is either accepted or deferred. If accepted, foreign lawyers are allowed to sit for that state’s bar exam in much the same way a domestic applicant would. In New York, one of the jurisdictions most open to foreign lawyers, this would allow foreign lawyers to sit for the bar after completion of 20 credit program or LLM – Master of Laws from an American Bar Association (ABA) approved law school in US. But all that is explained here is not as easy as it appears. Not only passing bar exam is difficult but it is also difficult to be accepted without going to ABA approved law school in the United States to comply with the requirement of JD or LLM.
Even if deferred, applicants may be asked to complete coursework at an ABA-approved law school before sitting for the bar exam. This coursework usually takes the form of a one-year LL.M program at an ABA accredited school of law The LL.M, from the Latin Legum Magister or Master of Laws, is essentially an overview of US law for foreign lawyers and is most often requested of applicants who were educated or practiced in Common Law as opposed to Civil Law countries.
If this is the case, once the candidate completes their LL.M and obtains ABA approval, taking the bar as a foreign lawyer proceeds as outlined above. Please learn more about the International LLM here.Given the intricacies of this process, it can take anywhere from 3 months to 2 years for a foreign educated lawyer to take the bar and this does not even begin to cover the preparation required to take the bar itself! Fortunately, for anyone taking the bar as a foreign lawyer, preparing for the bar exam is a typical, if daunting challenge.
Many American law students spend months preparing to sit for the bar exam by taking bar review courses and classes and foreign-educated lawyers should consider doing the same. Regardless of their backgrounds, so many applicants take these review courses that the model answer the examiners are looking for is invariably in the style taught by these courses. Such classes can be time consuming and expensive but well-recommended ones are generally worth it. After all, the goal of taking the bar as a foreign lawyer is well within sight! It is not a child’s play to become an Attorney and Counselor at Law in the United States for a foreign lawyer not only especially because it is very expensive but also because the success ratio of foreign lawyers passing the bar exam is low for those who have English as a second language in the country of their origin.
FINALLY even if you complete your Master of Law(LLM) degree from ABA approved law school and pass the bar exam of the State by which you are permitted to do so and get licensed as Attorney on record, you cannot practice law independently unless you have a green card.
International students who complete the process and get licensed as stated above try hard to get sponsored from the law firm in H-1B visa which is a non-immigrant temporary working visa status granted initially for a period of three years and extendable for another three years but the beneficiary cannot live in the United States for more than six years unless green card is under process. If every thing goes well it takes around 12 years to get employment based green card.
Now in H-1B visa status also, a licensed Attorney cannot practice law independently because he is permitted to work for the petitioner i.e law firm and for & on its behalf, but if caught practicing law independently, he or she is subject to deportation because it is a violation of immigration law.
Better the Attorneys in such a case should return to the country back home and keep the US Attorney’s license active and work from his country for example from NIGERIA through an associate law firm in the United States and if necessary an attorney on per diem basis can be hired in case representation is required.
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