We teach future lawyers to analyze and think effectively. “We do not teach to the bar exam per se, and our courses are not bar prep courses. “Our job at the School of Law is to get students ready to be lawyers,” Connolly says. From her perspective, School of Law students are already well-prepared to take on the new bar exam. Professor Kim Diana Connolly, director of clinical legal education and vice dean for legal skills, was a commenter on the proposed changes as a member of the national Clinical Legal Education Association and the state bar association’s Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar. If family circumstances require a move, a new lawyer can get a job in another jurisdiction without the delay, cost and anxiety of taking another bar exam. In addition, she said, more law firms are engaging in cross-jurisdictional practice and need associates who are admitted in multiple jurisdictions because clients have problems that cross state borders. Another advantage is that if a candidate takes the bar exam here and doesn’t achieve the passing score that is required in New York, they could still go to a jurisdiction with a lower passing score and be qualified to begin practice there or to get a federal job.” “The test opens up many opportunities for SUNY Buffalo Law School students as they start their careers. “It’s a great opportunity for them to take an exam that’s going to allow them to get a job in many jurisdictions,” she says.
The “score portability” of the new arrangement, she says, opens new options for students wishing to practice in other states.
#Newsbar nyc menu how to
What you learn in law school is how to access those rules and understand their application.” There are differences across the states and the rules about practice may vary. “In law school everybody learns the same general principles, and those principles are tested on the UBE. “The tests that are part of the UBE are elaborate, very reliable and an appropriate measure of competence for the purpose of protecting the public,” Bosse says. She says adoption of the UBE promotes mobility in the profession, because new lawyers can be licensed in jurisdictions besides New York that recognize the exam. Gardner, are lobbying for a later start date in order to study how to support students in the endeavor.ĭiane Bosse ’76, of counsel to the Buffalo law firm Hurwitz & Fine and chair of the New York State Board of Law Examiners, served on the nine-member advisory committee that recommended the change. The change is scheduled to be implemented at the July 2016 bar exam, though some law deans, including UB School of Law's interim Dean James A. In addition to the UBE, prospective New York lawyers will be required to take two state-specific licensing components: an online “New York Law Course” with embedded test questions, and a separate online 50-question multiple-choice “New York Law Exam.” New York will become the 16th state nationwide to use the UBE, and the largest and most influential. A milestone for generations of newly minted lawyers – the New York State bar exam – is about to undergo an extreme makeover, and for UB School of Law students, it may open doors to new opportunities.Īfter a months-long period of study, focus group conversations and public comments, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman and the Court of Appeals has decided that the state will adopt the Uniform Bar Exam, or UBE.