Academic

To bar or not to bar . . . .

By Tung Yin

Since graduating from law school, I've lived in four states: California, Oklahoma, Iowa, and now Oregon.  I passed the California bar exam in 1995 (my admission year is 1996 because I put off getting admitted so as to avoid paying unnecessary bar dues) and got admitted to Iowa by motion in 2003.  I couldn't get admitted to Oklahoma by motion because Oklahoma didn't have reciprocity with California (and I hadn't been practicing for long enough anyway), but I did get admitted to the Tenth Circuit bar while I was out there.

Now that I'm in Oregon for the long haul, I've been wondering if I should get admitted to the Oregon Bar.  Like most states (but not Iowa), Oregon does not have reciprocity with California -- pretty much because California is obnoxious about not allowing anyone to get admitted by motion.  But it turns out that Oregon has a law teacher admission that's about as good: as long as you've been admitted to another state's bar, a full-time law professor at one of the three Oregon law schools can get admitted without taking the exam after teaching for one year.  I'm about to complete my first year (I consider it done when I turn in grades), so I could do this.

I'm not sure why I would do this, although I think I might like to take on a Ninth Circuit federal criminal appeal or habeas petition pro bono if I could work out legal malpractice liability issues, and I'd either need to get admitted to Oregon or reactivate my California membership for my Ninth Circuit admission to be valid.

On the downside, the law prof admission still requires paying the hefty $850 application fee; and active dues in Oregon are even MORE expensive than those in California, which I didn't think was possible!

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on May 18, 2010 (boomark / email).