Tennessee’s inane licensing requirement for attorneys is an economic barrier

Tennessee
is one of many few states that requires a lawyer to have labored full-time if she needs to follow as a licensed lawyer with out having to retake a bar examination. Which means when a part-time lawyer strikes from one other state to Tennessee, that lawyer should take the Tennessee bar examination — no matter whether or not that lawyer has already handed a bar examination and no matter previous work expertise. This imposes a penalty on those that have voluntarily chosen to scale back their hours, like some working moms.

The Community of Enlightened Girls, of which I’m president, petitioned the Tennessee Supreme Court docket in April, asking the courtroom to take away the full-time work requirement. Greater than 30 feedback had been submitted. All of the feedback assist eradicating the full-time work requirement.

Even the Tennessee Board of Regulation Examiners, which is answerable for administering the principles on admission, agreed that the state’s requirement is pointless. In its remark, the Tennessee Board of Regulation Examiners wrote, “The Board agrees that requiring the ‘full time’ follow of legislation for admission with out examination is just not essential to make sure competence amongst attorneys admitted on movement. Actually, it seems that a full-time follow requirement (which isn’t usually required to take care of a legislation license) can have the undesirable impact of constructing it unnecessarily tough for working moms, for instance, to acquire admission to the Tennessee bar with out examination.”

Assist from the Tennessee Board of Regulation Examiners is important, because the board had rejected the petitions for licensure reciprocity from not less than two part-time attorneys, each of whom additionally submitted feedback. One of many attorneys, Cheryl Smith, famous, “In 2017 I utilized for admission to the Tennessee State Bar by comity. Regardless of being an skilled lawyer, I used to be denied solely as a result of I had not labored full time through the previous 3 years. I appealed the denial and misplaced on attraction. On the time I used to be instructed by the Tennessee Board of Regulation Examiners that regardless of my years of expertise, they didn’t have the discretion to approve my utility for admission by comity underneath the Supreme Court docket Guidelines as then written.”

The Tennessee Bar Affiliation additionally agreed that the full-time work requirement is pointless, declaring that the precise hours an lawyer works don’t decide competence. “It appears tough to think about a fabric distinction in competence between a licensed lawyer in good standing in one other jurisdiction who practices legislation or teaches legislation for 40 hours per week and one who engages in the identical exercise for fewer hours weekly,” the affiliation wrote.

There are numerous methods wherein altering this rule would profit Tennesseans, as loads of commenters famous. Jaimie Cavanaugh from the Institute for Justice wrote that eradicating the full-time work requirement “would improve the financial liberty afforded to Tennesseans and permit them higher freedom to make profession selections which are finest for themselves and their households.”

Kaitlyn Schiraldi from the Mountain States Authorized Basis wrote, “The follow of legislation is demanding, no matter what number of hours per week one works, and a part-time lawyer is not any much less competent or hardworking than one who works full-time. Actually, attorneys who work part-time usually achieve this as a result of they produce other tasks, similar to elevating kids or caring for a sick or aged relative.”

And Vanessa Brown Calder, director of alternative and household coverage research on the Cato Institute, identified that the full-time work requirement disproportionately hurts girls. “Tennessee’s licensing rule holds a few of these girls again and contributes to the concern that many ladies have that they are going to be penalized for going half time or taking go away from work whereas their kids are younger,” she wrote. “That is actually unlucky and ensures that the authorized career misses out on authorized expertise.”

Lawyer Sarah Laird shared, “Gladly, part-time/flex positions have gotten extra commonplace, and companies are getting good and structuring part-time schedules in a approach that acknowledges and rewards the worth part-time attorneys carry to the desk. Let’s not hamper this development by throwing up a roadblock to attorneys who’ve taken benefit of this device.”

A remark submitted by the Impartial Girls’s Discussion board acknowledged, “Tennessee has a possibility to affix different states in flattening an employment barrier for skilled girls.”

Certainly. The problem now goes to the Tennessee Supreme Court docket, which ought to take away the full-time work requirement for reciprocity. It’s an financial barrier that serves no compelling objective.

Karin Lips is the president of the Community of Enlightened Girls and a senior fellow with the Impartial Girls’s Discussion board. You possibly can comply with her on Twitter at @klips and on Instagram at @karin.lips.