FLORIDA BOARD OF BAR EXAMINERS. IN RE BARRY ALAN EISENSON
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Barry Alan Eisenson sought waiver of the Florida Bar's requirement that applicants graduate from an ABA-accredited law school in the same calendar year as accreditation. The Florida Supreme Court granted the waiver because the school's accreditation investigation occurred within the required timeframe, but the ABA delayed voting on accreditation until fourteen months after his graduation, a timing delay beyond his control.
The court granted the waiver because the school's accreditation requirements were satisfied during the calendar year following graduation, but the ABA's delay in voting on accreditation was beyond the applicant's control. Denying admission solely due to the ABA's timing of its formal approval vote would violate the spirit of the bar admission rules.
[1] A waiver of bar admission rules may be granted when strict adherence would violate the spirit of the rules due to circumstances beyond the applicant's control.
[2] An applicant may be granted a waiver of the requirement to graduate from an accredited law school if the school receives accreditation in the calendar year following the…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“To deny to petitioner the opportunity to seek admission to The Florida Bar merely because the ABA chose to vote on accreditation in August, 1972, rather than in May or June of the same year, would in our view violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the Rules Relating to Admission to the Bar.”
The court's core reasoning for why the waiver should be granted, emphasizing that the applicant should not be penalized for the ABA's administrative timing.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceEisenson graduated from Baltimore School of Law in June 1971 with a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree. At that time, the school was not ABA-approved or p…
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By petition pursuant to Article IV, Section 21(a) of the Rules Relating to Admissions to the Bar, Barry Alan Eisenson seeks waiver of the requirements of Article IV, Section 22(b) of the same rules. Section 22 (b) provides:
“Section 22. Every applicant is also required :
(b) To furnish the Board satisfactory evidence of graduation from a full-time accredited law school at a time when, or in the same calendar year in which such school was so accredited, and that such accredited law school has conferred upon the applicant the degree of Bachelor of Laws or Doctor of Jurisprudence. The term ‘accredited law school,’ has reference to any law school approved or provisionally approved by the American Bar Association or which is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.”
Petitioner attended the Baltimore School of Law from September, 1967 through his graduation in June, 1971. At that time he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence. On the date of his graduation, the school was neither approved nor provisionally approved by the American Bar Association. However, petitioner alleged that the ABA’s evaluating committee conducted its examination and investigation of the school in November, 1971, some five months after petitioner’s graduation. At the next yearly meeting of the American Bar Association in August, 1972, the school was provisionally approved on the basis of the November, 1971 evaluation. The facts as stated by petitioner are not controverted by the Board of Bar Examiners.
The total time span between petitioner’s graduation and provisional accreditation by the ABA covers a period of approximately fourteen months. Obviously, therefore, petitioner fails to comply with the requirement of graduation from a full-time accredited law school “at a time when, or in the same calendar year in which such school was so accredited. . . . ”1
While waivers of the Rule relating to accreditation are not to be granted without good and sufficient reason,2 we are persuaded, in light of the circumstances described by petitioner, that a waiver is justified in this instance. It appears from the uncontro-verted facts that provisional accreditation by the ABA resulted from the investigation of November, 1971, conducted some five months after petitioner’s graduation from law school. To deny to petitioner the opportunity to seek admission to The Florida Bar merely because the ABA chose to vote on accreditation in August, 1972, rather than in May or June of the same year, would in our view violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the Rules Relating to Admission to the Bar. Thus we conclude that where, as here, the requirements for provisional accreditation are met during the calendar year following the applicant’s graduation, but the American Bar Association fails to act on its findings within the 12 month period provided by the Rules, a waiver of the Rule is permissible.
Accordingly, the petition of Barry Alan Eisenson for waiver of the accreditation requirement of Article IV, Section 22(b), of the Rules Relating to Admission to the Bar is granted and, provided petitioner meets all *488other requirements of the Rules, the Florida Board of Bar Examiners is ordered to admit petitioner to the earliest Bar Examination for which he qualifies.
It is so ordered.
CARLTON, C. J., and ROBERTS, ADKINS, McCAIN and DEKLE, JJ., concur.
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LaBOSSIERE v. Fla. Bd. OF BAR Exam'rs, 279 So. 2d 288 (Fla. 1973)…ar period. We advise petitioner to study this rule carefully to determine whether he can qualify via this method. The rules relating to educational qualifications have been waived by this Court only in rare instances. In the case of In re Eisenson, 272 So. 2d 486 (Fla.1973) we permitted a graduate of the Baltimore School of Law to qualify for the Florida Bar Examination although the law school from which he graduated was not accredited by the American Bar Association until fourteen months subsequent to his g…
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Fla. Bd. of Bar Exam'rs re Barry Univ. Sch. of Law, 821 So. 2d 1050 (Fla. 2002)…urt has continued to recognize that strict enforcement of the provisions of rule 2-11.1 is the best approach. Furthermore, we conclude that Barry University’s reliance on this Court’s 1973 decision in Florida Board of Bar Examiners; In re Eisenson, 272 So. 2d 486 (Fla.1973), is misplaced. The rule in effect in 1973 provided that graduation must occur “in the same calendar year in which such [*1056] school was so accredited.”4 In that case, although the ABA’s evaluation committee conducted a favorable examina…
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In re Fla. Bd. OF BAR Exam'rs. In re John Charles Donald Meise, 279 So. 2d 848 (Fla. 1973)…edited . . . . ” This request is also premature. Petitioner is not yet an applicant and so not in a position to obtain relief from this Court. However, for the benefit of both the Board and petitioner we call attention to the case of In Re Eisenson, 272 So. 2d 486 (Fla.1973), wherein we waived the accreditation requirement for an applicant from the Baltimore School of Law in the same graduating class as petitioner in the instant case. On the basis of the record now before us, there appears to be a strong prob…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Petition of Raymond W. Klein, 259 So. 2d 144 (Fla. 1972)