Admission To The Bar

See also

The status that allows a person to practice law within a state…. (Read more)

What does Admission to the bar mean in American Law?

The definition of Admission to the bar in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

The formal grant, usually taking the form of a formal order of court, of a privilege to the practice of law, issued by the jurisdiction within which the practice is to take place. Each jurisdiction may impose its own requirements of education, knowledge, residence, and moral character, with compliance often determined by examination (see bar examination; character committee). The standards applied may not, of course, any more than those for any other governmental action, violate the

Constitution, e.g., there could be no “whites only” requirement. But the various jurisdictions otherwise have very wide discretion in setting their own requirements.