Your Opinion Counts
A Survey on Admission on Motion

A New Rules Petition Affecting Admission of Lawyers
A recent petition filed with the Arizona Supreme Court has raised an important issue for members of the State Bar. Simply stated, should out-of-state lawyers who meet certain prerequisites be admitted to practice in Arizona on Motion—that is, with no bar exam?

The petition was filed not by the State Bar Board of Governors but by an individual member of the Bar. You may read it online by clicking here. The proposed rule was one of several changes initially proposed to the Board of Governors by a State Bar Task Force on Multijurisdictional Practice in early 2003. At that time, the Board of Governors adopted most of the recommendations of the Task Force, including changes to ERs 5.5 and 8.5, but it rejected admission on motion and did not include it in the Bar’s 2003 petition to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court’s filing deadline for comments on the current admission on motion petition is May 21, 2007. Whatever action the Supreme Court takes on the petition would go into effect in 2008.