APPENDIX

TO THE

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LEGAL EDUCATION

AND ADMISSIONS TO THE BAR.

The following correspondence of the Committee on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar was reported to the Association under the resolutions adopted at the annual meeting of 1879.

The letters received were in response to the circular letter printed below.

The space available for publication of the correspondence is necessarily limited.

As the statements regarding qualifications established by law for admissions to the bar in any one particular state are alike, in order to avoid repetition, a single letter only is printed where correspondents from the same state have confined themselves to the statements referred to.

Publication might in this way have been restrained to one letter from each state. But expressions of opinion as to the means for elevating the standard of legal education having been asked for, it is evident the plan indicated would be practicable only where letters from the same state are in accord. When this is not the case, and on careful reading there appears to be separation of judgment, letters which show it are themselves reproduced.

Letters which contain views of general interest everywhere are likewise printed, but merely prefatory and similar observations evidently irrelevant to the discussion are omitted from all the papers.

Under the plan for publication now enforced the Committee. can do no more than acknowledge indebtedness for valued and enlightened communications duly on file for reference and received from the following gentlemen:

MY DEAR SIR-Your attention is respectfully asked to the following resolutions, passed by the American Bar Association, at their annual meeting of last summer:

Resolved (1), That the Vice-President and Local Council for each state be requested to report to the Committee on Legal Education, the facts in regard to the qualifications existing by law for admission to the bar in such state, the means therein provided by public authority, or otherwise, for promoting and facilitating the study of the law, and the necessity or propriety of elevating the standard of qualification for admission to the bar in such state, and the best means of accomplishing that object.

Resolved (2), That the said committee be directed to report such facts and suggestions as may be furnished by the several Vice-Presidents and Local Councils, pursuant to the first resolution, to the Association for its further consideration and action, with such suggestions as the committee choose to present.

In behalf of the Committee on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, it becomes my duty to request you to comply with the requirements of the first resolution at your earliest convenience. The committee are particularly desirous to have you give them the benefit of your valued opinions and views as to the best means of elevating the standard of qualifications for admission to the bar, and will be grateful to you as a conspicuous friend of learning and the law, if you will communicate with them through me in reply to this letter.

With great esteem and regard,

Very truly, yours,

CARLETON HUNT,

After giving the following provisions of the laws of Maine:

CHAPTER 62.

An Act to regulate admission to the bar in this state. Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

SECTION 1. No person who has not been a member of the bar of another state, in good standing and in active practise, for at least three years, shall be admitted to practise law in the courts of this state, unless he shall have studied for at least two years in the office of some attorney-at-law, or part of the time in such office, and the remainder in some law school, and shall also have passed a satisfactory examination in his legal studies.

SECT. 2. All examinations shall be public, and in the presence of some justice of the supreme judicial court during term time. The time for holding same in each county, not exceeding twice in each year, shall be fixed by the chief-justice. The examination shall be partly oral and partly written, and shall be conducted by an examining committee of the bar, in each county, to be appointed by the chief-justice. No candidate shall be admitted whose examination or character is not satisfactory to the presiding justice, nor unless notice of the intended application is given by the clerk of the court to which application is to be made, in some newspaper, for thirty days at least before such admission. All candidates must present to the examining committee, written recommendation from the members of the bar with whom they have studied, and must pay all fees now prescribed by law.

SECT. 3. Any person not having been admitted to practise. law in this state, or whose name shall have been struck from the roll of attorneys, who shall advertise as, or represent himself to be, an attorney-at-law, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not more than three months: and no person whose name shall have been struck from the roll of attorneys for misconduct shall be allowed to plead or manage causes in court under a power of attorney for any other party, or be eligible for appointment as a trial justice, justice of the peace, or justice of the peace and quorum.

SECT. 4. All Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with this are hereby repealed. [Ap. March 15, 1881.]

And stating that the law was procured under the prompting of a newly organized State Bar Association, but that Maine has no law school, this letter proceeds:

The history of the regulations for admissions of attorneys in this state is not one the profession is proud of, although the reproach does not rest upon lawyers. From the organization