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The statement below was received by The Malet Street Gazette. At the request of the author their name has been omitted to protect their privacy. Nonetheless, The Malet Street Gazette received permission to reprint this External LL.B. graduate's experience in the US, who was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1978, to provide insight for our Gazette readers. Any questions regarding this article should be directed to the Editor, The Malet Street Gazette.

The Editor

A New York Story

February 11, 1999

I am External LL.B. graduate who was admitted at Gray's Inn in 1978, who came here in 1978, but not because I had a law job here to come to (in fact I didn't) but because my wife was a US citizen and I had a green card allowing me to stay here whether or not I had a job to come to, and who was permitted to sit for the New York bar in 1980 without taking a further US law degree after submitting a petition to the New York Court of Appeals (which as you know administers the admission of attorneys in NY), and satisfying the Court's condition that I and a NY attorney with whom I was working at the time certified to the Court that I had been "employed for one year as a legal clerk with an admitted NY attorney". You could also mention that I am now with a leading New York firm.

The London External LL.B. degree may well not be understood in many US jurisdictions, and in fact the problem most likely, in my opinion, stems from a suspicion of anything that might be akin to correspondence-type degrees, which in the past have received a great deal of skepticism here due to the number of "shysters" who will sell anyone a diploma for the right price. Additionally, the European system of education which does not require an undergraduate degree to be obtained before a law degree (here called a "graduate degree") is not well understood, and has to be explained at great length - and the explanation is often frowned on and thought of as being an attempt to portray British high school level education as superior and at a higher level than American high school education in preparing a student for a professional career (most law school graduates in the US are at least 24 years old, compared to a possible 20/21 year-old British law-school graduate, even though many External LL.B. students are considerably older). Additionally, a lot of emphasis is put on "accreditation" of US law school courses by the American Bar Association, so it is obvious that non-US law schools would be subjected to an even more rigorous test, and a degree that does not have mandatory class attendance as part of the requirements might well be suspect in light of this.

I don't know if I can be of any help, quite frankly. I was admitted in 1980 in New York after obtaining permission to take the New York Bar exam and passing it on the first attempt (unlike many other "foreign" lawyers at the time) following a rigorous commercial bar exam crash preparation course, of which there are still several in existence; but about 8 years ago I was denied permission to be admitted "on motion" or even to take the bar exam in Connecticut where I live, due to my non-possession of a US JD degree, despite 10 prior years of practice in New York State: this really had no impact on my career since I only applied because I thought it may be of some use at a future date, and the New York admission was all I really needed.

For anyone attempting to come to the USA armed with a London External LL.B., I would recommend (a) they get admitted (as I was) as a Barrister or solicitor first, (b) obtain guidance in advance from the particular Bar authority in the State they wish to enter and become admitted (which is not necessarily the state bar association, since in New York, as an example, it is the Court of Appeals that has jurisdiction over the admission of attorneys), and (c) consider the expense involved since it is quite likely that a LLM from an accredited lawschool will be required at the very least.

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