Tag Archive for: admission to the Florida Bar
How a Florida Bar Applicant can conduct a Proper Background Check
When applying to the Florida Bar the number one reason that Applicants find themselves the subject of an investigative or formal hearing is due to “lack of candor”. In most instances this can be totally avoided by conducting a thorough background check on yourself. If something is left off your Florida Bar Applicantion the examiners may suspect that it was an intentional act of deceit and you were concealing bad facts that you didn’t want them to learn. Sometime it is an innocent mistake such as leaving off a summer job that you may have forgotten about from 6 years ago but after being contacted by the Florida Board of Bar Examiners your former employer may not have had very nice things to say about you which would lead the Board to think it was a deliberate act. Here are three things every Florida Bar Applicant must do before applying.
- Pull your credit from at least three different credit reporting agencies. You will see what you had that fell into collections and you may not even know it. Better you explain the error to the Board of Bar Examiners than have them find out and contact you about it. Also someone could have stolen your credit and destroyed it so it’s best to find this out on your own to do damage control.
- Get your employment history through the social security administration’s website. If there was ever a withholding they are aware of the job. They won’t have any info on unpaid internships but this is a good starting point to help you piece together your work timeline.
- Pay for a background check. Background checks are not even expensive and are done through services such as lexis-nexis accurint. This data base searches history for criminal, civil, foreclosure, bankruptcies, prior address history, corporate affiliations, among other areas the bar is concerned with. Our firm offers this at only $99 and will even credit the money back to you should you retain Soreide Law Group to represent you at any investigative or formal hearing. It is a must with any background check. It doesn’t negate items 1 & 2 because you have to be a debt collection firm to be able to pull bar applicants credit, those are free items anyone can do now.
When applying to the Florida Bar treat this like your first case. Character and Fitness is a critical decision making factor on if you will be admitted to the Florida Bar and some would say even more difficult than passing the Florida Bar Exam. If you have any questions on the above feel free to contact Lars Soreide, Esq., at (954) 760-6552. We offer a free consultation and travel to each hearing location of the Board of Bar Examiners.
Vacancies Announced on the Florida Board of Bar Examiners
Licensed Florida Lawyer applicants are being sought to fill the two vacancies on the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.
There will be a joint screening committee of Florida Board of Governors members and Florida Board of Bar Examiners members. They will recommend six nominees for two lawyer vacancies at the May 20, 2016 meeting. Their nominations will then be forwarded to the Florida Supreme Court to fill two five-year terms beginning Nov. 1, 2016 and ending on Oct. 31, 2021.
Florida attorneys applying must have been members of The Florida Bar for at least five years and they must be a practicing Florida lawyer with “scholarly attainments” and have a positive interest in legal education and the requirements for admission to the Bar. Appointment or election to the bench at any level of the court system will disqualify any applicant. All law professors or trustees are ineligible.
The board members of the Bar Examiners must be able to attend approximately ten meetings a year in various Florida locations. Members should be willing to devote 3-4 days’ a month, or up to 350 or more hours per year on Board business, depending on committee assignments. Travel expenses connected with the meetings and examinations are reimbursed.
Persons interested in applying for these vacancies should contact Tara Newman, Director of Administration, Florida Board of Bar Examiners, at 850-681-5707 to obtain the application form. Completed applications must be received by the Executive Director, 1891 Eider Court, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1750 by the close of business on Friday, March 25, 2016.
The Soreide Law Group represents those seeking admittance to the Florida Bar and existing attorneys, for both Formal and Investigative Hearings in front of The Florida Bar. For more information regarding our services, call and speak to an attorney at no-cost: 1-888-760-6552.
Upcoming Dates and Locations of Florida Bar Hearings
The following dates and locations are for upcoming Formal and Investigative Hearings before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.
Soreide Law Group travels to each of the hearing locating for our clients. We represent those seeking admittance to the Florida Bar, and existing attorneys, for both Investigative Hearings and Formal Hearings before The Florida Bar.For more information about our services at no cost call: (888) 760-6552.
July 10 -11, 2015 Orlando, Florida
July 27, 2015 Tampa, Florida
September 18 – 19, 2015 Jacksonville, Florida
October 23 – 24, 2015 Coral Gables, Florida
January 2015 Florida Bar Hearing Defense Attorney Tip
Recently I returned from representing my clients in Investigative Hearings before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners in Tallahassee, Florida. In many of the Investigative Hearings before the Board I noticed that many applicants to The Florida Bar had past due or delinquent financial obligations. When my clients make me aware of delinquent financial obligations, I immediately begin to work with each applicant to make sure they become extraordinarily pro active with their creditors. We focus on eliminating or substantially reducing financial obligations and making all accounts current.
The Florida Bar is not a debt collection agency. However, they do not want to see applicants “turning their back” on their creditors. All of this relates back to law firm trust accounting and the notion that if you can’t manage your own financial situations, you should not be allowed to manage a law firm’s escrow account.
For more ways to evidence financial rehabilitation and tips on how to prepare for Investigative and Formal Hearings before the Board of Bar Examiners visit our website or call Florida Bar Hearing Defense Attorney Lars Soreide at (888) 760-6552 for a consultation at no cost. We travel to all locations throughout Florida to appear before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.
Why Did So Many Do So Poorly on July’s Bar Exam?
In a recent article from Bloomberg Business, they reported that the people who took the most recent bar exam in July were more likely to fail than those who took it last year. They also claimed that on one portion of the test, the scores dropped to their lowest point in 10 years.
Bloomberg’s report wondered if America’s law graduates are “getting dumber?”
The National Conference of Bar Examiners, the people who put the bar exam together, seem to think so. The report states that this year’s grads’ pre-law-school test scores declined from the year before, and did so every year from 2010 to 2013. However, this does not explain the poor performance on this year’s bar exam. They didn’t do slightly worse, they did much worse.
Several law professors felt the reason may have been do to a software glitch causing the test company problems in uploading the answers the first day. No answers were lost but there was much time and anxiety spent with this issue which some feel may have contributed to the poor performance on the remainder of the test.
Many observers feel this should not deflect the issue. The scores are getting worse on a yearly basis. Some people feel that as law schools get fewer applications, they may be accepting less than qualified applicants in order to meet their bottom line.
We also caution perspective law students that it could be possible, in order to fill the classrooms, some law schools may be more lax in the applicant’s background. Even though the school accepts the applicant, the Florida Bar may not.
The Soreide Law Group represents those seeking admittance to the Florida Bar, and existing attorneys, for both Investigative Hearings and Formal Hearings before the Florida Bar.
For more information about our services at no cost call: (888) 760-6552.
Florida Bar Defense Lawyer Formal Hearing Tip of the Month for October
After an investigative hearing before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, if they determine that that you may have engaged in conduct that is potentially disqualifying, the Board will then file specifications against you. These specifications require an answer within 20 days. In the answer you are allowed to plead your affirmative defenses to the accusations. If the affirmative defense of rehabilitation is not correctly plead then it is waived.
It is the Applicants burden at the formal hearing to prove rehabilitation by the clear and convincing evidence standard. This standard is not defined anywhere and is up for interpretation as to how much rehabilitation needs to be documented for each offense. Community service is one way to document rehabilitation, but the more narrowly tailored the rehabilitation efforts are to the offense, the better it will be received by the board.
Also, at the formal hearing you are allowed to offer live character witnesses to appear before the Board to testify on your behalf. A formal hearing is a full blown trial where the Board is making arguments through their counsel to keep you out of the Bar. This can be a scary and daunting process for any applicant. If you have a formal hearing before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners it is highly recommended your consult with an attorney.
Call the Soreide Law Group at (888) 760-6552 for a no cost consultation with an experienced Florida Bar Defense Attorney if you have an upcoming Investigative or Formal hearing with the Florida Bar. We travel to all locations throughout Florida to appear before the Board of Bar Examiners.
Florida Bar Defense Attorney Hearing Tip of the Month
Having just returned from the Orlando meeting before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, I think it is important to emphasis to applicants the importance of fiscal responsibility.
The Florida Board of Bar Examiners is not a debt collection agency nor do they work for your creditors. If you are admitted as an attorney in Florida, you can immediately open a trust account and will be responsible for managing the account and making sure you follow all the bar rules concerning trust accounting. It is clearly a red flag if as a non-attorney applicant there is strong evidence of not being able to manage your own financial affairs.
One particular creditor the Florida Bar does not want to see you turn your back on is the Internal Revenue Service. If you owe the IRS money and you can’t afford to pay them at the time, make a payment plan or offer what you can afford. If anything, this at least evidences some financial responsibility that you can resolve your own debts and come to a resolution.
Many times creditors will accept pennies on the dollar and I work with and advise my Florida Bar hearing clients on how to resolve the vast majority of their debts prior to their hearing. While sitting before the Board it is best to not have anything delinquent.
For more information speak to a Florida Bar hearing defense lawyer at the Soreide Law Group. We represent those seeking admittance to The Florida Bar, and existing lawyers, for both Investigative Hearings and Formal Hearings in front of The Florida Bar. Please call (888) 760-6552.
The Florida Board of Bar Examiners Scheduled Hearings 2014 – 2015
The following is a list of the meetings scheduled for the upcoming hearings before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners. We will be traveling to each hearing location for our clients, and if you would like to discuss representation at any one of these upcoming hearing dates, call Soreide Law Group at (888) 760-6552 for a consultation with an attorney at no cost.
2014
September 18th. through the 20th. Orlando
October 23rd. through the 22nd. Tampa
2015
January 15th. through the 17th. Tallahassee
March 12th. through the 14th. To be decided
April 16th. through the 18th. Coral Gables
May 7th. through the 9th. Tampa
July 9th. through the 11th. Orlando
September 17th. through the 19th. Jacksonville
October 22nd through the 24th. Coral Gables
November 19th. through the 21st. Tampa
Florida Bar Investigative Hearing Defense Attorney Tip of the Month June 2014
Are out of state attorneys applying to the Florida Bar subjected to a higher level of scrutiny than first time applicants? There is no quantifiable data that can answer this question, but it is my opinion that yes they are.
Having personally represented over a hundred applicants before the Board, I see out-of-state attorneys applying to the Florida Bar for the first time, being called in for investigative hearings for what would normally not spark any further inquiry for first time new lawyer applicants. The logic behind this may be that retirees, typically from up North, who move down here should retire, and the Bar has an interest in retirees not “hanging a shingle” which would cut into the livelihood of existing Florida attorneys.
Either way, whatever the logic is, if you are licensed and practicing in another state and applying to the Florida Bar, it is wise to consult a Florida Bar Hearing Investigative Hearing Defense attorney to review your application before filing, and to not represent yourself if you are called in.
Licensed attorneys tend to want to represent themselves due to the fact that they have litigation experience in their respective area of law. In most instances, the field of expertise they are licensed in does not translate to an administrative hearing, and a consultation with an attorney who routinely practices in this area is recommended.
If you have an upcoming investigative or formal hearing with the Florida Bar, call Soreide Law Group for a consultation at no cost with a Florida Bar Hearing Defense Attorney at (888) 760-6552. Our attorneys will travel to all locations in Florida to appear before the Board of Bar Examiners.