and licensed upon producing and filing with the court the certificate of the State Board of Law Examiners that the applicant has satisfactorily passed the examination prescribed by these rules and has complied with their provisions, and upon producing and filing with the court, in the case of applicants in the first class (i. e., persons who are not graduates of a college or university), except in the case of a candidate who has completed two years in a college or university and has thereafter attended a law school for a period of four years, evidence that he has served a regular clerkship of one year in this state with an attorney or attorneys in regular practice, either before or after having passed such examination. The applicant must also produce and file evidence that he is a person of good moral character which must be shown by the affidavits of two reputable persons of the town or city in which he resides, one of whom must be a practising attorney of the Supreme Court. Such affidavit must state that the applicant is to the knowledge of the affiant, a person of good moral character and must set forth in detail the facts upon which such knowledge is based; but such affidavits shall not be conclusive and the court may make further examination and inquiry.

If the applicant be a graduate of a college or university he must have pursued the prescribed course of law study after his graduation, provided, however, if such graduate of a college or university has pursued the first year of his law study in an approved law school, and said year of study was prerequisite for his graduation from such college or university, then such year of law school study, if successfully completed, shall be deemed to be and shall be accepted as a part of said prescribed course of law study; and, if the applicant be a person admitted to the bar of another state or country he must have pursued his prescribed period of law study after having remained as a practicing attorney in such other state or country for the period of three years. (Am. May 2, 1916; Mar. 16, and Sept. 29, 1920.)

RULE III-a

is

RULE III-b

military or naval service. The examination is Same; when law school study interrupted by dispensed with in the case of any applicant entitled to examination under these rules, who the Regents of the University of the State of a graduate of a law school duly registered by New York, which requires a three-year course for graduation, and whose course of law school study was interrupted by actual and necessary United States for not less than twelve months, service in the military or naval forces of the provided the said applicant was a bona fide resident of this State at the time of the commencement of his attendance upon said law school. Board of Law Examiners, in addition to the Such applicant shall produce before the State proofs required by these rules of applicants for dence of adequate instruction in New York examination, his diploma and satisfactory eviPleading and Practice and of such military or naval service. Each applicant shall pay the State Board of Law Examiners shall certify to Examiners the fee provided by Rule VIII. The the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the department in which any such applicant with. The examination in Substantive Law and resides that the examination has been dispensed Evidence alone may be dispensed with in case the applicant has had no satisfactory instruction in New York Pleading and Practice. (Added Sept. 29, 1920.)

RULE IV

All candidates for admission to the bar upon Regulations concerning preliminary studies.examination, except applicants in the third class mentioned in Rule III (i. e., persons who have been admitted and have practiced three years in another state or country), must have pursued a preliminary course of study evidenced by graduation from a college or university, or by passing a Regents' examination or the equivalent, as hereinafter prescribed.

Applicants who are not graduates of a college, or university, subject to the limitations and requirements hereinafter, in this subdivision, expressed, or members of the bar as above described, before entering upon the clerkship or attendance at a law school herein prescribed shall have passed an examination conducted under the authority and in accordance with the ordinances and rules of the University of the State of New York, in English, three years; mathematics, two years; Latin, two years; science, one year; history, two years; or in their substantial equivalents as defined by the rules of the University, and shall have filed a certificate of such fact, signed by the Commissioner of Education, with the clerk of the Court of Appeals, whose duty it shall be to return to the person named therein a certified copy of the same, showing the date of such filing. The Regents may accept as the equivalent of and substitute for the examination in this rule prescribed, either, first, a certificate, properly authenticated, of having successfully completed a full year's course of study in any college, or university; second, a certificate, properly authenticated, of having satisfactorily completed a four years' course of study in any institution registered by the Regents as maintaining a satisfactory academic standard; or, third, a Regents' diploma.

All graduates of a college or university existing under the government or laws of any foreign country other than those where English is the language of the people, and all applicants who apply for Law students' certificates upon equivalents or substitutes, as above provided, all or any part of which are earned or issued in said foreign countries, shall pass the Regents' examination in second year English. The Regents' certificate above prescribed shall be deemed to take effect as of the date of the completion of the Regents' examination, as the same shall appear upon said certificate.

RULE V

Regulations concerning study at law schools. -The provisions of these rules for study at a law school must be fulfilled by good and regular attendance and successfully completing the prescribed course of instruction at an incorporated law school, or a law school connected with an incorporated college or university, having a law department organized with competent instructors and professors, in which instruction as hereinafter provided is regularly given.

A fourth year of attendance at a law school may be taken after the successful completion of the prescribed three-year course and credit given therefor, provided the applicant has also previously successfully completed two years in a college or university, and further provided that a prescribed graduate course of instruction is offered for such year and successfully completed by the applicant.

Good and regular attendance upon and the successful completion of the prescribed course of instruction at a law school, the school year of of which shall consist of not less than thirty-two school weeks, exclusive of vacations, in which not less than ten hours of attendance upon law lectures or recitations of such prescribed course, to be given or conducted by regular members of the faculty, are required in each week, shall be deemed a year's attendance under this rule.

A period of time not exceeding six weeks actually spent in good and regular attendance upon and successful completion of law courses requiring at least ten hours of attendance in each week in a summer session maintained in connection with a law school organized as prescribed in this rule, shall be allowed as a part of the period of clerkship or study otherwise prescribed by these rules.

The same period of time shall not be duplicated for different purposes, except that a student attending a law school, as herein provided, and who, during the vacations of such school, not exceeding three months in any one year, shall pursue his studies in the office of a practicing attorney, shall be allowed to count the time so occupied during such vacation or vacations as part of the clerkship in a law office specified in these rules; and except that a student attending a law school as herein provided, or serving a regular clerkship in the office of a practicing attorney of the Supreme Court in this state, who, during the vacation of such school or of such clerkship, as in Rule VI provided, shall, for a period not exceeding six weeks, actually attend upon and successfully complete a law course or courses in a summer session maintained in connection with a law school organized as prescribed in this rule, may be allowed the time so spent as part of the clerk

ship in a law office as prescribed by these rules. (Am. May 18, 1917; Mar. 16, 1920.)

RULE VI

Regulations concerning clerkship. The provisions of these rules for studying law by the service of a regular clerkship must be fulfilled by serving such clerkship in the office of a practicing attorney of the Supreme Court in this State, after the candidate has attained the age of eighteen years.

It shall be the duty of attorneys, with whom a clerkship shall be commenced, to file a certificate of the same in the office of the clerk of the Court of Appeals, which certificate shall, in each case, state the date of the beginning of the period of clerkship, and such period shall be deemed to commence at the time of such filing and shall be computed by the calendar year. In computing the period of clerkship a vacation actually taken, not exceeding two months in each year, shall be allowed as a part of such

year.

RULE VII

Proof to entitle candidate to examination.— The State Board of Law Examiners, before admitting an applicant to an examination, shall require proof that the preliminary conditions prescribed by these rules have been fulfilled; which proof shall be made as follows, viz.:

First. That the applicant is a college graduate, by the production of his diploma, or certificate of graduation, under the seal of the college.

Second. That he has been admitted to the bar of another State or country, by the production of his license, or certificate, executed by the proper authorities.

Third. In all cases where the service of a clerkship is required, that he has served a regular clerkship in the office of a practicing attorney of the Supreme Court of this State, after the age of eighteen years, by producing and filing with the Board a certified copy of the attorney's certificate, as filed in the office of the clerk of the Court of Appeals, and producing and filing an affidavit of the attorney or attorneys with whom such clerkship was served, showing the actual service of such a clerkship, the continuance and end thereof, and that not more than two months' vacation was taken in any one year. Both of said affidavits must be to the effect that during the entire period of such clerkship, except during the stated vacation time, the applicant was actually employed by said attorney as a regular law clerk and student in his law office, and under his direction and advice, engaged in the practical work of the office during the usual business hours of the day.

Fourth. The time of study allowed in a law school must be proved by the certificate of the teacher or president of the faculty, under whose instructions the person has studied, under the seal of the school, if such there be, in addition to the affidavit of the applicant, which must, also, state the age at which the applicant began his attendance at such law school. Said certificate and affidavit must, also, show that the law school prescribes the course of instruction contemplated by these rules, and each shall also contain the statement that said applicant took the prescribed course of instruction required at said school for the degree of Bachelor of Laws while in attendance thereat, and bona fide took

and successfully passed all examinations in all the subjects required for said degree during such period of attendance, in each case specifying the subjects in which said applicant took and passed his examinations as aforesaid, which proof must be satisfactory to the Board of Examiners.

Fifth. That the applicant has passed the Regents' examination, or its equivalent must be proved by the production of a certified copy of the Regents' certificate filed in the office of the clerk of the Court of Appeals, as hereinbefore provided.

Sixth. When it satisfactorily appears that any diploma, affidavit, or certificate, required to be produced has been lost, or destroyed, without the fault of the applicant, or has been unjustly refused or withheld, or by the death or absence of the person or officer who should have made it, cannot be obtained, the Board of Law Examiners may accept such other proof of the requisite facts as they shall deem sufficient.

Seventh. A law student whose clerkship, or attendance at a law school has already begun, as shown by the records of the Court of Appeals, or of any incorporated law school, or law school established in connection with any college or university, may, at his option, file or produce, instead of the proofs required by these rules, those required by the Rules of the Court of Appeals in

force June 1, 1908.

Eighth. The provisions of subdivision four of this rule, so far as applicable, shall apply to persons making proof of the time of study allowed at summer sessions of a law school. (Subd. added and in effect May 18, 1917.)

RULE VIII

Regulations concerning examination. The examination held by such State Board of Examiners may be conducted by oral or written questions and answers, or partly oral and partly written, but shall be as nearly uniform in the knowledge and capacity which they shall require as is reasonably possible. Every applicant shall be given and required to pass a satisfactory examination in the canons of ethics adopted by the American Bar Association and by the New York State Bar Association. An applicant who has failed to pass one examination cannot again be examined until at least four months after such failure.

The State Board of Law Examiners shall be paid as compensation, each, the sum of two thousand dollars per year, and, in addition, such further sum as the court may direct, and an annual sum not exceeding five thousand dollars per year shall be allowed for necessary disbursements of the Board. Every applicant for examination shall pay to the examiners a fee of twenty-five dollars, which shall be applied the compensation and allowance above provided, and any surplus thereafter remaining shall be held by the treasurer of the State Board of Law Examiners and deposited in some bank, in good standing, in the city of Albany, to his credit and subject to his draft as such treasurer, when approved by the Chief Judge. (Am. May 15, 1917, April 21, 1921.)

RULE IX

upon

Relief from excusable mistakes. When the filing of a certificate, as required by these rules, has been omitted by excusable mistake or with

out fault, the court may order such filing as of the proper date.

RULE X

Additional rules by the Appellate Division.The Justices of the Appellate Division in each department may adopt for their several and respective departments such additional special rules for ascertaining the moral and general fitness of applicants as to such Justices may seem proper.

At a Court of Appeals, held April 17, 1913, an order was entered with respect to the examination of law students by the State Board of Law Examiners, the material part of which is as follows:

It is ordered that the papers containing the written answers given by rejected candidates upon their examinations for admission to practice as attorneys and counselors at law in the courts of this State, be preserved for a period of four weeks from the date of the announcement by the Board of the results of the examinathe examination papers of successful candidates tions, when they may be destroyed, and that of one in twenty sets thereof be preserved for the period of three years and filed in the office of the clerk of the court.

The State Board of Law Examiners is instructed so to frame the questions propounded to candidates for admission to practice as to permit of a reasoned answer to a question. The Board is instructed in that respect to formulate questions, whether based upon decided cases or upon statutes, so as to ascertain the ability of the candidate to apply his knowledge of legal principles and of statutory rules, and to explain the method of their application by him, rather will rest upon the candidate's power of memothan to elicit answers the correctness of which rization. The marking of a candidate should be measured by the reasoning power shown, and not wholly by mere correctness.

ADMISSION TO THE BAR OF PERSONS WHO HAVE BEEN ENGAGED IN MILITARY SERVICE

Ordered, that in all cases where after the applicant shall have commenced his period of law study, as provided by the Rules of this court relating to the admission of attorneys and counselors at law, he has engaged in the military or naval service of the United States of America, in connection with the defense and patrol of our Mexican border, because of his having been a member of the National Guard of the State of New York, or otherwise, the time of such service shall be included as a part of the period of study required by Rules VI and VII.

Dated, Jan. 31, 1917.

On application duly made therefor, it is

admission to the Bar, where it shall appear that Ordered, that in all cases of applicants for the applicant is a graduate of a law school and holds a degree regularly conferred by such school, and it shall appear that such applicant has been engaged in the military or naval service of the United States of America, as a member of the national guard or of the naval militia of the State of New York, or by reason of voluntary enlistment, conscription or otherwise, or in

service at a recognized government military training camp, or as a member of the naval reserve corps, or in the ambulance service of the allies in Europe, the time ordinarily required by the law school from which he has graduated and received his degree as aforesaid as a condition of graduation and the bestowal of such degree shall be credited to him, although it may appear that by reason of his engagement in the said military or naval service or in such training camp or ambulance service some of the time ordinarily required for graduation or for obtaining such degree has been waived by the law school granting the same. The time so credited for such service, however, shall not exceed one year, nor shall it exceed the time allowed by the school from which he graduated and received his degree; and

Further ordered, that in all cases where, after an applicant for admission to the Bar shall have

commenced his period of law study, either in a law school or law office, as provided by the rules of this court relating to admission of attorneys and counselors at law, it shall appear that such applicant has been engaged in the military or naval service of the United States of America, as a member of the national guard of the State of New York, or by reason of voluntary enlistment, conscription or otherwise, or in service at a recognized government military training camp or in the ambulance service in Europe, the time of such service, not exceeding one year, shall be included as part of the period of study provided for by Rules relating to the admission of attorneys and counselors at law.

Nothing herein contained shall be construed as exempting an applicant for admission to the Bar from taking and passing the examinations as required by the rules of this court. (Dated, May 10, 1917. Am. Jan. 10, 1919.)