Relevant laws relating to Alabama admission to bar are: Rules for Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (Ala. R. Mand. Cont. Legal Ed. Rule 1 et seq.), Rules Governing Admission to the Alabama State Bar (Ala. R. Gov’g Admis. Bar Rule I et seq.). The applicant should have satisfactorily completed a course in law for three academic years of at least 30 weeks each. The course should be done at a law school approved by the American Bar Association or the Association of American Law Schools. Otherwise, the applicant should have completed a four year course in law from Birmingham School of Law, Jones School of Law of Faulkner University, or Miles College of Law. Minimum age to apply for the exam is 19 years. The admitting body is the Board of Bar Examiners.
Recognized examinations are Multistate Bar Examination, Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination with scaled score of 75, Multistate Performance Test, and essay exam. Multistate score from another jurisdiction is accepted if equal or better than national median. All attorneys approved to practice in the State of Alabama should dedicate 12 hours of every year for Mandatory Continuing Legal Education.
Attorneys admitted to practice law in any other state, professors who have taught for three years at accredited Alabama law schools may apply for admission without exam. Examination is required for all other applicants. There is no residency requirement.
Ala. R. Gov’g Admis. Bar Rule IV reads in part:
“Legal Education: (2) Proof of Legal Education.
An applicant shall make proof of legal study by filing with the Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of the Alabama State Bar a certificate or certificates from the dean or deans of one or more law schools, from which it shall appear that the applicant has completed legal study conforming to and fulfilling the following requirements:
(a) That the applicant has pursued and satisfactorily completed, as a resident student in a law school or law schools, a course of law studies that extended for at least three (3) academic years of at least thirty (30) weeks each; that the applicant has graduated from such a law school; and that at the time of the applicant’s graduation the school from which the applicant graduated was approved by the American Bar Association or the Association of American Law Schools; or
(b) That the applicant has pursued and satisfactorily completed, as a resident student at Birmingham School of Law, Jones School of Law of Faulkner University before June 11, 2006, the date on which Jones School of Law was provisionally accredited by the American Bar Association, or Miles College of Law, (i) a course of law studies that extended for at least four (4) academic years of at least thirty (30) weeks each or (ii) a course of full-time law studies that extended for at least three (3) academic years of at least thirty (30) weeks each; that the applicant has graduated from one of these law schools; and that at the time of the applicant’s graduation the school has been continuously located and has remained in continuous operation in the county in which it was operating on August 30, 1995.”
Ala. R. Mand. Cont. Legal Ed. Rule 3 reads:
Rule 3. CLE requirement.
Each attorney, admitted to practice in this state whose qualification to practice law is subject to Code of Alabama 1975, § 40-12-49, shall attend or complete an approved substitute for attendance, a minimum of 12 actual hours of approved continuing legal education, l hour of which shall be ethics or professionalism, each calendar year, beginning January 1, 2004.
Ala. R. Gov’g Admis. Bar Rule VI reads in part:
“(1) Academic subjects.
(a) Essay. The Board of Bar Examiners will conduct an examination in the following subjects: Wills, Trusts and Estates; Pleading and Practice; Taxation (state and federal); Business Organizations, including partnerships and other forms of business associations; UCC; and Equity.
(b) Multistate Bar Exam. This portion of the examination will cover the following subjects: Contracts, Torts, Real Property, Evidence, Criminal Law, and Constitutional Law.
(2) Legal ethics. The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE, see Rule VI, K) administered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and American College Testing shall be used as the examination on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility.
An applicant must pass both the academic examination and the ethics examination to be certified as a successful candidate.”
