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Law360 (September 11, 2020, 4:18 PM EDT) -- The Florida Supreme Court on Friday rejected a petition for an emergency rule that would have allowed recent law graduates under contract to join the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the U.S. armed forces to be admitted to the Florida Bar without taking the bar exam.
In a brief order, the Supreme Court said it would decline to adopt the requested emergency rules and referenced its Sept. 3 order denying a similar petition that asked for diploma privileges for law graduates who are dealing with a delayed exam date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the Sept. 3 order, the Supreme Court said it had determined that "law school graduation alone does not sufficiently demonstrate the knowledge, ability and preparedness necessary to admit a law graduate to the practice of law in Florida."
The court has set up a temporary program to allow some applicants to work under the supervision of a licensed attorney until one month after the February 2021 bar exam results are released.
But the attorneys who requested the emergency rule for judge advocate selectees pointed out in their petition, filed Aug. 28, that the selectees cannot take advantage of this program because the military does not have procedures for them to work as supervised civilian practitioners. Their only option is to find temporary civilian employment, according to the petition.
"The court's order leaves judge advocate selectees in the same position they were in with the delays of the exam leading to increased income insecurity and months of potential underemployment and unemployment," the petition said.
The petition had asked for emergency licensure to judge advocate selectees with the stipulation that the license would be revocable if the selectee is separated from service.
"Unlike other forms of legal employment, the Judge Advocate Corps has numerous training and competency procedures built in to the first few years of employment practicing federal law; any competency concerns held by the [Florida Board of Bar Examiners] related to licensure without examination will be alleviated by these additional processes," the petition said.
But the Florida Supreme Court has been loath to grant diploma privilege to any law graduates, citing concern for protecting the public from unqualified attorneys.
Florida's in-person July bar exam was postponed until Aug. 19 as the state grappled with a rise in COVID-19 cases. But that exam, set to be administered online, was canceled less than three days before the test due to repeated problems with the testing software.
The cancellation sent law school graduates scrambling to figure out whether promised job offers would be withdrawn and how they would pay for expenses until the exam, which is now set for Oct. 13 in an abbreviated format using another vendor's testing software.
On Aug. 20, a group of more than 50 Florida attorneys as well as Florida Bar applicants waiting to take the exam filed a petition asking for an emergency rule that would have allowed recent graduates to practice law under the supervision of a Florida attorney in good standing. After six months, if the supervising attorney attests to the graduate's competency, they could continue practicing law.
That was followed Aug. 28 with the petition requesting a similar rule for judge advocate selectees. But the Supreme Court denied both.
Kevin Tynan of Richardson & Tynan PLC, one of the two attorneys who filed the petition, told Law360 that when he made the request to the court on Aug. 28, the bar exam had yet to be rescheduled, and some selectees were concerned they would miss certain hard-and-fast military deadlines for bar passage. For those joining the Judge Advocate General's Corps in the U.S. Army, results are necessary by December, he said.
But Tynan and co-counsel Juan Carlos Arias of Anidjar & Levine PA said the FBBE has been informed of the military timelines and is working to ensure grading of the Oct. 13 exams will be done quickly.
"It is imperative that the FBBE gets it right in October, administers the bar examination, and issues results expeditiously," Arias said. "No room for more errors. All eyes are on the FBBE."
The petitioners are represented by Kevin P. Tynan of Richardson & Tynan PLC and Juan Carlos Arias of Anidjar & Levine PA.
The case is In re: Petition to Amend the Rules of the Supreme Court Relating to Admissions to the Bar and the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar-Judge Advocate Selectees, case number SC20-1288, in the Supreme Court of Florida.
--Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
