// Several years ago, Tennessee denied admission to a Vanderbilt LL.M. because he’d gotten his first law degree in Argentina. It didn’t matter that he’d secured a subsequent legal degree at a top-tier law school in the state, the bar would not license a lawyer whose first law degree was not “post-graduate.” Since most countries train lawyers at the university level, this functionally locked out any foreign trained lawyer regardless of any further education or relevant experience.

He eventually won the right to sit for the bar.

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But Tennessee still hasn’t learned its lesson because the Board of Law Examiners are right back at it!

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This time, the state is blocking a motion for admission from Violaine Panasci, a Pace University LL.M. who scored in the 90th percentile of the UBE. She’s even already admitted in New York. What’s the problem? Her initial law degree is from the University of Ottawa.

And while…

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The Canadian government has apologized for Bryan Adams on several occasions so it’s time we give them a break. Panasci is working at Rockridge Venture Law, who you might remember from this story.

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This all goes back to the obsession bar examiners have with every angle of protectionist gatekeeping. Whether it’s a bar exam that we know fails to protect the public or made-up rules about which law degrees “count” for admission, there’s a whole superstructure of bureaucrats trying to help established lawyers from having to compete with anyone.

The folks at the Goldwater Institute, in conjunction with the Beacon Center of Tennessee and the Southeastern Legal Foundation, filed a brief in the Tennessee Supreme Court supporting Panasci’s admission citing the Tennessee Constitution and the state’s Right to Earn a Living Act.

This is a collection of organizations that I don’t have a lot in common with. But we can all come together on the foundational issue that it’s nonsensical to keep an overqualified lawyer from practicing law.

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I’m not against licensing… frankly, it’s great! Occupational licenses are absolutely applied in haphazard and discriminatory ways, but in principle they protect the public and it troubles me to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. We should have some mechanism in place to make sure lawyers are capable of doing their jobs.

But that mechanism doesn’t include telling LL.M.s from US law schools that their JD-equivalent doesn’t count. Drop the power trip, Tennessee.

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Earlier: State Bars Foreign Student From Bar Exam — Next Stop, State Supreme Court

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

Topics

Bar Exams, Law Schools, Tennessee Board of Law Examiners, Violaine Panasci