Admission to the Bar - Preparation and Resources: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners
5070A Ritter Road, Suite 300
Mechanicsburg, PA   17055
(717) 795-7270
www.pabarexam.org

The Pennsylvania Bar Exam is administered on the last Wednesday of July and February, and the Tuesdays immediately before.  The July exam is offered in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg, while the February exam is only offered in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.  The Tuesday session consists of a Performance Test (PT) question and six Pennsylvania-specific essay questions developed by the Board.  In the Board's discretion, it may develop its own Performance Test question for a particular test, or it may use the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) question.  The Wednesday session is the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE).

The commonwealth-specific essays test one or more of the following subjects:

• Business Organizations (including Corporations, Partnerships, Limited Liability Companies, and Professional Corporations)
• Civil Procedure (Pennsylvania and Federal)
• Conflict of Laws
• Contracts
• Criminal Law (including related Pennsylvania and federal constitutional issues and DUI)
• Employment Discrimination (limited to Title VII, ADA, and ADEA)
• Evidence (Pennsylvania and Federal)
• Family Law
• Federal Constitutional Law
• Federal Income Taxes (personal only and limited to taxable and non-taxable income, deductions, proprietorships, and capital transactions)
• Professional Responsibility
• Real Property
• Torts
• U.C.C., Art. 2 (Sales)
• Wills, Trusts, and Decedents' Estates (including related fiduciary responsibilities)

For more information on the Pennsylvania Bar Exam, check the links at Bar Exam Information

The Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners is the admissions screening body for the Bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Unrestricted admission to the Bar can be had under a number of procedures:

• By Examination
•    Graduates of Accredited and Unaccredited Programs
•    Foreign Attorneys
• On Motion (Reciprocity)--domestic attorneys

There are also a number of methods by which an applicant can obtain a restricted admission to the Bar of the Commonwealth:

• Admission as Limited In-House Counsel
• Admission as Foreign Legal Consultant
• Attorneys in Defender or Legal Services Program
• Legal Intern Certification
• Limited Admission of Military Attorneys

Admission by Examination for graduates of accredited and unaccredited programs requires:

• receipt of an undergraduate degree
• graduation from an ABA-approved law school (as of the time of graduation), or a non-approved law school provided the applicant is a member of the bar of a reciprocal jurisdiction in good standing and practicing five of the last seven years there.
• completion of the bar application
• payment of $625 ($650 as of 8/1/17) fee for timely bar application and character & fitness review (higher fees for increasing levels of lateness)
• passage of the character & fitness review
• a scaled score of 75 or more on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE)
• a scaled score of 272 on the combined essay, Professional Test (PT), and Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) portions of the bar exam

Foreign attorneys are subject to the requirements above, plus:

• member in good standing of the bar of another country or state
• practicing in that other country or state for 5 of the last 8 years
• completion of 24 credit hours at an ABA-approved law school in bar subjects in lieu of the educational requirements above

Admission on Motion can be applied for by domestic attorneys. The applicant must come from a reciprocal jurisdiction (see tab in this LibGuide) and be a member of the bar in good standing of that state and practicing for five of the prior seven years, as well as meeting the normal educational and character/fitness requirements of the process for Admission by Examination.  The fee for admission on motion is $1,250 ($1,325 as of 8/1/17).

For more information, visit the Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners web page

The Pennsylvania Board of Bar Examiners conducts its character and fitness investigations in-house.  Matters causing concern over an applicant's fitness to practice law in the Commonwealth may result in the convening of a hearing.  There is a general duty of candor and supplementation, as is usual for bar applications.

An overview of the character and fitness process can be found at Character and Fitness - Overview, reproduced below.

As part of the process of seeking a certificate for admission to the bar from the Board of Law Examiners, applicants must complete an application and provide background information for the purpose of enabling the board staff to conduct a character and fitness investigation and determination.

The Board staff reviews the applications and may use other means of investigation to determine the fitness and qualifications of the applicant. For bar exam applications, the board staff begins a preliminary investigation of the application before the bar examination. However, the full investigation and determination of character and fitness is made only after the successful completion of the bar examination. For other applicant types, the board staff begins the investigation upon acceptance of the online application. The character and fitness determination process can take anywhere from three weeks to more than one year depending on the nature of the investigation, the issues involved, response to requests for additional information, cooperation from outside sources, etc.