Me. Bar. Admiss. R. 11A

As amended through November 25, 2024

Rule 11A - Admission by Motion

(a) An applicant who is an attorney admitted to practice law in a state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia and meets the following requirements may, upon motion, be admitted to the practice of law in Maine without taking and passing the Maine bar examination required by Rule 10. The applicant shall present evidence that the applicant:

1. Is admitted to practice law in, and is an active member in good standing of the bar of, another state or territory of the United States (or the District of Columbia);

2. Has been primarily engaged in the active practice of law in one or more United States jurisdictions (which may include the active practice of law in the State of Maine to the extent permitted by Rule 5.5(d) of the Maine Rules of Professional Conduct) for at least three of the five years immediately preceding the date upon which the application is filed.

For the purposes of this Rule, the "active practice of law" shall include the following activities, either separately or in the aggregate, when performed on a full time basis:

(A) Representation of one or more clients in the private practice of law;

(B) Service as a lawyer with a local, state, territorial or federal agency including military service;

(C) Teaching law at a law school approved by the American Bar Association;

(D) Service as a judge in a federal, state, or local court of record;

(E) Service as a judicial law clerk; or

(F) Service as in house counsel providing legal services to the lawyer's employer.

The "active practice of law" shall not include work undertaken during any period in which the applicant is not an active member in good standing of the bar of a United States jurisdiction and shall not include work that, as undertaken, constituted the unauthorized practice of law in the jurisdiction in which it was performed or in the jurisdiction in which the clients receiving the unauthorized services were located;

3. Has graduated with a juris doctor or bachelor of laws degree from a law school approved by the American Bar Association (A) having a three (3) school year course of study and requiring students to devote substantially all their working time to study, called a full-time law school; or (B) having a course of study of not less than four (4) school years, equivalent in the number of credit hours to a three (3) school year course of study in a full-time law school and in which students devote only part of their working time to their studies, called a part-time law school; or (C) has graduated from a foreign law school with a legal education that, in the Board's opinion pursuant to regulations adopted by the Board, is equivalent to that provided in those law schools accredited by the American Bar Association. A combination of study in full-time and part-time law schools will be accepted only if such law schools meet the above requirements, and the applicant shall have graduated from one or the other.

4. Has satisfactorily completed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination in accordance with Rule 11, prior to the date on which the application is filed;

5. [Deleted];

6. Is not currently subject to lawyer discipline or the subject of a pending disciplinary matter in any jurisdiction;

7. Possesses good character and is fit to practice law in the State of Maine;

8. Has completed at least fifteen hours of continuing legal education in Maine practice and procedure in courses approved by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar within one year immediately preceding the date on which the applicant is certified for admission; and

9. If domiciled in or maintaining a principal office in another jurisdiction, will, upon admission to the bar of the State of Maine, designate the Board of Overseers of the Bar as the agent to receive service of process if the attorney cannot, with due diligence, be served with process in any action arising out of or related to the practice of law.

(b) An applicant who has failed the Maine bar examination within five years of the date of filing an application for admission without examination shall not be eligible for admission on motion.

(c) Any applicant for admission by motion shall comply with the application and good character and fitness requirements of Rules 5, 6 and 9 of the Maine Bar Admission Rules.

(d) Any applicant admitted to practice in the State of Maine in accordance with this Rule shall register as required by Rule 6(a)(1) of the Maine Bar Rules and pay the annual fees required by Rule 10 of the Maine Bar Rules and the Maine Rules of Professional Conduct in the same manner as any other attorney admitted to active practice in the State of Maine.

(e)Admission Within One Year of Application Filing Date. The applicant must be admitted to practice within one year from the time that the application is filed with the Board. This one-year period may be enlarged for an additional six months by submitting to the Board, prior to expiration of the one-year period, a fee of $100 and a completed extension form as prescribed by the Board. Only one such six-month extension is permitted. Thereafter, the time period may be enlarged by successive one-year periods by a Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court on motion for good cause shown during the period. The procedure for filing a motion to enlarge under this section is the same as in Rule l0(g).

Me. Bar. Admiss. R. 11A

Amended effective 1/1/2005; amended December 13, 2011, effective 1/1/2012; June 19, 2014, effective 9/1/2014; effective5/3/2017; amended February 27, 2023, effective 3/1/2023; amended November 14, 2023, effective 11/14/2023.

Advisory Note - November 2023

Rule 11A(a)(2) is amended to correct punctuation.

Rule 11A(a)(3) is amended to omit the provision that "[s]tudy in any law school that conducts its courses by correspondence or does not require attendance of its students at its lectures or classes shall not constitute compliance with this Rule."

Advisory Note - March 2023

New subdivision (e) adopts the Board's current regulation permitting a six month extension upon timely submission of an extension form and administrative fee to the Board. This informal procedure addresses the common issue of applicants by motion needing additional time to complete the hours of continuing legal education required by subdivision (a)(8). In addition, this new section will align the requirement of timely admission for applicants by motion with the similar requirements of timely admission for applicants by examination and applicants by Uniform Bar Examination score transfer.

Advisory Notes - May 2017

In June 2016, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court created an Advisory Commission to study the merits of adopting the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). After six months of study, on November 18, 2016, the Commission issued the Report and Recommendations of the Advisory Commission on the Uniform Bar Examination. Among other things, that Report recommended adoption of the UBE, acceptance of transferred UBE scores for a three-year period, and amendment of Rule 11A to make it more consistent with the ABA Model Rule for Admission by Motion. On January 25, 2017, the Supreme Judicial Court indicated its acceptance of the Commission's recommendations.

Subdivision (a)(2) is amended to reflect the adoption of the Uniform Bar Examination by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in January 2017 and the corresponding directive that the time-in-practice requirement for admissions by motion shall be three out of five years rather than the current five years out of seven.

Subdivision (a)(3)(C) is amended to make it consistent with Rule 10(b)(4) and clarify that the educational requirements applicable to individuals who graduated from a foreign law school are the same regardless whether the applicant is seeking admission by examination, admission by motion, or admission by transferred UBE score.

The provision in subdivision (b) prohibiting individuals who are disbarred or suspended from seeking admission by motion is relocated to Rule 8(b).

Advisory Notes - June 2014

Subdivision (a)(1) is amended to include the threshold requirement that, to be admitted through reciprocal admission, the applicant must have been admitted in a jurisdiction that similarly allows for the admission, without examination, of persons admitted and in good standing in the State of Maine.

Subdivisions (a)(2)(A) and (a)(2)(B) are amended to provide that an applicant seeking reciprocal admission under these subdivisions must be active members in good standing of the New Hampshire or Vermont bar and must have been primarily engaged in the active practice of law in New Hampshire or Vermont, and to provide that the requisite period of active practice runs back from the date that the application is filed, not the date that the motion for reciprocal admission is filed.

Subdivision (a)(2)(C) is amended to provide that the requisite period of active practice runs back from the date that the application is filed, not the date that the motion for reciprocal admission is filed, and is further amended to omit the language requiring the applicant to have engaged in active practice within a reciprocal jurisdiction. The amended language of subdivision (a)(2)(C) provides that, as long as the active practice is in the United States and is not the unauthorized practice of law, it will count toward the five years out of the previous seven that are required for reciprocal admission. For instance, a person who has been practicing for the requisite time (and has not engaged in the unauthorized practice of law) may apply for reciprocal admission if the person has worked as in-house counsel, a judicial law clerk, or a law professor, or has engaged in federal practice (for instance as an immigration or social security law practitioner, or a lawyer working in the United States Attorney's office) in a state or states where they have not been admitted (one of which may be Maine).

Subdivision (a)(4) is amended to provide that the applicant must satisfactorily complete the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination before the date on which the application, rather than the motion for reciprocal admission, is filed.

Subdivision (a)(8) is amended to clarify that the continuing legal education requirement must have been satisfied within the year preceding the date that the applicant is certified for admission, not within the year preceding the date "upon which the motion [for reciprocal admission] is filed and is certified by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar as satisfying this requirement."

Subdivision (b) is amended to allow the Board to consider an applicant who is administratively suspended in another jurisdiction if the Board determines that requiring the applicant to remedy the suspension or resign from the jurisdiction would impose an undue hardship on the applicant and the applicant is in good standing in at least one state of reciprocal admission.

Advisory Committee Note-November 2011

These amendments to Rule 11A expand the reciprocal admission process to permit admission by motion, without taking a bar exam, to any attorney admitted to practice and in good standing in any state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, if the jurisdiction where the attorney is admitted to practice has a reciprocity rule that allows Maine attorneys to be admitted to practice on motion and without a bar exam under terms similar to those in Rule 11A. The criteria are similar to those applied in the current reciprocal admission rule with New Hampshire and Vermont, except (1) the time that one is required to have been in active practice since admission to the bar is extended from the immediate three years in the present rule to five out of the last seven years in the amended rule, and (2) the Board of Overseers of the Bar must be designated as a default agent for service of process on attorneys not domiciled or having a principal office in the State of Maine. By maintaining the present "active practice for three years immediately preceding the date upon which the motion is filed" prerequisite for reciprocal admission of New Hampshire and Vermont attorneys, the amendment continues, and does not change, the present reciprocal admission arrangement with New Hampshire and Vermont. A New Hampshire or Vermont attorney who would qualify for admission under the "five years out of seven years" prerequisite for admission would qualify for admission even if that attorney did not meet the "three years immediately preceding" criteria of the present rule.

An attorney who has resigned from the practice of law in the State of Maine, or who has been or currently is disbarred in any jurisdiction is not eligible for admission pursuant to this rule. Any attorney who is currently suspended in any jurisdiction must resolve any suspension and have been reinstated to practice in good standing before applying for admission pursuant to this rule.