STATUTE AND RULES IN RELATION TO THE ADMIS SION OF ATTORNEYS IN TENNESSEE. STATUTORY LAW. A BILL to be entitled an Act to establish a State Board of Examiners to regulate the admission of persons to practice law, and to repeal Sections 3967 and 3968 of the Code of Tennessee, and Chapter 73 of the Acts of 1859-60. SECTION I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That any person applying to be admitted as an attorney or counsellor in the courts of this State may be licensed to practice law only as herein prescribed. SECTION II. A State Board of Law Examiners is hereby created to consist of three members of the State Bar, who shall be appointed from time to time by the Supreme Court and shall hold their office as members of such board for the term of three years, except that under the first appointment they shall hold for the term of one, two and three years, respectively, and each until the appointment of his successor. SECTION III. There shall be an examination of persons applying for license to practice as attorneys and counsellors at law at Knoxville, Nashville, Jackson and Lebanon and at such other places and times as the Supreme Court may direct. The Supreme Court shall prescribe rules providing for a uniform system of examinations which shall govern such Board of Law Examiners in the performance of their duties, and shall fix the compensation of its members at $250 each per annum and expenses. SECTION IV. Every person at the time of applying for examination shall pay a fee of $5.00 for each examination. The board shall render to the Secretary of State an annual account of receipts and disbursements on the 31st day of December of each year, and for any deficiency in the fees collected to pay the salary and expenses of the Board of Law Examiners, the Comptroller on the order of the Secretary of State shall draw his warrant for same. SECTION V. Such board shall certify to the Supreme Court the names of all applicants who shall have passed the required examination; provided such person shall in other respects comply with the rules regulating the admission to practice as attorneys and counsellors, which compliance shall be determined by said Board before examination. Upon such certificate, if the Supreme Court shall find that such person is of full age and good moral character, and otherwise qualified, it shall enter an order licensing and admitting him to practice as attorney and counsellor in all the courts of the State, which license if procured by fraud, may be revoked at any time within two years. Where any graduate of a law school of this State has been licensed by the Supreme Court under the provisions of this Act, his license to practice law on request of the faculty of said law school be sent by the Supreme Court to said faculty for delivery. SECTION VI. The Supreme Court may make such provisions, rules and regulations as it may deem proper for the admission of persons who have been licensed to practice law in other States or countries. SECTION VII. That this Act take effect from and after its passage, the public welfare requiring it. Passed March 25, 1903. ED. T. SEAY, Speaker of the Senate. L. D. TYSON, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Approved March 30, 1903. JAMES B. FRAZIER, Governor. RULES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF TENNESSEE GOVERNING ADMISSIONS TO THE BAR. Adopted April 28, 1903, and as amended March 18, 1911: I. License to practice law in the courts of this State shall be granted by this Court only upon the certificate of the State Board of Law Examiners, created by an Act approved March 30, 1903. II. Each applicant for admission to the bar shall present to said Board a certified transcript of the records of the County Court of the county of his residence as required in Code (Shannon), Section 5776, and such other evidence as the Board in its discretion may require, and shall pay to the Treasurer of the Board in advance a fee of five dollars. Each person applying for license shall file his application with the Secretary of the Board of Law Examiners at least ten days before the date fixed for examination. III. Subjects Upon Which Examinatoins Shall Be Based. Each applicant for admission must sustain a satisfactory examination upon the law of real and personal property, personal rights, torts, contracts, partnerships, bailments, negotiable instruments, principal and agent, principal and surety, domestic relations, wills, corporations, equity jurisprudence, evidence, common law and equity pleading and practice, criminal law and evidence, and upon the principles of the Constitution of the State and of the United States and legal ethics. IV. Re-Examination of Rejected Applicants. If an applicant on examination should fail to pass the examination and so be rejected, he may be re-examined at any time, after three months from the date of such rejection, without paying any additional fee therefor; provided he shall apply for such re-examination at some regular meeting of the Board. The questions and answers of all examinations will usually be in writing, but applicants may be subjected to oral examination if the Board should deem it necessary or proper. VI. Attorneys From Other States; How Admitted. Every applicant for admission to the bar upon a license or other voucher showing his admission as an attorney at law in another State or foreign country, must present to the Board such license duly certified, or a copy of the record of the Court showing his admission to the bar, duly proved, as required by law for the authentication of the records of Courts of sister States, when offered in evidence in the Court of this State. Such license or voucher must confer the right to practice in the highest courts in such State or foreign country. Such applicant shall be admitted upon such license or voucher without examination by the Board, if it appears to the Court by certificate of said Board, that in the State or country in which the license was issued the requirements for admission to the bar were equal to those prescribed in this State. Or, if it should appear that the applicant has been engaged in active practice of law for a period of five years in courts of record under such license and provided further, that the Board is otherwise satisfied that the applicant is worthy. The Board shall certify to this Court persons entitled to admission by virtue of having been admitted to the bar in such other State or foreign country. Provided, however, that non-resident attorneys associated with attorneys in this State, in any case here pending, who do not desire to practice law regularly in this State, will be allowed to appear and argue cases in which they may be employed, as a matter of comity, without being required to procure license as above provided, when introduced to the Court by a reputable lawyer of the bar where the case desired to be argued is pending. VII. It is directed by the Supreme Court that the Board of Law Examiners shall hold examinations at the places designated in the Act creating said Board, approved March 30, 1903, and in addition, Memphis, Shelby County, and Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee, at such times as the Board may fix. In pursuance to the authority conferred upon us by the Act of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, approved March 30th, 1903, we hereby fix the compensation of the Board of Law Examiners at the sum of $250 each, as provided by said Act. The officers of said Board shall consist of a President and a Secretary and Treasurer, the last two of which may be filled by one person. The President:-The next order of business is the discussion of the New Federal Equity Rules by Judge Edward T. Sanford, of Knoxville. Judge Sanford is known to all the members of this Association. Indeed, there is no member of the Tennessee Bar Association who has contributed more to its success and to the success of its annual meetings than Judge Sanford. I take pleasure in presenting to you Judge E. T. Sanford, of Knoxville. The learned exposition of the New Federal Equity Rules by Judge Sanford, and the informal discussion invoked by numerous questions from the members of the Association, made this one of the most interesting features of the meeting, but in deference to the wishes of Judge Sanford his address is omitted from this publication. It was moved and seconded that a vote of thanks be tendered Judge Sanford for his excellent exposition of the New Federal Equity Rules. Carried. Gen. Carter:-I desire to call up my resolution. Resolution offered by Gen. Carter read and adopted. RESOLVED, That the Supreme Court of Tennessee be and is hereby requested to abrogate and amend rule No. 2 of the pub |