Why the difference...Bar exam

And I wonder what ChatGPT would have done with that last post...

 

Competent to do what? Pass the bar is the only requirement. Competency for lawyers is acquired through practice and skill. Everyone who can use a PC knows that the odds of becoming a lawyer from a Cal online or correspondence school is 20 to 1 against which goes down to about 5-1 to one against if they pass the first year exam. You want to deny people the chance to become lawyers to please a special interest like the ABA? England has the right approach, many ways to qualify and no need for a law degree. The non ABA schools are doing nothing wrong. The ABA gatekeepers instead should go after outfits like Novus.edu that are completely unregulated and whose students have misrepresented themselves as law school graduates.

 

But that is why lawyer's are licensed. It has nothing to do with how they acquired a license. The licensing agency sets the standards and only licensed lawyers can practice. How they got the license is irrelevant. Obama was a graduate of Harvard Law but I sure wouldn't hire him to handle a workers comp case.

 

There's a good chance he helped someone with worker's comp or similar issues when he was a community organizer, congressional challenger, or state senator.

 

I'm sure he probably did. And that any such matters he handled likely came out well, when you add up the numbers. In any case, I think Barack Obama is a better man than a lot of well-known lawyers with political connections. And that would be very important to me. I'd take him over such "luminaries" as Rudy Giuliani - any day, any case. And a number of others. Trust means a lot. And I can't imagine Barack being incompetent. Or Michelle. Just not in my universe.

 

Thanks for confirming.
A visa to enter the US shouldn't be a problem for me. My goal is just to obtain a lawyer license and provide services related to cyber law, which is related to my field right now.

 

Not wanting to be a lawyer myself, I'd never heard of Novus. I looked at the site and of course there are more red flags than a Chinese military parade. One stuck out: They say the school was founded "almost 20 years ago." That would be 2003 or 2004. In 2001, the ;edu domain was restricted to US-accredited postsecondary schools. Novus does not appear to have any recognized US accreditation.

So why is it using the .edu domain, restricted to US accredited schools? Or ... does the problem lie with Educause, who have, I believe, the function of policing this type of thing?

 

Something interesting is going on here, Steve. the registrant, Natalie Handy was the wife of notorious Mill owner James Kirk aka McPherson.
The following article quote is from the early 2000's. I believe James Kirk / McPherson died somewhere around 2007. I got information to that effect some years ago. His adult son made some Youtube videos and mentioned who his father had been.

This is almost a "ghost story." I wonder

(a) If this "school" is still active
(b) If Ms. Handy is still running it.

I'll see what I can find out. Here's something for now. Kirk and Ms. Handy - Part 1. Source given. It goes back a way.

"An example of one such businessman is James Kirk. In addition to dabbling in film production, 3-D film distribution, and a video dating service, in the late 70s he got involved with a correspondence law school called the University of San Gabriel Valley (it no longer exists; the California Supreme Court suspended one of Kirk’s lawyer-partners for three years and placed the other on probation for a year). But Kirk saw the cash potential and opened his own Southland University down the street. When Southland could no longer meet California’s minimal operating requirements, he moved it. It ended up in Missouri, where he changed its name to LaSalle University and his own to Thomas McPherson. Leaving Missouri a few steps ahead of the sheriff, he found a haven in Louisiana’s unregulated world of higher education. He ran ads in dozens of airline and business magazines. He took a vow of poverty, so his World Christian Church owned the university, his Porsche, and his million-dollar home. And when the federal authorities finally came for him, they discovered bank deposits in excess of $35 million, current cash deposits of $10 million, and numerous other assets. Kirk/McPherson was indicted on 18 counts of mail fraud, wire (telephone) fraud, and tax fraud, among others. Following a plea bargain, he was sentenced to five years in federal prison.

What is he up to now? Well shortly after he arrived at the federal pen in Beaumont, Texas, a new university started advertising nationally. The Edison University campus in Honolulu turned out to be a Mail Boxes Etc. box rental store. The literature was almost identical to that of LaSalle. The registrar was one Natalie Handy, James Kirk’s wife. And the mail was postmarked Beaumont, Texas. Instead of “University Without Walls,” we may well have a case here of “University Behind Bars.” "

From here: https://quackwatch.org/consumer-education/dm1/

 

Verified. Thomas James Kirk died Jan 3, 2008. Memorial here. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/23788037/thomas-james-kirk
Survived by his wife, Natalie Handy (registrant of Novus Law School).

 

Yes. I think we can safely pass, on Novus Law School. Thanks for the memories, @jonlevy . Maybe the ABA can send a delegation to the Marshall Islands.

 

There are periodically recruitment advertisements for U.S. lawyers from the Federated States of Micronesia, another "compact" state. I know a fellow who took them up on it. He says the experience was amazing.

Had I headed for the Pacific I'd probably have chosen the Northern Mariannas or Guam but the compact states make it almost as easy to go there.

 

Compact state citizens are free to come to the U.S. and settle here without any need for a visa. Likewise U.S. citizens can settle in a compact state with no visa required. Interesting to me is that such people aren't treated as immigrants. There are no green cards nor is there a path to citizenship. Each remains a citizen of the state of nationality while making a life in another country.

All of this is a consequence of the rather disastrous maladministration of the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific following WWII. One group only decided to remain within U.S. jurisdiction. The remaining three groups opted for independence (of a sort). These became compact states, Palau, Marshall Islands, and Micronesia.

 

You're hitting on something that was part of my inspiration. I had seen a blog at some point of a guy that had a law degree on an island territory. I can't remember if he was working and Micronesia or American Samoa. One of the law schools has the ability for students to go work in Micronesia, but the school itself is ridiculously expensive. Anyhow, I'm sure both micronesia and American Samoa would both be really nice and could go well with living on a sailboat eventually.

 

That's a motto I find to be relevant to my life.

By happenstance, I have a "Better Call Saul" season 2 crew book tote bag. If I end up taking law classes at a brick and mortar school I plan to use it for hauling books!

I would totally go for one of those t-shirts though!

 

I'd never heard of this before (I watched all of Breaking Bad but only the first season of Better Call Saul), I love this motto. Aut inveniam viam aut faciam - I shall either find a way or make one.

 

Thanks. Embarrassed to admit I didn’t get it.