Can anyone confirm if i take the NY Bar exam I am then eligable to take the Chicago Bar exam?

Thanks

:)

Hi hswa,

I am not totally sure, but this is what I think it's the right answer to your question: if you want to practice in CHicago, you need a JD - it's not possible with an LLM. It would be sufficient having the NY bar only after 5 years of practice: that is the other way to get the eligibility for the exam, 5 years of practice as a qualified lawyer.
Concretely, if you work for a big law form you can probably just stay in Chicago from the first year, do consultancy and transactional work and let other lawyers do litigation stuff....and then go and sit for the bar at the end of the fifth year. Hope this helps
N

Thank you for getting back to me!

Ok so just to confirm, if I took the NY bar exam (passed!) and then went to chicago to get a job in a large law firm work for them for 5 years then take the bar i would then be qualified in chicago? If this is correct what would my role be in the 5 years working?

Thank you again!

Yeah, that' s correct, large law firms have several departments and usually only few people actually end up litigating a case... you would do alll the sorts of work that an attorney usually does, except arguing in Court. And believe me, there are so many people, even licensed attorneys, doing so! But of course this depends on your field of specialization...if you do corporate law, for example, you don't care much about the license. But if you specialize in tort liability, then it would be somewhat more useful. What is your field of specialization?

I am currently in Real Estate! I am not a qualified lawyer in the UK though will this make a difference?

Thanks

Well, this would have made the different because the 5 year-clock would have started earlier in that case. I'm not too expert about the Real Estate business, but my impression is that this is a type of area where you don't have to litigate that much... Good luck on that and let me know if you have further questions!

Hi Nail,
I am also interested on this topic. If you pass the bar exam in NY, is it possible to "transfer" to IL after 5 years without a JD? I am planning to work in Chicago and my area is corporate law. I don't want to litigate (for sure!) Do I need to pass the exam in IL to give advice?
Would you mind to tell me where did you get this information? Thank you very much!

Dear LLM Caz,
I am not 100% sure, but that's what I found on the Bar admission guide a friend of mine passed me while I was exchange student in the US (2007). The policy might have changed though.
You can find the guide at http://www.ncbex.org/fileadmin/mediafiles/downloads/Comp_Guide/2007CompGuide.pdf
Specifically, page 44 on the Illinois section says: "Graduates of foreign law schools who are licensed
and in good standing in country conferring law degree
or in a U.S. jurisdiction, who have actively and
continuously practiced under such license(s) for 5 of the 7 preceding years, and the quality of whose legal
and other education has been determined acceptable
by the Board, may apply to take bar exam. "
Although it's not entirely clear, I thought that even merely giving advice with a NY license would do it. Not sure though that this will suffice to consider that one has continuously practiced in NY.