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Virginia Administrative Code
Title 18. Professional And Occupational Licensing
Agency 35. Board of Bar Examiners
Chapter 10. Rules of the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners
12/22/2024

18VAC35-10-20. Academic requirements.

A. An applicant for a Virginia bar examination shall:

1. Have received a degree from a law school approved by the American Bar Association, or the board; or

2. Be enrolled and in good standing in any such approved law school and, in the course of regular study, complete all degree requirements prior to the time such examination is given; or

3. Have been approved by the board and thereafter completed the required period of law study as set forth in the Law Reader Program Rule and Regulations of the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners.

B. An applicant who has received a portion of his legal training in a foreign law school is also required to have received a degree from an American Bar Association approved law school, and if such degree is other than the LL.B or J.D., the applicant shall furnish a certificate from the dean, assistant dean or acting dean of an American Bar Association approved law school in Virginia that his foreign legal education, together with his approved law school degree, is the equivalent of that required for an LL.B or a J.D. degree in such dean's law school. In addition, such applicant must furnish to the board evidence of his foreign legal degree and of his degree from the American Bar Association approved law school.

C. No applicant will be issued a license to practice law in this state until he has received a degree from an approved law school, or has successfully completed the required period of law study referred to above, and has furnished evidence of the same to the board.

D. Study by correspondence or in a nonapproved law school does not meet the foregoing requirements.

Statutory Authority

§§ 54.1-3922 and 54.1-3926 of the Code of Virginia.

Historical Notes

Derived from VR168-01-02 § 1.2, eff. October 1, 1993.

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