I will like to open this article with the words of the American Bar Association on its website with the following caption “DIVERSITY MATTERS AT THE ABA- A GUIDE TO ABA DIVERSITY RESOURCES” where it stated inter alia:

“Those of us in the legal profession share a common calling. We also must acknowledge that each one of us brings an individual background and perspective to our work. This diversity benefits the profession and the public we serve. Our challenge is to recognize that barriers still remain to the advancement of lawyers of color. In today's world, public confidence in our profession—and the justice system as a whole—is largely tied to whether law firms and the judicial system reflect the full diversity of our society.
The ABA strongly believes that the full participation of all racial and ethnic groups in the legal profession is a compelling interest. It preserves the legitimacy of our legal system, and safeguards the integrity of our democratic government.”

These words are apposite to my position that people of color, especially the so called “Foreign Attorneys” are being discriminated against when it comes to filling open Attorney positions in different establishments, including governmental.

It was my dream as a young boy of about four years old to be a lawyer; it seemed like a tall dream at the time since both my parents were illiterates. My dad was a barber and my mom sells all sorts of petty stuff like soda, ice cream, candies and so on.

The Lagos State High Court was behind my house on Lagos Island where I grew up. I attended Elementary and High School on the Island, I grew up seeing lawyers everyday except Saturdays and Sundays when the courts were not sitting.

Nigeria inherited its legal system from the British, everything including mode of dressing, which a politician and one of the topmost Nigerian lawyers decried as ridiculous. Ridiculous or not it stands them out from everyone else. Nigerian lawyers are a beauty to behold in their wigs and gowns which admittedly is not appropriate for the climate.

I went in search of my dream of becoming a lawyer and will not settle for less, I later got admitted to the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly University of Ife) where I was awarded my bachelors of law, LL.B as it is known in most, if not all, Commonwealth countries.

The Commonwealth (also known as The Commonwealth of Nations or British Commonwealth) are former British Colonies. Presently the body is made up of 53 Countries; Nigeria inclusive.

Britain did not only give us its language, it gave us the Parliamentary System of Government which we later jettisoned for the American Presidential System of Government, it also gave us Federalism and our legal system with the exception of the Customary Law which is the only area of law that I know to be indigenous to Nigeria.

Most Nigerian Case Law Precedents were from United Kingdom, there is no Nigerian Lawyer that is not familiar with the pronouncements of Lord Denning, especially in the case of Central London Property Trust Ltd v. High Trees House Ltd popularly known as the High Trees case. This case is the locus classicus for promissory estoppels and since Criminal Law is compulsory Nigerian Lawyers are familiar with the insanity defense as espoused in the M'Naghten case.

Some State Bar Associations in the United States recognize the fact that there are other countries out there whose legal systems were fashioned after the British Common Law, a look at the requirements qualifying a candidate to take the Bar Examinations of these states support this assertion.

A cursory look at the conditions precedent to taking the bar examinations in four of the states that allow foreign attorneys to take the bar examination will make this point clearer.

WASHINGTON STATE:

The requirements qualifying a candidate to take the bar examination are stated in APR 3 which requires the applicant, inter alia, to be of good moral character and to present satisfactory proof of:

(iii) admission to the practice of law by examination, together with current good standing, in any state or territory of the U.S. or in Washington, D.C., or any jurisdiction where the common law of England is the basis of its jurisprudence, and active legal experience for at least 3 of the 5 years immediately preceding the filing of the application.

http://www.wsba.org/lawyers/licensing/bar_exam_app_info.htm

STATE OF NEW YORK

SUBCHAPTER B Rules for Admission of Attorneys and Counselors at Law states:

An applicant who has studied in a foreign country may qualify to take the New York State bar examination by submitting to the New York State Board of Law Examiners satisfactory proof of the legal education required by this section.

 (b) Legal education.
(1) The applicant shall show fulfillment of the educational requirements for admission to the practice of law in a country other than the United States by successful completion of a period of law study at least substantially equivalent in duration to that required under subdivisions (d) and (e) of section 520.3 of this Part, in a law school or schools each of which, throughout the period of the applicant's study therein, was recognized by the competent accrediting agency of the government of such other country, or of a political subdivision thereof, as qualified and approved; and

(i) that such other country is one whose jurisprudence is based upon the principles of the English Common Law, and that the program and course of law study successfully completed by the applicant were the substantial equivalent of the legal education provided by an approved law school in the United States;

http://www.nybarexam.org/court.htm#520.6%20Study%20of%20law%20in%20foreign%20country;%20required%20legal%20education

Both states require that jurisprudence of country where the Attorney was admitted and practicing must be based on the principles of the English Common Law.

TEXAS

In Texas the conditions that a Foreign Attorney must fulfill in order to sit for the Bar Examination can be found in Rule XIII of the Rules Governing Admission to the Bar of Texas.

The relevant provisions are as follows:

A foreign nation attorney who has not completed the law study required under these Rules is eligible for an exemption from the law study requirement for admission to take the Texas Bar Examination without holding a J.D. degree from an approved law school if the attorney:

(A)   has been actively and substantially engaged in the lawful practice of law of said foreign nation in that nation or elsewhere as his/her principal business or occupation for at least five of the last seven years immediately preceding the filing of the most recent application or re-application

(B)   has been licensed for at least five years to practice law in the highest court of the foreign nation;

(C)   holds the equivalent of a J.D. degree, not based on study by correspondence, from a law school accredited in the jurisdiction where it exists and which requires the equivalent of a three-year course of study that is the substantial equivalent of the legal education provided by an approved law school

(D)   meets one of the following criteria:

(i)                  demonstrates to the Board that the law of such foreign nation is sufficiently comparable to the law of Texas that, in the judgment of the Board, it enables the foreign attorney to become a competent attorney in Texas without additional formal legal education; or

(ii)                holds an L.L.M. from an approved law school.

http://www.ble.state.tx.us/Rules/NewRules/rulexiii.htm

ILLINOIS

QUALIFYING graduates of foreign law schools may request permission from the Board to sit for the Illinois bar examination under Rule 715. However, only those foreign law school graduates who meet 3 threshold requirements can possibly qualify to make such a request.

A. Threshold requirements

A lawyer who received his or her legal education and law degree in a country other than the US must meet the following 3 requirements before he or she will be permitted to request permission to sit for the Illinois bar examination.

   1. The lawyer must have been licensed to practice law in the country in which the law degree was conferred and/or in the highest court of law in any US state, territory, or the District of Columbia for a minimum of 5 years;

   2. The lawyer must be in good standing as an attorney or equivalent in that country and/or in any US jurisdiction where admitted to practice;

   3. During each of no fewer than 5 of the 7 years immediately prior to making application in Illinois, the lawyer must have verifiably devoted an annual minimum of 500 hours to the practice of the law of such country and/or to the law of any US jurisdiction(s) where licensed.

Illinois does not require the lawyer to be from a common law country; it will appear that if you are from a country that has its jurisprudence in France’s legal system, provided you meet the threshold requirements, you may be qualified to take the Illinois Bar Examination.

https://www.ibaby.org/infapp.php?key=8#715

Passing the Bar Examination in any of these states, instead of being a blessing, might turn out to be a nightmare.

Most of the Bar Associations subscribed to diversity and all, I doubt if they educate other lawyers and employers about the rationale behind allowing “Foreign Attorneys” to take their respective Bar Examinations.

Most Attorneys and employers have never been in contact with “Foreign Attorneys” and those who do probably see the legal education obtained by these “Foreign Attorneys” as substandard. It probably does not occur to the Attorneys and employers that one or more of the lecturers that trained these Attorneys were Americans and/or from other Commonwealth countries and that some of the indigenous lecturers were themselves trained in different parts of the world including America.

Some of these Foreign Attorneys, in the course of their foreign practice, read and cited relevant American cases in support of arguments in some cases they were involved in especially those that touch on fundamental rights. Although such cases are not binding on the courts they are persuasive since justice or injustice will be so regardless of setting.  It does not matter that some of these Foreign Attorneys passed the bar examination at first sitting whereas some American trained Attorneys had to take it five times or more. Nevertheless the American trained Attorneys will secure jobs before Foreign Attorneys, if the foreign attorneys are lucky enough to find forward looking establishments that will employ them.

Most Attorneys and employers are not aware that some of the Foreign Attorneys were taught the English Language and wrote all their examinations from Elementary to University Level in that Language, it is therefore paradoxical to be asked if one speaks English, makes you wonder what language the respective state’s Bar Examinations questions were written.

CHERYL SMITH-KHAN in one of her articles AFRICAN AMERICAN ATTORNEYS IN TELEVISION AND FILM: COMPOUNDING STEREOTYPES wrote:

“In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed a commission, headed by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner, to investigate economic and social reasons for destructiveness caused by racism.

The Kerner Commission concluded that the media’s portrayal of minorities, Blacks in particular, contributed to continued racial stereotyping in society. History has proven the Commission correct.”

“For many White viewers, their only images of Blacks are based on media stereotypes of African Americans”

Someone told me I am a double minority, Black and African. How can a Foreign Attorney coming out of Africa be respected when all you see about Africa on TV, most of the times is jungle, animals, poverty stricken people in need of aids, diseases and war? This is not to say such things do not exist in Africa but that is not all there is to that continent.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Most companies in their open position adverts claim to be equal opportunity employer, maybe so, but once you claim to have obtained your law degree from a country other than United States of America you are treated like a leper, unfit to be interviewed for even an entry level position regardless of your years of practicing law in your former jurisdiction.

If you look around you will find “Foreign Attorneys” setting up their own law practices, the reason for this is lack of employment not because they do not want to work for other established law firms and get properly acquainted with the legal procedures.

Foreign Attorney, a class of which I am one, believe in the American Dream and some of us are in the United States not only to pursue that dream but because we believe the United States is a free country, a land of opportunities and a country that thrives on the rule of law. Our desire is to be integrated into the legal communities, to contribute our quota in the general pursuit of justice fail play and equity.

We cannot achieve the American Dream nor can we contribute our quota if the door is continually shut in our faces because we did not attend American Colleges. There must be some wisdom in allowing Foreign Attorneys to take the Bar examination and, on being successful, subsequently licensed to practice law in America, those who made the rules allowing Foreign Attorneys to be licensed must see some wisdom in that decision. I know a Foreign Attorney that has been trying for five years to get into the midstream of the American Legal Practice; he was rebuffed every step of the way. He believes it is because of where he obtained his legal education and is forced to apply for his Masters in an American University, I wonder if this will change his circumstances.

It is not just private employers that shut the doors against Foreign Attorneys government establishments are not doing better. If this is not discrimination based on one’s country of origin, since that is where one obtained the law degree, I wonder what is. What is the essence of licensing Foreign Attorneys only to turn around and deny them the opportunity of proving their worth? It is a shame to have a law license and end up being a security officer or a Certified Nursing Assistant. Foreign Lawyers are not asking for hand outs we just want to be given the opportunity to practice law, a childhood dream for some of us.