This website will be unavailable from Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, April 29, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.
79R12178 KLA-F
By: Solis H.B. No. 3033
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 3033:
By: Flores C.S.H.B. No. 3033
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to licensing of attorneys.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 82.024, Government Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 82.024. LAW STUDY REQUIREMENTS; ELIGIBILITY FOR
EXAMINATION. (a) A person who has completed the prescribed study
in an approved law school has satisfied the law study requirements
for taking the examination for a license to practice law and is
eligible to take the bar examination. An approved law school is one
that is approved by the supreme court for the time period designated
by the court as maintaining the additional standards to retain
approval.
(b) The supreme court may not adopt rules regarding the
eligibility of an applicant for examination for a license to
practice law that prohibit the applicant from taking the
examination after failing a specified number of previous
examinations.
SECTION 2. Subchapter B, Chapter 82, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 82.026 to read as follows:
Sec. 82.026. EXEMPTION FROM EXAMINATION FOR CERTAIN
APPLICANTS FOLLOWING DISBARMENT. Rules adopted by the supreme
court relating to the reinstatement of the license of a disbarred
attorney must allow an attorney to be reinstated without having to
take the bar examination if the court with jurisdiction over the
proceeding finds that the attorney was licensed in this state for at
least 20 years before the disbarment and was in good standing for
that period.
SECTION 3. Section 82.036, Government Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 82.036. FOREIGN ATTORNEYS. (a) The supreme court
shall make such rules and regulations as to admitting attorneys
from other jurisdictions to practice law in this state as it shall
deem proper and just. All such attorneys shall be required to
furnish satisfactory proof as to good moral character.
(b) The rules adopted under this section must allow an
attorney licensed to practice law in another jurisdiction to be
admitted to practice law in this state without examination if the
attorney:
(1) completed the law study requirements for admission
at an approved law school in this state;
(2) has been actively and substantially engaged in the
practice of law in the other jurisdiction for:
(A) at least three of the last seven years
immediately preceding the date the attorney filed the application
for a license in Texas, if the attorney has never taken and failed
the Texas bar examination; or
(B) at least five of the last seven years
immediately preceding the date the attorney filed the application
for a license in Texas, if the attorney failed the last Texas bar
examination taken by the attorney; and
(3) is otherwise eligible for admission to practice
law without examination.
SECTION 4. As soon as practicable after the effective date
of this Act, the Texas Supreme Court shall adopt rules to implement
Section 82.026, Government Code, as added by this Act, and Section
82.036, Government Code, as amended by this Act.
SECTION 5. Sections 82.024 and 82.036, Government Code, as
amended by this Act, apply only to a person who files an application
for admission to the State Bar of Texas on or after September 1,
2005.
SECTION 6. Section 82.026, Government Code, as added by
this Act, applies only to a person whose application for
reinstatement to the State Bar of Texas is pending on or filed on or
after September 1, 2005.
SECTION 7. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.