General considerations for completing and filing the Character and Fitness portion of the Bar application

1. Bar Application Seminar

2. Panelists
Lisa Davis, Interim Associate Dean for Information
Resources and Interim Director, FIU Law Library
H. Scott Fingerhut, Assistant Director, Trial Advocacy
Program, FIU Law;
Faculty Fellow and Director of Pre-Law Programs, The
Honors College at FIU.

3. Agenda
Completing your Application
What Happens After You Submit Your Application?
Recap
Questions

4. Completing Your Application
All 1Ls must complete their Student
Registrations by January 15, 2018.
If you are unable to comply with this deadline, you
must seek a waiver from Assoc. Dean Angie
Ortega Fridman (afridman@fiu.edu).
You will have a registration hold if you did not file
or get a waiver by January 15.

5. What do you mean by “Bar
Application”?
FIU E-Forms (Internal Only)
Declaration of
Disclosure (online)
Bar Certification
Form (online)
Student Registrant Bar Application
 Your application to the Florida Board
of Bar Examiners to become a
member of the Florida Bar upon
graduation.
 In the fall of your third year (or the
semester before your last semester),
you will convert your Student
Registrant application to a full Florida
Bar Application (and set your bar
exam date).

6. Completing Your Student Registrant
Application
 Financial Benefits
 $100 if filed by Jan. 15
 $350 if filed by March 15
 $400 if filed after March 15.
 When you convert in the fall of your third year, you will all pay an
additional $600 (plus the laptop fee, if applicable).
 Avoid delay in admissions
 Job search
 Certified Legal Intern
Clinic/Externships
 State Attorney’s Office/Office of PublicDefender

7. Completing Your Bar Application:
Getting Started
www.floridabarexam.org

8. Completing Your Bar Application: The
Process
Create an account and
read the checklist
carefully
Complete the
Application ONLINE
PRINT TWO COPIES
OF THE FINAL
VERSION
• Once you begin answering questions on your bar application, you will have
six months to complete it (the program will save your answers).
• Once you have completed all the questions, you will get an option to print a
“Draft Version.”
• Make the needed revisions online.
• Once you are sure the application is complete, hit the FINAL VERSION
button

9. Completing your Bar Application: The
Process
Complete handwriting
sample on your printed
FINAL VERSION
Collect all of your
*paper*
documentation
• Application
• Application Fee Worksheet
• CHECK
• Certified Birth Certificate OR Immigration document copies
• Undergraduate transcript email request
• Fingerprint receipt
• 3 Authorization and Release forms
• Supplemental documents (Financial Affidavit or Amendment forms, if
applicable)
Get your
docs
NOTARIZE
D
Send the packet in the
MAIL to the FBBE
postmarked by
January 15, 2018.

10. Getting the documentation you need
Undergraduate and graduate school transcripts: ask that the
school mail the transcripts directly to:
Florida Board of Bar Examiners
1891 Eider Court
Tallahassee, FL 32308
Take a screenshot of the request form (if your school uses
online requests) and include that screenshot in your application
packet. If your school uses paper request form,
keep a copy of that request and include the copy in your
application packet.

11. Getting the documentation you need
 Proof of citizenship
 If you were born in the U.S., you must send in a certified copy of your birth
certificate, not the original.
If you were born in Florida, you must mail in an application for a certified copy, which is
available at www.floridahealth.gov. You must receive the certificate at
home and mail it in with your application packet.
If you are a non-naturalized U.S. citizen who was born abroad (to U.S. parents), the
documentation requirement is different; see me.
 If you were born outside the U.S., but are a naturalized U.S. citizen, you must provide a
photocopy of your certificate of naturalization (and the Bar will submit it to USCIS for
verification). For those whose naturalization certificate is in your parent’s name only, see
me.
 If you are not a U.S. citizen, you must provide a photocopy of the documents that grant
your status (and the Bar will submit to USCIS for verification).

12. Fingerprints
If you have your fingerprints taken at FIU,
then you must submit a copy of the receipt
you were given with your application
packet.
If you lose your receipt, you must call
Morpho Trust at 800-528-1358; they will
email you a copy. Print it and send it with
your application.
If you miss the FIU fingerprinting session,
there is a Morpho Trust location at the
UPS store across from FIU (in the Publix
Mall): 1421 SW 107 Avenue.

13. RECAP: Documentation
Undergraduate/Graduate Transcripts
Official transcripts must be mailed directly from university to the Bar. You
must provide a hard copy of your request with your application.
Proof of Citizenship
You must provide a hard copy of your documentation with your application.
Fingerprinting
You must provide a hard copy of your receipt with your application.

14. Completing Your Application: Research
Lisa Davis, Interim Director, FIU Law
Library

15. Completing Your Application:
Assistance
If you need notary assistance, please email Gori Rodriguez in
the Dean’s Office at rodrigug@fiu.edu.

16. What Happens After You Submit Your
Application?
 The Board staff conducts an investigation to determine the character and
fitness of each applicant or registrant.
 Amendments
You are responsible for filing amendments to your Bar application.
Your application is a continuing application (until the day you take the
oath of attorney).
You must amend within 30 days of the occurrence that would
change or render incomplete any question on the application.

17. When and how do you amend your Bar
Application?
When do you amend your application?
Whenever you have an event that, if it had occurred before
you filed your application, you would have had to disclose
it.
Ex: new address; arrest; new job
How do you amend your application?
https://www.floridabarexam.org

18. What Happens After You submit Your
Application?
The Board may request information from you.
The Board may conduct an investigative hearing.

19. If the Board asks for information (or
have to file an amendment)
Provide the information in writing on an
amendment form.
The amendment form must be notarized.
Include a copy of the request letter
Make and keep a copy of the entire packet
Mail.

20. Recap
You must file your file a Student Registration by January
15. If you are unable to comply with this
deadline, you must seek a waiver from Assoc. Dean
Ortega Fridman.
Fingerprints: October 24 and October 25 at FIU Law
(see handout for registration and appointment
information).

21. Recap
Visit www.floridabarexam.org to get started on your
Student Registration.
Visit http://libguides.law.fiu.edu/FloridaBarApplication for
extremely helpful research resources, Florida Bar resources,
and a copy of this presentation.