So it’s the time of year in which freshly minted law school graduates who will sit for the July bar examination have to fill out lengthy and intrusive bar application forms, and also undergo written reference checks. The South Carolina “character reference” form always strikes me as weird. It provides some support for the contention that the South Carolina Bar has a lot of “characters.” Here are the 8 questions it contains:
1. How long and how well have you known the applicant?
2. What opportunities have you had for forming an opinion of the applicant’s character?
3. Are you personally acquainted with the applicant’s family? If Yes, [sic] what is their reputation in the community? Are you personally acquainted with the applicant’s associates? If yes, what is their reputation in the community?
4. What is the applicant’s reputation for reliability? integrity? industry? initiative? sense of honor? morality?
5. Would desire for financial gain or any other motive induce the applicant to ignore what he/she believed to be right?
6. In your opinion does this applicant possess the high standards of character requited for admission to the practice of law? If no, explain in detail.
7. If any of the foregoing information is from sources other than professional knowledge, list the source.
8. From your own knowledge, has the applicant ever been:
a. Arrested?
b. Accused of a violation of trust?
c. Dropped from any educational institution?
d. Suspended from any educational institution?
e. Expelled from any educational institution?
f. Asked to resign from any educational institution?
g. Otherwise disciplined by any educational institution?
h. A party to any court proceeding?
i. Adjudicated a bankrupt?
j. Addicted to the use of narcotics?
k. Addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors?
l. Afflicted with or received treatment for emotional disturbance?
m. Afflicted with or received treatment for mental disorder?
n. Afflicted with or received treatment for nervous disorder?
o. Denied admission to the Bar of any other state?
p. Delinquent in any of his/her financial obligations?
q. A member of an organization listed as subversive by the Attorney General of the United States?
After filling one of these out I am left wondering things like: what a person’s family’s “reputation in the community” has to do with anything [Q.3]; how a person’s “sense of honor” differs from her “integrity” and “morality” [Q.4]; what is “professional knowledge” and how does it differ from gossip? [Q.7]; what it means to be “dropped” from an educational insitution, since that somehow differs from being “suspended,” “expelled,” “asked to resign from” and/or “otherwise disciplined” [Qs.8c,8d,8e,8f,8g]; how one differentiates between “emotional,” “mental,” and “nervous” disorders [Qs.8l,8m,8n] and which organizations exactly are “listed as subversive by the Attorney General of the United States“? [and yes, the possibility that the Democratic party is one of them has occurred to me!][Q.8q].
–Ann Bartow
