Examinations for the Bar. lege of approved standing. The rules of the State board of law examiners in Illinois pro vide for special examinations in such cases by the principal of a high school of that State, or the superintendent of a district hav ing a high school under his supervision. The certificate must be sworn to and state the date and place of the examination, the time consumed therein, the extent to which each study covered by the examination was pursued by the applicant, and the true and just grade of proficiency shown by the appli cant in each study on a scale of 100. With respect to certificates of study of law, the attempts to evade the rules are even more flagrant than in the case of certificates of general education, and I am sorry to say are often successful. In Ohio, for instance, our statute provides that no person shall be admitted to the bar examination who has not regularly and attentively studied law during the period of three years previous to his ap plication, either under the tuition of a prac tising attorney, or in regular attendance at a law school, or for part of the period under the tuition of a practising attorney and for the rest of it at a law school, and the rule of the Supreme Court intended to enforce effec tively this provision of the statute provides that the candidate must file with the clerk "f the court the certificate of such attorney, or the chief officer of the law school, as the case may be, showing among other things, the date when he commenced the study of law. The rule declares that the three years' study of law required by the statute shall date from the filing of such certificate. The re quirement that the candidate shall have regularly and attentively studied law during the period of three years obviously means, and it is quite useless and insignificant un less it does mean, that he shall make the study of law his business for three years, and not that he shall study law off and on dur ing a period of three years devoted to some other vocation. It would clearly not be a
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compliance with the statute if the candidate's certificate stated specifically that he had studied law every other day or every third day or two hours each day during a period of three years; and yet it is notorious that persons are constantly admitted to the bar examination in Ohio whose study of law is of the latter character. Certificates of study are accepted from law schools in which in struction is given during not more than three or four hours each week, and from practising attorneys who give no instruc tion whatever to the student and who subject him to no examination. No certificate of study in a law school should be accepted unless the exercises of the class room occupy at least ten or twelve hours a week for eight or nine months in the year. Certificates of study in the office of attorneys should be scrutinized with the greatest care. All cer tificates, both of general education and of study of the law, should be detailed and spe cific. Our State bar association has recenrlv suggested to the Supreme Court an amend ment of its rules so as to require that the certificate of study of law shall state what subjects were studied, what time in hours tlv candidate gave to each subject, what text books he used, how many examinations, if any, he was subjected to during the period of study, with the subjects and methods of the examination, what time was given to the instruction of the candidate, and whether, having studied at a law school, he failed to obtain a certificate or diploma from the au thorities of the school. The last suggestion was the result of an imposition, which came to the knowledge of the court in the case of a student who had registered under the tui tion of a practising attorney, in whose offifhe studied law for a year, subsequently going for two years to a law school. He failed to pass the law school examination, and was therefore unable to get a certificate from the officers of the school. In that predica ment he applied to the attorney with whom
