Petition Letter
Petitioner: XXX
Date of Birth: XXX
————-, Republic of XXX
XXX
To: XXX
Chief Clerk and Legal Counsel
XXX Court of Appeals
Dear Madam,
RE: Petition for Waiver of the Skills Competency and Professional Values Bar
Admission Requirement under Rule 520.18 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals.
NOW COMES XXX (hereinafter “I”, or “my”), Petitioner, and files this Petition for
Waiver of the Skills Competency and Professional Values Bar Admission Requirement Under
Rule 520.18 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals, and for cause would show this Honorable
Court as follows:
Rule 520.14 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals for the Admission of Attorneys and
Counselors at Law stipulates that it, “upon application, may in its discretion vary the
application or waive any provision of these rules where strict compliance will cause undue
hardship to the applicant.” The application “shall be in the form of a verified petition setting
forth the applicant’s name, age and residence address, the facts relied upon and a prayer for
relief.” This petition sets forth the grounds for my application.
I am writing this letter to bring your attention to that strict compliance of the Skills
Competency and Professional Values Bar Admission Requirement (hereafter the
Requirement) under Rule 520.18 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals cause extreme and
undue hardship to the petitioner who:
1) resides in Korea;
2) has completed more than 15 credits of practice-based experimental coursework; and
3) has obtained skills competency comparable to the requisite ones from work experience.
FACTS IN SUPPORT OF PETITION FOR WAIVER OF THE SKILLS,
COMPETENCY AND PROFESSIONAL VALUES BAR ADMISSION
REQUREMENT UNDER RULE 520.18 OF THE RULES OF THE COURT OF
APPEALS
1. Residence in Korea Having Economic Difficulty
I currently live in Korea. The Republic of. Korea has an independent civil law system as well
as its own lawyer-training process. Apprenticeship is one of the compulsory requirements for
becoming a new Korean lawyer. Thus, most of the placement of apprenticeships offered by
Korean law firms are tailored and focused to Korean law school graduates. Some large law
firms offer internships to foreign law school students, but these are short summer internship
for current students, and the placement of apprenticeship for more than six months for
graduates is extremely difficult to find.
The only way left to satisfy the Requirement is to come XXX State or another state in
the XXX and do apprenticeship, which is unduly hardship for me, especially for
economic reasons. I was a full-time law school student in the UK from XXX. After
graduation in XXX, due to movement controls and shutdown orders in all areas of industry
under the early pandemic situation in XXXX, I was forced to return to Korea without becoming
a lawyer. Then, I’ve spent two more years trying to pass the XXXX Bar Exam. I have
not had any normal income for this five-year period. In this situation, it is very difficult and
risky for me with a dependent to move residence from Korea to the U.S. and find a new
placement, especially without being qualified as a lawyer.
2. Having completed more than 15 credits of practice-based experimental coursework
Pursuant to Rule 520.18(a)(2) of the Rules of the Court of Appeals, an applicant may satisfy
the Requirement by submitting a certification from the applicant’s American Bar Association-
approved law school confirming that the applicant enrolled in and successfully completed 15
credit hours of practice-based experimental coursework (Pathway 2). In accordance with the
General Guidance 1 for the Requirement, in terms of “practice-based experimental
coursework”, an ABA-approved law school can determine whether courses are practice-
based and experiential 2 .
I have completed, during the legal education in the UK, practice-based experimental courses
which are equivalent to Pathway 2 under Rule 520.18(a)(2). For the practice-based
experimental coursework, I took a module named “Law in Practice” in my first academic
year (2017), participated in George-Hinde moot competition in my second year (2018), and
participated in a pro bono program in my final year (2019).
“Law in Practice” is designed to inform students of what is actually happening within and
around the UK legal system. The subject, instructed by former or current lawyers, taught the
distinctive procedures of the British judicial system, the relationship between barristers and
solicitors, changes in the British legal system and the corresponding measures by entities in
the system. It also included the qualities, competency (problem-solving, communication
skills, etc.) and the ethical standard required to a new lawyer. This subject is comprised of
two-hour lecture, and one-hour tutorial during which students were divided into small groups
to practice or rehearse assuming a real situation for each of the topics.
George-Hinge Moot Competition, which has lasted for more than 40 years, is the most
historic and important moot competition in Queen Mary University of London, Law School
(hereafter QMUL). Even though the event was mainly overseen by Queen Mary Mooting
Society, it is also supervised by faculties and many experienced lawyers including current and
1 FAQs for New York’s Skills Competency and Professional Values Bar Admission Requirement, available at:
http://www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/news/skills.pdf
2 Question 2, Ibid
former judges. Academics were directly involved in the competition as judges in earlier
rounds, and barristers participated in workshops in which I and other participants were
invited and received feedback on our performances. At the final mooting, Lord Hoffmann, a
former Lord Justice (the Supreme Court justice in the UK) joined and served as the judge.
In fall term of the final academic year, I participated in a pro bono program. It was one of
placements organized by Queen Mary Pro Bono Society and affiliated with lawyers from
Dentons UK. The service was held every Tuesday night at Poplar HRCA, London. Most
clients were poor immigrants suffering from housing, taxes, and their family’s immigration
issues. During the service I and other students greeted visitors, conducted an initial interview
with them, classified the types of their issues and reported it to a lawyer in charge so that
he/she could assign the clients to a lawyer. Other than this administrative work, I was
allowed, under lawyer’s supervision, to attend the meeting between the lawyer and clients, in
order to take down the interview in shorthand and organize them in an accessible form. This
placement ended due to the pandemic situation.
Based on the facts that I have taken these coursework, I requested QMUL to provide a letter
confirming that I successfully completed at least 15 credit hours of practice-based
experiential coursework, as defined by section 520.18(a)(2)(i) of the Rules of the Court of
Appeals. The letter is provided as attachment no 1.
Even though QMUL is not an ABA-approved law school, the school is one of the most
prestigious law schools in the UK. Its curriculum is comparable and equivalent to the that of
ABA-approved law schools in the US. Thus, most of graduates with LL.B. degree from the
school, upon the New York State Board of Law Examiners’ approval, are allowed to sit the
New York State Bar exam without requiring further LL.M. degree from an ABA-approved
law school in the US. Therefore, setting aside the school’s judgments and strictly adhering the
rule would be undue hardship and unnecessary administrative redundancy for me who have
fulfilled criteria comparable and equivalent to the Requirement.
3. Having obtained comparable skills competency from Work Experience
The General Guidance for the Requirement refers to the MacCrate Report of 1992 3 (hereafter
the Report) for identifying the skills and values with which prospective attorneys should be
familiar. The Report’s Statement of Skills and Values formulated a detailed inventory of
fundamental lawyering skills including: problem solving skills, legal analysis skills, factual
investigation skills, communication skills, negotiation skills, etc.
I have, through eight and a half years of experience in Samsung C&T as a construction and
cost control engineer, gained skills and competency necessary to provide effective, ethical
and responsible legal services. (Please see the attachment no 2, “Certificate of Employment”,
issued by Samsung C&T on June 28, 2016)
In particular, during CP5B project in Qatar (2012-2015), I, as an MEP coordinator, drafted
certain parts of the contracts for subcontract works and supplying equipment: the parts for the
scope of work, Specification, and Terms & conditions. This job was one of the most
sophisticated processes reducing engineering and technical matters into sentences and
3 See American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Legal
Education and Professional Development – An Educational Continuum, Report of the Task Force on
Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap, 1992
provisions, so that those were accomplished through close collaboration with in-house
lawyers. In the middle of the project, coordinating between the clients and the subcontractors,
I communicated with the client about their needs and requirements and converted them into
feasible engineering factors and assigned to the subcontractors. At the end of the project, I
was involved in the task force producing Extension of time Claim. It was a very complicated
and huge task involving not only field staff and engineers but also in-house lawyers and local
law firms. In the task force, I analyzed direct and indirect impact on the original construction
period by the client’s request for design changes and organized the information in an
accessible form so that lawyers from the local law firms were able to draft the claims
requesting an extension of construction period pursuant to the original terms and conditions.
Additionally, in the way to find out the most favorable claim, I was required to transform the
information into different forms as well as analyzing method. In these courses, I have learnt
the importance of clearly identifying goals and issues and how to communicate efficiently
when people from completely different backgrounds gather and work together.
After returning to the headquarters, I in a project management team oversaw major issues at
each construction site around the world. Most of them were contractual and were related to
local law. Thus, my duty in the headquarters is organizing information and issues from the
sites and communicating this information to in-house lawyers so that they could make proper
responds and measures.
Through this work experience, I have obtained and developed skills and competence for
problem-solving, communication with professionals from different fields, counseling with
clients, and negotiation against the opposite party. While working together with people of
various races and backgrounds in construction projects conducted in various countries, I also
have experienced that culture and the way of thinking of each person can be very different,
and learnt how to respect and understand each other for working efficiently under these
multicultural contexts. These competency and values are consistent with the fundamental
lawyering skills formulated in the Report.
As mentioned above, I have completed my legal education in the UK. Besides, the
Requirement was recently implemented, thus I had fewer expectations and opportunities to
satisfy it. However, I have completed, during the legal education in the UK, more than 15
credit hours of practice-based experimental coursework, which is certified my law school,
Queen Mary University of London. In addition, I have also gained skills and competency
necessary to provide effective, ethical and responsible legal services through work
experience. Strict compliance of the Requirement under Rule 520.18 compels me to move to
the US and carry out another new six-month apprenticeship. It would be undue hardship for
me having economic difficulty and would not serve the purpose of implementing the
Requirement. Therefore, I sincerely request you to consider this circumstance and waive the
Skills Competency and Professional Values Bar Admission Requirement under Rule 520.18.
PRAYER FOR RELIEF
REASONS WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, Petitioner respectfully requests this
Honorable Court to GRANT this Petition and ISSUE an Order waiving the skills competency
and professional values bar admission requirement under Rule 520.18 of the Rules of the
Court of Appeals.
Dated this ____ day of June, XXX.
Respectfully Submitted,
___________________________________
XXX
VERIFICATION
I, XXX, being duly sworn depose and say that I have read the foregoing Petition and
know the contents thereof. That the same is true of my own knowledge except as to those
matters and things stated upon information and belief, and as to those things, I believe them
to be true.
_________________________________
(Sign in the presence of a Notary Public)
Sworn to and subscribed before me this ___ day of June, XXX.
______________________________
Notary Public
________________________________________
(Printed name of Notary Public)
My Commission Expires: ____________________
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