Those interested in pursuing a career at the bar must first be admitted as lawyers in the Supreme Court of their home state or territory.
After the successful completion of practical legal training, law graduates must then apply to be admitted to the Supreme Court in their state or territory.
Generally, the bar exams focus on three main areas of practice which are relevant to barristers; namely evidence, procedure and ethics.
The exams are usually administered during the course of a day and comprise a variety of question types, usually answers are given in essay form.
Passing the bar exam in and of itself does not automatically allow one to practise as a barrister, in many jurisdictions (such as New South Wales) further requirements apply.
The BPC consists of lectures, assignments and a significant amount of further reading about court procedure and case law.
[5] At the conclusion of the BPC, candidates are then required to appear in a mock trial,[6] often before real judicial officers, and argue their respective case.
[12] Since the UK has a separated legal profession, Law graduates in England and Wales can take examinations to qualify as a barrister or a solicitor by either undertaking the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) or the Solicitors Qualification Exam (previously the Legal Practice Course (LPC)) respectively.
The general timescale therefore to become fully qualified after entering Law School can range between 6–7 years (assuming no repeats are required).
Replacing the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme in September 2021, this is the only English and Welsh bar examination for solicitors.
In France, Law graduates must obtain a vocational degree called certificat d'aptitude à la profession d'avocat (or CAPA in everyday speech) in order to practice independently.
There are some other legal or legal-adjacent careers which require additional or different training (namely public notaries and patent lawyers).
To sit for an exam, the candidate needs at least 3 years of daily 8 hours work experience after having a law university degree (masters level).
[16] This exam is composed of three parts: After passing these exams the candidate can practice law as a lawyer or as a court secretary, judge, a prosecutor at the public prosecutor's office, as a notary public, deputy notary, or an in-house legal counsel etc., and may operate individually at any field of Hungarian law (which also means that they may appear before any Hungarian court without a professional legal representative.[17]).
These exams cover such skills as advocacy, research and opinion writing, consulting with clients, negotiation, drafting of legal documents and knowledge of civil and criminal procedure.
For those who fail to meet the requisite 50% pass mark, repeats are held in the following August and September.
The other one is administered by the Judicial System of Iran subject to article 187 of the country's economic, social and cultural development plan.
To receive the license to practice as a "First Degree Attorney" in Iran, an applicant should complete a bachelor of law program.
The official career path starts after passing the Bar Exam and receiving the title of "Trainee at Law".
To sit for an exam, the candidate needs a 5-year university degree in jurisprudence and 18 months of legal apprenticeship at a law firm with at least 20 court hearings per semester.
With the new format of examinations—even after extensive reforms and a new mandatory duration of graduate school education for a period of two years—the pass rate is only 22%.
After the practical period applicants must pass the exam held by the Professional Chambers with assistance from some members of the Ministry of Justice.
The exam is generally held on the last week of November, and is administered by the Singapore Institute of Legal Education (SILE).
The candidate must have also attained a Second Class Lower or equivalent classification in their law degrees to qualify for the bar exam.
To be called to the Singaporean Bar,[28] all law graduates must complete the following: In addition, all law graduates of non-Singaporean university must complete the following additional requirements: SILE publishes a Commendation List[31] at the end of February of each year to recognise the top performing candidates with two or more subject distinctions in the annual Singapore Bar Examinations (Part B).
The length of articles may be reduced by attending a practical legal training course or performing community service.
[36] Due to the colonial-era influence, South Korea's bar exam system closely follows that of Japan's.
The evaluation test has a total duration of 4 hours and consists of: In Thailand, the bar examination is separate from the lawyer licence.
Quite confusingly with international norms, students called to the bar are referred to as netibandit (เนติบัณฑิต),[41] which means Barrister-at-Law in English.
The main exceptions are Louisiana and Puerto Rico, which follow civil law systems unlike other parts of the United States.