Graduate of two law schools who never attended college may take the bar exam, court rules
Caleb Alexander Harlin never attended college, but he has two law degrees and one law license.
He now will have the opportunity to obtain a law license in a second state as a result of a ruling on Tuesday by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The decision overturns the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners, which had blocked Harlin from taking the bar exam because he had no undergraduate degree. The Legal Profession Blog notes the opinion.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court noted that Harlin was voted the most outstanding graduate of the class of 2015 by faculty at his second law school, Oklahoma City University School of Law. The first law school he attended, the Oak Brook College of Law and Public Policy in California, does not have ABA accreditation.
Harlin had been home-schooled in high school, and he skipped college. He graduated cum laude from Oak Brook in 2009 and passed the California bar exam on the first try. He is admitted to practice before four federal district courts and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that, because Harlin is a lawyer, he does not have to satisfy the same requirements required of law students to take the bar exam.
