The American Bar Association (ABA) has called for changes to the attorney admissions process to protect aspiring lawyers who are victims of domestic violence or sexual assault. During its annual meeting in Chicago, the ABA’s policymaking body approved a resolution urging bar admission authorities to exempt these applicants from disclosing related legal or police involvement.
This resolution aims to prevent the retraumatization of survivors by avoiding the need for them to recount their abuse and gather documentation. The ABA’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence, along with other entities, highlighted that such disclosures could deter victims from reporting abuse due to fears of revealing it on admissions applications.
While being a victim of domestic abuse or sexual violence is unlikely to bar someone from admission, the requirement for disclosure inflicts unnecessary harm, according to the resolution report. Although the ABA does not oversee lawyer admissions—handled by individual states—it holds significant influence within the legal industry with its 150,000 members.
In 2015, the ABA recommended that state licensing bodies remove questions about mental health history from the character and fitness review, leading to changes in at least six states by 2018, including New York, Virginia, and Ohio.
Earlier this year, three Democratic U.S. Senators—Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons, and Mazie Hirono—requested that the ABA study the impact of disclosure requirements on domestic abuse survivors and find ways to alleviate these burdens in the licensing process.
States often require applicants to disclose all legal and administrative cases, including civil restraining orders or on-campus disciplinary cases involving survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault. Even if states only ask for information about orders against the applicant, survivors may still need to reveal mutual no-contact orders.
Separately, during the ABA’s annual meeting, the House of Delegates did not address a proposal urging legal employers to provide workers with a week of “unplugged” time and credit 40 hours of billable hours for attorneys who fully disengage from work. This proposal, submitted by the ABA’s Young Lawyers Division, was withdrawn just before consideration.
