Conduct Yourselves Accordingly: Amending Bar Character and Fitness Questions to Promote Lawyer Well-Being

Abstract

A number of states have modified the questions on the Character and Fitness portion of their application for bar admission addressing an applicant’s substance use and mental health disorders. While some have eliminated the questions altogether, others continue to pose questions which authors and ABA members David Jaffe and Janet Stearns argue are overly broad and unnecessarily invasive. This article has been published in Vol. 26, no. 2 of the Center for Professional Responsibility’s magazine, The Professional Lawyer. Read the Jaffe and Stearns article, Conduct Yourselves Accordingly: Amending Bar Character and Fitness Questions To Promote Lawyer Well-Being, available here.

Keywords: Character and Fitness; Lawyer Well-Being; Substance Use, Mental Health