Posted on 10/06/2006 6:06:43 AM PDT by falcon1966
Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Harold Ford Jr. referred to himself as a lawyer earlier this week, but the congressman has not passed the bar exam.
Michael Powell, senior adviser to the Ford campaign, said U.S. Rep. Ford took the Tennessee bar exam in February 1997 and failed. He said that was the only time Rep. Ford has taken the test.
Rep. Ford, of Memphis, got his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1996, according to his congressional Web site.
He said Tuesday during a meeting with Chattanooga Times Free Press editors and reporters that Republican opponent Bob Corker has said the next senator should be a businessman and not a lawyer.
"I told Senator (Lamar) Alexander, I said, ‘I won’t hold it against you if I’m elected, and there’s two lawyers in the delegation who try their hardest to work through the issues," Rep. Ford said.
Corker campaign spokesman Todd Womack said, "If Congressman Ford will stretch the truth about his own resume, what else will he stretch the truth about?" Mr. Powell said it is his understanding that Rep. Ford was joking when he made reference to being a lawyer during Tuesday’s meeting.
"He has never held himself out as a lawyer," Mr. Powell said.
He said President Bush has referred to Rep. Ford as a lawyer.
"I think it makes sense to send somebody up to Washington who’s not a lawyer," President Bush said at a Nashville fundraiser in late August, according to a transcript. "Nothing wrong with lawyers, we got a lot of them up there."
Mr. Powell said the GOP is finding "petty" things to talk about.
"We’re a month out from the election, and the Republicans and Mr. Corker still are not talking about the issues," he said.
Thx.
I typed in "Harold Ford Lawyer" into Google.
No articles regarding this. The was a very informative article on the chirping habits of the common cricket.
Here in Wisconsin, if you attend either of the state's two law schools (Marquette and U of W), you do not need to take the bar exam in order to practice law in the state. If you graduated outside the state, you must pass the bar exam to practice.
If you have a JD (`Juris Doctor') degree, you have a law degree.
If you have the degree and a license to practice law, then you are a lawyer.
Ford is something like the Clintons and other `ticket-punching' politician "quasi-lawyers": they wouldn't know how to handle themselves in a courtroom, but it's important to their careers to be able to suggest they can, like Murtha holding himself out as a war-hero.
One of my friends in Law school (in Ohio) was from Wisconsin. While we were in school, he always regretted not going to Marquette or UofW, but he passed the Wisconsin bar on the first attempt anyways, so it really didn't matter that much.
Every state which I have looked up regarding professional licensure, tends to have legislation and state codes regarding professional practice. The language used in those codes usually extends out so far as to stipulate nobody may even use the title of the profession without being licensed. My interests regarded engineering and accounting. Perhaps law is different, considering the codes are in themselves law, there might be a circular reasoning if only licensed lawyers could practice law.
Visit http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/2005/03/impersonating_a.html
to find out about someone who was sentenced to 150 months for impersonating a Lawyer.
Yes, the DC bar.
What is the difference between an attorney and a lawyer?
What if you pass the state bar exam without going to law school. Can you call yourself a lawyer?
Yes, and I know that California used to offer the bar exam to folks who hadn't been to law school. I read several years ago that the State quit offering the bar exam to folks who hadn't attended law school.
Harold Ford is just like a Kennedy: none of them have ever passed a bar.
So what? Democrats are always calling themselves what they ain't. It's the Leftist mindset: truth is whatever you can convince people.
It seems Ford has been telling other lies. He says his grandmother is white and lied about being black. Major creep factor here.
hmmm, sounds like Ford is the perfect politician - too incompetent to be a real lawyer so off to Congress instead...
For some time now no one has been allowed to take a bar exam without having graduated from an accredited law school (not all institutions holding themselves out as schools of law are accredited). Years ago, you could apprentice yourself to a lawyer and "read" for the law. My grandfather became a lawyer in this way. What the exact procedures were, however, I do not know.
Sorry, but when there's a "D" by the name - and the story is negative - the MSM hands out a pass. This is a non-story.
I agree. This is a non-issue. While the vast majority of people with law degrees who sit for the Tennessee Bar pass on their first try, (the requirements to sit for the exam are more stringent then California), it is fairly normal for a politician with a law degree to fail the TN Bar exam. Possessing a law degree from Michigan, and his background, qualified Ford to take the Exam. However, since Michigan does not teach the law specific to Tennessee, if Ford did not spend a great deal of time and effort studying he should not have expected to pass. Having heard and briefly met Ford I'm quite certain that he has the intellect and training to pass the Tn Bar Exam, if he would take the time to apply himself. My suspicion is that in 1997 he was probably overconfident in his ability to pass the Exam and just did not put in the study time required. Since he was almost immediately elected to the House and has no intention of practicing law in Tennessee there really has been no reason for him to spend the time learning the peculiarities of Tennessee law.
I hope Ford is not elected and will be voting for his opponent, but I have no problem with him saying he’s a “lawyer” in the context that where he made the statement. He was not soliciting clients. If someone can find where he represented himself at an "Attorney at Law" I might feel differently.
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