Law Careers in Rhode Island

According to Rhode Island Wage Information, in 2010 the average lawyer in the state earned an annual salary of $102,900. Those within the 75th percentile earned an average of $142,000 per year, while those earning in the 90th percentile averaged salaries over $166,400 annually. The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training estimates that jobs for lawyers in the state will increase by 10 percent between 2010 and 2020, averaging 80 lawyer jobs per year (including jobs due to growth and net replacement). It seems that the future is bright for those who plan to study law in Rhode Island in the near future. If you are one of those who aspires to become a Rhode Island lawyer, the information that follows should help you along the way.
 

The Rhode Island Board of Bar Examiners does not require that you go to undergraduate school prior to entering law school. However, it does require that you graduate from an American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law institution, and all ABA-accredited law institutions mandate that you have at least a bachelor’s degree before entering law school.

Accreditation

All ABA-accredited law schools will check your undergraduate transcripts when you apply, to make sure that your bachelor’s degree came from an accredited school. The college or university you attended as an undergraduate must be accredited by an accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Requirements and Standards

You do not have any course requirements or standards to fulfill in undergraduate school, other than to take interesting, challenging courses and obtain a good grade point average. Some courses that you take as an undergraduate may help you later on in law school. These include philosophy, psychology, history, communications, criminal justice, business, and political science.

Degree Options

ABA-accredited law schools will check your transcript to make sure that you received at least a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BS) from an accredited college or university. The major you choose is entirely up to you.

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The next step on your pathway to becoming a Rhode Island lawyer is to pass the entrance test necessary for admittance into all law schools: the LSAT, or Law School Admission Test. It is offered four times yearly across the nation and takes six hours to complete.  

How to prepare

Practice tests and sample questions and answers can be found for free at the LSAT website and are quite helpful in preparing to take this momentous exam. Other resources in Rhode Island that may help you prepare for the LSAT, but are not necessarily free, include:

LSAT Exam Prep Courses in Rhode Island:

• LSAT Tutoring Prep Class, HB Academics, Providence
• LSAT Weekend Course, PowerScore, Providence
• LSAT Tutoring, Parliament Tutors, various locations

Exam content

The four sections on the LSAT include:

• Logical Reasoning (Part I) – You are given 35 minutes to complete an average of 25 questions. Your ability to use logic to determine the best answers from a selection of multiple choices is tested here. You must make assumptions, determine strengths and weaknesses of arguments, and otherwise use logic to determine the best answer.
• Logical Reasoning (Part II) - You are given 35 minutes to complete an average of 25 questions, in the same manner and format as the first Logical Reasoning section.
• Analytical (Games) – Also a 35 minute section, the Analytical, or Games, section averages 22 questions. You are given a situation and a set of conditions, and you must draw conclusions from that information.
• Reading Comprehension – Another 35-minute section that contains four passages with an average of seven questions per passage. Questions may have to do with the content or main idea of the passage, or about the reasoning found in the passage.
• Writing – This 30-minute section is not scored, but requires you to write an essay on a given topic. Although the section does not figure into your total LSAT score, the writing sample will be submitted to all of the law schools to which you apply, to give them a better idea of your communication skills.
• You will also encounter an “experimental” ungraded section, but you will not be able to tell which section it is. This section is used by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), sponsors of the test, to “try out” new questions. As you will have no way of knowing which section is experimental, treat each section as if it counts toward your LSAT score.

Application process

The LSAC requires that you apply with them online to take the LSAT. You must also pay the $160 exam fee at this time. The LSAT is offered in December, February, June and October, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, at the following Rhode Island testing locations:  

• Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Rd, Bristol, RI 02809-2923
• University of Rhode Island, 35 Campus Avenue, Kingston, RI 02881
• Brown University, Prospect St, Providence, RI 02912
• Rhode Island College, 600 Mount Pleasant Ave, Providence, RI 02908
• Community College of Rhode Island, 400 East Ave, Warwick, RI 02886-1807

Receiving Your Score

You will receive between a 120 and a 180 on the LSAT, and your scores are mailed to you three weeks post-test. Per ABA law school data, the one ABA-approved school located in Rhode Island, Roger Williams University School of Law, averages a median LSAT score of 151 from new applicants for admission.

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Application process for Law School in RI

After passing the LSAT, you are ready to apply to the ABA-accredited law schools you select. The Rhode Island Board of Bar Examiners requires that you graduate from an ABA-accredited law school anywhere in the United States – it need not be within the state of Rhode Island. There are over 200 ABA-accredited law schools nationwide. You can find them in the ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools.

Credential Assembly Service

While each law school has its own requirements for admission, if you are applying to any ABA-accredited law school nationwide, you are required to use the Law School Admission Council’s Credential Assembly Service (CAS). When you registered with the LSAC to take the LSAT, you created an LSAC account. Simply go online to your LSAC account to get started. The CAS helps you to gather all transcripts from all institutions you have attended up to this point, as well as letters of recommendation, evaluations of your work, and other necessary documentation for applying to law school. The CAS will compile all of this information into up to five law school reports, which they will then send to the law schools to which you choose to apply. The LSAC charges $155 for you to use this service.

Accreditation

The Rhode Island Board of Bar Examiners mandates that you must graduate with a law degree from an ABA-accredited law school if you wish to take the state’s bar exam. Exceptions are made for graduates of foreign law schools and if you are already licensed elsewhere as an attorney. These exceptions will be explored later, in Step 4.

ABA-Accredited Law Schools in Rhode Island

The only ABA-accredited law school within Rhode Island’s borders is:

• Roger Williams University School of Law, Ten Metacom Avenue, Bristol, RI 02809-5171

Course requirements

Rhode Island law school students, and those of any ABA-approved law school anywhere in the United States, typically take the following types of courses:

• Legal methods
• Torts
• Contracts
• Civil procedure and law
• Criminal procedure and law
• Property
• Professional Responsibility
• Constitutional law
• Evidence
• Electives (which may be chosen from courses such as corporate law, trial advocacy, intellectual property law, international law, etc).

Online Law Degrees

• View Online and Campus Law and Legal Studies Programs
  • (For students who choose to focus on a subset of law other than an attorney.)

Internship

Most ABA-accredited law schools also require students to complete an internship. This gives you the opportunity to combine what you have learned in the classroom with real-life practical legal work experience. Your school may offer various types of internships, from in-house legal clinics assisting the indigent, to judicial clerkships, to public interest internships, to working in a private law firm.

Degree Programs

You must have a Juris Doctor (JD) degree (or foreign equivalent) to sit for the Rhode Island bar examination. Your school may offer additional academic opportunities for law students, such as dual degrees or concentrations. Check with your law school for its offerings.

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Once you have graduated from an ABA-approved law school with your JD degree, you are ready to apply to take the Rhode Island bar exam. You may not take the Rhode Island bar exam if you have failed it, or another state’s bar exam, more than five times.

Non-ABA approved law school graduates

The only non-ABA-approved law school graduates accepted to take Rhode Island’s bar exam are those who graduated from foreign law schools (see below) or those already licensed as an attorney elsewhere (in some cases – see below). If you graduated from a non-ABA-accredited law school in the US, you are not eligible to take the state’s bar exam.

Graduates of Foreign Law Schools

If you graduated from a law school outside of the United States, you may need to take additional education at an ABA-approved law school before you are allowed to sit for Rhode Island’s bar exam. Your foreign law degree must also be approved by the dean of an ABA-approved law school, who must certify that your degree is equivalent to that of an ABA-approved law school.

Preparation

You can find much free information to help you prepare for the Rhode Island bar exam at the National Conference of Bar Examiners website. In particular, sections on the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), Multistate Performance Test (MPT) and the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) should be studied. You can also find sample questions from past Rhode Island essay examinations at the Rhode Island Board of Bar Examiners website. These can help you prepare for that portion of the bar exam. Other options to help you prepare for the Rhode Island bar exam include:

• Bar Training Course: Applied Legal Reasoning, Roger Williams University School of Law, Bristol
• Rhode Island Legal Code, online
• Uniform Commercial Code, online

Exam content

It takes two days to complete the Rhode Island Bar Exam.

• Day one consists of: 
• three Rhode Island essay questions, for which you are given 90 minutes to complete. Subjects may include:
• Civil procedure (Rhode Island)
• Business entities
• Conflict of law
• Commercial paper
• Family law/domestic relations
• Contracts/sales
• Secured transactions/creditors rights
• Probate
• Wills/trusts/estates
• three MPT questions, for which you have 90 minutes to complete. You are given a file and a library and must perform a lawyer’s task (drafting a memo, brief, etc)
• six MEE questions, for which you are given three hours to complete. Subjects may include:
• Business associations
• Conflict of laws
• Civil procedure (federal)
• Contracts
• Constitutional law
• Criminal procedure and law
• Family law
• Evidence
• Commercial paper/negotiable instruments
• Secured transactions
• Real property
• Trusts and estates
• Torts
• Day two consists of:
• 200 MBE multiple-choice questions (100 in the morning for three hours, 100 in the afternoon for three hours). Subjects may include:
• Contracts
• Constitutional law
• Criminal procedure and law
• Real property
• Torts
• Evidence

Application Process

Complete the Petition/Questionnaire for Admission to the Rhode Island Bar. Along with this completed, 23 page document, you must submit to the Board:

• Certificate of Dean/Administrator of Law School, completed by your law school’s dean/administrator and verifying receipt of a JD degree
• Certified transcript from law school
• Completed Handwriting Sample form
• Two Certificates of Good Moral Character, completed by persons not used as references elsewhere
• Employer Verification Forms completed by all employers where you have worked full-or part-time for more than six months since age 21
• Background checks from all states in which you lived in for six months or more (use this list of Criminal Records Repositories to find the proper agency to contact for your state(s))
• Current credit report
• $600 check payable to Committee on Character and Fitness
• If you graduated from a law school outside of the U.S., also submit:
• Check for $750 payable to the National Conference of Bar Examiners
• Three completed/executed Authorization and Release Forms
• Completed National Conference of Bar Examiners Request for Preparation of a Character Report

Mail all of the above information to Bar Administrator, 250 Benefit St., Providence, RI 02903. Submit it by the appropriate deadline (December 1 for the February bar exam and May 1 for the July bar exam).

Pass Rates

It takes approximately ten weeks to receive your Rhode Island bar exam scores. In order to pass the exam, you must receive a MBE score of 130 or more and a combined total score of 276 or more. Overall pass rates from previous Rhode Island bar exams are as follows (as posted by Multistate Edge):

• 2009: 74%
• 2008: 75%
• 2007: 75%
• 2006: 71%
• 2005: 65%
• 2004: 70%
• 2003: 62%
• 2002: 57%
• 2001: 74%
• 2000: 59%

Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE)

You must also pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) within two years of passing Rhode Island bar exam before Rhode Island bar admission will occur. You may apply online with the NCBE to take this test, offered in 2012 at the Community College of Rhode Island in Warwick.

Attorneys’ Exam

If you are already licensed as a lawyer in another US jurisdiction, and you have been actively practicing law full-time for five of the past ten years, you may qualify for the Rhode Island Attorneys’ Exam (also known as the Modified Bar Exam). You may be a graduate of a non-ABA approved law school if you have the proper amount of experience and still take the exam. It consists of three Rhode Island essay questions, one MPT question, and 6 MEE questions. You need not take the MPRE. For more information on applying for this exam, visit the Attorney on Admission page.

Non- Resident Attorneys

If you are licensed as an attorney in another US jurisdiction, you can request permission to appear in Rhode Island courts for up to three times in a five-year period without being licensed in Rhode Island. This is called pro hac vice admission.

If you are licensed as a lawyer in another US jurisdiction and employed by a corporation/business entity at an office in Rhode Island, you may register with the Rhode Island Supreme Court as “in- house counsel.” This allows you to practice law in Rhode Island only on behalf of that business entity. You may not appear before state courts, state agencies or municipalities in contested cases unless you are admitted pro hac vice.

Licensing and Admission to the Bar

Once you have passed the Rhode Island bar exam, you will be notified of the details of your bar admission ceremony.

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Great job! You are now licensed to practice law in the state of Rhode Island! Rhode Island has a Unified State Bar, meaning that membership in the Rhode Island Bar Association is mandatory to practice law. You will find that your membership has many benefits, including access to their online law library, an attorney-to-attorney information center, lawyer referral services, and much more.

As a new Rhode Island lawyer, you must complete a bar association-sponsored training course within your first year of admission, called Bridge the Gap. This program is offered as a biannual live seminar and is also made available online. It is a valuable resource to help you get started in the law profession in Rhode Island.

Where will you work now that you have been admitted to the Rhode Island bar? You could open your own law practice, join an existing law firm, or look for work as legal counsel within a company. Existing law firms throughout Rhode Island with recognizable names include business law firm Blais Cunningham & Crowe Chester, LLP in Pawtucket; multi-practice litigators Chisholm, Chisholm & Kilpatrick LTD in Providence; family law specialists Patriot Law Group in East Greenwich; family and employment law specialists Hoopis & Hoopis in Warwick; and the Law Offices of David B. Hathaway, bankruptcy law specialist, in Exeter and Warwick.

Two Fortune 500 companies make their home in Rhode Island and may be in need of legal help from time to time. They include pharmacy giant CVS Caremark in Woonsocket, and aerospace/defense company Textron in Providence.

Legal specialty certification

The Rhode Island Supreme Court licenses all lawyers in the general practice of law. It does not offer licensing or certification services for lawyers who wish to specialize in a field of law.  However, specializations are available within certain areas of the law if you possess the proper knowledge, experience and skill. The National Board of Legal Specialty Certification offers certification services for lawyers who wish to work in trial advocacy, social security disability, and civil pretrial advocacy. If interested, contact the Rhode Island coordinator, Mark Mandell, at (401) 273-8330 or msmandell@msn.com.

Requirements for maintaining license

In order to keep your law license active, you must complete a certain number of Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) credit hours per year. The Rhode Island Bar Association requires that all lawyers complete at least 10 hours MCLE annually, with at least two of those hours in ethics courses. For more information, contact the CLE department of the Bar Association at (401) 421-5740 or cle@ribar.com.

Court Systems in Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Judiciary state court system consists of the following courts: 

• Supreme Court-the state’s court of last resort, with appellate jurisdiction over questions of equity and law; supervising powers over state courts; and advisory responsibility about the constitutionality of laws.
• Superior Court- comprised of 22 judges and 5 magistrates, and hears civil and criminal trials in jury and non-jury cases. Has original jurisdiction in all felony cases, in civil cases over $10,000, and in equity cases. Has concurrent jurisdiction with District Court in civil cases between $5000 and $10,000. Superior Courts in Rhode Island are:
• Providence County Superior Court, Licht Judicial Complex, 250 Benefit St., Providence, RI 02903
• Kent County Superior Court, Noel Judicial Complex, 222 Quaker Lane, Warwick, RI 02886
• Washington County Superior Court, McGrath Judicial Complex, 4800 Tower Hill Rd, Wakefield, RI 02879
• Newport County Superior Court, Murray Judicial Complex, 45 Washington Square, Newport, RI 02840
• Family Court-Rhode Island’s Family Court was the first statewide Family Court in the U.S., established in 1961. It has offices in the county courthouses (listed above), and hears all cases concerning the welfare of children (such as custody and divorce), as well as jurisdiction over cases regarding delinquent, wayward, neglected, dependent or abused children.
• District Court- hears civil cases from $5000 to $10,000 in value, administrative appeals, criminal cases, landlord/tenant matters, and small claims cases (under $5000 in value). District Courts are located in:
• 2nd Division District Court –Murray Judicial Complex, Newport. Represents:
• Jamestown, Little Compton, Middletown, Newport, Portsmouth and Tiverton
• 3rd Division District Court – Noel Judicial Complex, Warwick. Represents:
• Coventry, Cranston, East Greenwich, Foster, Johnston, Glocester, Lincoln, North Kingstown, North Providence, North Smithfield, Scituate, Smithfield, Warwick, West Greenwich and West Warwick
• 4th Division District Court – McGrath Judicial Complex, Wakefield. Represents:
• Charlestown, Exeter, Hopkinton, Narragansett, New Shoreham, Richmond, South Kingstown and Westerly
• 6th Division District Court – Garrahy Judicial Complex, One Dorrance Plaza, Providence, RI 02903-2719. Represents:
• Barrington, Bristol, Burrillville, Central Falls, Cumberland, East Providence, Pawtucket, Providence, Warren and Woonsocket.
• Workers Compensation Court- hears all disputes between injured employees and employers over workers' compensation benefits. Located in Joseph Garrahy Judicial Complex, 1 Dorrance Plaza, Providence, RI  02903.
• Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal – has original jurisdiction over civil traffic offenses committed in Rhode Island, including breathalyzer refusals. It also authority over Department of Environmental Management offenses, and oversight responsibilities and concurrent jurisdiction with Municipal Courts for lesser traffic offenses. The Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal is located at 670 New London Avenue, Cranston, RI 02920; with a satellite location at Oliver Stedman Government Center, 4800 Tower Hill Road, Wakefield, RI 02879.

Elective membership organizations

Consider joining an elective membership association for lawyers representing your practice or specialty, a cause in which you are interested, or a demographic trait, such as:

• Rhode Island Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers
• Rhode Island Association for Justice
• Rhode Island Bar Association Volunteer Lawyer Program
• Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association

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