This column explores the interrelationship between law technology and ethics. Nowhere is this intersection more timely, controversial and thought-provoking than in the issue of and the rules that govern admission to the bar. Students graduating from law school generally are limited by the calendar to taking two bar examinations after graduation. In this region, law school graduates typically take the Pennsylvania and New Jersey exams. Further north, they take the New Jersey and New York exams. This pattern repeats itself throughout the country.

The problem, however, is that by arbitrarily limiting applicants to two states' examinations at one sitting, the bar admission authorities are in effect using the calendar to restrict the number of people who apply for admission to the bar and, consequently, become licensed as attorneys in any given state. This is in addition to the fact that certain states where individuals may want to retire at some point have lower passage rates, which most people believe are designed in part to discourage applicants.

This problem was highlighted by the recent decision of U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in National Association for the Advancement of Multijurisdictional Practice v. Castille, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 171341 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 11, 2014). McHugh ruled that Pennsylvania Bar Admission Rule 204 is constitutional. Rule 204 allows lawyers licensed in other states to be admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania without taking the bar exam, provided that they are licensed in a state with reciprocity with Pennsylvania and the lawyer meets certain other admission requirements. In other words, if a lawyer has passed the bar exam in a state with reciprocity with Pennsylvania, she may be admitted by motion. She may not be admitted by motion, however, if she took the bar exam in a state without reciprocity or if she took the bar exam in a state without reciprocity and then waived into a state with reciprocity—because she had not taken the bar exam in any state with reciprocity with Pennsylvania.