DOJ sues New Mexico Supreme Court, bar examiners board over refusal to admit military spouse
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the New Mexico Supreme Court and the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners over alleged violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which grants service members and military spouses portability of their professional licenses. (Image from Shutterstock)
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the New Mexico Supreme Court and the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners over alleged violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which grants service members and military spouses portability of their professional licenses.
In the June 11 complaint, the DOJ accused the New Mexico Supreme Court and the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners of engaging “in a pattern or practice of violating the SCRA by refusing to recognize as valid the out-of-state law licenses of qualifying service members and military spouses.” The DOJ also said the defendants undermined the statute’s purpose of supporting “military readiness and the national defense.”
The case arose after the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners told Liam Lees, a military spouse, that he was ineligible to practice as an attorney in the state because he has only an LLM (a master of laws degree) and not a JD or an LLB (a bachelor of laws and letters degree), the complaint said. Lees received his initial legal education in the United Kingdom and received his LLM from the William and Mary Law School in 2024.
Lees is already licensed to practice in Texas, Washington and Maryland, and he is in good standing in all three jurisdictions, the complaint said.
In 2024, Lees’ wife, U.S. Air Force Maj. Kaitlyn Shaughnessy, was transferred to the Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, the complaint said. After relocating with his family, Lees received an offer to work as a trial attorney with the Las Cruces district attorney’s office in New Mexico.
After Lees was deemed ineligible by the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners, he filed a petition with the New Mexico Supreme Court seeking a waiver to the requirement that he have a JD or an LLB, the complaint said. In April 2025, the state supreme court denied his petition.
During the ongoing dispute, Lees argued that as a holder of a covered license, he qualified for license portability under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, the complaint said. But the New Mexico Supreme Court and the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners “failed and refused to recognize Mr. Lees’ covered licenses as valid to practice law in the state of New Mexico,” the complaint also said.
“Upon information and belief, since Dec. 23, 2024, defendants may have also failed and refused to recognize the covered law licenses of other service members and military spouses as valid to practice law in the state of New Mexico,” according to the complaint.
Mark Baker, an attorney representing the New Mexico Supreme Court, told Law.com that the DOJ in this case “unreasonably seeks to dictate who is qualified to practice law in New Mexico, encroaching on the role that is generally reserved to the state.”
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