Law Grad Passes NH Bar on 8th Try, Then Is Denied License on Character & Fitness Grounds
The eighth time was the charm for an applicant who failed the New Hampshire bar seven times from 1991 to 2007 before finally passing in 2008.
But when it came time for the character and fitness interview, G.W. was found wanting, reports the Legal Profession Blog.
In addition to concerns about criminal charges and a lack of candor, the Committee on Character and Fitness was not positively impressed either with the applicant’s $140,000 in outstanding student loans or that he apparently had been largely unemployed for nearly 20 years, explains an opinion (PDF) issued today.
He didn’t enjoy a brief gig as a bartender, G.W. told the committee, and felt the job “was beneath me.”
And, as far as paying off his student loans was concerned, “if I owed a measly $30,000, that’s an amount of money that certainly could be paid off with a, you know, $10-an-hour job or something of that nature,” he said. “But because there’s $120,000 worth of interest on that $30,000 principal, realistically, I need a good job in order to pay that off.
“And I was trained to practice law; I wasn’t trained to do anything else. And I have no desire to do anything else at this point.”
