Law license portability granted to military members and attorney spouses by DOJ
Members of the military and their spouses who are licensed attorneys in one state can now practice anywhere in the country, according to a December update issued by the U.S. Department of Justice to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
State bars don’t always recognize an attorney’s licensure from another jurisdiction. While active duty or reserve military members working on behalf of the government can practice anywhere in the country—as long as they are admitted to the bar in at least one jurisdiction—the December update makes that official. As such, the changes mostly impact military spouses with JDs who are not in the service, says retired U.S. Air Force Col. Linda Strite Murnane, a past chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Armed Forces Law.
Military spousal unemployment is around 20%—much higher than the national average of 4.4%, according to a Dec. 22 notification letter to state bars and court systems from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Linda Strite Murnane is a past chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Armed Forces Law. (Photo by Emma Burcusel)
The Military Spouse JD Network’s 2025 survey found that 90% of the 201 military spouse attorney respondents agreed that their partner’s military career has impacted their ability to progress in the legal profession, and that almost 25% had to take additional bar exams to be admitted to multiple jurisdictions.
Most military members move every two to three years with notifications for new assignments often coming in spring for a summer move, says Samantha Arrington Sliney, a member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel.
“At that point, I probably already missed the deadline for the July bar in the new state, so I’d have to sit for the February bar,” she says, noting that sometimes bar results might come just a few months before being notified of another transfer to a different jurisdiction.
With the latest DOJ update, if a member of the military or their spouse has a law license and moves to a state where it is not valid, they now can apply for that new state’s license. An FAQ form notes that a temporary license can be offered until a background check clears.
The ABA has long supported portable licenses for military spouses, adopting resolutions in 2012, 2023 and 2024 that urge state licensing authorities to accommodate the unique needs of military spouse attorneys by offering license portability and reduced bar application and membership fees.
Recently, some states, such as California, initiated processes for military spouses to apply for either a permanent or a temporary authorization to practice law without taking the bar exam, resulting in mish-mash of regulations, Sliney says.
Samantha Arrington Sliney is a member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel.
North Carolina, for instance offers a permanent military spouse license, while Georgia only offers temporary licenses that become invalid once the family moves.
But in Virginia, “essentially you had to have a Virginia-barred attorney escort you to every single court hearing. You could not appear on your own,” says Sliney, the Military Spouse JD Network’s policy and advocacy committee chair. “No one is going to give an attorney a job where you’re having to take two attorneys do the job.”
The Military Spouse JD Network’s survey found that more than half of respondents reported that they lived separately from their service member to maintain their legal career through the frequent moves.
“Service members and their spouses often sacrifice the stability of settling in one place during a critical time in their career,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, in a statement. “The department is steadfast in its commitment to ensuring that service members and their spouses do not face unreasonable barriers to continuing their careers while they uproot their lives in service to our country.”
In January 2023, Congress added a broad professional license portability to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, but it had excluded law licenses, according to the statement. The December update removes that.
Still, there is still work to be done at the state level, Murnane says.
“Lest you think that it’s all roses now, I have a guy that I’m working who is in New Mexico,” she says. “He’s commuting from Holloman Air Force Base to Texas to practice law because his military spouse is stationed in New Mexico, and New Mexico is staunchly, staunchly standing in opposition to granting him a military spouse portability license—and that’s as of yesterday.”
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