United States District Court - Northern District of Illinois

General Rules

General Rules 3.00 To 3.09 Rules Relating To Admission To Practice

Rule 3.00 Qualifications For Admission To Practice (as amended 3 July 1997)

A. Admission to the Bar

An applicant for admission to the bar of this Court must be a member in good standing of the bar of the highest court of any state of the United States or of the District of Columbia.

B. Admission to the Trial Bar

(1) General admission: An applicant for general admission to the trial bar of this Court must (a) be a member in good standing of the bar of this Court and (b) provide evidence of having the required trial experience as defined in part C(8) of this Rule.

(2) Limited admission -- government attorneys: An attorney representing the United States, a state or local government or an agency of any of those governments who does not qualify for admission to the bar of this Court may be admitted to the trial bar for the sole purpose of representing such government or agency in the attorney's official capacity provided that the attorney (a) is a member in good standing of the bar of the highest court in any state and (b) provides evidence to the court of having the required trial experience as defined in part C(8) of this Rule.

C. Definitions

(1) Testimonial proceedings:

(a) Testimonial proceedings must meet all of the following criteria:

(i) they are evidentiary proceedings in which all testimony is given under oath and a record is made of the testimony;

(ii) the witness or witnesses are subject to crossexamination;

(iii) a presiding officer is present;

(iv) the parties to such proceedings are generally represented by attorneys; and

(v) where a proceeding was held before an administrative agency, the findings and determinations of the agency are based upon the proceeding and are reviewable for sufficiency of evidence by a court of record.

(b) Procedures limited to taking the deposition of a witness do not constitute testimonial proceedings for the purposes of this Rule.

(2) Qualifying trials:

(a) A qualifying trial must meet the following criteria:

(i) it lasts at least one day;

(ii) it must be a trial or hearing involving substantial testimonial proceedings going to the merits; and

(iii) it must be before one of the courts specified in (b) below.

(b) Trials or hearings meeting criteria (a) (i) and (ii) above are qualifying trials if held in open court before a judge or magistrate of a United States district court, a judge of a United States Bankruptcy Court, a judge of the United States Tax Court, or a judge of a trial court of record of a state, the District of Columbia, a territory of the United States, or any administrative law judge.

(3) Participation unit: A person is credited with two participation units for each qualifying trial in which the person participates as the lead counsel or the assistant to the lead counsel. Where a qualifying trial lasts more than seven days, the person is credited with one additional participation unit for each three full days of trial in excess of the first seven days. A maximum of four participation units can be credited for one trial.

(4) Observation unit: An attorney is credited with one observation unit for each qualifying trial the attorney observes which is supervised by a supervising attorney who consults with the observer about the trial. At the time of the observation the supervising attorney must either (a) be a member of the trial bar of this Court or (b) have previous trial experience of at least four participation units.

(5) Simulation unit: A person is credited with two simulation units when, as part of a law school or legal education course, that person satisfactorily participates in a trial advocacy program in which the focus is experiential, as contrasted to lecture, in accordance with such regulations as the District Admissions Committee may adopt to verify the quality of the program and the satisfactory completion thereof by the applicant.

(6) Training unit of district Court: A person will be credited with a training unit when that person participates in a training seminar officially sanctioned by the Court.

(7) Qualifying units of trial experience: Participation units, observation units, simulation units and training units, as defined in this Rule, are qualifying units of trial experience.

(8) Required trial experience: Required trial experience consists of four qualifying units of trial experience.

(NOTE:

See Regulations promulgated by the District Admissions Committee for additional material relating to admissions. The Regulations are located in the Appendix to the local Rules.)