North Carolina Administrative Code › Title 27 - STATE BAR › Chapter 01 - RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE BAR › Subchapter D - RULES OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES OF THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE BAR › Section .1700 - THE PLAN OF LEGAL SPECIALIZATION › Section 01D .1720 - MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR CERTIFICATION OF SPECIALISTS

Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 2, July 15, 2024
(a) To
				  qualify for certification as a specialist, a lawyer applicant must pay any
				  required fee, comply with the following minimum standards, and meet any other
				  standards established by the board for the particular area of specialty.
(1) The applicant must be licensed in a
				  jurisdiction of the United States for at least five years immediately preceding
				  his or her application and must be licensed in North Carolina for at least
				  three years immediately preceding his or her application. The applicant must be
				  currently in good standing to practice law in this state and the applicant's
				  disciplinary record with the courts, the North Carolina State Bar, and any
				  other government licensing agency must support qualification in the
				  specialty.
(2) The applicant must
				  make a satisfactory showing according to objective and verifiable standards, as
				  determined by the board after advice from the appropriate specialty committee,
				  of substantial involvement in the specialty during the five calendar years
				  immediately preceding the calendar year of application. Such substantial
				  involvement shall be defined as to each specialty from a consideration of its
				  nature, complexity, and differences from other fields and from consideration of
				  the kind and extent of effort and experience necessary to demonstrate
				  competence in that specialty. It is a measurement of actual experience within
				  the particular specialty according to any of several standards. It may be
				  measured by the time spent on legal work within the areas of the specialty, the
				  number or type of matters handled within a certain period of time or any
				  combination of these or other appropriate factors. However, within each
				  specialty, experience requirements should be measured by objective standards.
				  In no event should they be either so restrictive as to unduly limit
				  certification of lawyers as specialists or so lax as to make the requirement of
				  substantial involvement meaningless as a criterion of competence. Substantial
				  involvement may vary from specialty to specialty, but, if measured on a
				  time-spent basis, in no event shall the time spent in practice in the specialty
				  be less than 25 percent of the total practice of a lawyer engaged in a normal
				  full-time practice. Reasonable and uniform practice equivalents may be
				  established including, but not limited to, successful pursuit of an advance
				  educational degree, teaching, judicial, government, or corporate legal
				  experience.
(3) The applicant must
				  make a satisfactory showing, as determined by the board after advice from the
				  appropriate specialty committee, of continuing legal education in the specialty
				  accredited by the board for the specialty, the minimum being an average of 12
				  hours of credit for continuing legal education, or its equivalent, for each of
				  the three calendar years immediately preceding application. Upon establishment
				  of a new specialty, this standard may be satisfied in such manner as the board,
				  upon advice from the appropriate specialty committee, may prescribe or may be
				  waived if, and to the extent, accreditable continuing legal education courses
				  have not been available during the three years immediately preceding
				  establishment of the specialty.
(4)
				  The applicant must make a satisfactory showing, as determined by the board
				  after advice from the appropriate specialty committee, of qualification in the
				  specialty through peer review. The applicant must provide, as references, the
				  names of at least ten lawyers, all of whom are licensed and currently in good
				  standing to practice law in this state, or in any state, or judges, who are
				  familiar with the competence and qualification of the applicant as a
				  specialist. None of the references may be persons related to the applicant or,
				  at the time of application, a partner of or otherwise associated with the
				  applicant in the practice of law. The applicant by his or her application
				  consents to confidential inquiry by the board or appropriate disciplinary body
				  and other persons regarding the applicant's competence and qualifications to be
				  certified as a specialist. An applicant must receive a minimum of five
				  favorable peer reviews to be considered by the board for compliance with this
				  standard.
(A) Each specialty committee shall
				  evaluate the information provided by an applicant's references to make a
				  recommendation to the board as to the applicant's qualification in the
				  specialty through peer review. The evaluation shall include a determination of
				  the weight to be given to each peer review and shall take into consideration a
				  reference's years of practice, primary practice areas and experience in the
				  specialty, and the context in which a reference knows the applicant.
(5) The applicant must achieve a
				  satisfactory score on a written examination designed to test the applicant's
				  knowledge and ability in the specialty for which certification is applied. The
				  examination must be applied uniformly to all applicants within each specialty
				  area. The board shall assure that the contents and grading of the examination
				  are designed to produce a uniform level of competence among the various
				  specialties.