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 .2000 - RULES OF THE BOARD OF LEGAL SPECIALIZATION FOR APPROVAL OF INDEPENDENT CERTIFYING ORGANIZATIONS › Section 01D .2004 - STANDARDS FOR APPROVAL OF CERTIFYING ORGANIZATIONS

Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 2, July 15, 2024
The following standards are to be considered by the board
					 in evaluating an application for approval of a certifying organization.
(1) Uniform Applicability of Certification
				  Standards - In general, the standards for certification in any specialty field
				  must be understandable and easily applied to individual applicants.
				  Certification by the organization must be available to any attorney who meets
				  the standards, and the organization must not certify an attorney who has not
				  demonstrably met each standard. The organization must agree to promptly inform
				  the board of any material changes in its standards, definitions of specialty
				  fields or certifying procedures and must further agree to respond promptly to
				  any reasonable requests for information from the board.
(2) Definitions of Specialty Fields - Every
				  field of law in which certification is offered must be susceptible of
				  meaningful definition and be an area in which North Carolina lawyers regularly
				  practice.
(3) Decision Making by
				  Recognized Experts - The persons in a certifying organization making decisions
				  regarding applicants shall include lawyers who, in the judgment of the board,
				  are experts in the subject areas of practice and who each have extensive
				  practice or involvement in those areas of practice.
(4) Certification Standards - A certifying
				  organization's standards for certification of specialists must include, as a
				  minimum, the standards required for certification set out in the North Carolina
				  Plan of Legal Specialization (Section .1700 of this subchapter) and in the
				  rules, regulations and standards adopted by the board from time to time. Such
				  standards shall not unlawfully discriminate against any lawyer properly
				  qualified for certification as a specialist, but shall provide a reasonable
				  basis for a determination that an applicant possesses special competence in a
				  particular field of law, as demonstrated by the following means:
(a) Substantial Involvement - Substantial
				  involvement in the area of specialty during the five-year period immediately
				  preceding application to the certifying agency. Substantial involvement is
				  generally measured by the amount of time spent practicing in the area of
				  specialty. In no event may the time spent in practicing the specialty be less
				  than 25 percent of the total practice of a lawyer engaged in a normal full-time
				  practice;
(b) Peer Review - Peer
				  recommendations from attorneys or judges who are familiar with the competence
				  of the applicant in the area of specialty, none of whom are related to, engaged
				  in legal practice with, or involved in continuing commercial relationships with
				  the lawyer;
(c) Written Examination
				  - Objective evaluation of the applicant's knowledge of the substantive and
				  procedural law in the area of specialty as determined by written
				  examination;
(d) Continuing Legal
				  Education - At least 36 hours of approved continuing legal education credit in
				  the area of specialty during the three years immediately preceding application
				  to the certifying organization.