Court Opinion

ID: 9692670
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:00:04.741233+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:35.909478
License: Public Domain

POPOVICH, C.J.
(concurring specially).
I concur with the results reached by the majority granting the petition of Milton Welsh Schober and remanding the petition of Paul Dolan to the Board of Law Examiners. In my opinion the remand should be limited to a review of Dolan’s character and fitness only, and not the purpose of evaluating whether the University of West Los Angeles School of Law might or might not be eligible for ABA accreditation or the reason it never applied.
Dolan passed the California bar examination in 1977, Hawaii in 1984; was duly admitted to the bars of California, Hawaii, Hawaii Federal Court and the United States Supreme Court; and has had over 12 years of extensive legal practice. This should be sufficient for a waiver of graduation from an ABA-accredited law school. If 33 years of practice is sufficient for Schober to be admitted to the Minnesota bar, even though he is not a graduate of an ABA-accredited institution, should not a lesser period be sufficient to qualify Dolan or others? It seems to me 10 years of active successful legal practice is a realistic period to qualify for a waiver of the Minnesota ABA graduation requirement. Once we waive the requirements for Schober, fairness and equity would require a waiver for those who have practiced a lesser period of time.
*560I agree with the dissents of Justices Yetka and Otis in In re Hansen, 275 N.W.2d 790, 799-800 (Minn.1978), and of Justices Yetka, Simonett and Otis in In re Busch, 313 N.W.2d 419, 422 (Minn.1981), holding that the facts in each of those cases would have justified the waiver of the Minnesota requirement that an applicant for admission in Minnesota must graduate from an ABA-accredited law school. Subject to a character and fitness review, the factors relating to Dolan would justify the same waiver granted Schober.