AZ rule helps lawyers in military families
Mar 5, 2014, 5:00 AM | Updated: 8:24 am
No longer will lawyers married to a military member have to choose between their career and their married life.
At least not in Arizona.
It’s about where you’re licensed to practice law, and then where your military spouse could be moved.
Military spouse Rachel Winkler has special insight on the change in policy.
“When we got married and my husband was stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia and I passed the bar in Arizona, there weren’t opportunities in Georgia that I could take advantage of, without having to take another bar exam in that state,” said Winkler.
That bar exam could cost thousands of dollars, months of study and time for your application to process. And all of that may go to waste if one’s spouse is re-stationed by the time the application is approved.
“So it’s not ideal right?” she said. “You get married and you’re newlyweds and you really excited to live together and you don’t.”
Winkler is part of the 900-member Military Spouse JD Network, which got a rule passed last year that allows military spouses to temporarily practice law in Arizona, if they’ve already passed the bar elsewhere.
Arizona is one of only six states that have adopted the rule, called Rule 38i. On average, a military family is relocated every two to three years.
Military Spouse JD Network: http://www.msjdn.org/
