You should not call yourself an attorney. Instead, refer to yourself as a Provisional Licensee or a “Provisionally Licensed Attorney.” When signing documents, use “Provisional Licensee” and your Provisional License Number in your signature block. 

The work you do depends on your abilities, your Supervising Attorney's permission and the needs of the client. With your Supervising Attorney's consent and supervision, you can engage in a wide range of lawyering tasks, including preparing documents, taking depositions, drafting contracts, conducting client intake and negotiating. Documents you draft must be signed by your Supervising Attorney and include your name.  

Yes. If you participate in non-litigation activities without attorney supervision and the activity does not result in a legal document, a memorandum recording your activities must be kept in the matter's file.  

You can appear in court with the consent of the judge or presiding officer, the client and your supervising attorney, who must be present with you at the counsel table. You must explain the situation to the client, whose written consent must be filed with the court and become part of the record. Appearance is always subject to the judge or presiding officer's discretion. 

If the client is the state, state agency, or another government body, Provisional Licensees can appear in court without their Supervising Attorney if all the following conditions are met: 

If the client is not a government body, then the Provisional Licensee can appear in court without their Supervising Attorney if all the following conditions are met: 

Yes. You can begin counting time devoted to program activities as soon as you submit your application for the program. However, unless you hold an active Certified Student License, you may not engage in any legal work that constitutes the practice of law. 

No. Your employer must be willing to provide you at least 20 paid hours of work per week, but that does not mean you have to work 20 hours every week. You are, of course, allowed to take time off for vacations, important family commitments, illness, etc.  

Yes. You cannot work more than 40 hours of legal work each week, and you may not carry over excess hours to subsequent weeks. However, you can count additional hours devoted to program activities or employer-mandated training if those activities or training do not constitute legal work. Time spent fulfilling law school course requirements cannot be counted towards the required 675 hours. 

Yes, please track your hours for the program's entire duration.  

You will still need to complete a timesheet that follows SPPE requirements, rather than any rules established by your employer. If you have separate timekeeping records for your employer, be sure to eliminate names of matters, clients or other identifying information when transferring hours to your SPPE timesheet.

Entries should be detailed enough to give the admissions department a sense of your work, but do not have to be as detailed as billing records for private clients. You only need to record the total time for each task, rounding to the quarter hour. You may group together related tasks (such as client interviews and drafting motions) on the timesheet, as long as the blocks of time do not exceed five hours. If you spend more than five hours on a task, you will need to break it up into smaller entries.  

Redact all written work to protect your identity, that of your Supervising Attorney and employer, and all information that might identify the client or matter. To protect confidential and privileged information, you will not submit the negotiation or client interactions to BBX; you will submit only the documents prepared by you and your Supervising Attorney. Ensure that these documents include no information revealing your client's identity or disclosing confidences. Additionally, your Supervising Attorney will provide information enabling BBX to prevent examiners from seeing work related to a matter in which their organization represents an adverse party. Work you submit will not be shared outside BBX or the admissions department.  

Redact anything that would disclose confidential information, identifies an individual or organization, phone numbers or addresses, and most place names. Do not redact words by blacking them out. Instead, use generic words in brackets to replace redacted information. You can find sample redacted works here. 

You are required to obtain client consent to: 

If a document has not been filed publicly, written consent is not required, but it is good practice. If you conduct the negotiation or client interaction in writing, you do not need to obtain consent. A client consent form is available here. 

If a grader marks your work as “not qualified,” they will provide comments noting how you can improve to achieve a “qualified” rating. If the Grader scores your interaction as “qualified,” you probably will not receive further feedback. You can continue to submit work until you earn all the required qualified scores. 

Not necessarily. Several different examiners will assess your work over time, providing different perspectives. Provisional Licensees will work in so many practice areas that it would be impossible to assign all submitted work to examiners with knowledge of that area. All competent legal work shares common characteristics, which are reflected in the rubrics. Examiners will use the expertise of your supervising attorney and will check authorities cited in your document. 

Yes, as long as you began that work after you graduated from law school and submitted your SPPE application (whichever is later).

How can l tell if a written work addresses a “substantive aspect” of a legal matter?

Most documents addressing substantive aspects of a legal matter include:

For transactional documents, like leases or contracts, you will need to explain the legal issues, the applicable rule of law and your application of that rule in your cover sheet. Each submitted writing must constitute a separate piece of work and must address at least one legal issue that differs from the other submitted writings. For more information, see the examiner rubrics. 

No, as long as the citation format is consistent and appropriate for the work product's intended audience.

Explain the document's intended purpose and audience, as well as any issues you intentionally did not address in the document. You may need to explain other issues that have already been addressed with the client, particularly if the document is part of a larger process. For contracts, leases and other documents with the force of law, explain the facts, issues, and strategies underlying the transactional document.

If the document addresses more than three legal issues, list the three most important ones that you have not addressed in previous documents.

You can identify a wide range of research strategies, such as searching the issue on Google, discussing it with attorneys in your firm, or reviewing secondary sources on Westlaw, Lexis or OSB's Bar Books. Mention if you were already familiar with all the needed facts, or if you needed to confirm facts or uncover new ones. If you can't think of any research strategies, that may signal the work product is not appropriate to submit to your portfolio.

The negotiation should involve some interaction between you and your opposing counsel. Look for negotiations that will allow you to demonstrate your competence on most or all the criteria on the negotiation rubric.  

The interaction can be an initial interview with a client, where you cover introductory matters, learn about the client's concerns and offers some initial feedback, or a subsequent interaction, where you discusses options with the client, explore any changes in circumstance or goals and help the client choose next steps. If you work as a prosecutor, you may use a discussion with a complainant to meet this requirement. The interaction should include substantive discussion of the client's (or complainant's) matter. Choose an interaction for which your Supervising Attorney can assess you on most of the criteria on their rubric. 

No. They can occur in person, by telephone, by video, in writing or in any other manner. Just be sure that your Supervising Attorney or their delegate can assess your interaction. 

Your Supervising Attorney or another attorney may participate, but you should be the one taking the lead. Remember that you don't have to document your first negotiations or client interactions for the SPPE. You can learn and grow with feedback from other attorneys until you feel comfortable taking the lead. 

Be as candid and complete as possible without revealing the identity of your client or details of their matter. Describe any special circumstances or unique challenges. Don't be afraid to identify challenging aspects, goals you were unable to meet or ways in which you would prepare differently for in the future. 

Negotiation occurs in all types of law practice and addressing client problems is the essence of law practice. It is important for any attorney to understand these skills and processes. 

No. The Supervising Attorney's rubric focuses on basic components of any negotiation, such as avoiding misrepresentations of material facts, remaining within the bounds of client authority and articulating your position. You will also have an opportunity to explain your negotiation approach on the cover sheet you complete after the negotiation.  

No. Graders understand that some positions are difficult to advance and that some opposing parties resist compromise. 

Yes, as long as your Supervising Attorney is able to assess your performance on most of the rubric criteria. You do not need to submit standardized intake forms to BBX. 

Even if your assigned work does not include negotiations or client interaction, it may be possible for you to participate in other matters handled by your organization. Provisional Licensees who work for a business or government agency may serve other members of their organization who are “clients” for their legal advice. You may be able to take on a pro bono matter under the supervision of your Supervising Attorney or their delegate. If these options are not feasible, you will be able to participate in a simulation arranged by the Admissions Department. Note, however, that these simulations will be available on a limited basis. They may also require you to gain some familiarity with practice areas other than the one in which you are working.