These questions are printed on blank forms, with space for the answers. The verification required is that the applicant "being duly sworn, says: I have read the foregoing questions and have answered the same in my own handwriting fully and frankly. The answers subscribed by me are true of my own knowledge." Inasmuch as these questions and answers furnish the basis for the preliminary investigation of the character of the candidate, it may be instructive to set forth the questions in full:

1. Give your full name, age, residence and birth place. If born in a foreign country, at what age did you come to the United States? If naturalized, state when and where.

2. Have you always resided in the City of New York? If not, state where and when you resided elsewhere.

3. State the names, residence and occupation of your parents. 4. State all the schools you have attended and between what dates.

5. Did you attend college? If so, state what colleges and when, specifying dates. What degrees, if any, have you received?

6. Did you attend a law school? If so, state what school and when, specifying dates. What degrees in law, if any, have you received?

7. Have you been employed in, or studied law in, a law office? If so, give a full list of such offices and state the period, specifying dates and nature of your employment or study in each. State specifically the office of the practising attorney in which you have served a clerkship for one year continuously, either before examination by the State Board of Law Examiners or after such examination and prior to your application, as required by Rule III of the Rules of the Court of Appeals for the Admission of Attorneys and Counselors-at-Law.

8. Have you ever applied for admission to practice as an attorney or counselor in any court in any other state or country? If so, specify when and where; whether you were admittted to the Bar, and if so, how long and where you practiced.

9. Have you ever applied for admission to the Bar of the State of New York in any department other than the First? If so, where, when, and with what result?

10. Have you ever been employed in any occupation, business or profession other than the law? If so, when and where? State fully the names and addresses of all your employers, the positions you have occupied and the period of such employment, specifying dates. Are such employers willing to appear before the committee on your behalf? Have you ever been engaged in any business or profession on your own account? If so, state in detail the nature thereof, the time during which you were so engaged, where the business was located, and what became of it.

11. Have you ever been a party to or otherwise involved in any legal proceeding? Have you ever testified in any legal proceeding? If so, state facts fully.

12. Give the names and addresses of the persons to whom you refer as to your character and state how long you have known each.

13. State fully the various reasons for your desire to adopt the practice of the law as a profession.

14. State in a general way your plans for the future in the legal profession.

The answers to these questions, duly verified, together with the affidavits of practising attorneys as to the character of the applicant, are delivered to the Chairman of the committee, and then begins the preliminary investigation of the candidate's moral qualifications. If any questions are not fully answered, the applicant is notified and is required to supply the omission, and, of course, re-swear to his verification. Whenever an affidavit of an attorney, submitted in behalf of any applicant, is not definite as to facts or is otherwise unsatisfactory, the applicant is required to submit an additional affidavit or affidavits by the same or other attorneys. A very common fault of affidavits of sponsors is that they state conclusions without sufficient facts on which the conclusions are based. The committee is very insistent that the facts upon which an attorney bases his belief that the applicant is a person of good moral character shall be set forth. The committee must be apprised of facts sufficient to enable it to form its own conclusions upon that subject and will not accept the mere conclusions of others. It is required that one or more affidavits in behalf of each applicant shall be based on more than a mere office acquaintance between the sponsor and the applicant. The committee insists upon knowing something of the demeanor and habits of the applicant outside of business hours.

The published notice to applicants to file their papers, which has been mentioned, requests that affidavits of attorneys personally known to some member of the committee, be furnished. This is an additional safeguard which the committee requires, except in those cases where compliance is impossible. When such affidavits cannot be had, other precautions are adopted. Information is sought as to the standing and repute of the attorneys whose affidavits are offered, and frequently an affidavit or letter in behalf of the candidate from a teacher or minister, or some other

person of known integrity, having a personal acquaintance with the candidate, is required.

The applicant's answers to the questions frequently suggest matters for inquiry. The answer to question No. 11 as to what, if any, legal proceedings the candidate has been a party to, frequently requires further investigation. For example, if a judgment has been taken against the candidate in an action for debt, the committee inquires why the debt was not paid, whether an answer verified by the candidate was interposed, and what testimony, if any, he gave in the action. If the candidate's connection with any litigation is not satisfactorily explained, it is the usual practice to send for the attorney who represented the other side and obtain his version.

Certain questions, it will be observed, are designed to open for the committee avenues of inquiry and investigation. By question No. 7 the applicant is required to give a full list of the law offices in which he has studied or been employed. Question No. 10 requires him to state the names of all employers in occupations other than the law, and question No. 12 calls for the names and addresses of the persons to which the applicant refers as to his character. In all cases in which the character of the applicant appears to be at all doubtful, inquiries are made of the persons to whom he refers and of his former employers. The extent to which the investigation is carried depends, of course, upon the particular features of each case. But any suspicious circumstance leads to a searching inquiry. If the candidate presents a long list of employers, the committee seeks information of the occasion for such frequent changes of employment. The committee closely scrutinizes the professional environment and associations of the candidate. If he has been employed or has served an apprenticeship in a law office of bad or questionable repute, this fact counts against him, and while, of course, not necessarily discrediting his character, places a heavier burden of proof upon him and calls for searching inquiry and extra precautions.

In all cases it is recognized that there is no presumption in favor of the applicant. He has the burden of satisfying the committee of his moral qualifications. While there may be a legal presumption that all persons are of good character, it cannot properly be invoked in favor of a person seeking to exercise the

special privileges of an attorney at law. To recognize such a presumption would be almost as unwise as to substitute for a Bar examination the presumption that all persons know the law.

It is often desirable that a committee on character have at its call the assistance of certain other committees that will conduct investigations and submit reports in special cases. If, for example, a considerable number of candidates receive their training at a certain institution, a committee appointed by the faculty or alumni, to which can be referred inquiries concerning the former students of that institution, may be of valuable assistance. In the City of New York, Columbia University and the New York University Law School maintain such committees, and their services are frequently bespoken. A committee of the New York County Lawyers Association, upon request, also conducts investigations concerning candidates generally and submits reports of the facts ascertained.

Our committee also utilizes extensively the services of a special officer of the Appellate Division, who is assigned by the Court to this work. This officer, under the direction of the committee, locates witnesses whom it wishes to examine, and ascertains facts which it deems material in passing upon the moral qualifications of candidates. The committee has power to compel the attendance of witnesses before it, and no committee on character should be without that power.

A complaint is sometimes preferred against a candidate by an attorney or other person who knows of his pending application for admission to the Bar. One of the purposes of the published notice, which has been mentioned, is to apprise the profession and the public generally of the pending applications of candidates, so that anyone having knowledge of reasons why any candidate should be investigated or rejected may furnish the committee with the facts. Whenever a moral delinquency on the part of the candidate has been brought to the attention of the Committee, a thorough investigation is conducted.

The rule requiring that the committee be satisfied of the good moral character of the applicant is in no measure relaxed in the case of attorneys applying for admission on the ground of prior practice in sister states, as permitted by our rules. Affidavits as to good character must be furnished, and in addition the com

mittee usually addresses inquiries to attorneys of prominence in the state or city from which the applicant comes.

The investigations which have so far been described are properly termed preliminary. At a subsequent time the entire class of applicants is required to attend before the Committee on Character, assembled in its rooms in the Appellate Division Building. Of course, investigations and inquiries cannot be postponed until that time. The endeavor of the committee is to gather such information and make such investigations as it believes to be needful, prior to the meeting of the committee when the qualifications of candidates are finally passed upon. Manifestly this work could not be deferred until the committee assembles for the final meeting. By examining and correcting the papers of applicants and by making investigations of all doubtful cases in advance, the committee is able to know about what its labors at the final meeting will be. By this means probably a majority of the candidates, prior to that meeting, stand practically approved; others, perhaps, are in a more doubtful category and must be subjected to close examination upon appearing before the committee, while others, against whom charges have been made, must be tried upon the charges.

Applicants are advised by publication as to the day on which they are required to appear before the committee at the final meeting.

At this meeting the applicants are called before the committee, one at a time, in the order in which their names, according to alphabetical arrangement, appear, and questions bearing upon their qualifications are asked by the various members of the committee. A vote of the committee is taken on each applicant, and, of course, the majority controls.

In cases in which serious questions have arisen as to the applicant's moral character, witnesses are examined for and against the applicant, and he has the privilege of being represented by counsel. A person making charges against an applicant may also be represented by counsel. A hearing with all the formalities of a trial is had, and a decision reached as to the guilt or innocence of the applicant, by the committee sitting as triers of the facts. If actual wrongdoing on the part of the applicant be established, the nature of the offense together with any circumstances