Staley

Upon the application of the petitioner, who failed to pass the bar examination held in 1939, this court issued an alternative writ of mandate requiring the Committee of Bar Examiners and The State Bar to show cause why he should not be admitted to practice law in this state. He charges that although he passed the examination with a higher grade than 70 per cent, the board “arbitrarily and capriciously” reduced this to below a passing mark and refused to certify his name for admission to the bar.

In support of his charge against the committee, the petitioner alleges that he “successfully completed the law course” of the University of Michigan in 1914, and also “successfully completed” a post graduate course in legal instruction at Southwestern University, Los Angeles. He also states, generally, that he has the legal learning and ability of the average candidate who successfully passes the bar examination of the State of California. More specifically, he alleges that he has been a commissioned officer in the armed forces of the United States and studied and passed the subject of military law, and that he has practiced before the Industrial Accident Commission with great…

I dissent.

Section 6060 of the Business and Professions Code contains various provisions which relate to the qualifications necessary to be possessed by applicants for admission to practice law in this state, which provisions, among others, include the following requirements: That such applicants shall “Before beginning the study of law, have completed at least two years of college work or have reached the age of twenty-five years”; shall have either “Graduated from a law school accredited by the examining committee requiring substantially the full time of its students for three years . . . ; Graduated from a law school accredited by the examining committee requiring a part only of its students’ time for four years . . . ; Studied law diligently and in good faith for at least four years . . . ; [and] Have passed a final bar examination given by the examining committee”.

The sub-title to section 6066 of the same code is “Appeal to Supreme Court”. The language of that section is as follows: “Any person refused certification to the Supreme Court for admission to practice may have the action of the board, or of any committee authorized by the board to make a determination on its…