Teresa Rosen Peacocke and Alex Haines on dual qualification and the New York Bar

Teresa Rosen Peacocke and Alex Haines have authored an article in the September issue of Counsel Magazine on the advantages of dual qualification and a guide to qualifying for the New York Bar.

Teresa explores the benefits of becoming an attorney in the United States, particularly in New York State, where most cross-border legal business is conducted. Teresa qualified as an attorney in New York 20 years after her call to the Bar of England and Wales after completing an LLM at New York University School of Law. Teresa explains that dual qualification enables the practitioner to understand and appreciate different approaches to resolving legal issues and, in turn, to become more flexible in providing legal services. It also enhances your understanding of the needs and expectations of clients, especially those who are foreign based. It can vastly expand a practitioner’s potential client base, and the range of their competence.

Teresa goes on to explore the immediate problem facing newly qualified New York attorneys – obtaining practical professional experience in their chosen area of law. Teresa explores how to resolve this issue, through seeking employment as associates with established firms, internships or secondments, or flexible employment combined with English work.

Teresa explains how she limited her foreign practice to areas that directly concern cross-border issues and how she focused on contentious business and advocacy, in particular involving jurisdiction and discovery.

Alex explains how the New York Bar qualification works in practice, the New York Bar exam format, how long it takes, and what order to take it in, especially since the 2015 and 2016 changes. Alex provides insight on the Uniform Bar Exam, the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, the New York Law Course and New York Law Exam. Alex also explains the Pro bono service and skills competency requirements.

The Article

The full article can be read here. 

Find out more

Teresa Rosen Peacocke is an American, called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1982 and admitted as an attorney in New York in 2004. She practises in London and New York, and appears pro hac vice in other US courts.

Alex Haines, called to the English and Welsh Bar in 2007, the New York Bar in 2019 and the Irish Bar in 2020, is a specialist in international law, commercial crime and regulation, and sanctions and appears before international tribunals and boards. To find out more, contact Sam Carter on +44 (0)203 989 6669 or Colin Bunyan on +44 (0)20 7427 4886.

Commercial, News 8 Sep, 2021