Switching jursidictions post-clerkship - which state bar to apply to?
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2025 11:48 pm
My girlfriend and I summered at NYC BL firms and took the bar in NY. We are now pivoting to Texas (ideally Dallas, maybe Houston) for mostly CoL reasons after our federal clerkships. We both have floating offers from our NY summer firms but do not intend to accept unless we strike out in Texas. We passed UBE and MPRE in all jx, have done NYLE but not the Texas law course. My question is, which state bar do we apply to and when?
My gut is to wait until we have offers in hand so we know for sure which jx we are going to. But I worry C&F might be slow enough that I risk not being admitted by my BL start date. And for my gf, who has a two-year clerkship, I worry she might not be barred in time to get the JSP-12 bump when she hits the one-year mark in August. But applying now is also worrying, since applying to Texas now would probably piss off our NY firms and would be wasted time and money if we strike out, and applying to NY would be a waste if we do end up in Texas.
Any insight y'all have is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
My gut is to wait until we have offers in hand so we know for sure which jx we are going to. But I worry C&F might be slow enough that I risk not being admitted by my BL start date. And for my gf, who has a two-year clerkship, I worry she might not be barred in time to get the JSP-12 bump when she hits the one-year mark in August. But applying now is also worrying, since applying to Texas now would probably piss off our NY firms and would be wasted time and money if we strike out, and applying to NY would be a waste if we do end up in Texas.
Any insight y'all have is greatly appreciated. Thanks!