By voluntarily surrendering her license, she blocks people from accessing any information contained in the New Jersey computers. All that people will get is a statement that she is not an active attorney.
The reason she gave for surrendering her law license in New Jersey and the Jim and Margery Show this morning was she did not have the time to comply with New Jersey’s continuing education requirements. Think of that for a moment. A law school professor who does not have the time to accomplish New Jersey’s continuing education requirements!!
So how onerous are those requirements? To remain active attorneys must complete 24 hours of continuing education every two years at least 4 hours of which must be in ethics and/or professionalism. That’s 24 classroom/seminar hours of 50 minutes each. An attorney can take an 8 hour ethics class on Saturday, September 29; a legal issues class on Saturday, October 6 and another legal issues class on Saturday, October 13 and complete the continuing education requirements through October 13, 2014.
An attorney can also write papers for law reviews or books or teach continuing education classes to fulfill the requirements. My guess is Professor War Hen tried to claim her teaching at Harvard qualified and the certification board said, “Sorry, Granny, but we can’t accept your claim that you are self-certified.” My intuition tells me that the New Jersey board has been after her for five or so years and threatend to revoke her license. Otherwise it makes no sense for her to surrender her law license since to get it back would require her to take the bar exam again.
I have to assume that Warren faced review of her outside legal activity from former-Dean Elena Kagan, among others. I wonder how Justice Kagan can explain the apparent fact that she allowed Professor Warren to practice law in Massachusetts without a license?