This month, many recent law school graduates are studying to take a state bar examination so they can be licensed to practice law. So, too, will part-time lawyers who have already taken and passed the bar examination in another state and moved to Tennessee.

Once lawyers have passed the bar examination in one state, most states provide some means for them to be licensed without taking another bar examination. Tennessee is one of the few states that requires lawyers in private or public practice to work full-time for five of the previous seven years to be admitted without examination.