§ 2.2 Educational Requirement; Certified Transcript

If you want to take the bar exam in Hawaiʻi, you need to prove you graduated from law school. The way to do this is by sending in an official transcript, or some other official paperwork, showing you graduated from a law school approved by the American Bar Association.

If your law school was not approved by the American Bar Association, you can still qualify, but you have to prove something different instead. You need to show that you meet the years-of-practice requirement found in Rule 1 of the Hawaiʻi Rules of the Supreme Court. This usually means showing you have worked as a lawyer for enough years to make up for not attending an ABA-approved school.

In short, this rule is about proving you have the right education, or enough real-world legal experience, before you are allowed to sit for the bar exam.