IN RE: ANONYMOUS (2024)

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Applicant, a 30–year–old resident of Nevada, graduated from law school in 2018 and passed the bar examination in New York in July 2022.  Following an investigation of her application for admission, including an interview of applicant, a member of this Court's Committee on Character and Fitness referred this matter for a formal hearing (see Rules of App.Div., 3d Dept [22 NYCRR] § 805.1[d][2]).  Applicant thereafter formally waived her right to a hearing, and the matter has now been referred to the Court for determination.

It is applicant's burden to demonstrate that she possesses the character and general fitness requisite for admission (see Matter of Anonymous, 97 N.Y.2d 332, 334, 740 N.Y.S.2d 286, 766 N.E.2d 948 [2002];  Matter of Anonymous, 172 A.D.3d 1522, 1523, 97 N.Y.S.3d 894 [3d Dept. 2019]).  As relevant here, Judiciary Law § 466 mandates that “[e]ach person, admitted [to the practice of law in this State] must, upon his or her admission, take the constitutional oath of office in open court.”  Here, applicant has made plain that she cannot unequivocally take and subscribe to an oath or affirmation that she will support the Constitutions of the United States and the State of New York, as is statutorily required to be admitted to the practice of law in this State (see Judiciary Law § 466).  Accordingly, we are constrained to conclude that applicant has failed to demonstrate that she presently possesses the character and general fitness requisite for an attorney and counselor-at-law (see Judiciary Law § 90[1][a]) and, therefore, we deny her application.

ORDERED that the application for admission is denied.

Per Curiam.

Garry, P.J., Reynolds Fitzgerald, Fisher, McShan and Powers, JJ., concur.