CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals found a man ineligible for admission to the practice of law by transfer of his 2017 Uniform Bar Exam score.
Robert Darren Brumfield filed an exception March 3 with the Supreme Court to a Feb. 1 decision of the West Virginia Board of Law Examiners, according to the May 26 Supreme Court decision.
"Upon consideration of the applicable standard of review and the record, this Court finds that the petitioner’s exceptions have no merit, and, therefore, we affirm the Board’s finding that petitioner, Robert Darren Brumfield, is ineligible for admission to the practice of law in the State of West Virginia by transfer of his 2017 UBE score," the decision states.
Brumfield is a 2015 graduate of William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and applied for admission to practice law in West Virginia Bar in July 2016, but he failed to earn a passing score.
Brumfield then sat for the UBE in New Mexico and earned a 275. He contacted the board about practicing law in West Virginia by transfer and was told he would need to complete a new application.
"On September 12, 2020, the petitioner sent a letter to the Board asking that it accept his application," the decision states. "The petitioner argued that his 2016 application for admission by examination was 'ongoing' and that Rule 3.5 was ambiguous."
On Sept. 29, 2020, the board responded to Brumfield by letter that his 2016 application for admission by examination had concluded when he failed to earn a passing score on the 2016 bar examination. The board also stated that although it had received an electronic transcript of his 2017 UBE score on Aug. 7, 2020, no application for transfer of his 2017 UBE had been received.
"The petitioner failed to apply to transfer that score to West Virginia within three years of the administration of that UBE," the court stated. "The records before the Court reflect that the petitioner did not submit his application to transfer his 2017 UBE score until December 28, 2020 — more than three years immediately after he had earned that score. Therefore, the Board correctly determined that the petitioner's application was untimely."
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case number: 22-0192