How a marijuana arrest kept me from being admitted to the Pennsylvania bar
Five years ago, I met a friend for dinner in New York City. Before we went inside, my friend offered to share a joint. As I was holding the joint, an unmarked car pulled up. Four police officers came toward me, and I dropped the joint. I was arrested, handcuffed, taken to the police station, and put in a holding cell before being charged and released pending a hearing. On the way to the station, the arresting officer told me that if I weren’t a lawyer, he would have charged me with destruction of evidence for dropping the joint. It was a stunning admission, but unsurprising.
Days later, I was able to pay $2,000 and retain a defense attorney familiar with the Manhattan DA’s Office. She walked me through the process and accompanied me to court to stand before the judge and advocate on my behalf. As a first-time offender, I was entitled to have my case dismissed and sealed after a set period of time — which, because my lawyer knew the judge, was reduced from one year to just three months. After that, my record was cleared, and I moved on with my life, thinking my run-in with the criminal legal system was behind me.
I was wrong.
When I moved to Philadelphia a year later, I thought my bar admission to practice law in Pennsylvania would be pretty straightforward. I had taken and passed the two hardest bar exams in the country — California and New York. I was entitled to waive into Pennsylvania as a New York licensed attorney with just an application. But the application asked about past arrests. While my charges were dismissed and my court record was sealed, I had been arrested for marijuana possession.
