Deborah Opolion-Elovic (left) signs the supreme court roll as Supreme Court Marshal Tina Nodolf looks on.

By Joe Forward, Legal Writer, State Bar of Wisconsin

Oct. 6, 2010 – Wisconsin has joined the ranks of other U.S. states with bar members that have graduated from foreign law schools and gain admission by passing a state bar exam.

Last month, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, with Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson presiding, administered the oath to admit new members, including Deborah Opolion-Elovic, a 1988 graduate of the Bar Ilan University Law School in Israel.

Licensed to practice law in Israel, Opolion-Elovic was the first-ever graduate of a foreign law school to benefit from the Board of Bar Examiners’ and the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s shifting stance on bar exam applicants who graduate from foreign law schools.

A final order issued by the supreme court in April 2009 allows the BBE to consider and accept bar exam applicants who graduate from foreign schools, and serves as the precursor to a future supreme court rule that will do the same.

Historical member

Opolion-Elovic, fluent in Hebrew and familiar with the Israeli legal system, is a perfect example of the BBE’s vision in welcoming graduates of foreign law schools.

The Bayside, Wis., resident, who practiced law in the areas of international trade, real estate, and estate planning in Israel for 15 years, is ecstatic to be a new member of the bar and hopes to fill a need in the Milwaukee area. Specifically, Opolion-Elovic wants to focus on helping Wisconsin residents with real estate and other interests in Israel, and vice versa.

“Milwaukee has such a diverse population of people, many of whom maintain interests or have family ties in other countries,” said Opolion-Elovic, who hopes to build a solo practice. “Aside from representing people with interests in Israel and Wisconsin, I’d like to help people work with lawyers in other countries to develop plans that protect their interests everywhere.”

Opolion-Elovic was born in the U.S., but attended an American international high school in Austria while her father, who worked for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, served as the immigration attaché for the consulate there.

She moved to Israel in 1981 and studied political science and English literature at Bar Ilan University for two years while learning the Hebrew language. Then she went to law school.

“In Israel, at the time I began law school, students didn’t need an undergraduate degree to begin official study of law,” Opolion said. “But I was just 17, which is a young age to begin, and school officials recommended I work on my Hebrew before starting.”

In the early 1980s, an Israeli law degree (LLB) required five years to complete – 3.5 years of study, then a 1.5 year internship with a law firm. In 1988, Opolian-Elovic passed the Israeli bar exam, a three-hour multiple choice examination with an added oral component.

Upon graduation, she worked for a Tel-Aviv law firm, practicing in the area of international trade representing Israeli companies that exported products globally. A year later, she started her own firm, practicing in the areas of real estate and estate planning. Her client base included American citizens with interests in Israel.

In 2004, Opolion-Elovic moved back to the states with her family and landed in Wisconsin in 2007. Her timing was perfect. Two other graduates of foreign law schools, Gail Worley (United Kingdom) and Cynthia Herber (Mexico), were helping pave the way for a new rule in Wisconsin. Both spoke at the supreme court’s public hearing on petition 08-09 in February of 2009.

“Those two certainly paved the way for me,” said Opolian-Elovic. “By the time I applied for the bar examination, it was a very smooth process.”

Shifting stance

In a 2008 petition asking for creation of SCR 40.055, then-BBE Director John Kosobucki said a supreme court rule that gives graduates of foreign law schools the ability to sit for the bar exam would reflect Wisconsin’s role in the “global economy.”

Kosobucki also noted that some Wisconsin clients desire “lawyers, or teams of lawyers, who know both the law of the other nations and the law of Wisconsin.” In addition, Kosobucki explained that “[i]mmigrants are likely to adapt more comfortably to the Wisconsin legal system if they can consult lawyers who speak their language and know their mores.”

The final order allows BBE to let graduates of foreign law schools sit for the bar exam if, “under the totality of the circumstances, the applicant has demonstrated that he or she is qualified by education and experience to sit for the Wisconsin bar examination.” But the order also directs BBE to continue development of an official supreme court rule.

The supreme court’s order, issued after it heard testimony from Worley, Herber, and then-BBE Vice Chair James Huston, gave BBE authority to waive the requirement that a bar exam applicant must graduate from an ABA-accredited law school.

That was something the BBE had not done before and after the supreme court’s ruling In the Matter of the Bar Admission of Altshuler, 171 Wis. 2d 1, 490 N.W.2d 1 (1992). In that case, Yotvat Adi Altshuler, who obtained a law degree from Israel’s Tel Aviv University, applied to sit for the Wisconsin bar exam in 1991.

However, BBE declined to waive the requirement that applicants must graduate from an ABA-accredited law school. Altshuler had impressive credentials, including an LLM degree from the University of Chicago.

The supreme court heard the case, and upheld BBE’s decision to decline Altshuler’s application. At that time, BBE questioned the feasibility of evaluating the quality of legal education outside the United States.

Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, an associate justice in 1992, dissented in that the case, concluding that Altshuler “presented an exceptional case and good cause for a waiver” of the ABA-accredited requirement and “denying her access to the bar examination [was] unjust.”

Now, 18 years later and following the lead of Opolion-Elovic, graduates of foreign law schools can feel confident that Altshuler does not stand as an obstacle in the pursuit to become licensed attorneys in Wisconsin.

For Deborah Opolion-Elovic, the timing is just right.

“I’m very proud to be a member of the bar and hope to use my legal training and expertise to benefit those in my community,” she said.