Rob Wendt, NOSSCR President

Have you ever thought about becoming board certified as a specialist in Social Security disability law?  There are only 74 of us nationwide, including your current president and three current board members, four past NOSSCR presidents, multiple past board members and numerous regular and sustaining members.

Many NOSSCR members have the experience and skills to become board certified, and with that in mind, NOSSCR will hold a board certification workshop during our upcoming national conference in Baltimore.  The workshop will be led by NOSSCR’s immediate past president Paul Burkhalter, who is board certified in Social Security Disability Law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA).  We will deliver a presentation on how board certification helps prospective disability clients and your law practices, the requirements to become board certified, and the application and examination process. We will also answer your questions.

Additionally, we hope to get your feedback about a hot topic in the legal board certification community – whether the current standards should be modified in light of recent changes in the legal industry.  Currently, Social Security disability certification requires both administrative and federal court experience, but more and more Social Security disability lawyers are limiting their practices to only one or the other.  If you are interested in board certification but haven’t applied because your practice is exclusively administrative or federal court practice, but not both, we’d like to hear from you during or after the workshop.

There are only two Social Security disability board certification programs in the U.S. – a national certification offered by the NBTA, a private non-profit certifier, and a state certification administered by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization.   The NBTA certification is accredited by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Specialization, and the North Carolina certification meets ABA standards as well.

ABA standards require applicants for board certification to demonstrate the following:

• Substantial involvement in the specialty area during the five years prior to application.
• Peer review with a minimum of five references, a majority of which are from attorneys or judges who are knowledgeable about the practice area and familiar with your competence in the specialty area.
• Satisfactory score on written examination – typically involving multiple choice questions and written essays.
• Educational experience with minimum of 36 CLE hours in the specialty area within three years prior to application, or equivalent teaching experience or publication of books or articles.
• Admission to practice and in good standing in one or more states or territories or the District of Columbia.
• Initial certification is effective for five years, subject to recertification based on similar standards for initial certification, except for written examination which is not required.

For more information concerning board certification, please follow these links:

• https://www.nbtalawyers.org/
  
• http://www.nclawspecialists.gov/
  
• https://www.americanbar.org/groups/specialization/

I look forward to seeing you all at the Baltimore conference, and hope that you will be able to attend the board certification workshop where we can provide more detailed information.

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