DAYTON, Ohio — It’s been two months since President Joe Biden signed a provision into law that would help military spouses and active duty members continue their careers.

The Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act allows professional licenses to be transferred when relocating to different duty stations. From health care workers to teachers to cosmetologists, the act is expected to help thousands of spouses. However, one group has been left out: military spouses practicing law. 


What You Need To Know

  • The Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act allows professional licenses to be transferred when relocating to different duty stations

  • Many officials were concerned about the differences in state laws

  • The difficulties military spouse attorneys face as they move with their service member is relatively common

Many officials were concerned about the differences in state laws. The difficulties military spouse attorneys face as they move with their service member is relatively common.

Ohio criminal defense attorney Kristie Gotwald is a mom of three and also a spouse of a military veteran.

“I spent 11 years active duty. I’m a systems engineer for the Air Force,” said her husband, Joe Gotwald.

His last assignment brought them to Dayton, Ohio.

He now works from home on the civilian side.

When Joe was serving, Kristie was also making her own sacrifices.

“I had three kids, in three states, in about a 3-and-a-half-year timeframe,” said Kristie.

However, it wasn’t the kids or family life holding her back. Frequent moves and retaking the Bar weren’t easy.

Their first duty station was in Oklahoma.

“My address was on the Air Force base and I said, ‘yes, my husband is in the military. We might get orders sometime in the next year I’m not really sure,' at which point they immediately withdrew the job offer and said, ‘we need somebody long term,'” she said.

Their next stop was in New York and then Ohio.

“I went to law school and graduated in 2013, moved to New York and didn’t get licensed until 2014, and then moved to Ohio, so I never hit five years of reciprocity practicing anywhere,” she said.

Thanks to Ohio’s military spouse rule, her license transferred and she was able to begin working right away.

When her husband joined the Reserves, she was technically no longer a military spouse and had to take the Bar again.

She’s taken and passed the Bar in three different states.

“With lawyers, it’s all about networking and who do you know, and it’s hard to do that when you get moved from place to place, and so it really kind of becomes in many ways a situation where you either have to choose to follow your husband or to stay put and do your career or risk starting all over every time you move again,” Kristie said.

For a military spouse practicing law, by the time they register, study and pass the Bar, then look for a job, it can take at least a year and it’s very expensive. A permanent change of station, or PCS in the military, might only keep you in one city for a few years.

“Having to sit for the bar in different states on a PCS schedule is not realistic for any military spouse attorney to keep a job or really maintain a career,” Nicolle Vasquez Del Favero, the State Licensing Director for the Military Spouse Juris Doctor Network.

For more than a decade, the nonprofit has worked behind the scenes to convince state lawmakers to accept a military spouse rule.

“At the end of the day, all we want to do is work. We just want to work,” she said.

Forty-four states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands now have the accommodation.

Wisconsin, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Vermont and Mississippi require a military spouse to take the state Bar. 

Ten states having the accommodation still require military spouse attorneys to be supervised when practicing. 

“We’re working hard and hoping that our advocacy efforts will help shift the mindset of the State Bar, but as of yet there’s still more pushing to do,” said Nicolle. 

Eventually, Kristie was sought out by a firm that valued her role as a military spouse.

Having lived in so many parts of the country, she could see things differently.

It’s been two years at the firm and she’s been licensed for more than ten years.

“It’s amazing. I never thought I’d actually be able to do this. I always hoped but I could never see the path that would lead me to this,” she said.

The Military Spouse JD Network estimates there are more than 1,500 U.S. military spouses practicing law as their husband or wife serves the country.