Board records indicate that Joseph Klapp Nicholls of Philadelphia submitted the first preliminary application on May 4, 1903. Mr. Nicholls completed Philadelphia public school, and after paying the required fee of $10 1 to sit, he successfully passed his preliminary examination on June 23 and 24, 1903. Mr. Nicholls then pursued his study of law by completing five years of clerkship in a Philadelphia law office. After paying the required $20 2 fee, Mr. Nicholls successfully sat for the final examination on July 7 and 8, 1908, and was granted licensure to practice law in this Commonwealth on September 23, 1908. 3
Board records also indicate that the first Certificate of the State Board of Law Examiners was issued to W. Franklin Brossman on September 18, 1903, after he successfully sat for the first final examination, administered June 23 and 24, 1903. Mr. Brossman was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, who had been duly registered as a student at law in a judicial district of Pennsylvania, prior to the effective date of the State Board of Law Examiners' bar admission rules. 4
1. Calculated in 2019's dollar value, this amount equates to $287.25.20
2. Calculated in 2019's dollar value, this amount equates to $574.49.
3. State Board of Law Examiners Docket 1, Admissions by Examination, Applications Nos. 1 to 1000, pages 1 to 1000, 1903-1907.
4. State Board of Law Examiners, Miscellaneous Applications, Pages 1-552, 1903-1928.