ALBANY — Carina E. Comiskey took the bar exam four times without success.

Now she needs somebody who passed it.

The 29-year-old Albany woman faces felony charges after a State Police background check alleged that she lacked a key ingredient for her new job as a lawyer in the Cuomo administration: a license to practice law.

State Police say Comiskey forged documents to make it appear she was a licensed attorney in New York state. They arrested her Tuesday.

She was arrested after a background investigation for a governor's appointment as attorney for the state Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs. She graduated from Albany Law School but failed in each of her four efforts to pass the bar exam.

Comiskey is charged with possessing a forged instrument, which carries up to seven years in prison upon conviction, offering a false instrument for filing, a felony carrying up to four years behind bars, and falsifying business records, a misdemeanor.

She was released without any bail set following an arraignment before Judge Margaret Adkins in New Scotland town court.

Comiskey could not be immediately reached.

She is scheduled to reappear in court at 5 p.m. Thursday.