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The Barred Life: A Series of Indefinite Length - Part II
By Jannet Matthew • June 27, 2018 •Careers, Other Career Issues, Law School, Other Law School Issues, Issues, Other Issues, Features, Bar Exam
PART II Lessons and Realities from the Pass List Let’s get housekeeping out of the way. If you read my last post you know I took the California February bar exam and I was waiting for my results. So here’s the update: I didn’t pass. I sat on my living room floor with my laptop on my thighs. After navigating to the Cal Bar website, I carefully typed in my applicant number. Then my file number. I scrolled through and didn’t see my name on the pass list so I refreshed the screen. Again, I very carefully typed in my…
The Uniform Bar Exam: An Unclear Hurdle to Licensure
By Kelly Swan Taylor, Esq. • June 26, 2018 •Features, Bar Exam
Ask any attorney about his or her bar exam experience and you will get an array of stressful, nerve-racking tales, doubtfully containing any positive tones. For me, personally, I will never forget the awful experience, including an all-nighter before the second day of the exam. When you have to memorize black letter law for some 15-plus subjects in order to draft convincing essay answers, there’s just no time for rest. These experiences, along with some brutal stories revolving around the Socratic Method in law school, are things that bind licensed attorneys together. It’s awful, but it’s a rite of passage. And…
The Barred Life: A Series of Indefinite Length - Part I
By Jannet Matthew • May 30, 2018 •Careers, Other Career Issues, Law School, Other Law School Issues, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life, Other Issues, Features, •Bar Exam
PART I A Personal Thing, but a Family Affair I’m a December graduate of Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and took the February 2018 California Bar Exam. The month is May but I've been an emotional wreck since February. I write this post sitting two days away from knowing my fate and an alien feeling has come over me - my emotional wreckage is finally settling. The closer I’ve gotten to the result date, the more I let go of my anxiety, fear, numbness, and desire to control. This is a major breakthrough I'm profoundly proud of because I've…
It’s February Bar Season. But It Doesn’t Matter If You Pass. No, Really.
By Amy Impellizzeri • February 27, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Features, Bar Exam
Eighteen years ago this month, I was sitting for the Bar Exam in New York. I was already barred in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and had been practicing law in New Jersey and Philadelphia for several years, but still, the New York Bar Exam was sitting like a roadblock to my future that February. Or so I thought. I had just taken a new position in the Mass Torts Department of Skadden Arps in New York City. One of the Hiring Partners called me in December 1999 to convey the offer to me while I was sitting in my Newark,…
Failure Turned Inside Out: Asking for a Friend
By Patricia Jjemba • December 01, 2017 •Ms. JD, Writers in Residence, Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Legal Academia, Nonprofits and the Public Interest, Other Career Issues, Law School, •Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life, Mentoring and Networking, Features, Bar Exam
Sometimes the desire to help others is not enough. Before ending this column, I thought it was important to share my own story with my readers. It was a bit odd being the interviewee, but I pushed myself to answer some of the same questions I have been asking other women during this past year so this journey with you all could come full circle. For me, becoming a lawyer has always been a means to an end. I knew very early on that it would be the first step to evolving into a diplomat or politician championing the civil…
My Bar Exam Journey: From Pregnant to Pissed to Passing
By Shanti Brien • November 18, 2017 •Law School, Other Law School Issues, Features, Bar Exam
It felt good to have the Bar Exam on the calendar, even if it was four months away. Lilli was nine months old; she had slept through the night about three times. I looked forward to using my brain to master legal subjects I never learned in law school. And then I discovered I was pregnant again. So began the winter of endless, excruciating, pregnant drudgery. I pulled myself out of bed and spread Cheerios on the high chair so I could get dressed. I schlepped to the conference room on the second floor of a beige building next to…
How to keep your cool while you wait for bar results
By Alexandra Echsner-Rasmussen • September 01, 2017 •Features, Bar Exam
There are approximately 1.3 million licensed lawyers in the United States (1). Take a moment and think about the fact that, except in a diploma state, each one of them studied, sat for, and waited for their bar exam results. While this might give you comfort or increase your anxiety, I hope it will give you peace of mind that you are not the only one having gone through this experience. On a personal note, I went through the process three times and each time I had to be patient, know that I did my best, fill my time with activities I…
How I Had a (Relatively) Stress-Free Summer Studying for the Bar
By T LL • May 13, 2017 •Features, Bar Exam
Now that I am a senior associate in a private law firm, the summer I spent studying for the bar exam feels like a lifetime ago. But when I recently looked back on those days of Barbri lectures, flashcards, and practice essays while chatting with a current law student, I found myself smiling at memories of that time! If that sounds bonkers to you, don’t worry, it did to me too at first. But after thinking about why I could reflect on the summer I spent studying for the bar with fondness, I realized I consistently engaged in some healthy…
You have decided to re-take the bar. What next?
By Alexandra Echsner-Rasmussen • May 06, 2017 •Features, Bar Exam
The decision has been made. You have signed up and sent in all of the necessary paperwork for the next bar examination. You have marked the date(s) of the exam on your calendar and you know that you need to start studying, again, and soon. Everything outside of these two thoughts might seem blurry and potentially overwhelming but I assure you, you have the tools and y-o-u are capable. Whether this will be your second time or fifth time preparing for the bar, the following is food for thought about how you will position yourself to be in the best…