Results are in.....

I found out yesterday that I passed the bar exam! Results were posted online at 4:30 p.m. yesterday, and I was pretty anxious all of last week. As results day approached, my confidence level plummeted. I was sure I'd failed. In my head, I started making pros and cons lists of re-taking the exam in February versus in July. I was tempted to get out my study materials and start doing practice questions again. I was so nervous yesterday, that I made Joe leave the apartment at about 1 p.m. so that I could be alone when I saw what was sure to be a big "Fail" next to my seat number. I ate a bagel for breakfast, but aside from that, I was too nervous to eat anything. I played some video games in the afternoon, and around 2 p.m., I had a glass of wine to try and relax. I watched some t.v. online, checked my e-mail, played some text-twist on Yahoo games, and then re-filled my wine glass (I didn't completely finish the first glass). After the wine on a fairly empty stomach, I was feeling a lot less nervous about the results. As it neared 4:30, I tried to figure out exactly where I wanted to be when I found out whether I was a lawyer or not. I brought my laptop into my bedroom, and sat next to my law degree. That way, if I failed, I'd at least remember that I'd still at least accomplished something pretty big by just finishing law school. I also put on my lawyer necklace (pearls, of course), figuring that maybe if I looked the part, I'd be more likely to pass. Silly, yes, but I'm blaming it on the wine (and I passed, so obviously it totally worked).

At exactly 4:30, I hit the refresh button on my computer at the Maryland board of law examiners' website, and the results popped up. I scrolled down the list to my seat number, and before I could really think about whether or not I was prepared to find out the results, I saw that I passed! I immediately shouted, "oh my God, I passed!," and then called my parents, who seemed to be waiting by the phone, and then called my exiled boyfriend to let him know it was safe to come home. While I waited for him to come home, I called and e-mailed all of my friends and former employers who were so kind to fill out all of those reference forms required by the character committee. We went out to dinner with some friends to celebrate, and then tried to go to a few bars, but everything was very crowded and loud. I was also pretty tired from being so nervous for the last week, so I was pretty happy to come home and just go to bed.

Much to my parents' dismay though, I'm still not really a lawyer, because I can't go to the official swearing in until sometime in June. I also have to take a one day professional responsibility class prior to swearing in, but unfortunately, the one offered in December conflicts with my final exams this semester.

Since I never went on a proper post-bar exam vacation, I'm trying to figure out something nice to do for myself to celebrate the three years of hard work and the not-so-fun summer. There's the possibility of a trip to Ireland with the boyfriend's family this May, which will be wonderful, but I'm also thinking about splurging on a nice digital SLR camera. That way, I can take nice photos on all the future sweet vacations that this lawyer-gig is sure to bring me (you know, once I've paid back the small mortgage I've taken out on my brain).

Thanks for reading!

I have my first case, and I don't even know if I passed the bar yet

Don't worry, there's no unauthorized practice of law going on though, because the roommate (and therefore me by default, since I'm named on the lease as well) was sued by the landlord for unpaid rent. Which is funny, because the management company cashed our rent check a week before suing. It's really bugging me, because the attorney for the landlord has already violated the rules of professional conduct, and the rules of civil procedure, and done a few other "bad things" that I had to spend the last two months studying daily. It feels like a real life bar exam. I'm tempted to file an Answer with a counterclaim for retaliation, since not only did we pay the rent, but we had just given our one month notice that we were going to vacate the apartment. I've been tipped off by a friend who worked in a Housing Law Clinic that it's typical practice of our management company to preemptively sue tenants who are moving out for unpaid rent, then dismiss the case once the tenants pay the rent.

I survived

The bar exam is over, the celebration ended, and I'm back in D.C. I don't feel wonderful about the experience, but I feel like I at least have a shot at passing, so I'm just going to hold onto that hope and wait for the results in November.

So, my predictions were pretty spot on. The Constitutional law question was First Amendment, contracts was tested in two questions, and there was an entire criminal law question, but it wasn't tested quite to the extent that I thought it would be. I was very surprised that there was no Civil Procedure question, which was kind of disappointing since I usually do really well on those essays. The lack of civ. pro. was made even more disappointing by the appearance of a U.C.C. 9 question, although it wasn't as miserable as it could have been.

The part of the exam that worried me the most was that the guy sharing my table didn't wear a watch. There were also no clocks in the convention center, so I have no idea how he managed his time, and could figure out when to move on to the next question.

Thanks for all of the wishes of good luck and support throughout the summer, let's hope I don't have to do this again!

It's time

Today I'm heading to Baltimore to check into my hotel and get settled, and then on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'll be taking the bar exam. Send positive thoughts my way on Tuesday, the essay day, I'll need them!

I'm finally nervous, and wish I could take the bar right now to just get it over with. I made myself a list the other day of a few specific points of law that I feel like I need to take another look at before the exam, so that's all I'm going to look at today. My predictions for the exam, based on reviewing past exams, are that if Constitutional Law is tested, the question will be about the First Amendment, and that criminal law and contracts (possibly combined with business associations) will be tested heavily. I'm hoping that the bar examiners continue the recent trend of not testing U.C.C. 3, 4 and 9 on the exam, although if they test any of them, I really hope it's 3 and 4 (negotiable instruments and bank/customer relations).

Now that I look at my predictions, I think I based them on the assumption that the bar examiners will test me on what I'm least comfortable with.

I'm not at all worried about the multiple choice, because in my mind, how I feel after tomorrow will be the real indicator of how the exam went. I hope I at least feel like I spotted all the issues, used all the facts, and came to a reasonable conclusion.

Wish me luck (although I'm not going to be on the internet until Thursday)!

Normal life resumes in 10 days

That sounds a little scary when I realize how little time I have left.  I'm looking forward to this being over though, and moving on to the next thing, which is New York! I just found out that I got all of my first choice classes for the fall semester, so I'm pretty happy. Hopefully I'll be as lucky with my spring classes.

Back to studying!

Last day of bar prep

Aside from one more full day essay practice test, my bar prep class is finished. I have 11 full days until the bar exam, and two weeks from today, I expect to be lying on my couch slightly hungover. I doubt that I'll really post a lot between now and the exam, because I have always been a procrastinator and a crammer, and over the next 11 days, I'll be doing essay questions until my brain explodes. While I'm cramming in the last tidbits of law, one of my good friends is about to begin an epic journey of his own, which is much more interesting and entertaining than mine. Scott is participating in the Mongol Rally, where a bunch of people purchase cheap cars with ridiculously small engines and drive them from London to Mongolia for charity. You can read about his adventures here. 

After almost two months of bar prep, here are some of my final thoughts:

1. Several people told me that the bar exam is like a marathon, not a sprint. This comparison didn't work well for me, because I finished a marathon and trained very inadequately (to the point where my boyfriend only came because I called him around mile 21 and told him to meet me at the finish line with Advil). Apparently I am capable of doing impressive things without appropriate training, so let's hope the bar exam is one of them! Also, I've "trained" waaaaay more for the bar than I did the marathon. 

2. First cousins can marry in Maryland. Ewwwwwwww.

3. Going to Puerto Rico in the middle of my studying was a good thing. I'm happy with my decision to take a bar prep class that encourages taking frequent breaks from studying. 

4. Even live lectures didn't make UCC Title 9 any more bearable.

5. It's past my bedtime.

17 days, and I'm a little stressed out now

I knew I'd start stressing out about the bar at some point, and I'd actually be a little worried if I didn't start to feel the pressure.  I had another full length practice multiple choice test today, and I got six more questions right this time than I did last time, and the score was high enough again to waive into D.C.  I think with a little more practice (because I'll be honest and admit that I've only done about 15 practice multiple choice questions since doing well on the last practice test, and am quite surprised my score still improved this time around), I should be able to do at least as well on the real exam.  I felt like I'd done poorly again today, so on July 30, when I'm convinced I've failed the bar and maybe only gotten five questions right out of 200, you can remind me that how I feel isn't necessarily a good indication of my performance.  And then you can not mention the bar again until I tell you the results sometime in November.

Another thing I've learned over the course of my bar studies is that it's actually very important to take breaks.  Even though I'm an excellent procrastinator, and I can always find something I'd rather do than study, by taking frequent breaks, studying doesn't get quite as old, and I feel pretty refreshed.  One of my good law school friends, who is not taking the bar until February, had a birthday this week, so yesterday, several of us went wine-tasting in Virginia.  I was a little skeptical about switching my off-study days (according to my study schedule, I get Sundays off, so now I had Friday off, and will be studying on Sunday), since I'm starting to feel stressed.  As soon as we got to the beautiful scenery though, I completely forgot about the bar.  Well, the bar exam.  I actually walked right up to the bars at the wineries, and tried probably 30 plus wines.  Don't worry Mom and Dad, over the course of the day, that was the equivalent of maybe 2-3 glasses of wine.

Even though we only went to four different wineries, I would highly recommend Virginia wine-tasting.  I went to Napa when I was in California, and although that was also a great experience, and very beautiful, it was at least two to three times the price of tasting in Virginia, much more touristy and busy, and just larger operations.  In Virginia, the most we paid for a wine tasting was $5 to try 12 different wines, and we also got to meet and talk with the owners of two of the operations.  I think if this whole lawyer thing doesn't pan out, my dream would be to acquire some ocean-front property where it is also possible to grow grapes, and then I will make wine and have a bed and breakfast.  Of course, I'll be starting that operation under a different name so the student loan people can't find me.

4th of July freak-out

Apparently, it's around this time that bar exam freak-outs are pretty common.  I'll admit, I'm starting to feel a little more stressed out about the amount that I feel like I need to do to pass the bar, and how I only have a little over three weeks left to get it all done.  I'm still not completely freaked out though, because I know that no matter how much I study, I'm never going to feel "ready" for the bar.  There will always be more that I can learn before the bar, and there are most certainly going to be questions on the bar to which I don't know the answers.  This doesn't concern me that much, because in three years of law school, I have honed a skill that I developed long before I even wanted to go to law school:  the art of B.S. (which I inherited directly from my father).  If I don't know what the law is, I'm supposed to just make something up.  Surprisingly, a lot of the time, the made up law is quite similar to the real law.

Another reason that I may be less concerned about the bar is that my plans for next year are not contingent on passing the bar.  This is a good and bad thing, because I don't have to stress out about the thought of having to tell an employer that I failed the bar, but at the same time, I'm not as motivated in my studying as I would be otherwise.  I just have to keep reminding myself of the pain of filling out the huge bar application though, and the thought of having to fill it out again if I fail is enough to keep me going for a little while longer.

One bar exam down, one to go

This weekend I had the pleasure of taking a full length practice bar exam.  Yesterday was the essay exam, and today was the multiple choice.  I have to correct my essays on my own, and although they gave me the model answers, it's kind of hard to judge whether my mediocre answers are adequate, because the model answers include everything possible to write about in response to the question, not just the minimum requirement to pass.  The multiple choice answers were graded online, and I got a nifty score report that told me what I already knew....I don't know much about evidence.  The bar prep company told us that on this first practice exam, we should aim to get 50% of the questions correct.  I'm pleased to report that I exceeded 50%, and my score on this exam would have been exactly the minimum required to waive into D.C.

On the one hand, this makes me happy, because I still have a month to improve even more (and add a little cushion so hopefully I'll do a little better than just scrape by), but coming out of the exam, there were only about three questions that I KNEW I got right, out of 200, and it makes me nervous to feel like I guessed the answers to at least half the questions.  So, this is a good reminder for me that even if I don't feel confident after the bar exam, that doesn't mean I didn't do well.  

Now I'm going to have a practice post-bar celebration, which will involve watching television and reading a magazine.

More on rappers and the law

I had a great time in Puerto Rico, but it was really hard to come back to D.C. to keep studying for the bar when all I really wanted to do was extend my trip, go to the beach, and start a new life in the Caribbean, which would probably involve island-hopping just to make sure I leave a complicated trail for the student loan people who will eventually want their money back.

I think I found a little bit of my motivation again, which is a huge relief, because although cramming has always worked for me in the past, there's only so much information I can cram into my head and retain for a twelve hour exam, so I actually need to study and learn for real this time.  I had mentioned to my parents that I hit a studying slump though, so today when I checked the mail, I was pleasantly surprised to find a Bar Exam Care Kit from them (I didn't figure out why BECK was listed as the sender until I opened it up).  It definitely made my day, and came at just the right time, so thank you Mom and Dad.  

Finally, here is another analysis for you concerning rappers and the law:

Yesterday I saw a headline when I was logging into my Yahoo! email account that 50 Cent is suing his son's mother, Shaniqua, for defamation for her statement "[h]e tried to kill me and his own child....I know this came from 50 Cent" that she made after the home she lived in with her son (50 Cent actually owns the home) burned down.

I'm not sure how successful 50 Cent's defamation claim will be.  Defamation is basically the publication of a fact about the plaintiff (50 Cent) that is false and defamatory that causes harm to the plaintiff's reputation.  Here, the defamation could be slander, since it was spoken. However, if Shaniqua made the statement to reporters, rather than the police, it may be libel, since it would then be permanently preserved on the internet, radio, or television.  Whether it's slander or libel will affect the type of damages that 50 Cent would recover (50 Cent would recover better money damages if the statement is libel, since he won't have to prove he suffered special damages, which are basically economic harm).

50 Cent is a public figure (even though my parents may not have heard of him), so he'll need to show that Shaniqua acted with actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth, which basically means that there has to be sufficient evidence to allow the conclusion that his ex had serious doubts as to the truth of the statement when she made it.  I think this might be the point on which 50 Cent's claim would fail, because considering he and Shaniqua already had a pretty big, ongoing legal battle over child support and the $1+ million dollar home, it doesn't seem like Shaniqua would have had such serious doubts the statement was false when she made it, since 50 Cent wanted her out of the house.  

So 50, in the (paraphrased) words of Jay-Z, "I ain't passed the bar, but I know a little bit," so I'm thinking that based on the celebrity gossip news available to me, your defamation claim will fail.

All my friends are getting married, I'm learning the exceptions to hearsay

This is the summer of weddings for a lot of my friends.  It was bound to happen at some point, but I'm a little sad that they all decided this summer was the summer, because I had to turn down half of the invites.

This weekend I'll be heading to Puerto Rico for the second wedding of the summer, for an old high school friend.  I would have loved to turn this one into an extended vacation for myself, but it falls pretty much right in the middle of my studying.  So, what will I be packing for this 36 hours in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico is in the Caribbean, right?  Since I'll be there for such a short time, I haven't even bothered to look at where it is on a map or find out what's there, since it'll just be disappointing that I can't see it/go there)?  Well, I will be bringing my digital and film cameras, sunblock, a dress to wear to the wedding, my bathing suit in hopes that the beach is right outside of the hotel, a million flash cards, a few books of substantive law, and my iPod filled with lectures on Evidence, Constitutional law and the like.  

This week the studying has been more difficult, as Evidence has been the focus.  Each day when I start studying, it feels like the first time I've ever looked at this stuff, and at each lecture, it feels like the first time I've ever heard the rules, even though I've been looking at it/listening to it for four days.  It's like Groundhog's Day.  I'm just moving on to Con. law now to feel better about myself, and am praying that the bar examiners will forget to put an Evidence question on the essay exam this year.  That seems unlikely, since it's been on every bar exam ever, so I'll make sure to bring a couple $20s into the exam with me, so I can slip them into my Evidence answer booklet when I forget all 30 exceptions to the Hearsay rule.  (Please note sarcasm.  Additionally, am too poor as a law school graduate to be slipping my twenties to bar graders).

Blelvis

After my bar prep class tonight, Joe and I met one of my law school friends and her husband at our neighborhood bar.  On our walk home, Joe and I met this guy: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/13/AR2007081301133.html

It was the most entertaining walk home I've had, particularly when Blelvis was serenading us outside the building, and another tenant walked in and shouted, "hey, Blelvis!"

99 problems, and the bar is one

One of my old roommates during my first year of law school was a big Jay-Z fan, and he and my other roommate (who were dating) would joke that Jay-Z's "99 Problems" was their song.  So I had heard the song plenty of times before I got to my first year criminal law and procedure class, and it came to mind when we were studying probable cause for a search.  Well, last night in bar prep, we were covering criminal procedure, and now that I'm a law school graduate and full time bar exam studier, I see more than just the lack of probable cause issue (although I don't think I've spotted all 99 of the problems, but this is just one part of the song).

The specific part of the song I'm thinking of is:

So I...pull over to the side of the road

I heard "Son do you know what I'm stoppin you for?"

Cause I'm young and I'm black and my hat's real low

Do I look like a mind reader sir, I don't know

Am I under arrest or should I guess some mo'?

"Well you was doin' fifty-five in a fifty four"

"License and registration and step out of the car"

"Are you carrying a weapon on you, I know a lot of you are"

I ain't steppin out of shit, all my paper's legit

"Well do you mind if I look around the car a little bit?"

Well, my glove compartment's locked, so is the trunk and the back

And I know my rights, so you're goin' to need a warrant for that

"Aren't you sharp as a tack, you some type of lawyer or somethin', 

somebody important or somethin'?"

I ain't passed the bar, but I know a little bit,

Enough that you won't illegally search my shit.

"Well we'll see how smart you are when the canine comes."

I got ninety-nine problems......

-Jay-Z, 99 Problems (Def Jam 2003).

First, in the event the officer actually searched the car and found anything that shouldn't be there, Jay-Z's lawyer should file a motion to suppress the evidence.  To have standing to bring a motion to suppress, Jay-Z would need to have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the area searched.  A person has a reduced reasonable expectation of privacy in a car.  

Here, the officer did not have a warrant, so any search and seizure is assumed to be invalid, though there are many exceptions.  

There is the stop and frisk exception, under which police can order the driver out of the car when there is a reasonable, articulable suspicion (which means more than a hunch, but is an easier standard to meet than probable cause) that criminal activity is afoot and this person detained is involved.  Here, going 55 mph in a 54 mph would definitely not amount to probable cause, or a reasonable articulable suspicion for the officer to search.  So, the search is still invalid.

There's also the consent exception, which the officer is trying to employ here.  If Jay-Z said, "Sure, go ahead, search my car," then it doesn't matter that there was no warrant.  Although Jay-Z hasn't passed the bar (something we have in common), he is quite correct that you can withhold consent to a police search of your car.  Police also don't have to tell you that you can withhold consent to the search, so then on occasion, the actual voluntariness of the search can come into question.  Jay-Z did not consent to a search, so this exception isn't going to work for the police either.

The problem with the consent exception is that it then leads to the plain view exception.  Once the officer has established some legal right to search (a warrant, consent, a different exception), any item in plain view can be legally seized.  Since Jay-Z didn't consent, plain view is pretty meaningless, except for the reduced expectation of privacy you have in a car.  

Also, a note on the locked glove compartment, trunk, and back of Jay-Z's car.  Once an officer has probable cause to suspect there's contraband in the car, even though they don't have a warrant, they can lawfully search anywhere in the car consistent with that suspicion, including the trunk, glove compartment, and containers in the trunk, if it is possible that the object they're searching for could be in any of those areas.  However, if you've been stopped and are being patted down (because the police had a reasonable, articulable suspicion that you were involved in criminal activity that's afoot), the police can only frisk outside your clothes and pat you down for weapons.  The officer can't reach in your pockets or look for anything but weapons until s/he has probable cause.  Here, the officer clearly didn't have probable cause to search for contraband, so this would be an invalid, warrantless search if the officer proceeded.

Basically, the officer here would have been much better off doing administrative searches of vehicles.  For the officer to make that a valid, warrantless search, he would have had to stop every car or every third car, but not stop a car on a random hunch (such as the driver being young and black and wearing his hat real low).

The "can't search the trunk" exception only seems to come into play when police are searching you incident to a lawful arrest.  Once you're arrested, the police can search you, and the area in your wingspan, which can include the car, but not the trunk.  This search is typically for an officer's protection and/or to prevent you, the arrestee, from lunging into your car and grabbing and destroying your contraband.

Oh, and canines aren't considered to be a "search" because they're just sniffing your drugs, not actually looking through your bag or your car, so it's not intrusive.  Tricky, huh?

The court would grant Jay-Z's motion to suppress any evidence that was found if the officer proceeded with the search, since it would be the "fruit of the poisonous tree," meaning it was found incident to an unlawful search (although there are exceptions to that too, but I need to go answer contracts questions now).

First week wrap up

59 days until the bar exam!  I survived the first week of bar prep, and am hoping that next week I'll be a little more used to the schedule and less tired.  

We got out of class early tonight (8:45!), and I'm going to go play Wii tennis with Joe in a minute, but here are a few of my thoughts at the end of week one:

1. Even when I'm taking a study break, I'm still thinking about what I just studied.  When I drive home from class, I see potential torts all over the place, and it's making me completely paranoid.  

2. I tell Joe all about the potential torts I see, and various things that I studied or learned that day.  Next we'll be discussing the Uniform Commercial Code and contracts and sales.

3. I'm guessing it's about two more weeks before this drives Joe completely insane.

4. Joe will probably be able to pass the bar exam at the end of July with me.

5. A lot of times, one of the potential multiple choice answers is a Latin term that has nothing to do with the subject of the question.  This is called the Latin distractor.

6. I have no idea why, but every time I hear the term "Latin distractor" I get a mental image of Enrique Iglesias dancing around in my head.  Yeah.

7. Torts frequently covers whether or not someone had a duty.  Studying and sitting in class all day makes me laugh at things I normally would not find that funny.

Enjoy your weekend!

I like my bar prep class so far, aside from it taking place from 6 until 9:30 or 10 each night.  Tonight class goes until 10, which means that I'll have to watch the Lost season finale over the weekend.  I did manage to watch Top Chef last night though, and I can't believe Lisa is still there.

I'm still not stressed out about the bar, which might be because I'm mostly studying torts this week.  It's a more interesting subject area, partly because of all of the crazy hypotheticals.  If the bar exam was 100% torts questions, I could pass it today.  After sitting through a lecture about torts though, it's amazing to me how little substantive law you can get away with knowing for the bar.  

Random Maryland tort fact of the day:  In Maryland, be careful about impugning a woman's chastity, because it's defamation per se (which seems easier to prove than regular old defamation, because you don't need proof of economic damages, just proof that the statement was defamatory on its face).  But you can impugn a man's chastity all you want.  Although, this in no way constitutes legal advice, since I'm not a lawyer.

What I did today

I've been reading and reviewing torts (which are actually civil wrongs, not cakes, and include assault, battery, false imprisonment, negligence, products liability, etc.) today, and making lots of flash cards.  Torts is one of the six subjects tested on the MBE (multiple choice) day of the bar, and I actually remember most of it from the first year of law school.  It's also tested on the Maryland essay exam as well.  

I've already used lots of index cards, and am nowhere near finished, and this is just one of about 11 subjects that I'm going to be studying over the next two months.  I also imagine that I'll go through lots of paper taking practice exams and notes over the course of the summer. Environmental law is not one of the subjects tested on the Maryland bar exam.  In addition to all that potential wasted paper, I also have nine volumes of photocopied outlines and study aids from my bar prep class.  I'm not planning on getting rid of anything until I find out my results in early November, but if I pass the exam, does anyone have any interesting recycling suggestions besides just dumping it in the recycling bin (or, more likely, selling it to a future Maryland bar taker)?  

Not much to update on because my bar prep class doesn't start until Tuesday night.  I figured by this point, I'd start to get stressed out about the bar, and that would motivate me to study.  Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case, and despite being sick for about a week, I've immensely enjoyed not studying and not having classes.  The most exciting part about getting ready for the bar so far has been buying school supplies to make studying for the bar easier.  These are a few of my favorites that I've accumulated so far:

Supposedly, I will be making a lot of flash cards over the course of the summer.  As far as flash cards go, I really like the green ones on the upper left, because they're on a key ring, which makes them extremely portable.  I used these a lot in the last year or two of law school, except that I found making the flash cards to be much more useful to my learning than actually carrying around and reviewing them.  The greenish notebook thing on the left is my three-ring binder, which I bought right before finals this semester.  I convinced myself that I needed it because I had four exams in four days, and that this would give me an organized way to carry around my notes.  It worked pretty well, so I'm going to use it again for the bar.  The shiny pink butterfly notebook was specifically for the bar.  I need a notebook to bring to class, and I wasn't about to spend $5.99 on one of those Five Star deals, so instead, I spent $1.99 for pink and shiny butterflies.  

And no, I will not be headed back to fifth grade in the fall, despite what my taste in notebooks might indicate.

So there are all of my bar prep books, and for reference, I put the D.C. yellow pages next to them. Now that I think about it though, that reference probably only worked for me, and maybe Joe, since I don't really know if anyone else reading this has the D.C. yellow pages. Either way, it's a lot of books to read and questions to answer in 2.5 months. And yes, watching episodes of Law & Order might be helpful in studying for the bar exam, but since the show is set in NY, and I'm taking the Maryland bar, it's probably not as relevant. Maybe I'll start getting into The Wire instead to brush up on my Maryland criminal law.

And finally, the news you've been waiting for: Next year we're moving to New York. I guess Joe can still change his mind (Joe-you better not change your mind!), but I already sent e-mails to Georgetown and NYU, so it's official for me.

So it begins

I picked up my bar prep books yesterday, and started reading through the assignment that I'm supposed to complete before the first day of class.  The assignment will take about three to four full days to complete.  I was a little concerned that picking up a 25 lb. box of books would do nothing but frighten me into a studying frenzy, but actually, it's made me feel better.  Sure, it's a slightly intimidating pile of nine books, and it may not be possible to completely read and absorb everything in them in the next two and a half months, but hopefully I've retained at least a little bit after three years of law school.  Also, I know a few clowns who managed to pass the test, and know that if they can do it, I can too.  

So far, I haven't procrastinated with getting started like I worried I would.  However, as soon as I picked up the book again today, I felt a sudden urge to go rearrange my room and finish cleaning it after the mess of finals and graduation so that it's more conducive to studying at my desk.  I also have to put the kitchen table back in the kitchen, since I again dragged it into the living room by the window to finish my bar application.  Tomorrow I'm off to New York for a scoping trip.  I'll let you know on Monday what I decide.

I mailed out my bar application this afternoon, and it should arrive to the bar examiners tomorrow by noon, which is five entire days before the deadline.  I'm just hoping that there aren't any huge mistakes, and that they accept it.  Tomorrow I have to go pick up the books for my bar prep class, which begins the day after Memorial Day.  I'm sure after I pick them up, I will have more bar exam news to share with you.  

Anyway, I thought you (by you, I mean you, Mom and Dad) would be happy to know that my application is in the mail, and out of my hands.  I'm going to go watch a movie now, and relax while I still can.  

Bar application FINALLY finished!

And once I mail it tomorrow by overnight mail, it should even get to the bar examiners with a couple of days to spare.  I've been working on this beast all day, and it really wasn't as terrible as I had made it in my mind.  After sitting for about 7 hours, gathering papers, locating addresses and calling creditors, it's finally done.  I think that someone could make a killing by starting a company to fill out bar applications for applicants.  Anyone out there is welcome to steal my business idea, because we all know that based on my procrastination of filling out the form, that wouldn't be an ideal career choice for me.  Of course, there's also the issue that you have to certify that you filled it out, write a little essay about a professional responsibility rule, and certify the information is correct, and blah blah blah.  But maybe Maryland could take a hint from the IRS, and just put a signature line for the application preparer, create a duty for the applicant to review the application and ensure it's correct, and then make the applicant liable for any mistakes on the form.  

Anyway, it's done.  I'd celebrate with a beer, but I managed to get kind of sick all of a sudden (perhaps from standing in the rain for a couple hours at a concert?), so I think I'll celebrate with some ice cream instead.  I'll be moving on to thank you notes for the rest of the evening, so I can send those out tomorrow too.  I'm not sure if people were sending me graduation gifts, or retainers.  

What has two thumbs and a J.D.?

This girl!  Finals are over, and I've graduated (twice!) from law school.  The weekend went by quickly, and it still hasn't really sunk in yet.  I have a little time off before my bar prep class begins, but I do have some studying I'm supposed to be doing, as well as some odds and ends to take care of.  Right now, I'm focusing on finishing the bar application (yes, I have procrastinated until the very last week on this one), and making a big decision of whether I'll be living in D.C. or New York City after the bar exam.  I have until May 19 to make the city choice, and until May 20 to get my bar application to the bar examiners.  There may be a quick trip to NY this Friday to check things out, and see if it's a good fit.  I never really pictured myself there, but after almost five years in D.C., I'm ready for a change, and the wheels seem to be turning so that NY is really more of an option than I thought it would be.  I will be sure to inform you of my decision, and let you know that I managed to complete my bar application.  

Halfway done

Two exams down, two to go.  I went to school on Monday to drop off my graduation form, and to pick up my graduation costume.  A classmate overheard me talking about my costume, and politely informed me that the correct term is "regalia."  When I got home though, I tried it all on, with all of the stoles, medals, and cords for various student organizations, plus the doctoral hood and beanie, and all of it together definitely amounts to a costume.  No laughing at me at graduation!

It's 9:30 a.m., and my first exam begins at 3 p.m.  Normally, I'd be a little disappointed that all of my exams were at 3 p.m., because I'm more of a morning person, and 3 p.m. is definitely not my most alert time of the day.  However, since I have all of my exams back to back, I'm grateful for the study time in the morning.  

I'm also thinking that having all of these exams back to back will be good practice for how exhausted I'll feel during the bar exam.  One of my professors last semester recommended that I take a full course load this semester, so I wouldn't get a case of 3L-itis leading up to the bar (where you don't take enough classes, and have lots of free time).  By Friday evening, I'll have had about 12 to 16 hours of exams, which is comparable to the amount of time I'll spend in the Convention Center in July over the course of two days.

Back to my final cramming, wish me luck!

Final Finals

Tomorrow I start my last week of finals as a law student (yes, I will have finals next year during my LL.M., but I don't want to think about those right now).  I have all four of them back to back, so the professors have time to grade them to make sure I can really graduate.  Luckily, I'm pretty sure I will pass all of the finals, although I only need to pass two in order to graduate.  Unfortunately, I've put a little more pressure on myself to do better than just passing, because my g.p.a. is .02 away from graduating at a higher level of honors than I'm at right now.  I should just be content with where I am, because I really haven't put in the type of work that should be required to graduate from law school with honors any higher than what I'm at.

Okay, back to studying before Joe notices that I'm playing on the internet and not reviewing Wills.

Mid-studying 36 hour Puerto Rican Adventure

I chose to take the more local bar prep class, instead of the Big Commercial Bar Prep Course That Everyone Else Takes, because I think I'll prefer live lectures to videotaped. It's amazing to me that these companies can get away with charging over $2500 for the privilege of sitting in a room for four hours a day watching videotapes. If I wanted to watch videos all summer, I would go to two movies per day in the theater, for five days a week, and pay the premium price of $10 per movie. So that's $100 per week ($20/day x 5 days/week), which is roughly $400-$500 per month. If I did that for three months, I would pay a total of $1500, which is still significantly cheaper than even the bar prep course I'm taking. I know a lot more about law school than I do film, but I'm willing to bet that it's a lot more expensive to make a major motion picture than it is to make a video for a bar prep course, yet it's a lot cheaper to go to the movies than it is to bar prep.

Anyway, my point is that my bar prep class is smaller and more personalized. As soon as I paid my deposit last week, I got an e-mail from the VP letting me know that if I had any questions about my study schedule, I should contact them. I immediately e-mailed them to find out the "expert/professional" opinion on just how detrimental it would be to my bar prep to go to Puerto Rico for a weekend in late June to go to my best friend's wedding. I got a long response yesterday, that concluded by the VP telling me he thought I should go to the wedding, which was the response I wanted, but not the response I expected. So I went ahead and bought my ticket, and I'll be in Puerto Rico for about 36 hours. I'm thinking of it as a scoping out trip, to decide if it's somewhere I want to go on a real vacation.

P.S. I had my last real law school class today. Yay!

Last week of classes

It's hard to believe that I'll be finished with law school in less than two weeks, I'll graduate in under three weeks, and I'll take the bar exam a little over three months from now. I'm probably one of very few law students who actually enjoyed law school. I think part of the reason I liked law school so much is that I realized pretty quickly that I made the right decision to attend. In undergrad, I always wondered what I would do with my German major, due in part to my refusal to ever really master the grammar (I'm still not totally sure of when I should use accusative or dative, and still not overly concerned about it). 

I still feel like I have a lot to do in the next two weeks, so graduation doesn't feel real yet. Even though there's a lot to get done, I'm looking forward to seeing my family and celebrating the new initials.

Back on track

Today was much better than yesterday. The weather is great, the spa was just what I needed, and I didn't have classes. I think yesterday was one of the more unpleasant days I've had in my law school experience, which is pretty much saying law school has been good for me, and I had to experience a few more annoyances before I left. We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming, which may be sporadic until exams end on May 2.

It's just one of those weeks when everything's going wrong. My laptop is toast, my car is having issues, and then I had to pay the remaining balance for my bar prep class. The computer incident is a minor setback in my bar application, and everything else that requires a computer. Luckily, I have a back-up laptop that seems to be working alright, and I was able to recover my class notes and bar application from my regular computer before it totally crapped out.

Final exams start in two weeks, and since it's one of those weeks, all I really want to do is scream. I'm pretty sure that's all it would take to make me feel at least a little bit better. Unfortunately, apartment living isn't conducive to screaming, so instead, I just feel like my head is going to explode. If I'm this stressed out, annoyed, and frustrated with everything now, how am I going to make it through the next three months? At least I don't have classes tomorrow, and I'm taking advantage of spa week to have a spa morning with a friend, and then an afternoon in the library writing a paper.

Rumor on the streets is that I'll have to study a little more for this exam than I have ever studied for an exam before. Just how much will I have to study though? Well, according to one visiting bar prep instructor, here's one plan for success:

May 10: celebrate graduating from law school with family and friends.

May 11: sleep off celebratory hangover

May 12 to Memorial Day weekend: study six to eight hours a day.

Memorial Day weekend to July 4: study 12 to 14 hours a day. During this time, my 3.5 hour per day bar prep course begins. I forget whether he counted these hours toward the total number of hours per day or not.  

July 4 until 48 hours before the exam (July 29 & 30): study 16-18 hours a day. Every waking hour should be spent studying. I don't think I'm normally awake for 16 hours a day.

So, as you can see from this schedule, you probably won't be seeing much, if any, of me, until August. I apologize in advance for the weddings and events I can't attend. I hope everyone will understand that this is the most important exam that I will ever take, and that I've pretty much made a $100,000 bet that I'll pass. In the event that you don't understand, don't ever come looking for free legal advice from me!

Is Gordon Ramsay available to help me pass the bar?

I started watching Hell's Kitchen recently, which is a pretty ridiculous cooking competition show.  I prefer Top Chef, but Hell's Kitchen has a bit more flair.  I was hooked the first week of the show when Gordon Ramsay, the hot shot chef/host of the show, tasted each competitor's specialty dish, and hated one dish so much that he started dramatically spewing into a strategically placed trash can.  

The subsequent episodes haven't been quite as (unintentionally?) hilarious, but they basically consist of Gordon Ramsay running around the kitchen, screaming and swearing in everyone's faces about how inadequate they are.  Anyway, I don't know if I'd seriously want someone like Gordon Ramsay to teach my bar prep class and scream the law in my face until I was about to cry, but I think I'd be pretty motivated to study more if my bar prep instructor took one look at my MBE (multiple choice section of the bar) and started dramatically vomiting all over the place.  

Bar application

Now that I'm nearly finished with law school, one of the only things left standing between me and the bar exam is the bar application.  Maryland has an extremely detailed application, that wants to know where I've lived for the past ten years (Mom and Dad, if you're reading this, I'll be calling soon to double check all my information), my complete certified driving records for the past three years (which for me includes three different states), and every bank/credit/loan account that I've maintained in the past five years.  My advice to anyone considering going to law school:  Don't open that store credit card, use it for one purchase, and then close it or just stop using it.  That great discount is only going to complicate things 4 years later when you're staring at your credit report trying to figure out what's on it.  The application also requires that I depend on a lot of other personal references, past employers, my high school, and two Maryland references to fill out some forms and return them in a timely manner to the character committee.  

The final application deadline is May 20, so I'll be focusing my next few weeks on finishing up the application.  I think the complex application process is just one more way they try to weed people out.  It's almost working for me!  

Hi

This summer, I'll be suffering through the bar exam with approximately 100,000 other attorney-hopefuls.  The bar exam, according to the bar prep dude (thanks to the low bar passage rate at my school, we get free bar prep during the spring of our 3L year), has the lowest passage rate of any standardized test.  I'm going to try blogging through the bar prep process so my family and friends can see what I'm up to, and hopefully understand a little better what I'm doing.  

I'm taking the Maryland bar, in case you were wondering.