How to Pass the Bar Exam
In most states, admission to the bar is an arduous process involving a few steps that must be completed before an applicant will be allowed to practice his or her profession. The first of these steps is to apply for admission to the bar and receive permission to take a written examination in the candidate’s state.
The first step, applying for admission to sit for the bar exam, is overseen by each applicant’s state bar. The requirements and deadlines for sitting for the bar exam vary from state to state, but generally the application process begins at least 60 days prior to the date the exam will be given. To complete a bar exam application requires applicant’s to provide birth certificates, proof of residency, photographs, school transcripts, and letters of recommendation. Additionally, in some states applicants will also be required to fill out and pass a "character and fitness" evaluation.
Even after an applicant has applied for admission to the bar exam process and paid the required fee to take the exam, admission to the bar will not guarantee that he will be able to take it. Most states restrict the ability to sit for the exam to the last semester of one’s law school attendance. Students who have not successfully completed the required courses cannot sit for the exam. Additionally, in some states (although not all) students’ grades must average above a minimum threshold. The threshold can vary by state but in most cases the threshold is determined by the scores received on the applicant’s law school exams in the applicant’s first year of classes.
Once students have completed the admissions, application, character and fitness, and admission to the bar application, they may sit for the exam. While the bar exam is only offered once or twice a year, any law student who has completed all his or her course work can take the exam as long as he successfully passes the exam. If a student fails the exam, he must retake it no later than with the next group of applicants taking the exam.
Some states, currently North Carolina, do not give the Uniform Bar Exam. The exam is developed and administered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) and the Multistate Bar Examining Committee on behalf of participating jurisdictions. The test has been in place since the late 1970s and is based on four specific subjects: contracts, property, torts, and trusts and estates. The current exam tests 241 multiple choice questions and half-dozen) essay questions covering over 20 law school courses. The questions will include not only black letter law, but also policy questions and fact patterns. The 21 states who currently give the exam include: Virginia, New Jersey, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri , Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.
The cost of re-taking the exam has increased notably in most states over the last few years, with Florida charging re-takers $600 and New Jersey charging $900. North Carolina charges $300. Most states will also charge a small fee for any re-take of the character and fitness process, and applicants will likewise be required to pay to retake the criminal background check.
Many students only see the bar exam loosely as a sequence of rote memorization of the law. However, the test has a very specific purpose. The bar exam is there to ensure that the quality of lawyers who are entering the profession is high and that there is less of a chance that unsavory characters will slip through the cracks. The test will ensure that every lawyer entering the profession will be well versed in the same concepts and areas of the law, instead of having that knowledge be scattered between jurisdictions.
The bar exam is administered through the NCBE which developed the test and distributes the results to jurisdictions/transfers. The agencies will forward an applicant’s scores to other law schools upon request. Even so, if a law student has taken the test multiple times he or she may have to take the entire test with a different agency. This is due to the fact that the Committee of Bar Examiners will only allow applicants to transfer scores to the jurisdiction which actually administered the test.
The exam itself is administered on a Thursday morning and afternoon, and a Friday morning and afternoon. For most jurisdictions, the Thursday morning session begins at 9 a.m. and runs until noon. The Thursday afternoon session begins at 1:30 p.m. and runs until 5:30 p.m. The second day of the exam (Friday) will begin as early as 8 a.m. and run until noon. Last minute study sessions will likely continue until midnight, because the intensity of the test can, and will, take its toll. It is very difficult to focus at the same level after four hours of intense law study in the morning, and then four more hours of studying in the afternoon. Surrounding yourself with people in the same situation can help.
Each test consists of multiple choice questions and essay questions. Some may also include a performance test for those states that allow PTs. There are a total of 200 multiple choice questions based on the topics covered by the NCBE Multistate Bar Exam questions and best of all, they are transferable. The essay questions are set by the individual jurisdictions, and can cover just about anything in their state, which makes studying for the bar exam so difficult. Finally, the PTs measure practical skills such as the drafting of brief legal documents. The entire test is measured by a standard deviation standard.
Bar Exam Eligibility Requirements
The educational and professional requirements to take the bar exam are two-fold. First, as a general threshold, an applicant must have a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from a ABA-accredited law school. There are limited exceptions for foreign educated applicants. The JD program is a three-year program during which students take classes that cover the foundational areas of law: contracts, property, torts, civil procedure, criminal law, and constitutional law. Each of these areas is susceptible to specialization through upper-level coursework; however, the required courses provide the foundation of both state and federal law that serves as the basis for the bar exam.
In addition to the JD degree, an applicant must also complete the prerequisites set out by the state in which he or she intends to practice. Every state has different requirements for the bar exam; however, the prerequisites are broadly divided into three categories: those triggered by graduation from an ABA-accredited law school, those triggered by a foreign-educated applicant, and those triggered by a student filing an application for conditional approval (also known as "early filing").
Variations in State Bar Exams
The Comprehensive Bar Legal Handbook covers differences in the bar exam requirements and formats across states. For instance, some states require the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) as a prerequisite to admission to the bar, while others do not. Some states accept First-Year Law Student Exemptions (FYLSE) from the more extensive Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). Georgia and Louisiana do not require an MPRE. California, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York do not require the FYLSE.
Many states administer the July bar exam, but states such as Florida and Oregon administer the February bar exam. Alabama, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Washington will accept the results of either the July or the February bar exam, while Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri will only accept results from the July exam.
The Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) is a standardized bar exam that has been adopted in some form by 41 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington have adopted the UBE, as has the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, which administers it world-wide. Commonwealth jurisdictions – American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands participate in the UBE. Alaska, California, Florida and Louisiana have determined that they do not plan to adopt the UBE. Virginia has decided not to adopt the UBE at this time.
The UBE consists of the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) and the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). Jurisprudence requires that at least 200 multiple-choice questions from the MBE portion of the UBE must be completed in order to confer a passing grade.
Bar Exam Prep
A critical component of your preparation for the bar exam will be developing and executing a study plan. For starters, you must properly allocate time between subjects. In some cases (for example, a 1½-day bar exam), there may be limitations on the number of topics you will need to master. However, if you are facing the dreaded 2-day exam, then you will probably be confronted with ten or more topics.
If you enrolled in an expensive prep course, then you can bet that the course provider has played with the numbers and ensured that students will have enough study time to get through all of the subject matter. With your budgetary restrictions in mind, however, it is important to be able to devote enough time to each subject to gain competency. If you split your preparation evenly over all topics, you may end up falling short on the heavily tested subjects in favor of topics that count for less. Conversely, if you spend the majority of your time on the heavily tested subjects, you may learn less than you needed to about the others.
A good bar review company will keep you on schedule with manageable chunks of study material that incorporates homework assignments and practice tests. There are many different programs out there, and you will have to find one that suits your personal learning style. Some people do better with primary source study materials while others do better with commercial outlines.
If you have personal test anxiety, you may want to consider joining a professional group. The Bar Association may have resources available for those who are preparing for specific state exams. Additionally, many large law firms support special study efforts. In fact, many law firms will classify bar exam prep under their educational benefits. Studying in a group may help you develop a support system (life is difficult enough with a new job and moving to a new city) and provide you with additional resources.
The Different Types of Bar Associations
Bar associations are organizations of lawyers and, in most cases, law students and non-lawyers. Bar associations serve a variety of purposes, from the purely practical to the more abstract. In their most basic function, bar associations serve as licensing boards, administering standardized written and/or oral examinations to measure the legal competence of applicants for admission to the bar, and maintaining directories and other records of bar members. Attorneys pay dues at set intervals, which are a primary source of funding for bar associations. More than just membership drives and directory sales, however, much of what bar associations do is meant to benefit bar members and legal practitioners, whether in their personal or professional lives, before or after they pass the bar examination.
Examples include:
Career Support for Law Students and the Newly Admitted
On campus and off, bar associations offer law students numerous resources for networking, skills-development workshops, and pro bono opportunities . Those who recently passed the bar or are preparing to enter private practice may find bar association events and membership benefits to be particularly valuable, including:
Benefits for Practicing Attorneys
Some benefits of bar association membership carry over or become more prevalent in the years after individuals become licensed attorneys, such as:
For the Professional Advancement of Women
Bar associations believe in the development of female attorneys, and are especially committed to having women serve in leadership positions within legal government agencies and on the board of directors of state bar associations.
These are only a few of the things that bar associations do, but are intended as examples of how bar associations can help legal practitioners and those who are seeking admission to the bar. Thy chapter on bar associations in ‘The Comprehensive Bar Legal Handbook: A Guide for Legal Practitioners’ details many more.
Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility
Legal ethics is a system of rules and values which govern the legal profession. These rules are created by the country and regulators by law. It includes the standards for professional conduct by lawyers and rules of court procedure. It is often called the code of ethics.
Professional conduct is the ability to be competent and maintain professional relationships with clients. We can define professional conduct by standards set by the regulatory authority and common law. A general standard is doing the things that lawyers do to ensure their clients interests are protected.
The code of ethics is a set of rules that establishes standards for attorneys to provide courthouses, state bar associations, and other agencies that establish, examine, adjudicate, and enforce professional responsibility rules. These guidelines are generally applicable to all lawyers; however, some states have additional requirements that are specific to a certain area of practice or type of representation.
Together, these two terms – our duties and our rules – inform us about the nature of the ethical responsibilities we have. While this may seem straightforward, the implementation can be enormously complicated and difficult. Indeed, while many ethical duties sound simple in a general sense, the application of these duties to specific situations can become very complex.
The rules popularly known as the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (or sometimes just "the Model Rules", "Model Rules", "MRPC") are a series of ethical standards of practice created and recommended by the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association (ABA) to "regulate the professional conduct of lawyers and other practitioners of law within the legal system" in the United States. State bar associations or the highest court of a given jurisdiction typically adopts the model rules with slight variations or exceptions in lieu of creating their own. To date, all states except California, New York, and Texas have adopted some version of the Model Rules.
CLE Responsibilities
Continuing legal education, usually referred to as CLE, is an essential part of professional development for lawyers and other legal practitioners. CLE is designed not only to ensure that attorneys remain updated on changes in the law, but also to enforce professional responsibility and ethical duties amongst law practitioners. In some jurisdictions, CLE is also a requirement to maintain licensure in a given area of practice. These requirements are usually set forth by governing organizations in each state or jurisdiction.
Even when not required by law, CLE has many practical benefits to the participant. Even the most competent and brilliant legal mind will have difficulty continuing to study and research in their spare time once they are practicing. The bar exam process may also limit the ability to engage in further study; few who have studied for three months with the intent to ‘master’ the material will wish to revisit the topic so soon after the exam. Thus, CLE provides a means for attorneys to rehash and expand on topics of interest, which can help them hone their craft over the life of their career.
CLE may also provide a variety of tax benefits, including an above-the-line deduction for unreimbursed business expenses. Attendance at participating jurists’ associations, such as the chairs’ meetings of the nonfunded or unfunded EO Bar Association(s), would allow the deductibility of associated travel expenses.
The tax treatment of CLE varies on a state-by-state basis, and states grant their bar associations or other agencies the authority to regulate professional responsibility. In some states, it is a minor offense to fail to comply with the state associated CLE requirements. Finally, a CLE course typically does not have to be affected if it is sufficiently related to the attorney’s field of certification, meaning many CLE opportunities will not have a specific area of legal practice as a prerequisite. This may provide a further opportunity for tax deductions for traveling and attending legal CLE conventions in other cities and states, and may broaden the networking opportunities of the legal practitioner, who may find even greater success within the industry through these connections.
Post-Bar Job Prospects
After the bar exam, it is natural to have questions about what comes next. While law firms may be the most well-known option for licensed attorneys, they are far from the only option. In fact, private practice is just one of many possibilities. This chapter will discuss several common career paths that newly-minted lawyers may want to consider.
Private Practice Many attorneys envision themselves working in a law firm when they think about passing the bar. There are many small, solo and large law firms that hire new attorneys each year. Unfortunately, the number of jobs available in private practice is decreasing in relation to the number of trained and licensed attorneys, which is why many new lawyers contemplate hanging a shingle and practicing solo or beginning their own firms.
Corporate Employment and In-House Counsel While passing the bar is an important component of being an in-house counsel, it is becoming less important as businesses employ attorneys. Understanding the business world is essential and those who have business experience, such as an MBA or even some business law classes in college , are in demand. The growing popularity of this route is due to the need to make legal decisions that are based on financial realities rather than simply basing them on legal precedent. Corporate employers pay competitive salaries, offer benefits and vacation packages, and the work and goals are more predictable than in private practice.
Government Jobs There are many opportunities available for licensed attorneys within government, but these jobs also require a lot of work to secure and obtain. While there are many jobs available, the competition is likely to be fierce and the hiring process may take years.
Private/Public Interest Organizations A public interest organization is a tax-exempt, nonprofit group that often files lawsuits or initiates other legal action that benefits the public at large. Examples of public interest organizations include environmental groups, civil rights groups, and many types of legal aid groups that help low-income people find representation and services. Many with a passion for doing good for their fellow human beings find this type of employment rewarding.