Over the holiday weekend, reports came pouring into the ATL inbox about the most expensive iPhone app currently on the market. It costs $1,000 and is aimed at legal types, specifically those who want to be lawyers in California. From PCWorld:

BarMax: California Edition, available now in the iPhone’s App Store for $999.99, is a study guide for the California Bar Exam. Harvard lawyers oversaw development of the app, which weighs in at 1 GB and includes outlines, lectures, a study calendar, and real questions and essays from previous exams. The only comparable app available now is from BarBri, but you must be enrolled in the company’s $3000 to $4000 classes to use most of the features.

According to TechCrunch, the man behind the app is Mike Ghaffary, a JD/MBA ‘06 Harvard grad. Ghaffary was just recently admitted to the California bar himself, in December 2009.

He says he came up with the BarMax app idea while studying…

The latest Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) results are out. Here at Above the Law, I drew the short straw and have to write something about a test that is given roughly 8,000,000 times a year.

What can one really say about a test that is a little easier than walking and chewing gum? Congratulations to those who passed? Absolutely.

But if you didn’t pass, honestly, what the hell is wrong with you? We’re in the middle of the worst legal economy anybody can remember. I find it chilling to think that some people were flummoxed by simple ethics questions like “can I break my clients’ knee caps if they do not pay me?” Obviously, lawyers in good standing can only break one knee cap per deadbeat client. Breaking both of them will just result in further payment delay.

Then again, with the great mass of humanity flooding law schools right now, testing minimal ethical standards is probably more important than ever. It’s not like we want to let just anybody into the profession. There are not enough jobs to go around as it is.

With that in mind, let’s hope the MPRE starts testing ethical situations that today’s young lawyers are likely to face. How much of your deferral stipend can you use for pot? How long after being fired as a first-year can you continue to bitch about being fired as a first-year?

Times are changing, so should the test.

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of the MPRE

I spent all day yesterday trying to summon the rage, trying to figure out a way to trumpet the cause of a sixty-something, recent law school graduate who is still having trouble discharging her student loans in a bankruptcy proceeding. The National Law Journal has the tear-jerking story:

When she graduated four years ago with a law degree at the age of 61, Denise Megan Bronsdon likely did not foresee bankruptcy court in her future. But that’s where she ended up — as a debtor.

The former farmer’s wife, who operated a tractor before going to Southern New England School of Law in 2002, convinced a Massachusetts bankruptcy court in January that repaying the more than $82,000 she owed in student debt would create an undue hardship. However, the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, considering an appeal by the lender, Educational Credit Management Corp., found on Nov. 20 that Bronsdon’s decision not to participate in a loan repayment assistance program should be part of the bankruptcy court’s undue hardship analysis.

If I was half the man I used to be, I’d take a flamethrower to this place. Hoo-Ha!

But the problem with my flamethrower is that I do not know where to point it. I could get angry at the entire system that makes student loans so difficult to discharge through bankruptcy. Or I could get mad at the law school that essentially stole this woman’s money. Or I could get angry at the woman herself — who failed the Wisconsin bar three times.

Oh, I know, let’s get pissy at all of them.

Back in July, we wrote about Robert Bowman, whose application for admission to the New York bar was derailed by debt. A panel of five appellate judges concluded that, in the words of the New York Times, “his student loans were too big, and his efforts to repay them too meager, for him to be a lawyer.

Bowman sought reconsideration of the ruling. His effort was unsuccessful.

Details after the jump.

Californian bar takers are hoping to have something to be thankful for next Thursday. They get their bar exam results today at 6 p.m. PST.

Results are available to bar takers tonight and to the general public on Sunday at 6 a.m. PST.

Says one tipster who is not too confident:

California Bar Results come out at 6:00 pm pst today… counting down the hours until I found out I failed….

Releasing results on a Friday is a great idea. It means that the successful can live it up and the not-so-successful can drink themselves into a sad stupor. And everyone can sleep it off on Saturday morning.

Here’s an open thread for those who want a place to comment while chugging.

July 2009 California Bar Examination Pass List [State Bar of California]

We have done a number of open threads on the bar exam as results in various states have been released. Congratulations to all those who passed.

But what about the few, the unhappy few, who did not pass? We know that the pressure was greater than ever this year to pass the bar on the first try. The fear is that people who did not pass the July bar would be summarily shown the door by their law firms. That fear only increases for incoming first-year associates who have been deferred until January and haven’t actually started working yet.

Has the worst-case scenario happened? So far, we have not heard of a firm that decided to fire everybody who didn’t pass the July bar. Do people who failed the bar expect to get one more chance in February? Have the firms communicated at all with those that failed this past bar exam?

It was hard enough for incoming associates to get a job in the first place. Hopefully nobody ruined their employment chances by not passing the bar on their first attempt.

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of state bar exams

Congratulations to everyone who passed the New York bar exam. To those who did not pass, we wish you good luck if and when you take it again.

As we noted last night, results were scheduled to be made available to exam takers today and to the general public tomorrow. But it seems that the NY bar exam results are already available to all, courtesy of Buffalo Business First. To see whether your law school friends (or enemies) passed (or failed), click here and use the alphabetical dropdown menu.

The next big state set to release its bar exam results: Texas.

[T]he official day for Texas Bar results to come out is tomorrow, but historically (wtf that means) the bar results have come out the Thursday before, which is today.

I realize telling you this probably will result in the more visits to the site and it crashing, but oh well. Law examiners should just state a specific time that results will be posted and stick to that.

Since our last bar exam thread has about 450 comments (and counting), we thought a new open thread might be in order. Here you go. Enjoy.

Names Of People Who Passed NYS Bar Exam [Buffalo Business Journal]

Earlier: New York Bar Exam Results Will Be Posted Tomorrow, New Jersey Goes Up Next Week

It is the most frightening time of the year for prospective lawyers. The New York State Bar Exam results will be posted tomorrow. As other states have posted results, we’ve seen that this year the “pass or you’re fired” feeling is strong.

Here’s the results preview from the New York Board of Law Examiners:

Important Notice for JULY 2009 BAR Exam Takers:

The results from the July 2009 bar examination will be made available to candidates, by e-mail, on November 5, 2009. You must ensure that you can accept emails from barresults@nybarapply.org. There will also be a link on this website to privately view your individual result by mid-day.

A list of the candidates who passed the examination will be made available to the general public on Friday, November 6, 2009.

People who took the bar in New Jersey will have to wait another couple of days:

July 2009 Bar Results - Bar results are expected to be mailed on Monday, November 9, 2009. Results are expected to be posted by Candidate ID number on Monday at 4:00 pm. ID numbers and/or addresses will NOT be given or verified for security reasons.

One piece of advice as you wait for this important information: alcohol is your friend.

Earlier: New York Bar Exam Results Are Up

I was in Georgia yesterday. After speaking to the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers (nice meeting you, we’ll have to do that again), and playing a ridiculous game of telephone trying to keep current with Above the Law (an HLS grad set S&C on fire on a $7,500 dare?), I was looking forward to a relaxing plane flight home.

Some years ago, my wife introduced me to the hilarity of the in-flight Sky Mall magazine. There is perhaps no finer collection of totally useless items. I wasn’t in “ATL-mode,” but this particular gift made me want to violate FAA regulations and post from the runway:

Passing the Bar

The perfect gift for law students

A great gift for law students, both throughout law school and to help prepare them for the Bar Examination. With “Passing the Bar” flashcards, your favorite law student will spend more time studying, in an enjoyable, fun setting. Fun for lawyers too!

The game includes 350 Mulitstate Bar Examination (“MBE”) Cards (featuring legal questions modeled after the MBE), and 100 Justice Cards (featuring celebrity run-ins with the law, movie quotes from notorious and gripping courtroom dramas, outrageous verdicts and alike). Additional game cards (sold separately) includes 450 questions from previous Bar Examinations, released by the NCBE.

Not cool, man. Not cool.

Tipsters weigh in after the jump.

If you’ve been waiting for bar results in the “M” states of Massachusetts and Michigan, your wait is over. We’ve been inundated with emails like this one:

Long time reader, first time caller. Just letting you know that letters for the MA Bar Exam went out today. (I passed!!!)

Congratulations! You have established that you are not an idiot:

Massachusetts bar results were received in the mail today. You are retarded if you failed.

Meanwhile, in the Midwest, Michigan bar results are out:

Michigan July 2009 bar results have been released to examinees. I got mine today. But are there any jobs for those of us who passed?

Good question. Times may be tough for Colorado law grads (even taking into account this correction), but Michigan comes in FIRST when it comes to high unemployment.

Michigan’s unemployment rate may largely reflect the troubles of the car companies. But might the auto industry and the legal industry share some things in common?

Feel free to crow about your bar exam passage, bemoan your bar exam failure, or discuss legal employment conditions in Massachusetts and/or Michigan, in the comments.

Stanford Law School is one of the best law schools in the country. SLS is ranked #3 in the latest U.S. News law school rankings. Stanford graduates are generally intelligent, capable, and employable individuals (with some exceptions).

But are they smart enough to miss the first few weeks of Bar/Bri? The law school has changed its academic calendar to a quarters system. Stanford University already followed a quarters system, but the law school had been on a semester-based academic calendar.

The change could result in some conflict between 3L classes and the beginning of bar review courses. One student explains:

Stanford Law School changed to the quarter system, leaving their students in very precarious position vis a vis the bar exam. Classes do not end until several weeks after the California bar review courses start. Aside from the fact that this puts an extra burden on all SLS 3Ls, who will have to study for the bar at the same time they are attending classes and studying for finals, it creates a real mess for those students who are not remaining, or cannot remain in the immediate area. to study for and take the California bar.

This is because the bar review curricula differ from location to location. Accordingly, a student who is planning to take the bar review course somewhere other than in the Bay Area cannot take the first few weeks of the bar review course in the Stanford area and then move to wherever it is they are planning to move and finish up the bar review course at that location. Moreover, many of the students have leases on their apartments that end before the bar exam; thus, even those students who have the flexibility and financial wherewithal to change their relocation plans and remain in the Stanford area through the bar exam may not have any place to live (and how many of those do you think there are?) Stanford Law School refuses to address this issue head on, attempting to placate their students with vague promises that they’re “looking into it.”

We spoke to officials at Stanford Law School, and it appears that the school has “look[ed] into it.” Overall, the school feels that the benefits outweigh the burdens, and the burdens can be mitigated.

Look at it from Stanford’s perspective, after the jump.

Is there something about living in Virginia that gives people an exaggerated sense of self-importance? First, the Lile Moot Court Board at UVA Law appointed itself the résumé police. Now we’re finding out that the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners is drunk with its own power in anticipation of Friday’s release of the July Bar Exam results. Check out this message on the VBBE website:

As a service to Virginia Bar applicants, the Board of Bar Examiners posts the results from the most recent Bar Examination.

This office is working hard on the July 2009 Bar Examination results. Provided no one calls to inquire about the results, we anticipate the results will be posted Friday, October 16, 2009.

A “service”? Isn’t it their job to post bar results? Since when did doing your job quickly and efficiently become a favor?

Meanwhile, why is VBBE threatening to delay the results for everybody if one person simply inquires about the exam? I imagine it’s annoying to have lots of people call in requesting their scores, but why the threats? Threats, especially really petty ones, are bad. Why is this so hard for people in Virginia to understand?

Here’s my advice to the VBBE: post the scores, don’t answer your phone, and then congratulate yourself with a nice bottle of champagne for successfully operating the scantron machine yet again.

Earlier: UVA 3Ls Threaten to Eat Their Young

It’s a big day for bar results. We have reports that results are out in Colorado and Minnesota.

In the Keystone State, results are out a whole day early. Maybe by fooling people about when the results are posted, PA can avoid the same technical difficulties that plague Illinois.

As we noted before, first-time test takers are probably under more pressure this year. Those that have a job (or are waiting to start) don’t want to have to rely on their firm giving them a second chance to pass.

And if you don’t have a job lined up, passing now means that you don’t have to wait until the February results are released before you can start working.

If you don’t pass, don’t dwell on the past. Just focus on making it happen in February.

Earlier: Illinois Bar Results Are Out

Tomorrow, the people of Chicago will learn whether or not they’ve won the 2016 Summer Olympics. Today, new lawyers in Illinois will learn whether or not they’ve passed the 2009 Bar Exam.

Granted, becoming a new lawyer in this market is kind of like going to the morgue to score a date. But passing the bar on your first try is probably more important now than it has been in the past. We don’t know how many firms are planning on giving their incoming associates the Bird or the Fox; young lawyers don’t want to give firms any excuse to leave them out in the cold.

You should be able to check your results by logging into your account on iBaby.

We think you can check your results. Click after the jump for more information.

We trumpeted the terrible performance turned in by the state of Florida on the February bar exam. So it’s only fair that we give you sunshine staters a chance to talk about the July bar exam. The results were posted today.

Bar results are out, all three major Florida college football teams are ranked in the Top 25, it’s shaping up to be a pretty good week down there.

Bar Exam Results [Florida Supreme Court]

Earlier: What’s Up with the Flori-duh February Bar Exam?

Results from the August 2009 sitting of the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) are out, and people are talking. In addition to posting comments, candidates have emailed us about the news. For example:

Just wanted to be the first to inform ATL that August 2009 MPRE scores are now available for download (at least mine was).

Sorry, you weren’t the first; several readers beat you to the punch. Like this one:

It’s not exciting as gunmen or layoffs, and will definitely engender some “who cares,” but MPRE scores are out.

Write “WHO CARES,” crow about your triple-digit score, or opine on whether Elizabeth Wurtzel can call herself an “attorney,” in the comments to this post.

If you passed, congratulations; if you didn’t, better luck next time.

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of the MPRE

Now that aspiring lawyers have taken the bar exam, they can relax and try to forget about it until the fall, when results come in. One way of relieving stress is “the bar trip”: a post-bar exam vacation to an exotic locale, for sun, surf, or snow, depending on one’s travel preferences.

The bar trip — the last hurrah before immersion into the grim realities of law firm life — is a tradition among law grads. But we’re hearing that the recession may be interfering with the tradition this year. With Biglaw start dates pushed back, and talk of lower salaries running rampant, law grads may be feeling less celebratory this year.

Purely anecdotally, law grads have told us that they’re scaling back. They’re not going on extravagant bar trips, and in some cases, not going on bar trips at all.

Are we only friends with fiscally conservative types, or is this actually a trend this year? Are you thinking of a “staycation,” or are you still planning a trip around the world?

If you’re traveling, please tell us where you’re heading and for how long. If you are heading out of the country, we hope you’ll be sure to spend some time in internet cafes checking out the latest ATL news.

Earlier: Post-Bar Travel: Open Thread

Yesterday some of you sat for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE). It seems to us that there’s not much to say about the test, but several readers have requested coverage. Like this one:

I walked out of the exam with little confidence. Maybe you can provide an open forum for people to express their thoughts on the test, or for past takers to provide insight on scoring / how many people they know that failed.

Well that’s cheery, isn’t it? Here is the requested open thread. Please do not reprint entire questions from the test in the comments.

Another MPRE taker’s tale — from the great state of Iowa, where people actually seem optimistic about the state of the legal job market — after the jump.

If you just finished your state bar exam today, Above the Law is here for you. If you finished the bar yesterday, immediately went to a purveyor of alcohol, and are just waking up now with a midget stripper in your bed, welcome back.

No matter how badly you think you did on your bar exam, trust me, you did better than Carlos Enrique Gomez-Alvarez. The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

A Utah immigration attorney and four of his employees accused in a visa fraud scheme on Wednesday entered not guilty pleas to the crimes. …

Carlos Enrique Gomez-Alvarez, arrested in New York while taking the bar exam in Buffalo, also entered a not guilty plea in New York on Wednesday and is expected to be transported to Utah this week.

Arrested while taking the bar exam? That’s got to add up to a galactic fail.

After the jump, check out some tips on what to do next.

Today’s big bar exam news is that the ancient and decrepit Jacob Javits Convention Center sprung a leak. A tipster reports the news from Manhattan:

In the middle of the afternoon session, the ceiling started to leak and it appeared that it required a few students to relocate. It was somewhat noisy and created a bit of a scene for a while.

How did the bar finish up in other parts of the country? How was the first day of the bar for those of you in states that run the exam on Wednesday and Thursday?

For those of you lucky enough to be done with the exam, you’ve earned yourself a well deserved drink (or twelve).

Celebrate tonight. Tomorrow, you’ll have to get back to preparing to be a practicing attorney. That has very little to do with the exam you just finished.

Congratulations to all the test takers.

WARNING: Please do NOT discuss actual questions or topics from today’s bar exam in this thread. We will delete your comment and ban you from commenting if we see it, and we will NOT FIGHT anybody who subpoenas us to obtain your IP address.

You can talk about whether you found the exam easy or hard or somewhere in between. But please, nothing about the substance of the exams today. Thank you.