The Bar Exam: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning

Adam R. Banner explains how the bar exam is a microcosm for legal practice as a whole.


Just took your state’s bar exam? Good Luck.

I remember hearing that same ominous warning from many of the attorneys in my community directly after taking the Oklahoma bar exam. Now, I wasn’t TOO worried about my prospects for future employment. I was already set on hanging my own shingle, and I was full of naivety with a dash of piss and vinegar. I had practiced (with a limited license) through the local public defender’s office, and I had a part-time gig interning for another solo practitioner. I chose this set-up to help pay my way through school, but also to gain any type of experience I could since I only really knew two things in law school: criminal procedure, and the fact that I needed some courtroom experience and some small-business guidance. I was lucky enough to get both.

That isn’t the case for everyone. I distinctly remember one of my buddies (a fellow class mate) walking up to me a few days before graduation and asking me if I knew of any places that were hiring associates. I didn’t, so I asked him if he was interning anywhere.

He wasn’t.

He had spent his entire three years studying law, and none of it was through real-world application. I told him he needed to get his foot in some door, any door, before he tried to “find a job.” I told him to go to any of the public law agencies in the area and see if he could volunteer before he hit BarBri too hard, and then possibly start back up while he was waiting for his results.

He blew me off (just like the bar exam…which he failed).

It’s been years now, but I remember speaking with that same class mate after he finally passed the bar. He was still looking for permanent work, but had tried his hand in a few different areas of practice. He had dabbled in some criminal defense, a little family law, and some contract work. The problem is, he hated everything he tried. I asked him why he hadn’t taken my advice earlier. He said he thought it was just too late in the game to start from the bottom-up.

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Flash forward to the present. Everyone starts from the bottom-up. Regardless of whether you start your own practice, or whether you become an associate for one of your city’s largest firms, you start your legal career on a dirt floor, and you spend the next couple of years just trying to get some carpet underneath your feet.
Now, if you are reading this article, there is a fair chance that you are about to take your respective state’s bar exam or, if you’re lucky, you have just finished (without any ExamSoft issues). Either way, congratulations! All of the hard work you’ve put in this summer has (or quickly will) culminate in one of the greatest achievements of your life.

That is, of course, unless you failed to put in the necessary time to prepare your mind for the greatest legal-gauntlet you have ever encountered (and probably ever will again). If you fall into that later category, then you may be in for a rude awakening.

See, the biggest trick to the bar exam is not memorizing every single element of every single legal theory out there…it’s simply putting in the necessary time and effort. Sure, you need to do your best to hit the big points and devote those to memory, but there is no way that any prospective attorney could possibly memorize everything, and that’s okay. You’ll undoubtably walk out from the test thinking that you bombed at least half of it, but do yourself a favor afterwards and go run through a couple of your note cards or practice questions. I bet you’ll be amazed at how much information you have retained, especially when you compare that to the knowledge you had (or didn’t have) at the beginning of the summer.

So, if I haven’t made it obvious enough, here’s the deal: the bar exam is a microcosm for legal practice as a whole. In both scenarios, you have to start from the bottom-up, and pay your dues before you see any results. Just like your bar-study experience, your first year or two of practicing law will be a lesson in dedication. The law graduates who put in the time studying will most likely pass the bar. The young attorneys who put in the time working will most likely become successful in their own right as well.

Consequently, don’t sit on your hands while you wait for your bar exam results to post. You will have damn near two months after you finish to either continue proving your worth to the firm that you’ve been interning for, or you will be able to go out and find a position with a firm or public service agency that allows you to at least volunteer. And remember, there is no shame in volunteering if it helps you get your foot in the door or possibly weed out a few practice areas that you do not want to waste any more time in.

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Just remember that you started out at the bottom as a 1L, you started out at the bottom with your bar exam prep, and now you will start out at the bottom of your respective legal community. But just like law school and the bar exam, hard work and effort should carry you through.

Good luck.

Adam R. Banner, founder of the Oklahoma Legal Group, is a criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His practice focuses on all issues relating to the defense of those accused of criminal activity. From trial litigation to appellate representation, he specializes in the protection of his clients’ constitutional rights.