Bar Exams

The Old Man And The New York Bar Exam (Part I)

This lawyer took the bar exam across the country in 2004. Will he be able to pass the test in New York more than a decade later?

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Witnesseth one California attorney’s journey deep into the dark, dank, frigid heart of Buffalo, in whose Niagara Convention Center he will tackle the New York bar exam after more than a decade away from prompts and Scantrons of any kind.

It was not something I necessarily wanted to do, to put it mildly. As an attorney with a focus on art and copyright law, most of my cases were venued in Los Angeles or New York, the two busiest hubs of U.S. creativity and content development. And while I am a member of the California bar, I do not have the analogous credential in New York. So, each time I handle a case in the latter state, I have to go through the pro hac vice process, which requires a Certificate of Good Standing from the California bar, a motion to appear, local counsel in New York to vouch for said motion, payment of a fee, and an order from the court. As a member of the New York bar, this process could be avoided in toto. Not to mention that the term pro hac vice, latin for “for this occasion only,” implies a limited number of appearances of this nature.

While it is rare for such a motion to be denied (or even opposed), I recently had an attorney in New York object to my appearance in a copyright infringement case he was defending. While the judge rebuffed the objection, the process did add another layer of complexity and cost to the proceedings. So why not just gain entry to the New York bar and avoid the whole rigamarole?

Thus, tumbling into the world of choices in multiple and issues to spot, I went. The last time I had even seen an essay question prompt, I was handing it to a student in the fashion law class I taught at a Los Angeles art school. Now, I was faced with a whole book of them, in addition to hundreds and hundreds of multiple choice questions, each of which must be read, digested, and responded to via a particular standardized test-taking process with which I had lost much if not all of my facility. In the years since I took the California bar in 2004, this ability had simply atrophied and withered away as skills that one does not exercise tend to do. Getting those skills back, or at least recovering enough of them to succeed in passing the New York bar exam, was now high-priority.

But, first, I had to book my seat for the big day. I registered online and completed the handwriting sample and transcript confirmation paperwork, which required calling the jovial and responsive folks at the alumni services department at my law school, the University of Southern California, transmitting to them the bar forms through something called a “fax,” and obtaining the necessary approvals. At some point thereafter, I received an email alerting me that the window for me to pick my test location was open.

When I clicked through, I was told that all of Manhattan had already been booked solid, leaving me to choose between Albany and Buffalo. Because I have always been a fan of Dyngus Day, I selected Buffalo and then booked my flight and hotel room, planning to arrive a few days early to adjust to the time change and engage in a focused stint of last-minute study.

Second, I had to set a study schedule and decide how best to use those hours. For working attorneys managing a substantial caseload, this part is crucial. You absolutely must set aside a few hours every day to consume the required lectures and grind through as many practice questions and essays as possible. Two pieces of advice are key here: you should select a study location outside of your home and office and you should set your study window, if at all possible, at the beginning of the day. If you set it in the office and during the middle or at the end of the day, emails will call you to action, colleagues will ask to “pick your brain for a sec,” and a million other things will cause you to delay that all-important first cracking of the study guide while also distracting you from the task at hand once you do. After you have selected your daily window, specifically map out the time you need to cover each subject and take practice exams. At least a month will be necessary for most people. I booked two and wrote out a plan of what I would cover and then test myself on each day.

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Once the daily time management plan is finalized and calendared, the crucial question of how to fill those hours arises. Back in the day, the only bar preparatory option was an in-person series of lectures in airless rooms that reeked of anxiety and flop-sweat. But, the bar prep-industrial complex has made great strides since the mid-aughts and there now awaits the eager bar prepper a number of appealing options. I opted to use the BarMax app, which lives entirely on your phone, and allowed me to enjoy criminal procedure lectures while riding my bike down the Venice boardwalk, sitting on my couch crafting a column on preparing for the bar as an aged attorney, or staring vacantly out of the window of the coffee shop in which I did most of my studying.

In my next installment, which will come into being if I can first figure out what exactly is a “springing executory interest,” we will dig deeper into what exactly transpired at that coffee shop, other than Owen Wilson enjoying a latte (which will not be on the exam).

Scott Alan Burroughs, Esq. practices with Doniger / Burroughs, an art law firm based in Venice, California. He represents artists and content creators of all stripes and writes and speaks regularly on copyright issues. He can be reached at scott@copyrightLA.com, and you can follow his law firm on Instagram: @veniceartlaw.

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