Law Schools

Father And Daughter Go To Law School Together, Take Bar Exam Together

The family that goes to law school together....

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For a lot of people, law school is a miserable experience. So, it’s an interesting thought experiment to see if going to law school with your Dad would make it better or worse. Sarah Smith, a recent graduate of the University of Akron School of Law, doesn’t have to imagine what that’d be like… she went to law school with her Dad, Tim.

They attended law school simultaneously beginning at Akron Law in the fall of 2015 in evening classes. Tim, a patent agent prior to law school, felt becoming a patent attorney was the next logical step in his career, and Sarah became interested in law school when she answered her first logic game question, as the Akron Beacon Journal details:

Tim Smith was studying for the LSAT, an exam required to get into law school, in 2014 when Sarah came into the family room.

“Oh, what’s that?” she asked.

“Take a look,” Tim suggested, showing her a logic problem.

She figured it out, while he struggled, foreshadowing how the two of them would later do in many of their law classes.

That single success prompted Sarah to consider joining her father in seeking a law degree.

They both got into Akron Law where evidence professor John Sahl says they helped each other through the course work — even joining the same study group:

John Sahl said the Smiths were a pleasure to have in class — and both were prepared when he cold-called on them. He said seeing the two sitting together in class and studying with their group made him wonder if he and his daughter would get along that well.

“Their presence — I think — had a really nice effect on the class,” said Sahl, who has taught at UA since 1991. “My sense was everybody appreciated the fact that they were a father-daughter team.”

But that doesn’t mean they weren’t annoying — at least to the other members of their family who tired of all the law talk. Similar to a swear jar, the Smiths have a bar jar — they have to deposit $1 anytime they bring up the bar exam or any legal topic, and it fills up fast.

It’s been reported the Smiths are the first father/daughter pair to take the Ohio bar exam at the same time. They took the February exam, and they’ll find out in April if they passed.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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