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87-Year-Old Tries To Finally Pass The Bar Exam By Studying 'Several Minutes A Day'

'This year is probably my last chance.'

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Today is day one of the online bar exam being administered in jurisdictions across the country, one of which is California. And while we fully expect it’ll be a disaster (you can email us or text us 646-820-8477 with your own bar exam horror story), now’s not the time for recriminations. Now is the time to just wish each bar applicant the best of luck on what is arguably the most important test of their lives.

Speaking of someone who deserves all the good luck today, the San Francisco Chronicle (via TaxProfBlog) has a story about 87-year-old Porter Davis who has his dreams on the line.

Davis attended law school in the 60s, and took the bar exam then. Unfortunately, he failed four times. But the 87-year-old, who says he believes in being optimistic, thinks 2020 is really his year. And he says, “This year is probably my last chance. A lot can happen when you’re 87.”

The Chronicle gives a brief insight into Davis’s study regimen, and, well, it seems unique and not at all how I remember bar prep:

Davis, a retired real estate broker and former construction worker from Larkspur, dug up all his old law books. He paid $2,500 for a bar exam study course consisting of 12 more law books. He’s studying, at least several minutes every day.

Davis recently sat down at an outdoor cafe near his home to show how a man who is running out of time studies for an exam. Davis, who claims to be the oldest person ever to take the bar exam, picked up the first of his 12 exam-prep books and began turning the pages quickly. He looked at each page for about one second, before turning to the next page.

“I’m getting a mental image of the material,” he said. “I’m taking a photograph that goes into your subconscious mind.”

It took him a full half-minute to study the first 30 pages of the book.

“I don’t believe in memorizing things,” Davis said.

I hate to be the one to break it to Davis, but memorizing things is pretty much all the bar exam is.

But, alas, his chances of actually taking the test are not looking good:

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The exam registrar sent Davis a form letter saying the office couldn’t find records of the four bar exams that Davis flunked in the 1960s, which would have entitled him to try again.

Transcripts from the second of the two law schools Davis attended, which also would entitle him to try again, have also gone missing. (Davis does have four years of law school transcripts from two schools, The Chronicle confirmed.)

The registrar refunded Davis his $830 bar exam fee.

The Chronicle reports Davis hired a lawyer, natch, and reached out to local representative to try and take the bar exam. Though it doesn’t look like he’ll be able to sit for the exam this time around, good for him for keeping the dream alive.

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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