Applying to the bar

[kddani]

And no, not to be a bartender

Just wanted to vent my frustration to my fellow GC lawyers and lawyers in training what a pain in the rear applying to the bar is.

Trying to remember every address that i've lived at for the last 5 years as well as the addresses and names of the supervisors of my jobs the last five years is insane. That goes back to the end of my sophomore year of college!

PA's is largely online, so that does make it somewhat easier, but it takes forever.

Plus the $500 to take the bar, $600 if I want to use my laptop. And then about $1975 left to pay to barbri, plus the $150 or so that i've spent buying last years PMBR materials (in lieu of shelling out $900 for the course).

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by kddani
Trying to remember every address that i've lived at for the last 5 years as well as the addresses and names of the supervisors of my jobs the last five years is insane. That goes back to the end of my sophomore year of college!

You might as well get used to that part. Every job application I've ever filled out asks for at least that. I just keep them on my resume, and either use it -- or copy the information from it.

[DaffyKD]

Originally posted by kddani
[BTrying to remember every address that i've lived at for the last 5 years as well as the addresses and names of the supervisors of my jobs the last five years is insane. That goes back to the end of my sophomore year of college!

[/B]

You are lucky that they only want the last 5 years. When I took the bar in CA (back in the days when there were still dinosaurs and a 28% passage rate), they wanted EVERY address (was easy since my parents only lived in one house while I was growing up) and EVERY job. Who can remember every stupid job you had in HS? Now if I were to apply, I would not only have to remember back, but with my memory going, I would be in major trouble. No idea what half my jobs were back then.
Good luck kddani with the bar.


DaffyKD

[bruinaphi]

To take the CA Bar I had to list every place I'd ever been and who saw me there. The moral character portion of the application wound up about 30 pages long by the time I was done and then they send out questionnaires to the people who saw you there and wait to get them back before letting you know if you passed the moral character part. It is RIDICULOUS!!! And we still have such a low passage rate. The year I passed the passage rate was 38%. Tell me again why I choose to practice here.

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally posted by bruinaphi
...tell me again why I choose to practice here.

Big Bucks

[NinjaPoodle]

I do not envy you law types. One of our paralegals took the CA bar 3 times and finally passed it on her 3rd try.

[valkyrie]

I had to put ten years worth of jobs and addresses for IL and CO is the same way -- I've started the application but now plan to wait until the July bar, so I have more time to worry about it. When I was filling out my Illinois bar application, I had to go to the Social Security Administration to get a printout of every job I'd had because I didn't remember some of them.

[RUgreek]

Originally posted by kddani
Plus the $500 to take the bar, $600 if I want to use my laptop. And then about $1975 left to pay to barbri, plus the $150 or so that i've spent buying last years PMBR materials (in lieu of shelling out $900 for the course).

Don't waste your money on the laptop fee, that's damn high. Get a pair of ear plugs and do it the old fashioned way. I had some freinds use a laptop and it froze during the exam. They still got to complete it, but that's a scare I don't need.

Oh, and you'll have plenty of expenses in the post-bar world to worry about. Attorney oath fees, certification fees, wall license fees, maybe a bar association or law journal subscription.... And they wonder why we charge so much for services!

RUgreek

[DaffyKD]

Originally posted by NinjaPoodle
I do not envy you law types. One of our paralegals took the CA bar 3 times and finally passed it on her 3rd try.

I took the CA bar 6 times and finally gave up. Decided I rather become a Mom. Little did I know that taking the bar was almost as hard as dealing with infertility. Sure don't want to ever want to deal with either of them again.



DaffyKD

[AXORissa]

Originally posted by RUgreek
Don't waste your money on the laptop fee, that's damn high. Get a pair of ear plugs and do it the old fashioned way. I had some freinds use a laptop and it froze during the exam. They still got to complete it, but that's a scare I don't need.

Oh, and you'll have plenty of expenses in the post-bar world to worry about. Attorney oath fees, certification fees, wall license fees, maybe a bar association or law journal subscription.... And they wonder why we charge so much for services!

RUgreek

I am definitely spending money on the laptop fee-- I can't take exams without it :P One of my professors proctored the NY Bar and said there were no problems. I figure I'm spending enough on other fees, what's another couple hundred?

Also... I am taking NY and NJ in July-- should I be filling the apps out NOW? I remember everyone filling them out around exam time last year...

off topic but... RU as in Rutgers? I graduated in 2002.

[RUgreek]

Yea, nobody had a problem this July either I heard, but that's probably because I wasn't part of the pilot program. I have enough shit to stress over, and just my luck lightning would strike my computer in the middle of the friggin exam... Yea, I agree, save your money and go for the regular route...

Umm, you can start downloading them now I guess, no rush at all really. I think the first deadline I worried about was New Jersey's. The 500 dollar deadline is like March 15th, so I sent mine certified 2 weeks before just to be safe. As for New York, I think you have until 90 days prior (April 28th). And New Yorks pre-bar application is a breezy 4 short pages, took me an hour to fill out. New Jersey's application, that was a couple days, and you have to get a complete driver abrstract from the DMV and some fingerprinting done. So give yourself some time for that one.

off topic, I also went to Rutgers


RUgreek