Bar Exams

Yet again, writer’s block hits me this week, as practically any subject I’d care to hit I’ve hit before.  Here goes.

I graduated from George Mason University School of Law (GMUSL) – now Antonin Scalia School of Law – in May 1993, with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, just months before joining the US Supreme Court, as our commencement speaker.  I do not recall her speech, and I’m led to understand from an unnamed classmate (also male) that the speech was directed at the half of our class who shared Ms. Ginsburg’s gender, i.e. not me.

Fortunately, I was employed by an attorney (Jerry) at the time, so my next task, Juris Doctor (law degree) in hand, was to pass the bar exam.  My comrade Greenside and I drove down to Roanoke on a Monday in July 1993, to endure two days of bar examin-ing, in suit & tie, no less.  Not sure if it’s still required, but back then, the Virginia bar required you to actually dress up to take the exam.

Virginia.  July 1993.  Tuesday was the essay portion – three hours in the morning, three in the afternoon, 10 short essay questions.  Wednesday was the Multistate portion, all multiple choice, for which on any given question you had 25% of getting it right even guessing at random.

Maryland.   July 1993.  Greenside would not be taking the Maryland exam because he lives down in Virginia Beach.  So I flew back on Wednesday night, driving up to Timonium, Maryland near the state fairgrounds, to take the Maryland essay exam on Thursday morning.  Unlike Virginia, Maryland does not require formal business attire.  Their essay portion was 2 hours and 15 minutes morning and afternoon, and very long, multi-part essay questions.  With that, I was done.   Jerry and I went on to handle a three day jury trial in US District Court in Baltimore – a drug dealer suing cops for police brutality.  Not a sympathetic client.  Anyhow. 

Results?  In October 1993, I received the news:  I had FAILED the Virginia bar exam, by mere points.  On reconsideration, the bar examiners insisted that I had still failed.  I would have to take the February 1994 exam.  D’oh!

In November 1993, I received the GOOD NEWS that I had PASSED the Maryland bar exam.  In early December 1993 I took a mandatory professionalism class in downtown Baltimore, and on December 16, 1993, in Annapolis, Maryland, I was sworn into the Maryland bar.  I was now an attorney – albeit only in Maryland.

February 1994.  The next Virginia exam was down in Norfolk.  To make matters worse, they had completely changed the format from July 1993: now it was long, detailed essay questions (75%) followed by fill-in-the-blank questions (25%), though working with Jerry I knew most of the answers from practical experience.   However, due to the new format, the bar review courses (BAR/BRI, etc) were useless, and simply advised everyone to study as much as possible and hope for the best.

On returning to the office the following Monday, I got the bad news from Jerry that he was laying me off.  D’oh!  He gave me the month of March as severance – full pay, don’t have to work – but that was it for the time being.  I now had a surplus of free time.  I bought a textbook on auto mechanics and went from being clueless about how cars worked to being able to pass ASE exams and taking classes at NOVA-Alexandria, right next door to where I live today.

In April, I came back from wherever I had been during the day, to find a small envelope in my mailbox, from the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners.  It was their ecstatic pleasure to inform me that I had somehow managed to PASS the February 1994 Virginia bar exam.  “Await further instructions”.   That meant another mandatory professionalism course – I recall Judge Bach, of the Fairfax County Circuit Court, telling us the story of an attorney who insisted her criminal client “studied at George Mason University School of Law”, only to have to admit that the defendant wasn’t actually a law student, he merely read books in the law library.  Way to go, counsel. 

On June 6, 1994, in downtown Richmond, Virginia, I swore into the Virginia Bar.  Now I was finally licensed in Virginia – albeit without a job.  That December, Jerry hired me back, and that lasted until May 1998, at which point Jerry got hired by a huge law firm that didn’t want me, and he closed the firm.

Waive-Ins.   Aside from actually taking a state’s bar exam, you can waive in, if you’ve been practicing somewhere else for some time.

DC.  I waived into DC in 2012.  That involved a brief, informal meeting with DC lawyers at the courthouse on Indiana Ave.  They were impressed enough to recommend my admission, and a few months later I was sworn into the DC Bar. 

I’ve had only a few DC cases to date.  As yet, the majority of my experience (60%) is in Virginia (plus admission to the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia) with the balance (38%) in Maryland, also admitted to the US District Court for the District of Maryland.  I never got around to being admitted to the US District Court for the District of Columbia.   Note that being admitted to state bar does NOT give you admission to the federal courts in that state.  You have to be sponsored by an existing member, and formally admitted.  My primary purpose in doing so is to handle bankruptcy cases, which are 100% federal law.

New York.  Avoiding that notoriously difficult NY bar exam, I waived in.  In December 2013 I failed to impress a three lawyer panel in Albany of my merit and character.  I appealed that decision, and in December 2014 I went back up to Albany for a formal hearing, which Jerry attended over the phone, testifying as to my character.  This panel, a different trio of lawyers, felt considerably better about me and recommended my admission.  In June 2015, I went back up to Albany a third time and swore into the New York Bar.  

As yet I have had NO NY clients and have yet to set foot in any courtroom in New York.  My inclination would be to sit in and listen, but with my current relationship status (no longer romantically linked to anyone in Fort Lee, New Jersey) and the COVID drama – which is pushing many court appearances online to avoid the virus – that looks extremely unlikely for the near future.

“Suits”.  While I’m on the topic, I’ll bring up this TV show.  It takes place in Manhattan, New York, and covers a major law firm in the city which exclusively hires Harvard Law School graduates.  Meghan Markle, who plays Rachel Zane, wound up marrying Prince Harry.  Yes, that guy.  The main character is Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), who apparently has photographic memory:  he need only read a page one time and can remember it verbatim.  For some reason, he could NOT get into law school or get a J.D., however, he took and passed the bar exams, fraudulently doing so for other applicants who presumably did have law degrees but weren’t nearly as astute at taking exams (you know, like the exams you have to take in law school).  He’s hired by the firm’s senior partner, Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) as an associate (employee attorney on salary, not a partner).   Again, not only is Ross not a licensed attorney in ANY jurisdiction (least of all New York) he doesn’t even have a law degree.   Of course, they have to keep this a major secret.  I’ve finished season 1, and so far I’ve seen at least one episode where he appears IN COURT, in front of a judge, representing a client as an attorney.   He also has to attend a Harvard Law School alumni function and of course, no one recognizes him.  The utter implausibility of the entire premise doesn’t completely undermine its entertainment value, so I suppose I may continue watching….