Notes

Today was the last day of the bar exam.

We had a contracts and remedies crossover, real property, and a wills and community property crossover, in that order. The first question was easy, with specific calls and well-defined facts. The second question was pretty straightforward, too. I finished it fifteen minutes early, as did the guy next to me. And I noticed a lot of people getting up to go to the bathroom toward the end of that hour. The third question was tough to organize and had a pretty sticky issue with some quasi-community property stock, but otherwise wasn’t particularly difficult.

Then in the afternoon there was a racehorse-y performance test with some extremely fact-intensive analysis of custody for the purposes of a Miranda violation. For the uninitiated, Miranda is the case that gave us the famous warning: “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in court. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.” Basically, if a statement is obtained from someone who is in police custody, during police interrogation, that statement is inadmissible unless the Miranda warning is given and a “knowing and intelligent” waiver of the Miranda rights is obtained. But if the statement is made by someone who is not in custody, you don’t need a warning or waiver. So defendants are always trying to argue that their statements were made while in custody, while prosecutors and police are always trying to argue that statements were made while not in custody. Our performance test this afternoon gave us a case where we had to argue on behalf of a prosecutor that a particular defendant was not in custody when he made self-incriminating statements. It was not remotely interesting. Also, I thought the cops were jerks, so it was hard to argue for their side. But whatever.

Now it’s over. Even though I had two margaritas a while ago, it still hasn’t really hit me that I don’t have to study anymore. We’re going to enjoy a bottle of champagne in a bit, though.

Studying for the bar exam is a drag. Taking the bar exam is not too bad. If you can graduate from law school, survive bar review, and drag yourself to the exam site for the first session, the eighteen hours of testing is not too bad. My bar exam was not nearly so hard as I expected. I didn’t walk out of any sessions feeling like I had blown them. Everything seemed pretty straightforward. The MBE felt weird, but everything else went down essentially the way I practiced it.

Obviously I can’t tell anybody how to pass the bar exam because I’ve not yet actually passed, but I’m not particularly worried about failing. I would say just make sure you study. If you study hard and then keep yourself together during the exam, it won’t be too bad. You will memorize at least ten times more law than you actually need, which will ultimately be disappointing, but there’s no other way to approach it.

Anyway, like I said, there’s a bottle of champagne waiting for me.