A Crazy and Unexpected Post Law School Bar Exam Results Story

                                 This is an old picture of me waiting for my bar results to arrive.

 The North Carolina Bar results have been out for over a week now. We here in our Career Services Office have been elated with all the students who have popped their heads into the office to share the exhilaration of passing the bar.  But, what about those students who were devastated and disappointed in having received the crushing communication that they had not passed?? . . or those still who are still nervously awaiting their results? It is a nerve-racking time indeed.

Let me share my own rather bizarre and humorous story about bar exam results in the hope that it just may break some tension for some who are currently awaiting with baited breath.  Those of you who are regular readers of “Law School: Success and Careers” (what? . . you are not ???) may recall my article  “The Frustrations of Studying for the Bar Exam”The Frustrations of Studying For the Bar: A Regular Routine Will Get You Through  when I spoke of having taken the New York Bar in Albany, New York. After those two grueling days, I started my first career legal job as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, New York (Kings County) at the beginning of September. The bar results would be out in mid-to-late November of that year (days before I was to sit down for my first turkey Thanksgiving dinner with my soon-to-be in-laws in their Hartford, Connecticut home – obviously, waiting for bar exam results was not enough pressure for me, so I decided to “turn it up a notch” with in-law stuff – bam!).

The deal at the District Attorney’s Office was that we could practice in court until the bar results became public in that week’s publication of The New York Law Journal. Those ADAs who passed would continue in the regular courtroom rotations, those how did not would be “re-assigned” to other jobs (writing complaints, appeals, shining shoes for the respective heads of the division, and other such meaningful endeavors).  If one didn’t want to wait for the results on the day that the Journal was published, he/she   could call your judicial jurisdictions (I was in the Second Judicial Department)  and ask –over the phone – if you were on the “yea” list for passage. So, that’s what I did. With a little hesitation (and a lot of trepidation!), I slowly picked up the phone at lunch one day and called:

“H-H-H-ello! My n-n-ame is P-h-h-h-i-i-l-lip Guzman and I’m calling about my bar results.”

“Just a minute please, let me check……”

(. …eternity transpires…)

“I’m sorry, Mr. Guzman, your name is not on the list.”                                                   

To this vey day, I do not know what I said, or what transpired later that day as I did the afternoon docket in AP Part #3. I was too numb. I simply knew that I had failed the bar exam after all the work that I had put into it and would be soon sent to Siberia with everyone laughing at me (my paranoia at work).  As the pending day of the publishing of the names in the Law Journal approached, I went through all my duties (reviewing files, contacting witnesses, trying cases, and negotiating pleas) in rather mechanical fashion.

My colleagues were simply great. They all offered both encouragement and support the whole time. But I, nevertheless, felt like a “Dead Man Walking” with my execution drawing closer by the day. On the Thursday of the release of the results, I took a rather sever beating at the hands of a judge in the morning session who, as the session ended, told me “Every time you open your mouth, Mr. Guzman, you are just confusing the matter all the more!” . ..  Exactly what I needed to hear as the “guards” would soon be walking down to my cell to lead me to the “chamber.”  . . Was I “depressed?”  (No, try “devastated” How many feet was it from the Brooklyn Bridge to the water??)

As I walked out of court that morning, I was called to my supervisor’s office (By then, I had decided that I would not wear a blindfold. . . Moreover,  I would be a “man” and smoke my last cigarette defiantly as I stared into his eyes!)

As I entered into his office, my supervisor had his desk chair positioned toward the window. His back was to me and a copy of the Journal was on his desk. He continued to look out of the window, even knowing I was there. Could this possibly get any worse????, I thought to myself. Finally, he spoke:

“I thought that you said that you failed the bar” he said to me – more as a statement than a question.

“I-ah- I did,” I finally replied. . . With that he whirls his chair around, stands up and dramatically points to the paper and says. .

“Then WHAT’S THIS!!??”  . . It was my name. Never one to be at a loss for words – I was speechless. I had passed the New York Bar Exam!! . . Now on to the new in-laws! (gulp!)

Postscript

I had actually called the wrong judicial department and, of course, they did not have my name. These days, when I tell a colleague who was not successful the first time that he/she took the bar that “I know how you feel” . . I do.  I can assure you that I have been much more thorough and prepared in the rest of my legal career!

If I may get serious now, let me say that waiting for bar results can be very stressful. It will be worth the wait if you pass. If you do not succeed the first time, it’s ok to feel bad for a bit. But then pick yourself up, hold yourself high and get back into the game. You have always wanted to be a lawyer – and that you will be -- if you are persistent and continue on the path. Some of the very best lawyers that I know took the bar two and even three times!

“Don’t give up! . . don’t ever give up”

·         Jim Valvano, coach of the 1984 NCAA Champion North Carolina State Wolfpack basketball team, September 28, 2008  weeks before his untimely death to cancer.