The Mother of All Marathons -- The Bar Exam!

I had these thoughts, having just returned form a luncheon "pep rally" for our law students taking the 2013 North Carolina Bar Exam: 

 I just returned from a lunch that our law school sponsors for the students taking the North Carolina Bar Examination, today and tomorrow. Today is local law – 12 essays with about 30 minutes to think through and plow through the question. Tomorrow is the Multi-State. As one of the students told me over lunch, “I like the Multi-State – the answer to each question is there for each question . . . somewhere!”

They all looked good. . . Calm, relaxed with – I believe – a sense of mission. It is the moment. It is the time when a law student finally brings it all together and takes the first steps of walking “out” of law school and “into” the world of “lawyering.”

I used to think that it was, somehow, unfair that the long and arduous three year law school process, all came down to a two day exam. What if one wasn’t feeling well on one (or both) of the two days of the bar exam? Or, as what happened here in North Carolina – what if there is a power failure that causes an hour break in the exam process?? . . Is this all fair after burning over $20,000 (in some cases much more!) in tuition?

Well, there’s got to be a barometer after you leave the cloistered environment of your law school. Where is that “bar” set??  . . . It’s got to be the exam itself.  A law student must realize that the ultimate goal of the law school experience is really not Law Review, Moot Court, Class President (all great resume value items!), but is  passing the bar examination. It is the “mother of all marathons” for law students.You can't ease up during the summer and not put in the time that's needed. Why did you go to law school anyway if you don't know that this -- not all your classes in your 1L, 2L, and 3L years -- is the prize!

Work hard in law school, but never forget (even if you are just now entering law school as a "newbie" 1L! ) that the bar exam is the ultimate exit for you – from law school – and entrance into your career as a lawyer.

Thinking of a Career Move? Make Sure You Have No Regrets Afterwards!

Alas, the new CBS legal “reality” show entitled “Brooklyn DA”  has already been cancelled - sigh (controversy, low ratings). The show usually had  three segments in “Sixty Minutes” fashion that dissected real cases as they were evaluated and tried by actual “line” Assistants with input from Bureau Chiefs and even the Kings County District Attorney himself, Charles J. Hynes. The viewer got to “sit in” as the Assistants plot strategy, prepare witnesses, comfort grieving family members, talk with investigating detectives, and go over plea discussions with defense counsel.

In watching the show, I have had bursts of emotion and nostalgia because The Kings County District Attorney’s Office is where I got my start and “cut my teeth” as a young Assistant and trial lawyer. I note with amazement that there are brand new courtrooms in “Brooklyn Supreme.” Years ago, I had to walk through urine invested hallways (“perps” do the  damnest things when they are angry and headed for sentencing!) in an courthouse that must have been over seventy five years old to get from court room to courtroom. The entire District Attorney’s Office is now lodged in a spanking new building. It looks so inviting that it makes an old alumnus want to go back. . Well, at least think about it.

Back when I stared as a young Assistant District Attorney, we had no office at all – not even a desk to call home! . .We had 18 x 18 “cubbies” where we were asked to put everything: files, legal books, and all our personal items. At least I didn’t have to worry about an IPhone back then. What’s that?)  

In the fall of my first year, I worked as a Misdemeanor Line Assistant doing Arraignments, and working midnights in the Complaint Room reviewing charging documents that the NYPD brought in subsequent to an arrest. When I finally passed the bar (if you have the time, you may want to read my nutty how-I-learned-I-past-the-bar story: http://lawschoolsuccessandcareers.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-crazy-and-unexpected-bar-results-story.html,) I was able to try cases and moved up to the Felony Division and then to the Sex Crimes Division.  From there, I left the office to pursue what I thought would be a more “lucrative” career in private civil practice.

Now, as I look back at my career in the King’s County District Attorney’s Office through the lenses of this new TV series, I begin to realize just how much I loved this first job out of law school.  I was thrilled to prepare cases and stand up and say “Philip Guzman for the People of State of New York, Your Honor.”

I left the DA’s office to move over to a Wall Street Insurance Defense firm that specialized in Products Liability stuff. “Interesting stuff,” I said to myself. Besides, I had convinced myself that “it was time” and that it was “the right thing to do” at this time in my career . . . “don’t be branded as just a “criminal lawyer” etc: That’s what everyone was telling me, anyway.

As I look back however, I believe that I perhaps made the wrong decision. I now feel that I shouldn’t have left as early as I did (just three and a half years into the job). I was enjoying my work, growing as a trial lawyer and found a great deal of satisfaction in what I was doing. There was always time to move on into civil practice. Maybe my career would have taken a completely new – and more satisfying – path if I had stayed. I could have become a Bureau Chief and supervised new attorneys (something that I have always found satisfaction doing). Maybe I would have had the time (I certainly would have had the expertise at that time) to write a legal thriller based on fast-paced criminal stories! John Grisham before John Grisham!

What’s the point in rambling on a little bit? ,. . .

. . . I would advice all law students and young lawyers considering career moves not to let Social Media, legal bloggers and other “gurus” on the Internet (yes, even in your Career Services Offices) to ultimately affect your career decision. Don’t move out of a position simply because someone is telling you that “it’s time (similarly, I advice students to not be swayed by negative media on going to law school if that’s what they really want to do).  Always check your “gut” first. What’s your heart telling you? Nine out of ten times, you’ll come to the right decision if you do! As they say in baseball (here I go again): . . “Sometimes the best trades are the ones that are contemplated, but not made!”

That’s not to say that one doesn’t search for and evaluate the good advice that’s out there coming from competent career counselors before making informed career moves. But once you have made a conscientious examination of your career goals and the things that make your bells and whistles go off when you wake up in the morning --- if  all signs point to staying put when people are telling you to move on – hang in there!

“Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have.”

Doris Mortman,  author

WHAT LAW STUDENTS AND LAWYERS CAN LEARN FROM MARIANO RIVERA

Mariano Rivera has pitched for the New York Yankees since 1995. He has had an amazing career, compiling the highest number of “saves” (holding the lead for his team in the last innings of a game) in the history of the game. Year after year, he has done his job in workmanlike fashion. Never did you see his name in the papers in a negative light. Moreover, you never saw Mariano speaking derogatorily about a fellow player, sportswriter, or anyone else in particular. He just went to work, competed hard, but --win or lose -- always had a glad hand and a smile with those opponents he was trying to defeat.

Mariano is a humble man of faith who reached the pinnacle of his trade last night in his last All-Star game (he is retiring at the end of this season), when he stood out on the mound to a thunderous ovation from fans and players of both teams.

. . . What does this have to do with law school and/or lawyer-ring in general? The same grace and class in one’s profession applies to law students who are working their way to becoming lawyers. One of the things that I convey to my law student “charges” are that habits are formed early in a career. Mariano River never took shortcuts, worked hard and carried himself in a manner that all his peers could be proud of – many even used him as a role-model, mentor and example.

Do the same in your legal career. . If you are a “narcissistic jerk” in law school, you’ll probably be the same person as a lawyer. If you are “cutting corners” and telling half-truths to professors in law school, you’ll probably do the same with judges when you are a lawyer (if you make it that far!).

Finally, walk with class and don’t bad-mouth others (professors, classmates, other lawyers, staff, and your so-called friends). We live in a rumor filled, innuendo laced culture where no one bats an eye at using obscenity-laced tirades as we all “put down” individuals with whom we do not agree. . . Don’t . . Don’t!!

In the end, walk off your professional (and the one that encompasses your life's work as well) field with your head held high as the crowd cheers you on.  Make the legal profession as proud of your work as Major League Baseball is proud of all that Mariano Rivera has done for the game.