Saturday, November 21, 2009

Congratulations New California Attorneys!

You've done it! Last night, you found out that your hard work paid off. For the rest of your life you will remember the moment that you found out. You will always remember the phrase, "The name above appears on the pass list for the July 2009 California Bar Examination." It is the sweetest feeling in the world. The high will take you at least as far as the swearing in ceremony, for those of you who will be participating in one of the pre-scheduled ceremonies.

For those of you that will be swearing in at Loyola Law School, Loyola will be taking care of sending the papers and payments in for your state court admissions. As for your Central District of California federal admission, although a federal judge (for us it was Judge Gary Klausner) will administer the oath, your admission will not be complete until you remit a payment (for us it was $180), either by mail, or at the Federal District Court itself.

I do ask one thing of you, when your new status has finally sunk in: there are some who did not make the list. When you find out who they are, hopefully you will also realize that their status had nothing to do with how smart they are. I know fewer people this year who didn't get the desired result, but I knew plenty from the July 2008 exam. Keep them in your thoughts, and be supportive as they work to join those of us who are now attorneys.

To those of you who did not make it, if you're still reading: you'll be fine! My advice, if you went to law school in California, is not to take the February exam. The only February 2009 test takers I know that passed were those who were taking it for the first time, or had gone to school outside California and thus just needed the first time to get a feel for California style. Remember, on the February exam, there is every possibility that, even if your raw score would have been enough to pass the July exam, it may not be enough for the February, as the State Bar hopes to balance out the (typically) high July pass rate in February. So far, all of those that had been third-time examinees this past July that I've heard from have passed.

And, if it doesn't work after the fourth time, you can always run for mayor of Los Angeles!

Once again, congratulations to the new California attorneys; we are so proud of you!

2 comments:

Jon said...

your site is nice, succinct and informative! i'm a 1L at LLS. what area are you practicing in?

Bruce said...

Hi Jon, I currently do general practice. As a first year attorney completely on my own, I have yet to develop a particular niche.