Sunday 23 September 2012

Odds and ends

According to the statistics published by the NCBE, in 2011 the CA bar general pass rate was 51%. Just over half of the applicants passed. This doesn't sound so bad.

The pass rate for foreign-educated applicants (ie including foreign attorneys), the pass rate was 17%.

I am hopeful that most of the people in the 83% who failed, were from non-common law jurisdictions.

A girl can hope, right?

Thursday 20 September 2012

Book day!

My books arrived today! I had been like a child at Christmas waiting for them but I suspect that will soon wear off.

There are four. One multi-state outline book, one California outline book, a practice MBE and practice PTs. The practice PTs book weighs about as much as a small rhinoceros yet there are no practice essays or practice MBE questions in print. Apparently this material will be available online but I would have preferred practice MBE questions at least to work from on paper.

All that aside, I'm excited to be getting started. Work has been relatively horrendous this week but i managed to escape "early" today and leave at 8pm. Big law really has a whole different idea about time, huh...? Anyway, the point is I got home and started looking at my books.

I'm starting with evidence since I have never studied it plus apparently it is H.A.R.D. I can see how - they don't make it easy. For example, the court may exclude a witness subject to exceptions. One of said exceptions is that the witness is a natural person.

I don't know what kinda crazy ass court cases they have in California, but here they only let people testify. I mean how exactly does anyone give evidence who is NOT a natural person? Animals? Cyborgs?

It may be time to put down the book and go to bed...


Sunday 16 September 2012

Pre-review...

In anticipation of my bar review books (UPS reliably informs me they are in Indianapolis) I signed up a couple of weeks ago for the free Themis courses on the basics. I figured this can be no bad thing since law school was some time ago (four years, yikes!) and obviously there is a lot of US law I just don't know. I mean subject matter jurisdiction? It's not really an issue when you just have one layer of courts.

Anyway, I've downloaded all the lectures and I have been listening to them on my walk into work in the morning - less so on the way back in the last week when I was staying late almost every night - and then trying to fill in the handouts.

There are two observations to be made here.

1. A lot of the law is (for obvious historical reasons) the same. Offer, acceptance, duty, breach... So memorising it will be the bigger challenge rather than understanding that many new concepts.

2. Jurisdiction aside, torts is dull. I never liked torts and it would seem that this has not changed over time. I do not feel much affection for criminal law either. Or fundamental rights. Dull, dull, dull. Strangely, however, despite the fact that I never wanted to be a litigator and am indeed now a transactional lawyer, civil procedure is pretty fun. I put this down to the word 'procedure' which appeals to my innate sense of order...

Now hurry up, UPS, I have outlining to do!

Saturday 15 September 2012

Blog reboot

If I called myself a sporadic blogger, that might be a gross overstatement. Whilst in law school, I was somehow able to sustain a relatively regular pattern of posting and indeed managed to even garner a few regular followers (not that this is the point of blogging). However, once law school was over and I was in the great wide world of BigLaw, it all fell by the wayside and even my best efforts resulted in only managing about thirty posts over two years.

In hindsight, the trouble may well have been the lack of a focal point to blog about. Law school was an obvious one, but BigLaw less obvious with the inherent risks of outing myself/blogging about employers etc. And, let's face it, working in BigLaw doesn't really leave much time for doing exciting things outside of work and still having time to blog about them.

I've decided to return to blogging as I actually have a short-term goal to provide a suitable subject: the California Bar Exam. Now, one might be forgiven for thinking that this must mean I am certifiably insane and should consider voluntary confinement somewhere where they use padding instead of wallpaper. However, I'm doing it and I'm pretty excited about it.

Considering I'm already an attorney, the CBX doesn't bring with the usual 'my life is over if I don't pass this exam' feelings, but all the same I would of course rather pass it the first time around since (1) I am a huge overachiever and hate failure with the same passion most people reserve for Chris Brown and (2) it's really goddamn expensive!

So, here I am. Today is day 1 (sort of) of the bar prep extraordinaire. I have signed up for Themis bar review - the books arrive next week - and tomorrow I will sit down and figure out a study plan/to do list. Discipline and time management, I suspect, will be key, particularly as work has obviously now kicked into a very high gear and everyone is just. too. busy. But in my nerdy overachiever way, I actually enjoy the prospect of studying again, so I almost feel (at the moment) that it will be fun and will balance out the work stress.

This will not, I'm sure, be the case in January when I am working 14-hour days and trying desperately to memorise the elements of mens rea or suchlike.

So, day 1, here we go!