Considering law school? Want to be a lawyer? Consider this: Which schools charge the most and the least

Columbia University’s law school had the highest annual tuition among 99 private law schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

The law school charged $62,700, according to U.S. News & World Report. The lowest-cost of the 99 private law schools, on the other hand, was Brigham Young University’s Clark Law School, which charged only $23,940. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints got an even bigger break; they were charged only $11,970.

Article here (via ABA Journal). 

Also consider: Before law school.  To enter law school, one has to take the LSAT, a test that's given a few times a year, and get a score that's considered acceptable. You will also have to finish undergrad studies with a fairly decent GPA (although some schools accept "provisional students" who do not have an undergrad degree. Those schools put provisional students on probation until their GPAs show that they can cut the mustard in law school).

Some schools also offer partial tuition scholarships based on the score from your LSAT, and your undergrad GPA.

Graduating from law school. Next, you will have to get through the school's required courses, usually consisting of subjects like Torts, Contracts, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Taxation, Research and Writing, Advanced Writing, etc. etc. (My school required Taxation, and Secured Transactions, often these are not required at other schools). There is usually some level of performance-type classes, like Trial Skills, or Pre-Trial, too. There are other "exciting" elective courses as well, like Moot Court, Family Law, No-Fault Law (have I scared you yet?), Insurance law, and so on. Your school will have a minimum number of required classes, and after that you are free to gambol on the fruited plains to choose your electives. Beware: electives tend to influence you one way or another toward what fields of law you end up practicing.

Applying for the Bar Exam At some point while you are getting your last few semesters finished, you will need to decide where you'd like to practice, and begin applying to those state bars. Several states (Florida, New York, California, for example) have quite strict admissions requirements, and need longer times to begin the process of applying, so don't wait too long.

Applying means telling that state bar  two things: 1. "I want to take your bar exam on ___ date," and 2. "I haven't done anything to disqualify myself from practicing in your state." The second one is also referred to as Character and Fitness (C &F).

Getting through C&F is no joke: It's like the longest and most detailed job application you have ever done. You have to disclose to that state bar any criminal activity on your record, what happened in undergrad and law school for discipline (if anything). It may also include disclosing your job history, your addresses since you were 16, and any number of things. My advice is to always disclose - with explanations. I know people who are now practicing who had criminal convictions before law school, but they disclosed, and explained how things happened, and why this didn't disqualify them from practicing.

Bar Prep. Then you prepare for the exam, and hope that the C&F application is approved. Some takers will use a bar prep course, others will not. I know people who have passed on the first try without a bar prep class (though they are rare). Bar prep is offered by companies like BarBri, Themis, at a cost to each student (scholarships may exist). I used BarBri, and thought it was overpriced, and offered very little "hand-holding" as I prepared. But I did pass my first time.

The exam will consist of every subject you ever took in law school, or almost.  There's a multiple choice portion, the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), and an essay portion (except in Wisconsin). Michigan's exam, for example, tests the MBE (which used to be 6 subjects but is now increased to 8), and the essays (which can be on 23 possible subjects, but only tests 15 subjects). Depending on your state's bar, there may also be a portion of "performance" on the exam (MPT). Most states have a 2 day exam, others have 3 days.

Then you wait to see if you have passed, once you pass you can be sworn in, and get your license! Congrats you have made it!!

Is lower admission standard to blame for less lawyers gaining admittance to California bar?

As law schools receive fewer and fewer applications for admission, is one tactic for their own survival to admit students who are unlikely to ever pass the bar exam?

Article here (via the lawyerist). 

The article notes the low passage rate of the July 2015 California bar - at 46.6% of takers having passed that exam. By comparison, the Michigan Bar exam passage rate for the same exam was 61%.

Why did so many people fail the bar exam this time?

This article (via taxprof blog) suggests that lower LSAT scores for entering classes is the reason why the bar exam is tougher to pass:

From the article:

Are America’s law graduates really getting dumber? The people who put together the bar exam seem to think so.

The National Conference of Bar Examiners, a nonprofit that prepares one of the state-specific multiple-choice sections in which scores dropped dramatically, sent a curt message to law school deans in October. “The results are correct,” wrote Erica Moeser, the group’s president, in an Oct. 23 memo. “The group that sat in July 2014 was less able than the group that sat in July 2013.”

This is sort of a egg-then-chicken analysis, for what it's worth. Or it could be that state-level Law Examiners are making their scoring system tougher?  As a side note, Michigan has yet to release it analysis of passers by school, etc., which they call the "results before appeals." I will post them once the BLE releases them, or go here for updates.

Also, the LSAT is supposed to indicate how a test taker will perform in their first year of law school, not whether that taker will the pass the bar. Law school is designed to weed out students, a job which it does very well (my entering class had more than double the number of people I graduated with).

(Sorry! I know that image has very little to do with the bar exam. I just love Mr. Darcy, and I needed a laugh. Thanks for reading!)

A bar exam takers nightmare: the software crashed

New law graduates in many states experienced a technology snafu at the worst possible time Tuesday night: as they were attempting to upload bar examinations just before deadlines in their states. Many reported spending hours trying and failing to upload their answers. ExamSoft, a company that manages the bar test submission process in many states, acknowledged "slowness or difficulty" being experienced. . .

Article here (via taxprof blog).

I hand wrote my exams (all of them up to and including the bar exam) so I didn't have to worry about the software.

Michigan is one of the states that did have difficulty with uploading exams, The Board of Law Examiners extended the deadline to upload. (article here, sbm blog). 

The next bar exam is only how many days away?

If you're studying, don't panic. You still have time to cram in some subject you are worried about, and do all that extra essay practice that's on your damned study schedule.

Since you need something to laugh about, though, here's an interview with a bar exam lecturer who's been at it --lecturing on Torts for Barbri, that is --  for 24 years.

Taking the Bar exam before graduation? It can happen in New York.

The Chief Judge of New York's top court is letting third-year law students take the bar exam before graduation if they choose to devote their final semester to pro bono legal services.

Article here. (via State Bar of Michigan blog.)

The word is: July 2013 Michigan Bar exam results are being released

Sources say that Michigan Bar Exam results are being released. The Board of Law Examiners issued a press release yesterday that July takers will be notified.

Best of luck, fingers crossed for those I know who are waiting their results! 

Thinking of becoming a lawyer? That means you'll need to apply to a law school

The process of becoming a lawyer is somewhat, um, lengthy.

1. You have to get through undergraduate school. (Some schools will enroll students who haven't finished undergrad, but put lots of requirements on these "provisional" students).

2. You have to take the LSAT and apply to law schools. 

3.  A law school has to accept you. This might be less of a problem right now, since law school enrollment is declining at most schools. Here's an article on the best law schools currently, as evaluated by the Princeton  

4. You have to pass and graduate from law school. This takes maybe 3 years, but could be more, depending on your schedule of classes and the school you go to. (By the way, I hope you like reading: I estimate I spent about 40-50 hours a week reading during some semesters when I was in law school. Not like reading for pleasure, either, but the law-geek part of me thought it was OK most of the time. Especially Criminal Procedure and Constitutional Law, my two favorite subjects). 

5. You are now a juris doctor.

6.  But if you want to practice law you'll have to be licensed, which means applying for (at least one) state's bar exam, passing their Character and Fitness (a lengthy background check), and being admitted to the exam, and then passing the exam. 

7. You can now practice law! Congratulations.