The Bar Exam Goes On

  • Law
  • The Supreme Court of Nevada ruled that the bar exam is going forward next week as scheduled—open book and essays, but no diploma privilege. [TNI]
  • The second special legislative session needed with passage of a COVID liability bill. [TNI]
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 5:02 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Stop trying to make Diploma Privilege happen, Gretchen.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 5:12 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

These kids were clearly never told 'no' by a parent before and it shows.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:22 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Participation trophy generation.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:24 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Why open book? How does that prepare these graduates for the practice of law? I have gone to trial while suffering with with the flu? Done a hearing after the death of a parent, another hearing with bronchitis. That's the profession. What is going on here?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:37 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

@11:24: How does the bar exam prepare applicants to practice law? Those who pass the bar has no idea what the "real" practice of law is even after passing the exam.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:56 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

How does access to research materials benefit any attorney?! I've memorized every case and statute I've ever read so I can draft briefs with my books closed – just as the lord intended.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 7, 2020 1:56 am
Reply to  Anonymous

I loved the bar exam. Best four weeks of my life. For a few days before and after the exam, I was a living legal lexicon. It gave me the foundation upon which I have built a successful career. I cannot imagine being as good without the bar exam. Make it difficult. Grade it on the meanest curve. Benefits all.

Bic Lau
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Bic Lau
August 6, 2020 4:42 pm

As a practicing lawyer I always root for a low pass rate to keep the competition down.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 4:56 pm

I read through some of the comments yesterday. TLDR: bar exams are hard, but extra hard during a pandemic with so much uncertainty! I deserve diploma privilege!

There was one that argued for diploma privilege because of the trauma of George Floyd.

Law schools do too much woke coddling.

Some of these kids are in for a rude awakening when they begin practicing.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 5:11 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Woke coddling is the best term I've seen. I've been waiting for the right time to post this anecdote. Was attending Boyd in 2016, and had a professor the day after the election spend the entire class period lamenting how they cried the whole night and could barely function because Trump won. A professor. Of law. At a school I was paying money to attend. I'm still shaking my head about that day.

Good on the Bar and the Supreme Ct for not coddling back!

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 5:39 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Funny that people endlessly trash the State Bar on here, but then are convinced it will be able to pull off a complete change to the format and technology of the exam, on short notice, while underhanded due to covid.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 10, 2020 2:11 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Name names, 10:11

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 5:25 pm
Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:23 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Beautiful. Why can't we have a mail-in bar exam? With harvesting.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:35 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

And participation trophies!

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 7:40 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

And hanging chads.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 5:41 pm

My favorite thing about this blog is half the posts are lobbying for protectionist policies, like tough bar exams and preventing reciprocity, because this town is filled with lawyers who lack the ability to actually survive in a competitive market.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:37 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

The Family Bar here is excellent. I find myself regularly explaining the UCCJEA, UIFSA etc., to out of state family practitioners and know that my colleagues are doing the same.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:38 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Shouldn't you be studying for the bar next week?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:10 pm

No I think most of the posts are for a call to maintain the same standards and requirements for entry into the bar as we all have had to endure. Why does the State Bar need to make things easier for those attempting to enter the bar? What has changed that requires things to get easier?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:23 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Coronavirus and George Floyd. There is too much uncertainty and social upheaval for delicate minds to cope with when taking a bar exam.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 6:48 pm

Pandemic = 10% medicine + 90% politics

Gov Sisolak declares Racism a Public Health Crisis. Wow, this is an original idea. I wonder how many other governors followed is lead? Looks like the Governor in Michigan followed his lead– 6 hours earlier- another "follow the leader" Sisolak proclomation. But hey, even though he destroyed Nevada for a generation, he saved us from a disease that may or may not be more deadly than seasonal flu.

2+2=5

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 8:21 pm

Re preparation for legal practice: The only realistic preparation for practicing at Family Court would be that during the last semester of law school one is bound, blindfolded, removed from all access to lubricant and left in a bathhouse filled with escapees from a mental institution wearing black robes.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 9:59 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

You're not lying…unfortunately

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 8:33 pm

Epidemiologists: Here's a mask. If you wear it there is a chance you could save your neighbor's life. If you don't wear it, they could still get sick and die, but the chances of that happening would be much lower so please wear this mask for your neighbor.
America: Fuck my neighbor and fuck you. 'Murca!

Who raised you people?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 10:34 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

NO MASKS NEVADA!

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 10:43 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Hmm… let me try.

Doctor: if you don't get this abortion there's a very, very, very good chance that your baby will live a happy, healthy life. If you do get it, however, your baby will definitely die, which likely have an emotional effect on you, the father, his family, and your family.

Woman: my body, my choice. Fuck the baby, the father, and our families.

I guess principles of bodily autonomy only apply to fake constitutional rights.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 11:20 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

it's a fetus…not a baby…

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 7, 2020 1:53 am
Reply to  Anonymous

The difference is that abortion kills innocent human beings, and masks save no one.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 7, 2020 3:09 am
Reply to  Anonymous

it's a fetus…not a human being…

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 7, 2020 3:57 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Serioisly THE MOST HILARIOUS REASON NOT TO WEAR A MASK THANK YOU RIGHT WINGERS I AM DYING HERE!!! (and yes its supposed to be in caps).

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 7, 2020 4:41 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

3:43 has a case of whataboutism and 4:20 is a medical professional! Maybe 4:20 can help with 3:43's whataboutism? Then after that (fingerscrossed) 4:20 can go to washington and tell Dr. Faui how to handle a pandemic. What a relief that would be for the country…no…the world!

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 7, 2020 7:48 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

9:41 – Dr. Fauci is not supposed to be "handling" the pandemic. We are supposed to have a leader that does that. Dr. Fauci is merely an expert that is supposed to advise that theoretical leader.

You were SO CLOSE to getting the real issue here. Well, keep trying kid.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 7, 2020 8:02 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

While I'll was being facetious, there's no excuse for your douchey-ness, kid.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 7, 2020 8:03 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

*I

Had to make that grammar correction cause heaven forbid I make a grammar error on a blog. Right, kid

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 6, 2020 10:13 pm

As to this discussion of whether Bar exams should be required for admission, neither side is wrong

It is true that the bar exam seems to have, at best, very limited relationship with the skill set and approach one will need to successfully practice law. Plus there are a myriad of other issues, such as the complete subjectivity as to essay grading. They have experimented with this issue in some states, and determine that one grader will grade an essay at 70% credit, while the other will grade the same essay at 40% credit, etc. Even understanding the human element and that each grader will be different, to an extent, as to how they grade, that type of variance is unacceptable and patently inequitable.

The Bar Exam is not some effective weed-out tool to avoid incompetent and unqualified applicants from entering the profession.

But it is a false dichotomy to argue that because the Bar Exam is unfair and of little or no value, that we must adopt no admission standards beyond requiring an applicant to be a graduate of an accredited law school.

A state is entitled to effectively control the flow of lawyers into the state, and most do. Many require the Bar Exam in the State the applicant wishes to be licensed in, while others respect reciprocity if an applicant is already licensed in a different state.

But I don't believe there are too many who require neither an exam nor being licensed in another state, and simply accept everyone who graduates law school.

In fact, if there are any states that nether require the Bar Exam nor being licensed in some other state, I'd like to know what they are. And I bet that even those states require something more than simply graduating law school. There must be some work requirement–work at a law firm, or in a governmental legal capacity, for a length of time.