Somewhere out there is a recently graduated law student studying for the bar exam, a two (or sometimes three) day ordeal which begins in nearly every state tomorrow.
Its been 12 years since I drove down to Roanoke, Virginia and took the Virginia Bar Exam. I have no real recollection of the test itself at this point, but I do remember studying for it — except for a break here or there, pretty much every day from Memorial Day to the last week of July was taken up with bar review, study, practice tests, outlining, and more studying. I would walk the neighborhood around my old apartment at 10pm or later while I went through in my head the various details of Torts, Property, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Constitutional Law, and all of the other 21 areas of law that could potentially be covered by the Virginia Bar Exam.
The four hour drive down to Roanoke that Monday before the exam was relaxing simply because I knew at that point that I’d done everything I could to be ready. I spent very little time studying the night before the first day of the exam, or in between the first and second days. At that point I either knew it or I didn’t.
Virginia is still an old-fashioned state and the bar exam is no exception. In 1993, all candidates sitting for the bar were required to wear business dress — for men, this meant this mean a suit and tie, for women it meant a business suit (I believe there was a no pants rule for women in place). I don’t know if this dress code still applies but it just reinforced a lot of what I’d learned about Virginia law, which in some respects is more tradition-bound than many states. For example, to this day it is not uncommon for me to cite as authority for some principle of law a case from the mid to late 19th Century. This would not be the case in practically any other state, but Virginia’s Supreme Court has been loath to overturn or “update” long-standing precedent.
I made it through the bar exam and then spent the next month at my parent’s home in New Jersey recovering from the ordeal. I didn’t find out until October that I’d passed and the rest, as they say, is history.
