Learn to edit!

I have had the distinct pleasure of editing a portion of a book that was, well, very poorly written (English is this sister's second language). The book had a lot of great stuff to say, however, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the author could not afford to have the entire book edited, and so I was fired. Upon my dismissal, I gave her some advice that applies to law students too, if for the only reason that lawyers are writers, like it or not.

"Don't give up on your book, and start editing it yourself when you have time. When the time comes where you have money to finish editing and publish, the job will be simpler and quicker for the editor-- making the job much less expensive, insha Allah.

"I will give you a little editor's advice. Insha Allah, it will be somewhat helpful to you.

"If you examine the work I have done, you will notice that much of the work involved incorporating your bracketed side notes into the main text and smoothing the use of the Urdu words. With a little creativity and grammar skills, you can do this yourself.

"I have cut lists of words because the words tend to be synonyms of each other after a while, and the effectiveness of the passage wanes.

"Also, if you read your writing aloud, (or have an American friend or one of your kids do it?) it becomes easier to critique and make changes.

"Not many of us are great writers, or even good writers. I myself am not a good writer, but I'm an excellent editor, so I appear to be a good writer. The best thing you can do for your writing is to be as critical as you can be, and improve each sentence one at a time. And if a sentence is not necessary-- either because it's irrelevant, only slightly relevant, or already stated, then cut it."

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So you're trying to impress your boss with your incredible insight and understanding of a complex legal issue. Don't distract her with your poor grammar and irrelevant sentences instead. Unless you're fortunate, you won't have your best friend and editor to fix your mistakes before submitting. You should learn while in law school how to edit your own writing. The process, BTW, requires at least one full night's sleep between the writing finish and the editing start.

LSAT scholarship

Interested in law school? Check this out:

http://www.sidley.com/careers/northamerica/about/prelawscholars/

Once you get into law school...

Assuming a student doesn't get kicked out of law school after her first year, there are still a lot of steps to take before she becomes licensed in North Carolina.

First, she needs to finish out her second and third year of law school and graduate.

She also needs to fill out a grueling bar application that requires her to list practically every detail of her life, including parents, prior husbands, divorce details, judgments, debts, job details and employment history, school history, credit history, criminal history (includes traffic tickets and any other hiccup) and residences since the age of 18. She must have a total of twelve personal references-- no ex-employers or family members. Four of those must fill out and get notarized a "Certificate of Good Character." Part of the application process requires that she sit for an interview with Bar-commissioned attorneys who are supposed to discuss the application with her and look for, and justify any perceived discrepancies.

That application must be complete no less that 5 1/2 months prior to taking the July bar exam, which turns out, is a terrible time for students to be worrying about a bar application.

Then she must take the bar exam, which is a 2-day, 12 hour test. This will cost her several hundred dollars ($600 + late charge, if any) plus another $100 for software if she takes the exam on a laptop.

It costs almost three thousand dollars to take the standard state-specific bar review course (which is the first day of the exam). For the MBE portion (the second day), classes run from anywhere between $400 and $1000.

Assuming she passes (it's about 1 1/2 months before she finds out whether she passes) she must get sworn in. She must look for a job and get hired somewhere, or, she must go through another set of hurdles to establish a firm for herself, which includes a 7-step process to become a Professional Limited Liability company, buying insurance, establishing bank accounts that satisfy the State bar, and all that other regular stuff that businesses have to do.

Taking the bar and wearing a scarf at the same time

Yes, folks, it can be done.

The bar rep took me into another room. I took off my scarf and she made sure I wasn't wearing wires or a switch blade... or whatever she was looking for. She didn't feel my scalp or anything, so it wasn't too bad. The room had a big window that opened to the lobby, so I had to shift to the side where people weren't in the line of sight. It took 30 seconds- no big deal.

Like I said, the woman who checked me was embarrassed to ask me-- I tried to make her comfortable. She didn't want to check me after lunch, but I made her. She avoided me on the MBE day, and I didn't flag her down. If it was that big a deal, she would have found me.

Michele was quite a bit more annoyed, having taken it last July. They wanted her to take off her "hat." She said it wasn't a hat and argued w/ the bar rep until the bar rep called a supervisor and they let her through. Pretty funny. Apparently, hijab-wearing women don't make a habit of passing through the exam doors. Alhamdulillah that is changing.

Perhaps the reason why the MPRE and LSAT don't require an under-hijab search is because they are national tests, and they've probably already run into that issue and decided it isn't worth the invasion of privacy to the test taker.

Virginia didn't require that I show my head, but there were no covered sisters taking the test with me.

Check your disc drive before you walk in to the bar exam!

NC's rules for sitting for the bar are quite strict, and one does not go through her 1L year at Central without being warned about the dangers of breaking those rules.

I was busted anyway. My own fault. Don't let it happen to you.

My disc drive, for some reason, does not like the first of my set of three Sales CDs. When it didn't work while I was washing dishes a couple weeks before the exam, I put on something else and forgot the disc was there, and yeah, forgot to take it out until...

... about a second after I walked into the exam room. I had plenty of time before the test was to start and informed the proctor right away. I probably could have gotten away with it if I hadn't said anything. But my conscience would have been screaming for the next 6 hours.

VERY frustrating to get the letter telling me I had to wait until my affidavit was reviewed by the bar officials at the same time everyone else was getting their pass/fail letters. There was no personal interview.

At first I was told the meeting was in OCTOBER (for a February exam), then got a follow-up letter saying, "oops, sorry, we meant June." That was a bit of relief.

As for special circumstances (?), one of the bar folks asked to check under my scarf. She was very polite, apologetic, and kind of embarrased about it. She didn't check me the 2nd day for the MBE. I don't/didn't mind the search because I certainly don't want anyone thinking I had an unfair advantage or an opportunity to cheat.

I passed! Alhamdulillah. But I didn't get my Sales CD back :(

How important are those grades?

Asalaam alaikum,

This little blog post touches on anxiety over law school grades. I agree that there are more important things in life than law school A's (and the law school journal for that matter), and that we may not define ourselves by our grades. That would just be silly.

However, it is much easier to get an interview if you're at the top of the class.

http://ms-jd.org/are-grades-everything

This site is a positively scathing parody of life at a law firm. Enjoy and consider what the author is saying:

http://anonymouslawfirm.com/page.php?text_id=Summer_Program

How the World Views Law School

Asalaam alaikum,

Enjoy this lesson in lawyering.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_yDaYy5AHY

Ethics rules be damned, BTW. Disbarment is irrelevant.