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.

Psychosis/Situation Normal

Asalaam alaikum,

Read this article if you want to know how stressful law school can be... or to commiserate... or to thank Allah for getting you through that first year.

http://www.switched.com/2008/11/14/why-you-should-never-try-to-steal-a-law-students-laptop/

Thanks for the article, Michele!

Salaam.

dish on LSAT

Asalaam alaikum,

If you want to go to law school, you want to take the LSAT, or Law School Admission Test. It is a speed reading and logic test that is given four times a year, administered by the Law School Admission Council. http://www.lsac.org/

There's also an essay portion of the test that is not too bad-- requires a coherent argument for or against something.

The LSAT has nothing to do with law, BTW.

The LSAC website explains the process and the test's importance quite well. They also have previous years' tests compiled into book form and for sale on the site. I bought one of these, and I recommend it.

The powers that be, ie law school admissions departments, state that an LSAT score is more indicative of how a student will perform than GPA. The scores run from 120 to 180, with 150 being average.

If you're in college, plan on taking it once during or following your junior year, way before deadlines for law school admissions. Start practicing in your sophomore year! You do not want to take the test more than once, unless you've really tanked the first. Law schools say that they average scores and lean towards the last test, unless you can explain why admissions should ignore the first altogether.

So if you got a 163 on one test and are bucking for a 170, unless you really, really have a solid basis for believing that you'll hit that 170, think twice. There is a chance you could do worse on the second than the first. Ouch.

My experience:

My GPA was fantastic. My LSAT scores, however... The first score was 147. I chose to take the test again, as I doubted I would be attractive to any school with that score. My second score was 156.

Turns out I'm just about average. (As was my MPRE score three years later.)

One school rejected me outright, one put me on its waiting list, and two accepted me. I attended the school closest to my house, a little over an hour away.

(This school, BTW, makes a point to go beyond studying the LSAT score and GPA in determining its student body. Most schools say they do this, but I'm doubtful.)

How did I improve my score despite my very limited practice time? I focused on the logic part of the test rather than the reading. When it came down to it, my reading abilities could improve only so much in a short period of time.

That's why I suggest start practicing the LSAT in your sophomore year. You'll read a lot of boring stuff in law school, but if you can get through an LSAT, you will have become immune to the effects of drudge reading going in.

The LSAT's as bad as it gets, guys.

If you enjoy digging into logic puzzles (like I do), you'll either love or hate the logic testing. I hated it.

Why? Well, because logic puzzles in puzzle books have the clues that will completely solve the puzzle. The questions in the LSAT, however, neither provide the information to completely solve it, nor do they require that it be completely solved. And there's not enough time to analyze puzzle facts completely anyway. The goal is to answer the question asked ASAP and move on to the next.

Killjoy.

I had to learn to approach the facts for the limited purpose of answering the question asked, which is very frustrating to someone who really, really enjoys that type of thing.

Enough practice and my score improved, alhamdulillah.

Best advice for the LSAT. Start early for reading practice, focus heavily on logic problems, especially if you have no experience with them. Insha Allah, you will do great if you practice enough.
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