Law School

I Passed the Bar

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I apologize for the off-topic post but I know some people are interested in this, I’ll be posting a personal finance post later tonight.

The bar exam results came out yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised to find out I passed the bar exam. There were several factors that made me a longshot to pass the bar exam. It had been over two years since I finished law school classes, I did self-study rather than a bar exam review course, I was near the bottom of my graduating law school class, and I worked while preparing for the bar exam. Despite all that I managed to pass the bar exam.

I really didn’t think I was going to pass since I was sure I bombed a couple of the essay questions. Examining my bar exam results I was correct that I bombed two of the essay questions but I did well enough on the remaining questions to bring my score up to average. I did slightly below average on the MBE which I felt that I had done well on but it was good enough for me to pass. It is difficult to predict how well you have done on the bar exam.

My enrollment ceremony will be later this month. After that I’ll be a licensed attorney. I’m not sure what I’ll do after that but I am going to do something as an attorney.

Running a Marathon and Goals for September

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My progress at losing weight has been nonexistent. Therefore, I have decided to try another tactic for losing weight. I have registered to run a marathon in November. I’ve run four previous marathons before so I know I can do it. That being said with the condition I am now in it will take some work to be able to run a marathon in November. It is actually easier to run a marathon than most people think but only giving myself two months to prepare is going to make it more of a challenge. My goal will just be to finish. My time is usually around 5 hours which is not fast but I still consider it an accomplishment. Weight loss should be a nice side effect of training for the marathon.

I’m also going to register for the February bar this month. Based on what I have seen this process will take quite a few hours. There is a $950 registration fee which I am going to hate paying but I’m hoping it will pay off in the long run. There will also be more expenses after that but since I spent thousands of dollars and four years going to law school it make sense to actually become a lawyer. And I do have some ideas for using my law degree.

Update: I forgot about one of my goals. I’m also making a goal of keeping my monthly spending – other than the bar registration fee – under $1000. I haven’t kept my spending under $1000 for a few months and I need to get my spending back to that level.

Sitting for the Bar

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Yesterday, I finally got around to starting the application process to sit for the February bar exam. I already missed the October 1 deadline to avoid paying late fees and if I don’t have my application submitted before November 1 the fee is going to go up again. The fee is already over $1000 so I really don’t want to pay any more than that. If I had completed my character and fitness application when I was a 1L or 2L the cost would have been about half as much. Oh well, it is too late to worry about that now.

I’m not sure if I will be able to get this application completed by the end of the month. I need to get my fingerprints taken, go to the DMV and have a copy of my driving record sent to the office of the bar examiners, and get a certified copy of my birth certificate sent to them as well. This is on top of completing the actual application. I spent a little over an hour on the application yesterday and I think I still have a long way to go to complete it. Some of the questions, such as listing every place you have lived since you were 18, are probably not that big of a deal for a 25 year old but for a peripatetic 42 year old like me this is an extremely complicated question. Using my credit report and my tax returns I should be able to give a reasonably correct accounting of where I have lived but it will be difficult. There are some other questions as well that are going to much more complicated for me to answer than the average person.

After the exam fee, bar prep fees, and all of the other fees I will incur in preparation for the bar I expect to be out over $5,000. I’m not sure if taking the exam is worth it since I do not especially want to be a lawyer. However, since I have spent so much money and time on law school it seems like I should become an attorney rather than let all of my schooling go to waste.

Graduation Pictures

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graduation

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I have uploaded some pictures from my graduation. The first picture is of me being hooded by the Dean of the law school. The second picture is me receiving my degree. The last picture is me holding my degree. It actually is just a folder that says if I have met the degree requirements my degree will be available for pick up later this summer.

I do look pretty fat in these pictures. That is probably because I am fat. By the end of the year I should look (and be) much thinner.

I Graduated Law School

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Graduation
photo credit: jnb photos
I had my graduation ceremony for law school Saturday. It was a busy weekend with my mom coming to town for my graduation on Saturday and then having a Mother’s Day breakfast with my mom and Mother’s Day lunch with GF’s mom. That was after the celebratory dinner for my graduation Saturday night. It might take my body a couple of days to recover from all the food I ate.

Now that things have slowed down somewhat I plan to spend some more time on the blog. I’ll be doing this medical study for about 60 more days and it won’t take much of my time so some of that spare time will be spent working on this blog. I’ll have a new post tomorrow. It will be the long promised interview with Monique Tilford, co-author of the latest edition of Your Money or Your Life.