2015 February California Bar Exam Forum

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My_name_is_jimmothy

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Re: 2015 February California Bar Exam

Post by My_name_is_jimmothy » Mon May 25, 2015 2:31 pm

injun wrote:Hi All,

I tried working on PTA from this past February and it suddenly hit me again why I got a 50. I had problems mapping the issues from the cases to questions asked. This might be a long shot, but would anyone being willing to explain how the issues from the cases can be mapped to the specific questions in the memorandum? I felt like my answer to A blended into the other questions. Thanks in advance for ANY info with this
I remember there were three options the law firm could take. Each option had case law and/or statutes that were relevant. The options were: implead, do nothing and wait, or do what client wanted. Impleader was the best choice. One of the cases had a quote about about why an impleader was proper in these situations. One of the cases showed why doing nothing was a fiduciary violation and why doing what the client wanted was a violation of escrow agent duties. This is all from memory.

comet_halley

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Re: 2015 February California Bar Exam

Post by comet_halley » Tue May 26, 2015 2:25 am

My_name_is_jimmothy wrote:
injun wrote:Hi All,

I tried working on PTA from this past February and it suddenly hit me again why I got a 50. I had problems mapping the issues from the cases to questions asked. This might be a long shot, but would anyone being willing to explain how the issues from the cases can be mapped to the specific questions in the memorandum? I felt like my answer to A blended into the other questions. Thanks in advance for ANY info with this
I remember there were three options the law firm could take. Each option had case law and/or statutes that were relevant. The options were: implead, do nothing and wait, or do what client wanted. Impleader was the best choice. One of the cases had a quote about about why an impleader was proper in these situations. One of the cases showed why doing nothing was a fiduciary violation and why doing what the client wanted was a violation of escrow agent duties. This is all from memory.
I remember that wait and see might be the best option. Implead would make the firm to sue its own client. And doing what the client wanted was a violation of legal ethics.

s1m4

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Re: 2015 February California Bar Exam

Post by s1m4 » Tue May 26, 2015 12:50 pm

If you look up the actual case on weslaw they ended up using interpleader.

Bar Slayer

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Re: 2015 February California Bar Exam

Post by Bar Slayer » Tue May 26, 2015 5:11 pm

injun wrote:Hi All,

I tried working on PTA from this past February and it suddenly hit me again why I got a 50. I had problems mapping the issues from the cases to questions asked. This might be a long shot, but would anyone being willing to explain how the issues from the cases can be mapped to the specific questions in the memorandum? I felt like my answer to A blended into the other questions. Thanks in advance for ANY info with this
Note: writing all this partly from memory so details are probably off.

PT stuff is basic bread and butter legal memo writing.

The prompt asked about whether the person was an (1) escrow holder, (2) whether an escrow holder can act in dual capacities, and if so, (3) what restrictions there are on such behavior. Then the second part (4) asked about which one of 3 alternatives was the best path to take.

Your answer to each one of these questions should not have been related to one another. These are all distinct questions, and if you blended them together, it's possible that you didn't understand the question, or didn't understand the facts/rules. It's important to outline to make sure you're hitting the right points. Here's how I did it:

Each case in the materials sets forth a particular situation that was resolved in a particular way. From what, you can infer a rule. For example, it would be something to the effect of:

*"Under circumstances A, B, and C, an escrow holder may not act in a dual capacity because X and Y."

Let's say this case was called "Smith v. Jones." So in your scrap paper you should have 4 separate sections, and under (2) which is for dual capacities, you should write "Jones." Next to that, write down the rule from above. You basically repeat this process over and over again, pulling out the rule. Sometimes cases have multiple rules. There's the obvious one, and then there are a few less than obvious ones. For example, in the "Jones" case above, there may be an additional rule that:

"An escrow holder is a person who holds money for 2 unrelated parties"

Now this rule isn't what the essence of Smith v. Jones is about. But it's still a useful rule to have. This rule should be written down and you should also write "Jones" under (1) to discuss whether a a person was an escrow holder.

You basically repeat this process until you've pulled out all possible rules from all the cases. At that point you should have an out line of the 4 question subparts, along with all the cases and rules laid out. Then you go back to the fact documents (transcripts, memos, letters, etc) and start plugging in these facts to the rules.

So to use the first rule, you should go through the facts looking very specifically for facts that match up with circumstances A, B, and C. Add that to your outline.

Later, when writing, you will use the reasoning (because X and Y) and plug it into that section as quotes.

Outlining should take you a really long time. I spent 1/2 to 2/3 of the 3 hours outlining and putting everything together. This might seem excessive but it keeps your writing clear and consistent. You'll also find that if you do the outlining right, the writing will go by very fast.

s1m4

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Re: 2015 February California Bar Exam

Post by s1m4 » Tue May 26, 2015 7:08 pm

Bar Slayer wrote:
injun wrote:Hi All,

I tried working on PTA from this past February and it suddenly hit me again why I got a 50. I had problems mapping the issues from the cases to questions asked. This might be a long shot, but would anyone being willing to explain how the issues from the cases can be mapped to the specific questions in the memorandum? I felt like my answer to A blended into the other questions. Thanks in advance for ANY info with this
Note: writing all this partly from memory so details are probably off.

PT stuff is basic bread and butter legal memo writing.

The prompt asked about whether the person was an (1) escrow holder, (2) whether an escrow holder can act in dual capacities, and if so, (3) what restrictions there are on such behavior. Then the second part (4) asked about which one of 3 alternatives was the best path to take.

Your answer to each one of these questions should not have been related to one another. These are all distinct questions, and if you blended them together, it's possible that you didn't understand the question, or didn't understand the facts/rules. It's important to outline to make sure you're hitting the right points. Here's how I did it:

Each case in the materials sets forth a particular situation that was resolved in a particular way. From what, you can infer a rule. For example, it would be something to the effect of:

*"Under circumstances A, B, and C, an escrow holder may not act in a dual capacity because X and Y."

Let's say this case was called "Smith v. Jones." So in your scrap paper you should have 4 separate sections, and under (2) which is for dual capacities, you should write "Jones." Next to that, write down the rule from above. You basically repeat this process over and over again, pulling out the rule. Sometimes cases have multiple rules. There's the obvious one, and then there are a few less than obvious ones. For example, in the "Jones" case above, there may be an additional rule that:

"An escrow holder is a person who holds money for 2 unrelated parties"

Now this rule isn't what the essence of Smith v. Jones is about. But it's still a useful rule to have. This rule should be written down and you should also write "Jones" under (1) to discuss whether a a person was an escrow holder.

You basically repeat this process until you've pulled out all possible rules from all the cases. At that point you should have an out line of the 4 question subparts, along with all the cases and rules laid out. Then you go back to the fact documents (transcripts, memos, letters, etc) and start plugging in these facts to the rules.

So to use the first rule, you should go through the facts looking very specifically for facts that match up with circumstances A, B, and C. Add that to your outline.

Later, when writing, you will use the reasoning (because X and Y) and plug it into that section as quotes.

Outlining should take you a really long time. I spent 1/2 to 2/3 of the 3 hours outlining and putting everything together. This might seem excessive but it keeps your writing clear and consistent. You'll also find that if you do the outlining right, the writing will go by very fast.
Wanted to bump Barslayer's good advice, and also add my recipe.

After you pull out the rules based on the method above, you write:

Rule; A party may act as an escrow holder despite also being a beneficiary. Jones v Blahberg.

Facts from Rule Case; In Blahberg, the court held that Mr. Jones became an escrow holder even though he was a beneficiary when he took stock certificates even though he was a lawyer.

Your facts here; Here, like in Jones v Blahberg, Mr. Vxyz was also a lawyer and took stock certificates.

OR

Here, unlike in Jones v. Blahberg, Mr Vxyz was not a lawyer even though he took stock certificates.


Draw conclusion here; Thus, like in Blahberg, Mr. Vxyz is an escrowholder.

OR

Thus, unlike in Blahberg, because was not a lawyer, not an escrowholder like in Blahberg.

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Chrisa88

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Re: 2015 February California Bar Exam

Post by Chrisa88 » Sun Jun 07, 2015 11:07 am

I passed February. This was my 3rd time. I only took the attorneys exam so sorry no MBE advice. Here's my approach and philosophy.
1. There is a finite universe of manageable rules per subject. Around 15 frequently tested issues per subject. If you ace these commonly tested issues, even if you fail the outliers like Cy Pres or an attorney violating a securities law (July 2014), you will pass.
2. Buy this book: bar code cheat sheets. I literally retyped every template in this book, all 39 of them, in hopes of remembering the format.
3. Pay for baressays.com. I searched for the top 2-3 highest scoring essays for each subject and did my best to model all my practice and regular tests after the high scoring essays. Barbri was giving me 65-70 on my graded practice essays.
4. Have at least 10 headings per essay even if you only have 2-3 sentences under each heading.
5. Barbri does a decent job at PT prep. Despite failing July 2014, I did get 65s on both PTs.

Good luck and keep at it. I graduated 15 years ago so this was really, really hard.

redblueyellow

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Re: 2015 February California Bar Exam

Post by redblueyellow » Sun Jun 07, 2015 5:31 pm

Chrisa88 wrote:I passed February. This was my 3rd time. I only took the attorneys exam so sorry no MBE advice. Here's my approach and philosophy.

2. Buy this book: bar code cheat sheets. I literally retyped every template in this book, all 39 of them, in hopes of remembering the format.
3. Pay for baressays.com. I searched for the top 2-3 highest scoring essays for each subject and did my best to model all my practice and regular tests after the high scoring essays. Barbri was giving me 65-70 on my graded practice essays.

Good luck and keep at it. I graduated 15 years ago so this was really, really hard.
I have a baressays.com subscription as do most people here, but after paying for the prep course, is another $139 for bar code cheat sheets worth it? There's just so much information and as a full time employee, I have no idea if I can make it yet another resource work. I'm just trying to think out loud, and the lack of sample pages is a bit concerning, but were you able you to memorize the format and material in the templates in that book?

Chrisa88

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Re: 2015 February California Bar Exam

Post by Chrisa88 » Mon Jun 08, 2015 12:14 am

I can't say for certain whether I memorized the templates, but the thoroughness of the templates in my opinion will help maximize points per essay. I'm not the type to recall exactly what I wrote. I also felt the 39 templates helped narrow down frequently tested issues per subject. I'm sure I missed issues but I felt my essays were more thorough regardless thanks to my approach.

Calicakes

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Re: 2015 February California Bar Exam

Post by Calicakes » Mon Jun 08, 2015 4:05 pm

redblueyellow wrote:
Chrisa88 wrote:I passed February. This was my 3rd time. I only took the attorneys exam so sorry no MBE advice. Here's my approach and philosophy.

2. Buy this book: bar code cheat sheets. I literally retyped every template in this book, all 39 of them, in hopes of remembering the format.
3. Pay for baressays.com. I searched for the top 2-3 highest scoring essays for each subject and did my best to model all my practice and regular tests after the high scoring essays. Barbri was giving me 65-70 on my graded practice essays.

Good luck and keep at it. I graduated 15 years ago so this was really, really hard.
I have a baressays.com subscription as do most people here, but after paying for the prep course, is another $139 for bar code cheat sheets worth it? There's just so much information and as a full time employee, I have no idea if I can make it yet another resource work. I'm just trying to think out loud, and the lack of sample pages is a bit concerning, but were you able you to memorize the format and material in the templates in that book?

I have the bar code cheat sheets in a dropbox file. If anyone wants it( for free), let me know. Its basically the entire book so you'll have to pick and chose what you want.
Last edited by Calicakes on Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Calicakes

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Re: 2015 February California Bar Exam

Post by Calicakes » Mon Jun 08, 2015 4:08 pm

Since its unlawful to share or distribute copies of copyrighted materials, I can't say that I have this entire bar code cheat sheets box in a drop box file. Contact me and I can tell you about it, I can't share it though. ( Wink Wink).

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