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Hi all,

I have an offer to be a summer associate at my firm before beginning my clerkship. My firm structures their 3L program to allow for taking the bar (not sure everything that entails, but it at least means time off to study) and will pay for my bar study course and fees. I was wondering if anybody here had been an SA while bar studying and whether it's doable.

I already have a full-time offer so it's not like I need this to get a full-time job, but I would like to spend more time with the firm and also improve my odds at getting my desired practice area.

If anyone has experience doing this I would love some anecdotes or advice. I hope this is the right forum.

When I studied for the bar last summer, it was basically a full time job, and still did not feel great after I took it. So, your scenario seems pretty challenging to me. I would not recommend it, especially since you already have an offer. It will be worse if you fail the bar, than getting the right practice group, I think.

People do it. People pass the bar working full time without the extra flexibility you'll get. It probably depends on how hard the bar you're taking and whether they'll schedule it to give you most of July off. When I was studying, I spent about 5 hours a day on bar stuff, 5 days a week, from late May through July. I probably could have studied a little less and still passed. If you have weekends plus maybe 2-3 hours a night, plus some time off closer to the bar itself, you'll probably be just fine. It will be a tough summer but you also make $30k or so instead of taking out a bar loan, so that's decent.

Do it. $$$ and experience.

Plus if you fail you'll have a great excuse for your employer

FWIW, I worked half days (like until 1:00) during bar study, and it was totally doable. Depends on your personality, I guess- I would have gone fucking crazy (and probably would have failed) if I had nothing to do all day long but study for the bar.

I've known people who did it prior to clerking. They passed and made a nice bit of income before their clerking stint kicked off. I think you just have to be honest with yourself in regards to whether you can still give the Bar exam the time it needs while pulling a 3L SA gig.

I think you can do it so long as you can take the week off right before the bar. You're going to be really stressed then and don't need anything extra to do. In May/June it would be totally fine.

Void wrote:FWIW, I worked half days (like until 1:00) during bar study, and it was totally doable. Depends on your personality, I guess- I would have gone fucking crazy (and probably would have failed) if I had nothing to do all day long but study for the bar.

worldtraveler wrote:I think you can do it so long as you can take the week off right before the bar. You're going to be really stressed then and don't need anything extra to do. In May/June it would be totally fine.

These are credited. I worked 2-3 days a week during bar study. Not sure I could have done a full 40. But by working PT, I had cash. I also had some freetime (my friends and I had sunday evening bbqs to destress). One caveat is I didn't really have days off and particularly after July 4. I would also suggest taking off at least the week before.

JuTMSY4 wrote:

Void wrote:FWIW, I worked half days (like until 1:00) during bar study, and it was totally doable. Depends on your personality, I guess- I would have gone fucking crazy (and probably would have failed) if I had nothing to do all day long but study for the bar.

worldtraveler wrote:I think you can do it so long as you can take the week off right before the bar. You're going to be really stressed then and don't need anything extra to do. In May/June it would be totally fine.

These are credited. I worked 2-3 days a week during bar study. Not sure I could have done a full 40. But by working PT, I had cash. I also had some freetime (my friends and I had sunday evening bbqs to destress). One caveat is I didn't really have days off and particularly after July 4. I would also suggest taking off at least the week before.

Yeah I took off the last 10 days before the exam. Honestly I didn't even really need that much time- 5 days of full-time studying right beforehand would've done it (in addition to a couple months of working/studying)

Purely speculative thoughts from a 2L: wouldn't this also turn in large part on how hard the firm works it's regular SA's? Using that as a baseline and then adjusting for how flexible you anticipate them being for the fact that you're studying, I can imagine the advisability will vary dramatically.

I would have the week of the bar and the week before the bar completely off. And the summer program last summer was very manageable; I had friends at some firms that worked you late into the night, but I was gone every day by 5:30.

Purely speculative question from a 3L: Is it really necessary to treat bar study as a "full-time job" next year? I've heard from some people who did, and then from others who did not give a fuck that much and still passed. Almost seems like law school where paranoid gunners will be paranoid gunners and some people who are chill about things still do OK. I mean, there are people at firms who for whatever reason (maybe not failing but OK) don't get admitted until 1-3 years in, right? It's just, you know, those are my last three months before I bill 2000 a year or whatever, and I already have time blocked off for every World Cup match.

Anonymous User wrote:Purely speculative question from a 3L: Is it really necessary to treat bar study as a "full-time job" next year? I've heard from some people who did, and then from others who did not give a fuck that much and still passed. Almost seems like law school where paranoid gunners will be paranoid gunners and some people who are chill about things still do OK. I mean, there are people at firms who for whatever reason (maybe not failing but OK) don't get admitted until 1-3 years in, right? It's just, you know, those are my last three months before I bill 2000 a year or whatever, and I already have time blocked off for every World Cup match.

If you try to follow the BarBri schedule, you will likely end up feeling really shitty about yourself and your inability to finish everything, even if you treat it as full time. I think I finished at 47% done, and then scored in like the 95th percentile for the MBE. I've heard that other companies don't put as much on your schedule, which is probably as it should be.

People always seem to do this in varying degrees. I find that part time students (patent agents usually) tend to do this as they're a bit more comfortable with the balancing act. Last year we had a 3L SA and I don't know when he ever studied. Haven't heard about his TX bar results yet, certainly hope he didn't pass.

I would say you need to be mindful of your ability to say no to work. If you're not going to be comfortable getting yourself out of the office, it probably isn't worth it. People will talk out both sides of their moth, simultaneously telling you how much you need to study while handing you another pile of work.

Anonymous User wrote:If you try to follow the BarBri schedule, you will likely end up feeling really shitty about yourself and your inability to finish everything, even if you treat it as full time. I think I finished at 47% done, and then scored in like the 95th percentile for the MBE. I've heard that other companies don't put as much on your schedule, which is probably as it should be.

The companies absolutely want you to pass, so it's in their interest to give you as much work and convince you to spend every waking minute studying or productively resting. They all load you up and all the work is not necessary. You're competing against the test - beat the test and you're done.

ipguy wrote:People always seem to do this in varying degrees. I find that part time students (patent agents usually) tend to do this as they're a bit more comfortable with the balancing act. Last year we had a 3L SA and I don't know when he ever studied. Haven't heard about his TX bar results yet, certainly hope he didn't pass.

That's just rude.

ipguy wrote:I would say you need to be mindful of your ability to say no to work. If you're not going to be comfortable getting yourself out of the office, it probably isn't worth it. People will talk out both sides of their moth, simultaneously telling you how much you need to study while handing you another pile of work.

This is also true. I had a great office situation, so it wasn't a problem. I also worked my entire time in LS, so I knew the gig before hand.

Thanks for the advice, all. I'm going to go for it.

If I crash and burn I will post here for future generations.

JuTMSY4 wrote:

ipguy wrote:People always seem to do this in varying degrees. I find that part time students (patent agents usually) tend to do this as they're a bit more comfortable with the balancing act. Last year we had a 3L SA and I don't know when he ever studied. Haven't heard about his TX bar results yet, certainly hope he didn't pass.

That's just rude.

lol WOW!

Whoops... came back to say he did pass.