July 2015 Texas Bar Exam Forum

[Devlin]

In light of everything that we can not bring to the room, I would guess that under the spirit of the law you are forbidden to bring a mouse pad. You could solidly fit a commercial paper outline on a mouse pad.

[TXLawHopeful15]

In light of everything that we can not bring to the room, I would guess that under the spirit of the law you are forbidden to bring a mouse pad. You could solidly fit a commercial paper outline on a mouse pad.

^
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[jamescastle]

Know this is last minute but does anyone have a good resource for a consumer law outline? Thanks.

[jwe-houston]

Know this is last minute but does anyone have a good resource for a consumer law outline? Thanks.

This close, a consumer outline will not help. Try these: https://quizlet.com/_1g20iv

There are a bunch of flash cards for all TX 2015 subjects and MPE.

[YYZ]

This might be a silly question........ but the instructions specifically say we can bring an external mouse. Does this mean we can bring a mouse pad too? Scared to risk bring something "forbidden" into the secure area, but I really want to use my mouse pad lol.

I brought a mouse pad in with my external mouse. It was no problem. You can show the person who checks your stuff before entering the exam room and make sure it's OK. Worst case, you throw it away if they won't let you have it.

[Neff]

Anyone else planning on calling it quits and just vegging out until exam time? I'm afraid going at it right up to exam time would be counterproductive. I doubt any cramming at this stage matters at all.

I might keep reading some P&E and MPT answers though.

[Frankenchuck]

For the essays on trusts and guardianship, will we be getting only 1 question for either topic, or possibly a question on both topics? And if just one or the other, any thoughts on which is more likely to show up? Apologies if this has already been addressed.

[Neff]

For the essays on trusts and guardianship, will we be getting only 1 question for either topic, or possibly a question on both topics? And if just one or the other, any thoughts on which is more likely to show up? Apologies if this has already been addressed.

Just one or the other. Most likely trusts. It was trusts in July 2014 and guardianship in Feb 2015. There are only a few pages of guardianship notes and the questions have seemed fairly straightforward so I'd look over it just to be safe.

[Frankenchuck]

For the essays on trusts and guardianship, will we be getting only 1 question for either topic, or possibly a question on both topics? And if just one or the other, any thoughts on which is more likely to show up? Apologies if this has already been addressed.

Just one or the other. Most likely trusts. It was trusts in July 2014 and guardianship in Feb 2015. There are only a few pages of guardianship notes and the questions have seemed fairly straightforward so I'd look over it just to be safe.

I most certainly will. Thanks!

[Devlin]

Anyone else planning on calling it quits and just vegging out until exam time? I'm afraid going at it right up to exam time would be counterproductive. I doubt any cramming at this stage matters at all.

I might keep reading some P&E and MPT answers though.

Not me. Since UG I have always crammed leading up to the exam. Not going to change now.

[Neff]

Anyone else planning on calling it quits and just vegging out until exam time? I'm afraid going at it right up to exam time would be counterproductive. I doubt any cramming at this stage matters at all.

I might keep reading some P&E and MPT answers though.

Not me. Since UG I have always crammed leading up to the exam. Not going to change now.

But unlike UG exams or LSAT this is a three-day exam. Cramming is fine for a four-hour test, but the physical stamina needed to sit through three days is a whole different level. Regardless, you're going to be more than fine no matter what. We could've stopped two weeks ago and passed easily.

[ladylawyer1221]

Anyone else planning on calling it quits and just vegging out until exam time? I'm afraid going at it right up to exam time would be counterproductive. I doubt any cramming at this stage matters at all.

I might keep reading some P&E and MPT answers though.

I'm not calling it quits, but definitely not cramming like I have been for the past few weeks. I am still doing 50 MBE questions today and tomorrow and looking over my mini outlines for each essay subject. Monday I'm just going to focus on P&E and maybe look over some sample MPTs. Tuesday evening I plan on doing a broad overview of all the MBE subjects. Wednesday night I'll DEFINITELY be studying for the essays -- I am most worried for Thursday. well, and MBE. Ok, I'm worried about everything.

[Neff]

Anyone else planning on calling it quits and just vegging out until exam time? I'm afraid going at it right up to exam time would be counterproductive. I doubt any cramming at this stage matters at all.

I might keep reading some P&E and MPT answers though.

I'm not calling it quits, but definitely not cramming like I have been for the past few weeks. I am still doing 50 MBE questions today and tomorrow and looking over my mini outlines for each essay subject. Monday I'm just going to focus on P&E and maybe look over some sample MPTs. Tuesday evening I plan on doing a broad overview of all the MBE subjects. Wednesday night I'll DEFINITELY be studying for the essays -- I am most worried for Thursday. well, and MBE. Ok, I'm worried about everything.

You'll be fine. 90-95% pass rate at UT. Even at South Texas it's 85%. No way you did less work than the bottom 15%. The essays are not law school essay exams, and the graders are not law professors , just lawyers. The goal is not to know all the elements of the all rules. Even if you knew the law perfectly, I doubt the graders will even be knowledgeable enough to know the difference. Remember the difference between level 1 (bar exam) vs level 2 (law school) vs level 3 (law professor) knowledge. Just need level 1.

[Stevoman]

For the Barbri folks, I have a question about Family Law essay 14. (Feb. 2006)

The question pretty clearly indicates that the business is community property. It is also clear that the gifts of the house and the car were paid for from the business's accounts. Barbri's model answer presumes that everything was Joe's sole managed community property, and then reaches the conclusion that Joe perpetuated a fraud on the community by giving away sole managed community property to his mistress. However, if I recall my Community Property class, this is not correct. We learned that property owned by a business entity is not separate or community property, even if the business entity itself is owned by the community. Rather, the property owned by the business has no characterization because it is owned by the business, and not owned by the couple. (I think the landmark Texas case holding this was Marshall v. Marshall.)

In light of that rule, I think Barbri uses the wrong reasoning and reaches a conclusion that is only partially correct. In light of the business entity theory, all of the property gifted from the business will remain undisturbed and the court will not be able to reverse the transactions. However, Joe will probably be liable to the community for some sort of equitable reimbursement for the time, toil, and effort he put into the business and those gifts at his wife's expense. So in the end, his wife will still probably get some of the value of the gifts, but she will probably only get 50% through reimbursement, and not 100% through the constructive fraud doctrine.

Is this correct?

[jwe-houston]

For the Barbri folks, I have a question about Family Law essay 14. (Feb. 2006)

The question pretty clearly indicates that the business is community property. It is also clear that the gifts of the house and the car were paid for from the business's accounts. Barbri's model answer presumes that everything was Joe's sole managed community property, and then reaches the conclusion that Joe perpetuated a fraud on the community by giving away sole managed community property to his mistress. However, if I recall my Community Property class, this is not correct. We learned that property owned by a business entity is not separate or community property, even if the business entity itself is owned by the community. Rather, the property owned by the business has no characterization because it is owned by the business, and not owned by the couple. (I think the landmark Texas case holding this was Marshall v. Marshall.)

In light of that rule, I think Barbri uses the wrong reasoning and reaches a conclusion that is only partially correct. In light of the business entity theory, all of the property gifted from the business will remain undisturbed and the court will not be able to reverse the transactions. However, Joe will probably be liable to the community for some sort of equitable reimbursement for the time, toil, and effort he put into the business and those gifts at his wife's expense. So in the end, his wife will still probably get some of the value of the gifts, but she will probably only get 50% through reimbursement, and not 100% through the constructive fraud doctrine.

Is this correct?

Disclaimer: Marital property isn't my strongest (I do fair on the essays), but business is.

This is not a clearly drafted question, I'll give you that. SMCP: 2nd sentence mentions "sole management and control" and it looks like Barbri just ran with it. Easy to miss on a quick read through. The prompt never says what form the business took, so it's hard to say whether entity theory applies. If the business was a sole proprietorship, their analysis applies. If it was an unofficial GP or any filing entities, it gets more complicated, but the reasoning is basically sound.

Interest in an entity is distinct from an entity's interest in its own property, so you are right on there. Interest in a business after marriage is CP. J would owe to the marriage T/T/E if the compensation from working in the business was less than reasonable. B/c it looks like J "earned a very high income" he doesn't owe that.

If J diverted assets of the business to M, he owes the marriage estate the value of those assets whether b/c of money directly owed by business through J to marriage, or indirectly b/c of loss in value of the business interest (e.g., value of stock declined b/c J dropped $400K on side action).

Net result is J made gifts (either directly spending money under his control [SMCP], or indirectly by causing the business to spend money [devaluing the CP business interest]). The gifts were a fraud on the marriage.

The answer skips a lot of steps in the analysis to get to that point. Considering these will probably be graded by a family law atty or any atty working from a answer key, it will probably get 9-10/13 for that half of the question. Adding this might get an additional 2 points.

[TXLawHopeful15]

Anyone else planning on calling it quits and just vegging out until exam time? I'm afraid going at it right up to exam time would be counterproductive. I doubt any cramming at this stage matters at all.

I might keep reading some P&E and MPT answers though.

Not me. Since UG I have always crammed leading up to the exam. Not going to change now.

Same here....totally cramming leading up, during lunch breaks and every night of the exams....

[Devlin]

Pardon may profanity, but fuck Feb 2006 trust question. Seriously. Fuck you.

[jamescastle]

For the UCC topics, does anybody know the breakdown of the topics in the past (i.e. contracts, commercial paper, secured financing, anything else)?
Basically, what I'm asking is can I ignore commercial paper and focus on secured financing and hope that doesn't screw me over too much.

[BVest]

For the UCC topics, does anybody know the breakdown of the topics in the past (i.e. contracts, commercial paper, secured financing, anything else)?
Basically, what I'm asking is can I ignore commercial paper and focus on secured financing and hope that doesn't screw me over too much.

I wanted to do that, but decided against it. Looking through the old essays in reverse order:

K, CP (Feb 2015)
K, SC
SC, CP
SC, CP
K, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, Combo K/CP (payment-in-full check/breach of warranty)
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP (Feb 2009)

[jamescastle]

For the UCC topics, does anybody know the breakdown of the topics in the past (i.e. contracts, commercial paper, secured financing, anything else)?
Basically, what I'm asking is can I ignore commercial paper and focus on secured financing and hope that doesn't screw me over too much.

I wanted to do that, but decided against it. Looking through the old essays in reverse order:

K, CP (Feb 2015)
K, SC
SC, CP
SC, CP
K, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, Combo K/CP (payment-in-full check/breach of warranty)
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP (Feb 2009)

Well I know next to nothing on consumer law so I think I'm going to just stick with securities which seems more attainable to cram a bit of knowledge about in these final days than trying to learn anything about commercial paper. And then just hope the other question is contracts. But that looks doubtful....
Feel I can afford to do middling on two essays if my wills/family law/business six-pack is above average which I feel it could be.

edit: forgot to say Thanks for this. Super helpful.

[Devlin]

For the UCC topics, does anybody know the breakdown of the topics in the past (i.e. contracts, commercial paper, secured financing, anything else)?
Basically, what I'm asking is can I ignore commercial paper and focus on secured financing and hope that doesn't screw me over too much.

I wanted to do that, but decided against it. Looking through the old essays in reverse order:

K, CP (Feb 2015)
K, SC
SC, CP
SC, CP
K, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, Combo K/CP (payment-in-full check/breach of warranty)
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP (Feb 2009)

Well I know next to nothing on consumer law so I think I'm going to just stick with securities which seems more attainable to cram a bit of knowledge about in these final days than trying to learn anything about commercial paper. And then just hope the other question is contracts. But that looks doubtful....
Feel I can afford to do middling on two essays if my wills/family law/business six-pack is above average which I feel it could be.

edit: forgot to say Thanks for this. Super helpful.

Assuming that was not a typo, you can learn consumer law in like two hours. It is one of the easiest bar subjects IMO.

[jamescastle]

For the UCC topics, does anybody know the breakdown of the topics in the past (i.e. contracts, commercial paper, secured financing, anything else)?
Basically, what I'm asking is can I ignore commercial paper and focus on secured financing and hope that doesn't screw me over too much.

I wanted to do that, but decided against it. Looking through the old essays in reverse order:

K, CP (Feb 2015)
K, SC
SC, CP
SC, CP
K, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, Combo K/CP (payment-in-full check/breach of warranty)
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP (Feb 2009)

Well I know next to nothing on consumer law so I think I'm going to just stick with securities which seems more attainable to cram a bit of knowledge about in these final days than trying to learn anything about commercial paper. And then just hope the other question is contracts. But that looks doubtful....
Feel I can afford to do middling on two essays if my wills/family law/business six-pack is above average which I feel it could be.

edit: forgot to say Thanks for this. Super helpful.

Assuming that was not a typo, you can learn consumer law in like two hours. It is one of the easiest bar subjects IMO.

Not a typo. I haven't reviewed anything on it since the lecture and I think it was like the third lecture or so.
Seems to me that there's like 10 or so sentences that go in every consumer law essay and if you can memorize those you'll get decent points. I just gotta memorize those I guess before the exam.

[Neff]

Yeah, consumer law is really straightforward and is essentially the same answer adapted to all the prompts. Secured transactions is also easier than it looks because you're basically running the facts through the same analysis (attachment? perfection? who wins?). The only article 2 (contracts) issue that's tested seems to be express and implied warranties (could be wrong), which is also straightforward. On the other hand, I've pretty much given up on commercial paper. Every time I try to go over the lecture notes it's like I'm reading Greek.

[ladylawyer1221]

Yeah, consumer law is really straightforward and is essentially the same answer adapted to all the prompts. Secured transactions is also easier than it looks because you're basically running the facts through the same analysis (attachment? perfection? who wins?). The only article 2 (contracts) issue that's tested seems to be express and implied warranties (could be wrong), which is also straightforward. On the other hand, I've pretty much given up on commercial paper. Every time I try to go over the lecture notes it's like I'm reading Greek.

Yes to everything you just said. Consumer essay can be written with your eyes closed -- just spit in the facts and it's the same for every essay. Secured really isn't that bad (although I took it in law school and had an amazing professor). As long as you put everything on a timeline, you can figure it out. Commercial on the other hand...uummmmm. I took it in law school, didn't do terribly in it, but still don't know anything. I can tell you if something is negotiable and if someone is a HDC, but when it comes to warranties, forgeries and alterations (you know, the most testable stuff) ---

[Neff]

Yeah, consumer law is really straightforward and is essentially the same answer adapted to all the prompts. Secured transactions is also easier than it looks because you're basically running the facts through the same analysis (attachment? perfection? who wins?). The only article 2 (contracts) issue that's tested seems to be express and implied warranties (could be wrong), which is also straightforward. On the other hand, I've pretty much given up on commercial paper. Every time I try to go over the lecture notes it's like I'm reading Greek.

Yes to everything you just said. Consumer essay can be written with your eyes closed -- just spit in the facts and it's the same for every essay. Secured really isn't that bad (although I took it in law school and had an amazing professor). As long as you put everything on a timeline, you can figure it out. Commercial on the other hand...uummmmm. I took it in law school, didn't do terribly in it, but still don't know anything. I can tell you if something is negotiable and if someone is a HDC, but when it comes to warranties, forgeries and alterations (you know, the most testable stuff) ---

Yeah that forgeries/alterations chart in the lecture notes looked like an engineer's schematic diagram WTF. Does anyone here honestly understand commercial paper?