Bar exam Documentary Forum

[LAWYER2]

First time I seen it. Very interesting after having just taken the bar. Although I must admit, it made me a little nervous because one of the folks who didn't pass reminded me of me, lol

http://youtu.be/MnvPL9myL-Q

[aquasalad]

Which one didn't pass?

[duskfall]

Which one didn't pass?

great documentary. especially great to watch AFTER taking the Cal Bar. don't want to spoil it for you, go watch!

[gaagoots]

First time I seen it. Very interesting after having just taken the bar. Although I must admit, it made me a little nervous because one of the folks who didn't pass reminded me of me, lol

http://youtu.be/MnvPL9myL-Q

I watched it twice. I think it really is a great film to watch with someone who has no clue what the bar exam is like. Since it was shot at the Ontario Convention Center, it gives you a realistic idea of the venue.

[Dafaq]

This doc was certainly interesting and undeniably realistic.

[iLoveFruits&Veggies]

Thanks so much for posting this! I said earlier this week, "someone really needs to make a documentary about preparing for the Bar exam!"

[pizzasodafries]

Great watch, thanks for this

[whirledpeas86]

That blonde girl was the wooOOooOooOoooorst, good lord.

[whirledpeas86]

That blonde girl was the wooOOooOooOoooorst, good lord.

LOL, I see the acting career didn't work out so well for her. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2418226/?ref_=tt_cl_t1

[twenty 8]

I started around the end so I missed most of the emotional crux of the doc. What took me by surprise was the shocking stat that only 36.8% of the exam class passed the next round of the CA bar. How is that even possible?

[Lawst]

That blonde girl was the wooOOooOooOoooorst, good lord.

LOL, I see the acting career didn't work out so well for her. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2418226/?ref_=tt_cl_t1

But, but ... Garfield 2!

Seriously, though, best case of schadenfreude with that one.

[mikealao]

That blonde girl was the wooOOooOooOoooorst, good lord.

LOL, I see the acting career didn't work out so well for her. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2418226/?ref_=tt_cl_t1

But, but ... Garfield 2!

Seriously, though, best case of schadenfreude with that one.

Agreed, she's a complete narcissist.

[xylocarp]

Does anyone know if the old dude ever passed? after the time of the doc ofc

[Haymarket]

First time I seen it. Very interesting after having just taken the bar. Although I must admit, it made me a little nervous because one of the folks who didn't pass reminded me of me, lol

http://youtu.be/MnvPL9myL-Q

I watched it twice. The one that you speak of, I know very well, is now a Judge. I think it really is a great film to watch with someone who has no clue what the bar exam is like. Since it was shot at the Ontario Convention Center, it gives you a realistic idea of the venue.

Right, she's a "judge." She was elected an associate justice of her tribe, with a population of about 6,500. Not exactly SDNY.

She could not have been more obnoxious in that documentary if her role was scripted.

[LAWYER2]

Does anyone know if the old dude ever passed? after the time of the doc ofc

His name is Donald Baumeister, would the CA state bar have him listed?

[Hannibal]

First time I seen it. Very interesting after having just taken the bar. Although I must admit, it made me a little nervous because one of the folks who didn't pass reminded me of me, lol

http://youtu.be/MnvPL9myL-Q

I watched it twice. The one that you speak of, I know very well, is now a Judge. I think it really is a great film to watch with someone who has no clue what the bar exam is like. Since it was shot at the Ontario Convention Center, it gives you a realistic idea of the venue.

Right, she's a "judge." She was elected an associate justice of her tribe, with a population of about 6,500. Not exactly SDNY.

She could not have been more obnoxious in that documentary if her role was scripted.

She reminded me of like 1/3rd of my class coming into 1L, but they all had it beaten out of them by the end of 2L. Really surprising she survived that long.

[adonai]

First time I seen it. Very interesting after having just taken the bar. Although I must admit, it made me a little nervous because one of the folks who didn't pass reminded me of me, lol

http://youtu.be/MnvPL9myL-Q

I watched it twice. The one that you speak of, I know very well, is now a Judge. I think it really is a great film to watch with someone who has no clue what the bar exam is like. Since it was shot at the Ontario Convention Center, it gives you a realistic idea of the venue.

Right, she's a "judge." She was elected an associate justice of her tribe, with a population of about 6,500. Not exactly SDNY.

She could not have been more obnoxious in that documentary if her role was scripted.

She reminded me of like 1/3rd of my class coming into 1L, but they all had it beaten out of them by the end of 2L. Really surprising she survived that long.

When she said she applied the UCC rules in a common law contract question, I cringed. That had to hurt.

[alicrimson]

I just started this now. I'm less than 30 minutes in. Really glad I didn't watch this before the bar. lol. Their anxiety is making me anxious after the fact.

[beachbum]

I just started this now. I'm less than 30 minutes in. Really glad I didn't watch this before the bar. lol. Their anxiety is making me anxious after the fact.

Same. Although the blonde girl really is the worst.

[alicrimson]

I just started this now. I'm less than 30 minutes in. Really glad I didn't watch this before the bar. lol. Their anxiety is making me anxious after the fact.

Same. Although the blonde girl really is the worst.

Yeah, she's bad. My favorite is how she was talking about how hard she works, shot to her at a bar "Sleep with me. Make it happen!", to the singing in church. I understand editing and making you see what they want you to see, but I hope she actually did the low level of work that the doc implied, while talking about how much she studied. Pretty bad.

I also really dislike the brunette with the young child. To me, she's almost as bad as the blond girl. I'm glad I didn't study with or around either of these two characters.

[LAWYER2]

I just started this now. I'm less than 30 minutes in. Really glad I didn't watch this before the bar. lol. Their anxiety is making me anxious after the fact.

Same. Although the blonde girl really is the worst.

Yeah, she's bad. My favorite is how she was talking about how hard she works, shot to her at a bar "Sleep with me. Make it happen!", to the singing in church. I understand editing and making you see what they want you to see, but I hope she actually did the low level of work that the doc implied, while talking about how much she studied. Pretty bad.

I also really dislike the brunette with the young child. To me, she's almost as bad as the blond girl. I'm glad I didn't study with or around either of these two characters.

I totally thought they were setting her up to make it look like she'd fail only to have her pass. Nope, they made her look like a slacker and perform like one as well. If I were her, I'd be a little pissed with the way she was portrayed. I guess she eventually passed, so it's water under the bridge though.

[Haymarket]

I just started this now. I'm less than 30 minutes in. Really glad I didn't watch this before the bar. lol. Their anxiety is making me anxious after the fact.

Same. Although the blonde girl really is the worst.

Yeah, she's bad. My favorite is how she was talking about how hard she works, shot to her at a bar "Sleep with me. Make it happen!", to the singing in church. I understand editing and making you see what they want you to see, but I hope she actually did the low level of work that the doc implied, while talking about how much she studied. Pretty bad.

I also really dislike the brunette with the young child. To me, she's almost as bad as the blond girl. I'm glad I didn't study with or around either of these two characters.

I totally thought they were setting her up to make it look like she'd fail only to have her pass. Nope, they made her look like a slacker and perform like one as well. If I were her, I'd be a little pissed with the way she was portrayed. I guess she eventually passed, so it's water under the bridge though.

I wish we had been shown more kind of what jobs were waiting for them on the other side of the bar exam, like that one woman's firm job. The annoying blonde woman, Tricia Zunker, went on to start her own solo practice firm, and then she was elected an associate justice of her tribe, the Ho-Chunk. I mean, the the extent that she had to miss an entire year without being able to practice that could be significant. Also, she was a UCLA graduate in 2006. Could she really find no job for after graduation? Did she lose it? Wish we had answers.

[gaagoots]

First time I seen it. Very interesting after having just taken the bar. Although I must admit, it made me a little nervous because one of the folks who didn't pass reminded me of me, lol

http://youtu.be/MnvPL9myL-Q

I watched it twice. The one that you speak of, I know very well, is now a Judge. I think it really is a great film to watch with someone who has no clue what the bar exam is like. Since it was shot at the Ontario Convention Center, it gives you a realistic idea of the venue.

Right, she's a "judge." She was elected an associate justice of her tribe, with a population of about 6,500. Not exactly SDNY.

She could not have been more obnoxious in that documentary if her role was scripted.

Although I felt that way when I first saw that film over 3 years ago, I think my feeling toward all of them changed. Without legal experience what does one do for a job? No matter how snooty one can be about her 'associate justice' position with her tribe, its experience is it not? The reality is, the graduates of 2006, had a chance to put their foot in the door. Things are quite different now which is how I came to meet her and others like her.

3 years of law school, $200,000 of debt to compete with paralegals and work with them side-by-side? I don't think anyone went to law school for that accomplishment. Being realistic--choice (1) tribal justice (2) document review or (3) paralegal? I'd venture a guess #1 will get the most respect, even amongst a population of 6,500.

[Haymarket]

First time I seen it. Very interesting after having just taken the bar. Although I must admit, it made me a little nervous because one of the folks who didn't pass reminded me of me, lol

http://youtu.be/MnvPL9myL-Q

I watched it twice. The one that you speak of, I know very well, is now a Judge. I think it really is a great film to watch with someone who has no clue what the bar exam is like. Since it was shot at the Ontario Convention Center, it gives you a realistic idea of the venue.

Right, she's a "judge." She was elected an associate justice of her tribe, with a population of about 6,500. Not exactly SDNY.

She could not have been more obnoxious in that documentary if her role was scripted.

Although I felt that way when I first saw that film over 3 years ago, I think my feeling toward all of them changed. Without legal experience what does one do for a job? No matter how snooty one can be about her 'associate justice' position with her tribe, its experience is it not? The reality is, the graduates of 2006, had a chance to put their foot in the door. Things are quite different now which is how I came to meet her and others like her.

3 years of law school, $200,000 of debt to compete with paralegals and work with them side-by-side? I don't think anyone went to law school for that accomplishment. Being realistic--choice (1) tribal justice (2) document review or (3) paralegal? I'd venture a guess #1 will get the most respect, even amongst a population of 6,500.

This doesn't make sense for several reasons.

First, no, a tribal associate justice is not valuable experience because it's not relevant to anything else. If you're familiar with the kind of disputes that make their way through tribal courts, they have no real-world import, and as a result, no money involved. I'm not really interested in weighing the relative respect of a solo practitioner in California or a tribal justice in Wisconsin. Neither sounds appealing.

Second, she already had her own solo practice, the Zunker Law Group or whatever, after she finally passed the bar a year later. She was elected a justice only last year, meaning she had 6 years of other experience. Thus, her choices were not between associate justice and being a paralegal. The fact that she had to start her own solo practice as a UCLA graduate in a boom year, in addition to the fact that she failed the bar, says a lot.

Finally, all of this only adds to the ridiculousness of her attitude throughout the movie. If she was faking all that confidence, she's just an idiot. If it was genuine, than it really explains everything.

[gaagoots]

We can go back and forth about what you perceive and what I perceive. I was working throughout the boom and loss, and mid 2007 was bad. If you weren't working in a firm steadily at that time, you were out the door. She supposedly passed in Feb 07, and looks like on the bar website sworn in by June 07. It wasn't a good time for newly minted lawyers with zero experience to come to big law. So what does one do during a recession? Start your own practice? Which is what a lot did and they had to dumpster dive for clients on CL. Those who wouldn't know how to run a solo practice were taking paralegal jobs (if offered) or went to doc review.

As far as experience as a tribal justice, I won't BS and pretend I know what they do or don't do. I suspect it is akin to small claims or traffic court, you listen to problems and come up with an answer. That is lawyering to some extent, is it not?

I was judgmental when I first watched that movie, I thought what a bunch of train wrecks. If MTV were to have a law school reality show, they would embellish the drama much like this to get viewers. I don't know what kind of characters you met in school, but people in the evening were pretty boring like me since we work all day.

Maybe, if someone had a "grant" to pay for school and didn't have the loan debt they don't need to bust their ass to find a job. I kind of caught that in the first part of the movie, which made me think, ahhh thats why she turned down that summer job. As for failing the bar her first time--I don't know about you, but that was a jolt in reality for me as to 'what not to do' for bar prep. Not practicing essay writing was her death nell, and I can't imagine anyone *winging it* like her and passing. I have always believed "success is a function of attitude" and 7 years ago in that film her attitude was not going to serve her well to be successful. Maybe she's been serving humble pies at Polly's all those years and isn't quite as cocky. I don't know.