Friday, October 14, 2005
Monkey off my Back
The results are in. I passed the Virginia Bar Exam. You can see for yourself right here.
As I think I explained back in July right after I took the exam, I did think all along that I had passed. But I was absolutely certain that I messed up on a few specific parts of the exam. Plus, there are always those places where you mess up and you don't know you messed up. My practice test scores were not so stellar--just barely adequate if that. So although I thought I had passed, there was always that creeping (and ever-increasing) sense of doubt.
Now I can put aside thoughts of what will happen to me if I don't pass. I don't need to find out the firm's official policies on people who don't pass the bar exam (thankfully, none of the other new associates at my firm who took the Virginia bar do either--no one wants to be "the guy who didn't pass the bar exam," but it's just as true that no one wants to have to figure out how to interact with "the guy who didn't pass the bar exam"). I can keep my job.
Of course, now the whole process starts of getting together my DC Bar application. It's got the same annoying questions of where I've lived for the past ten years (what on Earth do they do with that information?) and so forth, but because I have passed the Virginia bar exam, I don't need to take the DC bar exam. DC's cool like that.
There's a chance that at some point in future years, Shelly and I will decide to move away from the DC area and away from Virginia. If and when that happens, I will have a major decision to make: do we move to some state that has a reciprocity agreement with Virginia (although at this point I am not aware of the existence of any such state), or do I take another bar exam, or do I change professions?
Based on the hellish experience of preparing for one bar exam, I'm not anxious to do it again. I'll probably choose the latter option.
As I think I explained back in July right after I took the exam, I did think all along that I had passed. But I was absolutely certain that I messed up on a few specific parts of the exam. Plus, there are always those places where you mess up and you don't know you messed up. My practice test scores were not so stellar--just barely adequate if that. So although I thought I had passed, there was always that creeping (and ever-increasing) sense of doubt.
Now I can put aside thoughts of what will happen to me if I don't pass. I don't need to find out the firm's official policies on people who don't pass the bar exam (thankfully, none of the other new associates at my firm who took the Virginia bar do either--no one wants to be "the guy who didn't pass the bar exam," but it's just as true that no one wants to have to figure out how to interact with "the guy who didn't pass the bar exam"). I can keep my job.
Of course, now the whole process starts of getting together my DC Bar application. It's got the same annoying questions of where I've lived for the past ten years (what on Earth do they do with that information?) and so forth, but because I have passed the Virginia bar exam, I don't need to take the DC bar exam. DC's cool like that.
There's a chance that at some point in future years, Shelly and I will decide to move away from the DC area and away from Virginia. If and when that happens, I will have a major decision to make: do we move to some state that has a reciprocity agreement with Virginia (although at this point I am not aware of the existence of any such state), or do I take another bar exam, or do I change professions?
Based on the hellish experience of preparing for one bar exam, I'm not anxious to do it again. I'll probably choose the latter option.
Comments:
I'm sure if you show your bar results to the Walrus up North, they'd let you practice Walrus Law without having to take another exam.
I hope the results on the site are the cumulative results of the past 5-10 years. If not there are way too many lawyers.
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