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Monday, December 05, 2005

Law - We'd always heard the California bar exam is difficult, but really! [More]

The Wall Street Journal this morning (paid subscription only) has a front-page story that caught my attention immediately. Headlined "Even Top Lawyers Fail California Exam," it begins:

Kathleen Sullivan is a noted constitutional scholar who has argued cases before the Supreme Court. Until recently, she was dean of Stanford Law School. In legal circles, she has been talked about as a potential Democratic nominee for the Supreme Court. But Ms. Sullivan recently became the latest prominent victim of California's notoriously difficult bar exam. Last month, the state sent out the results of its July test to 8,343 aspiring and already-practicing lawyers. More than half failed -- including Ms. Sullivan.

Although she is licensed to practice law in New York and Massachusetts, Ms. Sullivan was taking the California exam for the first time after joining a Los Angeles-based firm as an appellate specialist. * * *

Ms. Sullivan, 50 years old, did not return phone and email messages seeking comment. Her firm said she wasn't reachable over the weekend because she was in a remote location.

There is, of course, much more, including what most of us already assumed:
Critics says the test is capricious, unreliable and a poor measure of future lawyering skills. Some also complain that California's system serves to protect the state's lawyers by excluding competition from out-of-state attorneys.
[More] Thanks to How Appealing, here is a link to the entire article.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 5, 2005 07:56 AM
Posted to General Law Related