Epic Fail

Remember how Prozac Nation author Elizabeth Wurtzel was singing the praises of practicing big firm law at Boies Schiller recently? Talking about how much she was getting done now that she's a lawyer and how much better it felt than sitting around in her pajamas trying to write? Well, perhaps Wurtzel is not quite the model of productivity and efficiency she would have us believe, since she apparently failed the NY bar exam. When asked about it, Wurtzel kind of made it sound like a) she didn't really study that hard, b) it's all Yale's fault anyhow for not preparing her adequately, and c) the test is stupid anyhow.

(Very mature, that response.)

In truth, the bar exam IS stupid. Despite many attempts to make it relate more to real-world practical legal skill sets and the sorts of things we actually need to remember to practice every day, much of what is tested is knowledge we will immediately forget as soon as we're sworn in. I have no idea as I sit here today what the rule is in Georgia for easments that run with the land, or the elements of robbery vs. burglary, or what the fuck a "holder in due course" actually is. But I knew all that for approximately eighteen hours back in 2006, and it was enough.

But it's also true that every law student and would-be lawyer knows they will have to take a bar exam at some point if they want to actually practice. Law schools beat it into you, you are encouraged as a student to take a well-rounded curriculum to give you a good head start on the concepts that will be tested, BarBri starts selling you bar exam preparation packages at a discount the minute you hit the door, and eveyrone hears the horror stories of the guy who was at the top of his class and had his dream job all lined up...if only he could pass the bar. So, it's something that most of us know to dedicate an appropriate amount of time, energy, stress and fear towards in order to make sure we pass.

The NY bar exam is very difficult, and plenty of other well-known and intelligent people have failed it before Wurtzel. (We all remember JFK, Jr. failed it 4 times.) But fair or not, the stigma of failing the bar exam stays with you, and leaves colleagues and fellow attorneys with the impression that you are either not that smart or not that focused if you couldn't pass it when they could. Wurtzel might think that the whole hullabaloo is stupid, but she is being paid a salary well in the six figures premised upon the assumption that she would be admitted to the NY bar by January. Now instead she is going to have to spend the next three months studying harder than last time, working less, and giving the folks who hired her an excuse to wonder if they made a mistake. The consequences here are big enough that she really shouldn't opt for flippance when asked by reporters about the failure, and should instead recognize that in this economy, everyone's expendable. Including the non-lawyer bar exam failer who used to be a famous author.