Sandefur on the California Bar Exam

In response to my post about Kathleen Sullivan failing the bar exam, Timothy Sandefur emailed me the following. It is posted here with his permission:

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The California bar exam is atrocious. Sheer hell. Three days, six hours a day. First day: Three hours of multiple choice questions and three 1-hour long essay questions. Second day: Three 1-hour long essay questions and two one and a half hour "performance exams," which is where they give you a packet with cases and stuff and you have to write a memo or a brief or something. Third day, same as the first. It's as much an endurance test as anything. The multiple choice tests are ones where there are two "right" answers, and one is "more right" than the other, which is infuriatingly subjective, sometimes. Worse, the essay tests are not like regular essay tests. You don't just sit down and write from the beginning to the end. You do it in a formula unlike any essay test you've ever seen. They give you a page-long short story, and say something like (if it's torts) "identify all the torts and state who recovers" or something. And you can get points off if you are silent about a tort even if that tort is not actually present. Suppose that a character is locked in a room while he's asleep and then the room is unlocked before he wakes up. If you don't say "this looks like a false imprisonment but it's not," then you get points off. And the way you'd write that answer is like this:

False Imprisonment:

*False imprisonment* is the *unjustified confinement* of a *person against his will.* Confinement can be *actual* or *subjective.* To be against his will, the person must be *conscious* of the confinement. Steve was *asleep* during the confinement and did not awaken until after the confinement *ended.* He was therefore not *aware* of the confinement. Thus, *no* false imprisonment.

The starred parts are the underlines. You have to do that because lawyers in San Francisco grade these "Essays" on the subway on the way to work and might miss the words if you don't underline them.

People almost never actually finish a bar exam question in the time allotted. I managed to, but usually by only a minute or two. And my right hand hurt so bad afterwards from writing that it messed up my love life for days afterwards.

Anyway, one commenter asks why Sullivan was taking the bar. Of course, it's illegal to practice regularly even in federal court in California without being a member of the bar.

So failing the bar is not unusual for lawyers. Unlike believing in god, even an intelligent person can do it. In fact, about half of practicing attorneys from other states fail the California Bar. In fact, intelligent people are at a disadvantage because they're more likely to write an ACTUAL ESSAY or something than is a moron who just follows the rules.

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Sounds like a charming way to spend 3 days, doesn't it?