Bye Bye Bar Exam

05/08/06

Bye bye bar exam

Students at Franklin Pierce Law Center will no longer be required to take the bar exam to obtain licensure to practice law. Pierce Law Center, New Hampshire's only law school, has implemented a unique system that allows second- and third-year law students to receive practical and client-focused training from faculty, attorneys and judges that will take the place of the bar exam.

Sitting for the bar exam has long been a rite of passage for attorneys. The new method of practical training offered by Pierce is expected to offer a greater depth of real-world legal knowledge to students than cramming for the bar exam.

After completing the training course, students will still have to sit for the multistate professional responsibility exam. Other states are closely watching the new program with an eye on expanding it into other regions.

Baylor tops the Texas Bar exam results
Baylor law students achieved a remarkable 96.88% passage rate for the latest Texas Bar exam. 62 Baylor students passed the exam out of the 64 who took the exam. The overall state pass rate was 83.79%, with a total of 305 successful candidates among the 364 law students who took the exam.

Baylor Law School has an unsurpassed record of success on the exam. Baylor Law School's continued success is reflected in the U.S. News & World Report's recently released "Best Graduate School" rankings, which rates the school's trial advocacy program as the sixth best in the nation in its survey. This is five places up from 2003, when it was ranked 11th, and 10 places up from 2002 when Baylor's trial advocacy program was ranked 16th. Overall, Baylor Law School was rated 51st in the publication's "Top 100 Schools" listing.

In a previous nationwide assessment of America's law schools, The Princeton Review described Baylor Law School as "the Marine Corps of law schools."

Manning & Marder's upward mobility
Manning & Marder, Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez LLP, an innovative, A/V-rated law firm is moving its headquarters to an 80,000 square foot space with a $32 million long-term lease.

The deal indicates the phenomenal growth of the company. Focusing on case area specialization and a team approach, Manning & Marder delivers the highest level of legal service in a timely and cost-effective manner. Regardless of size, each client is assigned to a carefully chosen team of attorneys who are dedicated to their needs and best suited for the case.

The pro bono awards
The Outstanding Pro Bono Services Award of 2006 goes to Alston & Bird in the large firm category and Stone & Christy of Asheville, North Carolina, in the small firm category. The awards were offered by the North Carolina Bar Association and the North Carolina Pro Bono Project of the NCBA Foundation. A formal ceremony will take place during the 108th NCBA Annual Meeting in Atlantic Beach on Friday, June 16.

Working to achieve the highest standard of community involvement, Alston & Bird contributed more than 1,600 hours to pro bono endeavors in 2005. It also contributed a significant amount of financial support to the Access to Justice Campaign, benefiting low income citizens in need of legal aid.

Stone & Christy provides practices in the areas of real estate transactions and litigation, estate planning and administration, workers compensation, medical malpractice, personal injury, wrongful death and minor criminal offenses.

COOL THREAD OF THE DAY
Here's a thread that dares to ask if law firm partners are feeling good about themselves. There have been more than a few discussions about how to stave off the associate blues, but this thread has the guts to think of the partners, the poor bastards.

Are Partners Happy?
 

Greedo: Are the partners you know happy? It seems like a lot aren't. Some of the partners in my office are working much longer hours than the associates. They don't have a life outside of the office, or at least it doesn't look like they would have time for one. Some of them complain about not being able to do things that they enjoy. Lots of them are in terrible shape.

Why is that? Why don't they take control of their life and makes things better for themselves and easier? Is there really no way to make this job manageable? I mean I see this at firms where the PPP is $2 million a year. Why don't they use some of that money to buy themselves some free time?

I suspect the reason is that they have no use for free time and really don't need it. That working at the law is the most rewarding thing they can do. But that might be a very cynical position.

Bitter: I suspect some of them might be stuck paying for an expensive things-big house, fancy car, private schools for the kids. Plus, when you make partner, your cash flow is not that great. The partners in my firm get paid monthly and are forced to purchase a high amount of insurance. They also can't participate in the 401(k). I think it's a better deal to be a highly paid associate.

johndoe1: plus partners have the whole liability issue and have to deal with administrative issues in addition to their workload. It's not worth it to be partner unless you have a huge client base and can shove the work onto others.

also, at some law firms, there are salary partners (junior partners) and equity partners (senior partners). the equity partners are few and pretty much have it made.

JD_Jr: sorry. i thought this thread title was 'are panthers happy' i was gonna say they are happier in the wild.

BullRunner: I do think that Panthers should be free. Partners on the other hand - who gives a crap about their happiness? Not Me! All I know is that they enjoy making my life miserable to match their own misery. (rant over)

You are right in saying that all the partners do is work. The guy I work for is indeed one of those. Every Monday he comes in and tells me he's "got it all figured out!" I never know what the hell he's talking about because everything I worked on the week before I've forgotten during the weekend. All he thinks and does is work related.

Are they unhappy? Maybe, but they are partly to blame for keeping the system and the way the law business works. I feel no pity for them at all.

I guess we're no closer to knowing anything more than we originally did, but at least we tried. Sort of.