A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar...

Law Blog reports the amazing news today that someone has actually made a documentary about taking the California bar exam.  The documentary is called "A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar," and it's directed by Eric Chaikin.  I watched a few of the trailers available on the film's website, and it definitely gave me a frisson of long-buried terror to watch people talking about what those three days are like. And you can't help but admire one of the featured bar-takers, Mr. Donald Baumeister, who has taken the bar exam 41 times and is still plugging away on attempt number 42.  Now that's determination!

My own story?  I was convinced that I bombed the first day.  I felt like my essays were superficial, and the performance test gave me fits.  I walked back to my hotel room and spent most of the evening crying, with my husband looking on helplessly.  I thought that I was doomed and seriously contemplated packing up and going home, but somewhere around midnight, my husband convinced me that I might as well continue with the rest of the exam and see what happened.  Days 2 and 3 went surprisingly well.  Multiple-choice questions were easy for me, and I had much less trouble with the Day 3 essays and performance test (which was, of all things, based on maritime law(!)).  I finished the exam and thought that it could go either way.  When November rolled around, I was rather stunned to learn that I passed.   The moral of my story?  Don't let bar exam jitters do you in!  Cry, scream, and wail if you need to after a day that seems disastrous, but don't give up.

Comments

[Marc]

Hi,

Thanks for posting news and commentary about our film in the past. "A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar..." will be available on DVD exclusively on Amazon.com this Friday the 21st of September, 2007. Also, we will be reviewed on Ebert and Roeper this weekend and will be their Video Pick of the Week. We've won some new awards over the summer as well like The Toofy Film Fest's *GOLDEN TOOF AWARD- BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE*.

Again, thanks for all the kudos -- we read your blog a bunch -- and if you didn't mention us before, thanks for considering it now!

A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar... @ AMAZON.COM