Day 3
I walked into Day 3 of the exam in an extremely good mood. I slept as well as I have in about 4 months the night before and had about a good 7 hours. I don’t know if you know this, but the bar tends to put people on edge. When that happens, they walk around like their pissed off all the time and ready to blow. I was no exception. Maybe it was the sleep. Maybe it was a stomach full of fried chicken. Maybe it was the knowledge that it was going to be all over soon. But I was almost giddy. I’m sure people around me were like, “what the heck is wrong with this guy.” I walked around, felt really relaxed, struck up conversation with the proctors, and started “scouting” the room for cute gals (I’m totally just kidding about that…seriously. It does sound like something I WOULD do though).
Once the test started, I could just let it fly. I did the same thing as day one: I did a quick scan over each of the questions. Question 4, I observe three names. I see that they entered into business. I look at the bottom and see that they’re discussing whether or not the company can be bound. OK good, I know this. Agency/partnership/maybe corporations.
For Question 5, first thing I see: “can suspect be convicted of attempted kidnapping?” second thing I see, “was motion to suppress properly denied.” At that point, I actually did a silent fist pump. Criminal procedure/law? Before the bar, there were two areas of law I said to myself, “if this is on the bar, I know God wants me to be a lawyer.” The two areas? Criminal law/procedure and constitutional law. As soon as I saw this, I’m literally thought to myself, “Awesome, I’m going to “Kobe” this thing.”
Question 6, I did a quick glance. “What are husband and wife’s rights in…” and it listed out different pieces of property. Community property. Got it!
So after doing my quick overview, I had a huge sigh of relief. No California civil procedure. No wills/trusts. No crazy contracts question. No real property question. None of the subjects that caused me to freak out over this exam. I wrote my answers. I hit everything I needed to and more. Conceptually, I had a very good handle on all three of the questions.
One Shining Moment
The Crim law/pro question was the best answer I wrote for the bar. If we were making a video montage of me taking the bar, this would be the one video clip at the very end. It was a fact pattern where defendant takes gun, points it a victim and tells her to come with him. She laughs him off and he leaves. He’s walking away. The police have a “checkpoint” on a sidewalk and they stop him and find him with the unregistered firearm. They take it. Weeks later, they get a warrant based on the gun and arrest him. When they arrest him, they find a bag of coke. He later shows up to court drunk and pleads guilty to all charges. There are three calls. First, was the motion to suppress the gun properly denied and was the motion to suppress the coke properly denied? Second, was the motion to withdraw the plea properly denied? Third, can he be convicted of attempted kidnapping?
The reason why I think I did well on this question is that this is one where I think I fully anticipated the arguments of both sides. My natural inclination is to be police/prosecution friendly and deny, deny, convict. Well, he could be convicted of the attempted kidnapping, there was no doubt on that. Are you kidding? You point a gun at someone and tell her to go with you. I’m pretty sure only the truest of believer could argue that this wasn’t an attempt. But with the searches were obviously illegal. And the judge in the case did not advise the defendant of all his rights before taking the plea.
So at the end of the session, I was feeling very good. I was actually very pumped. Got up, and was incredibly happy. I thought I did well enough that all I had to do was show up in the afternoon and I could still pass the bar. My visible joy was muted by observing some of the people walking out of the room though. Some people were crying, and visibly upset. I did feel bad for them and tampered down my giddiness. The mix of questions was perfect for me. But if they had been a CA civ pro, wills, and contracts question, I could have just as easily been the one coming out in tears.
The Closer
I went into afternoon session thinking that I just needed to do my thing and I would be fine. Being that relaxed and calm allowed me to just let it fly. My brain works well when its relaxed, and I was chugging along pretty well. The PT wasn’t so simple. It really required a lot of objective legal analysis. There was a professional responsibility issue floating in there too that wasn’t asked for in the task memo. But I made my way through it. It wasn’t the best of things I’ve ever written, but I included everything I needed to include and I think it was a passing quality answer.
Celebrate Good Times
I wrapped up my final spellcheck and formatting check at the 30 seconds left mark. I closed up my exam and restarted the comp. As soon as the proctor called “time” a loud cheer erupted throughout the room. I think along with the cheering, you could hear a loud collective sigh of relief. We were done! I am not a touchy feely kind of guy, but I almost wanted to cry. Don’t worry, I didn’t come close. But at that moment, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The nightmare was over, I could live again! The proctors were collecting the materials, and you can feel the impatience in the room: hurry up and collect the booklets! As soon as they cut us loose, there was a stampede out of the hall. People couldn’t wait to bone out of there as soon as possible.
I actually did so too. I wanted to upload my exam as soon as possible. What was funny was when I was walking out, half the people went back to the parking lot, and it looked like about 100-200 people went straight to the Yardhouse in Paseo. Hey, can’t blame them.
After I uploaded my exam, I triple checked to make sure it did so properly. Then I headed back to the convention center site. After any big event/test I always go back to also reflect a little. I said earlier how I do the same thing before the test/event. Going back is like completing that circle and gives me some finality. I went back, reflected on the whole process. As tough as it was, I was thankful that I had went through it. I thanked God for bringing me through something I know I could not have done on my own.
