In praise of the bar exam

This week, many people took the bar.  Some will fail because they are not pure of heart.

This week, we are blogging from China (and by China, I don't mean "Taiwan,") which is reknown for its displays of banners and human rights abuses.  At various points it may be difficult to blog, because Chinese culture requires that Typepad be restricted, as the Chinese people don’t like exchange of ideas.  Chinese people also don't like Tibetans or the Falun Gong show.  (And believe me, Falun Gong puts on quite a show.)  However, we have found a way around the great firewall of China.  If all goes right I will be live-blogging the Men's Squat-Thrust Competition.

But, to me, the bar exam is the purist of legal endeavors.  It is a true test of whether one is a good lawyer or not.  To be clear, I am not talking about the “character and fitness” portion.  That is a test of whether you can live your life like a middle-class person.  But, the written part of the bar is a celebration of American legal culture.  We should like totally honor it or something.

Everyone is treated equally in the bar exam.   Even the poor.

The bar exam is a test of legal skill.  Being able to master a complex body of doctrines and rules in a limited amount of time and apply them to facts is what lawyers do.  Sure, some large firms have hurt our profession by hiring temps and making them do dirty non-lawyer work, but real lawyers must be able to become masters of theory and facts. 

It doesn’t matter what school you went to, or who your dad knows.  Your exam is graded just like everyone else’s exam.  Sure, if it turns out that you had to sit next to someone that went to a TTT  you will need to shower extra long, but the graders don’t know this.

The ability to “develop business” does not matter.  Let’s face it, being able to keep your clients providing you with business is an important skill.  But a lot of this relies on your ability to play golf or pretend your clients are interesting and/or not scum.  This doesn’t matter on the bar.  Talking about sports on an exam question won’t hack it.

Indeed, even though Viet Dinh and John Yoo devoted their careers to helping the administration detain random people without being second-guessed and torture them, they still had to take the bar exam.  Their exams were graded just like people that attended TTTs and whose resumes would never be seen by DOJ not because they were liberal but because they hated American and refused to go to a highly-ranked school.

Even though some lawyers intend to quit the profession as soon as they pass (opting to become “investment bankers” or “stay at home moms,”) they won’t have the ability to thumb their nose as society until they pass.

The bar exam doesn’t care how you look.  Even in states with dress codes, you can be ugly and still take the bar.  Many firms don’t hire ugly people and some clients prefer sexy lawyers. Many professors and employers discriminate on the basis of religion or sexiness.

This is what makes America great.  We must all take a moment to honor the bar exam.