Archive for July, 2012

Note from Meghan: I asked Jennifer Warner Cooper, who just graduated with Kristen, to write a guest post for this blog in the aftermath of the bar exam. She is, as you will see below, hilarious. Dear Spring and Summer Companions, I have a few thoughts to share with each of you about the relationships we’ve developed this season. Property and Contracts, I’m sorry, I know that you like your individuality as much as the next guy, but in my mind you’re two of a kind. I spent so much time trying to reason with you boys and understand you but I am afraid that in the end, we are still not compatible. I find you very rigid, a little dull, and well–I’m sorry,…

Categories: bar exam, guest post

Tagged: aftermath of bar exam, day after the bar, guest post, Jennifer Warner Cooper

Day After the Bar Exam (the fat lady has sung).

Meghan Freed

Posted on July 26, 2012

I don’t know how you feel today. Miserable? Relieved? Resigned? I felt awful right after. About a week post-bar I got to a place where I at least felt like I couldn’t do anything about it even if I had failed, and was able to go on and enjoy as much of the summer as possible until results were released in October — albeit with a low-grade case of fear that occasionally gathered enough strength to stop me in my tracks. I wanted the comfort of a role model. I wanted to know that even if I failed, life would go on. I would still become a lawyer, and, with enough hard work, I would still become a great lawyer. I googled to find really smart…

Categories: bar exam

Tagged: bar exam, bar prep, bar test prep, connecticut bar, day after the bar, feel of failing the bar, what if I failed the bar

Bar Exam Day Two, Morning Edition (true blood).

Meghan Freed

Posted on July 25, 2012

I struggle with scary and/or bloody television. Inspired by our recent trip to England, we are currently re-watching The Tudors. Last night, right before bed, we saw the episode where several Boleyn’s, in quick succession, are “cropped at the neck.” Kristen indulged me with a lot of fast-forwarding. For similar reasons I never got into True Blood — but the show seems fairly appropriate for the bar exam. When Sheriff Andy Bellefleur from True Blood tried to allay Jason Stackhouse’s fears of taking the written exam to become a sheriff’s deputy, he said this: Come on, it’s easy! You just shove all that stuff in your head, you write down your answers, and forget it the next day. Learn on the job like everybody else. Go,…

Categories: bar exam

Tagged: bar exam, bar prep, connecticut bar exam, final day of bar exam, scary television, true blood

Bar Exam Day One (a little levity).

Meghan Freed

Posted on July 24, 2012

I saw Kristen at her lunch break today. I brought hot dogs. I also brought soda, which we never drink. I went Stewart’s Cream, full-on sugar. She was well. We ate and then sat in the sun for a bit while she flipped through a few flashcards. I hope the afternoon went well. In my afternoon session there was a question where I had no idea what area of the law they were trying to test. Friend Emily reminds me that her year, on one essay question had a “part 2″ that she didn’t dsicover until the proctor called time for that question and she flipped the page to what she thought was the next question. In any event, it is an exhausting day, and, tomorrow, you…

Categories: bar exam

The Day Of (a love letter).

Meghan Freed

Posted on July 24, 2012

Kristen is virtuosic with beverages. You can keep your Maddow, I have my Marcroft. She will whip egg whites for a pisco sour on any given Tuesday. Her gimlet features pre-prohibition gin, Rose’s, fresh lime juice, and simple syrup. It gets shaken, hard, and she delivers it, icey and beautiful, into my hands. Kristen makes the best coffee I’ve ever had. It is really, really dark. She does not believe in milk. She will settle for half and half only if she has to — if we have heavy cream that goes in. She is right about that. Kristen never hands me a cocktail without a tiny straw in it — even bourbon — even though I know it pains her that I sip…

Categories: bar exam, Relationships

The Night Before the Bar Exam (invincible summer).

Meghan Freed

Posted on July 23, 2012

Albert Camus said, “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” Look, it’s the bar exam. We are not actually suffering here, we are privileged. This thing you are going do tomorrow and the next day and, depending what state you’re in, maybe even the day after that is very difficult, but the opportunity to do it is a gift. You are trying out to be a member of one of the two great professions. To be an officer of the court. It is an honor. Now, let’s set perspective aside. What you are doing right now is really stinking hard. And it is really scary. Your ability to practice the thing you spend all these years and money on…

Categories: bar exam

Tagged: albert camus, “In the depth of winter, bar exam, bar prep, bar test prep, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”, Kristen Marcroft, last day before the bar exam, law school, meghan freed, night befor the bar exam, Ryan McKeen, the bar exam is tomorrow

Day Forty-Seven (bathroom break).

Meghan Freed

Posted on July 21, 2012

In his comment to my post about the things I wish someone had told me about the first day of the bar exam, Matt Zagaja mentioned one of his exam day fears — the bar’s rigmarole around restroom visits. This reminded me of a story. When I took the bar, there was a very stringent, very long list of items you could not take into the bar exam. Those you could take into the test had to be contained inside a clear plastic ziplock bag. Back in 2004 that was a bit embarrassing and uncomfortable — remember 2004 was before the moron tried to blow-up a plane with liquid explosives and the TSA came up with their inspired (and by “inspired” I mean “dumb”)…

Categories: bar exam

Tagged: bar exam, bar prep, bar test prep, connecticut bar, massachusetts bar, rhode island bar

Day Forty-Six (the big question).

Meghan Freed

Posted on July 20, 2012

It is the Friday before the final weekend before the bar exam. Facebook and Twitter and my text message inbox are buzzing with one question: ”Do I study this weekend?” I don’t know. My only advice is to do what feels right. It’s a mental game now. You need to do what makes you the calmest. What makes you the sanest. What makes you, frankly, the least miserable. It’s unlikely that whatever you might learn this weekend is going to be the thing that makes you pass the bar. It might put a fine point on something, sure. But by now, you’ve pretty much learned what you’re going to learn. So if you don’t want to or simply can’t study anymore, stop. Put…

Categories: bar exam

Tagged: bar exam, bar prep, bar test prep, final weekend before bar exam, mary oliver, meghan freed, Ryan McKeen, to study or not to study

Guest Post (the second bar exam summer in a row).

jasonselmont

Posted on July 20, 2012

Note from Meghan: This is a guest post by Jason Selmont, who is friend and a regular commenter here on Belly Up to the Bar Exam. Jason graduated from law school in 2011 and headed down to Georgetown last September to get his tax LL.M. He took two bars last summer using BarBri and is taking a third this summer studying on his own. With less than a week to go before thousands of recent law school graduates all across the country embark on a two or three day epic journey, Meghan asked me, a friend, and a fellow attorney and oenophile (that’s Connecticut for drinker), to provide my perspective on the bar exam. Not that I have some mystical insight into the passing the bar. I…

Categories: bar exam, guest post

Tagged: bar exam, BarBri, connecticut bar, georgetown, jason selmont, ll.m, massachusetts bar, meghan freed, new york bar, taking the bar without barbri

Day Forty-Five (big doin’s).

Meghan Freed

Posted on July 19, 2012

In the summer where Kristen studied for the bar exam, we got a new puppy. Some folks might think that’s crazy. Well, in the middle of the summer where Kristen studied for the bar exam, we were also in the process of opening a law firm. Seriously. That over there is Kristen spending a study break with a sledgehammer in our new office. I have a great job. I work with great people. I collaborate with great lawyers nationally. I have been across the country, and all in between, more times than I can count. There is a list a mile long of folks that want to replace me, and the job isn’t even posted yet. I have been supremely, supremely lucky. But last…

Categories: bar exam, law firm, practice, Relationships

Tagged: a connecticut law blog, bar exam, freed mckeen, meghan freed, new law firm, Ryan McKeen