Michigan’s legal community was shocked by the low pass rate on the July 2012 bar examination results which were released on October 26, 2012. Overall, only 55% of the test takers passed. First time takers did marginally better; but not as well as they had in previous years. What happened this term that is different from previous years?
I do not believe the applicants are any less prepared than they were in previous years. The only problem that I could cite the BLE for is not communicating their expectations more clearly to the applicants. I do not believe there was unfair testing involved or a concerted effort to limit the number of lawyers practicing in this state. Rather it was a combination of a change in grading systems coupled with expectations that simply were not met.
My recommendation to applicants who did not pass would be as follows:
A. Review your results. Look at your results carefully and be honest about your performance. Have someone else look over your scores and ask them for an opinion.
B. Rethink your study strategy. If the study strategy you used last time was not successful or you were not comfortable with it, reconsider your approach. Make sure to take into account any distractions, (personal or professional) and any other activities that may take you away from focusing on the test.
C. Review Michigan’s old essay exams and their model answers. The model answers and questions are published and available. I believe that any serious studying for the bar examination includes review and practice of old questions.
D. Make your own outlines. Making your own outlines is a way to encapsulate your knowledge of the law you are outlining. The outlines need not be long and they may need to be condensed more than once. Ideally, they will be down to no more than 2 to 4 pages per subject matter tested. The most important things your outlines should cover would be major rules, terms of art, specific areas where you have seen tested either on the essays or Mobs or anything else you have seen tested and you believe may be relevant. The outlines are not to make anyone else happy but the applicant. They should be detailed compendiums of the law, but rather a distillation of the applicant’s knowledge of that area of law.
E. Plan your studies. This means detailed time plans for your work. You should know what subjects you are going to study, what number of hours you are going to put into it, and set goals for studying daily, weekly, monthly along with overall study goals.
Tim Dinan runs a solo practice focusing on Criminal and Civil Litigation. The firm also specializes in matters applications to the Michigan State Bar and character and fitness hearings. Mr. Dinan has successfully represented over 100 clients now licensed to practice law in Michigan.