Some
3Ls find themselves “scrambling” their entire third year of law school, finding
out at the last minute about bar exam requirements, application deadlines and
fees, and other issues that come up only in a student’s final year of law
school. We have put together this memo,
therefore, in an effort to help you anticipate some of the important things you
should be doing, and expenses you’ll have to budget for, over the next six
months.
1. Bar Exams in States Other than Wisconsin:
If
you plan to practice after graduation in a state other than Wisconsin, you will have to take that state’s bar exam. In 2008, the bar exam will be given in
virtually every state on February 26 and 27 (or on February 25-27, or
February 26-28, in states like
California that have a two-and-a-half or three day bar exam), and on July
29 and 30 (or July 28-30 or July 29-31, in states like California and Ohio that have a
3-day exam).
In
most states, the bar exam is a two day exam.
Day One usually consists of essay questions covering multiple areas of
law, and the subjects covered varies from state to state. Day Two is usually the Multistate Bar Exam
(MBE), a six-hour, 200-question, multiple-choice exam. The MBE contains questions from six subject
areas: Contracts/Sales; Torts;
Constitutional Law; Real Property; Evidence; and Criminal Law/Procedure. More than 30 states now also administer all
or part of the Multistate Performance Test, which consists of one or two
90-minute questions designed to parallel realistic situations encountered by a
beginning lawyer and to test the fundamental skills required to complete
various tasks.
Note
that some states schedule their bar exams to permit a law student to sit for
two states' bar exams concurrently. For example, it is possible to take
both the New Jersey and New
York bar exams in
July 2008: New York and New
Jersey both
administer the Multistate Bar Exam on July 30, but New Jersey's state law essay questions are administered on July 31,
whereas New York's state-law essay questions are administered on July 29.
One can sit for both Pennsylvania and New
Jersey concurrently,
or for both Massachusetts and New
York concurrently,
as well.
To
sit for the bar exam, you must file an application and pay a fee. Typical filing deadlines for the July bar exam
are: Illinois - February 1 (although you
may file an application until as late as May 31st, but the filing
fee escalates fairly dramatically); California - April 21st; New York - At
least 90 but not more than 120 days prior to exam; Minnesota - March 15
(although late applications are accepted until May 1st, with $150
additional fee). The application fees
range from around $250 to more than $900.
The
best way to get information about filing fees, application deadlines, etc. for
a specific state is to go to the website of that state’s board of bar
examiners. The ABA’s
“Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements,” which is on-line at http://www.ncbex.org/pubs/pdf/2004CompGuide.pdf
and also at http://www.abanet.org/legaled/baradmissions/bar.html,
will also tell you WHAT SUBJECTS
are covered on the state-law portion of each state’s bar exam. This can be helpful information when you are
selecting courses for next semester; e.g., if you can’t decide between
two courses, and one of them is covered on the bar exam and one isn’t, it might
be advisable to enroll in the course that covers material you’re going to have
to learn for the bar exam.
In
most jurisdictions, the forms you need to complete in order to register for the
bar exam can be downloaded from the website of the state’s Board of Bar
Examiners; therefore, most states are no
longer willing to provide paper copies.
The
forms that you need to complete in order to register to take the Illinois bar exam are downloadable from the www.ibaby.org
website; however, there are also two cards that you must fill out, and those
can be picked up in the Career Services Office.
Websites
for jurisdictions in which many of our students take the bar exam are:
Illinois: www.ibaby.org
New York: www.nybarexam.org
California: http://calbar.xap.com
Minnesota: www.ble.state.mn.us
There
are two typewriters in the Career Services Office that you are welcome to use
to type your bar exam application forms.
Do NOT wait until the last minute to complete these forms. They typically require you to provide a
surprisingly large amount of detailed information about your life so far, much
of which takes a long time to collect.
2.
Wisconsin Diploma Privilege:
If
you plan to take advantage of the Wisconsin Diploma Privilege, be sure to
complete the Diploma Privilege Character and Fitness Certification application
forms as soon as possible. Once the
application is submitted, the Board's character and fitness investigation will
ordinarily take between three and six months.
Delay in submitting your application can jeopardize your chances to be
able to participate with your classmates in the Large-Group Swearing-In Ceremony. Finally, if you don’t file at least 30 days
after the day your J.D. is conferred, you will lose the Diploma Privilege and
will have to take the Wisconsin Bar Exam to be admitted in Wisconsin.
For
May 2008 grads, if you file by December 17, you also pay a fee of $210 rather
than $310, which is a nice savings.
Remember
that the forms (like all bar application and registration forms) require a LOT
of information about your life so far, and that it can take an astonishing
amount of time to collect that information (not to mention how long it takes to
complete the forms).
Remember,
too, that representatives of the Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners will also be
here at the Law School most of the day on Wednesday, November 14, in the Law
School Atrium, to answer your questions about how to complete the Character and
Fitness Certification application forms.
3. Multistate Professional
Responsibility Exam:
Every
state except Maryland, Wisconsin, and Washington requires, for admission to its state bar, a passing score
on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). The MPRE is based on the disciplinary rules
of professional conduct articulated in the ABA Model Rules of Professional
Conduct and other generally accepted principles and decisions governing the
conduct of lawyers.
The
MPRE is administered in numerous locations on three dates each year. In 2008, those dates are Saturday, March
8; Friday, August 8; and Saturday, November 8. The MPRE will be
offered in Madison the March 8 test date.
In early
January, the Career Services Office will receive information and application
materials regarding the 2008 MPRE. Registration
fees and deadlines for the 2008 MPRE have not yet been announced. However, in recent years, the registration
fee has been $55, and the application deadline for the March exam last year was
January 30. This year’s application deadline is likely to be around January 28.
Last year, late applications were also
accepted until February 15, but the filing fee for late applications was $110
rather than $55. You may submit a paper
application, or you may apply on-line at https://secureweb01.act.org/mpre/. Please note that
the MPRE is NEVER willing to extend the application deadline, for any
reason.
For
most students, it is smart to take the MPRE in the spring of their third year
of law school, so that they don’t have to study for it in the summer right
after the “regular” bar exam. Most
states accept your MPRE score as long as you sat for the exam after you had
completed at least two years of law school.
Some states, however, have unusual rules, so you should check the
specific regulations in effect in the state you will be practicing in.
BAR/BRI
offers a review course to help students prepare for the MPRE; that course is
included in the fee for any state’s bar review course that you register for
through BAR/BRI. See the BAR/BRI website,
http://www.barbri.com, for further information, or talk to one of the Law School’s BAR/BRI representatives, Alfonso Cornish or Maren
Solberg, both of whom are UW law students.
In
addition, the Practising Law Institute (PLI) has a computer-based MPRE review
program that students can access at www.mbe.pli.edu.
4. Bar Review Courses:
A
number of companies are in the business of offering bar review courses to
recent law school graduates, to help them study for the bar exam. Some of them are the following:
BAR/BRI:
BAR/BRI is one of the oldest of these types of organizations. See http://www.barbri.com for information about their courses. Maren Solberg and
Alfonso Cornish, both of whom are law students, are the University
of Wisconsin Law School
Bar/BRI
representatives this year – you may contact them at Cornish@wisc.edu or mcsolberg@wisc.edu if you have
questions. The registration deadlines
for the July 2008 bar review course will occur in April. The fee to take the bar review course through
BAR/BRI varies from state to state.
In
the summer, BAR-BRI usually conducts a video-tape bar review course here at the
Law School, beginning in late May or early June and ending in early July, for
students taking the Illinois bar examination.
BAR-BRI may offer a course here in Madison for any particular state’s bar exam if there are enough
students interested in taking it here.
PMBR:
PMBR offers a “supplement” to traditional bar review courses, designed to give
you intensive preparation for the MultiState Bar Exam. The fees range from $345 to $795, depending
on the length and format of the program you select. Discounts are available to ABA Law Student
Division members. See http://www.pmbr.com
for more information.
MicroMash:
See http://www.micromash.net for information about this company’s bar review programs.
The
Study Group: The Study Group offers personal, home study bar review
materials – see http://www.thestudygroup.com.
Practicing
Law Institute: Click on http://mbe.pli.edu to learn more about PLI’s programs, which (like PMBR’s)
focus on the Multi-State Bar Exam and the Multi-State Performance Test rather
than the state-law essay portion of the bar exam.
