My most read post was my very first entry where I posted the pass page of the California bar exam to help people visualize passing the bar. Good things come with happy thoughts. Visualization was only one of the techniques I used to help calm my nerves. By nature I'm a cynical and sarcastic person. I'm the guy that walks around art shows, sees a painting of a big red dot on a canvas and goes on a rant on how, "This is stupid, I could paint that picture." I'm the guy that turns on the radio, hears Kei$ha's Tic Tok song and thinks, "This is stupid, I could write that song." While the song is catchy, I'm frankly amazed at how low the bar is set in a lot of fields.
Law is no different. Think of all the attorneys that you've met and thought, "This guy is licensed to practice law? I'm going to go home and look him up on the bar website to make sure." Its an unfortunately long list, isn't it?
In explaining the difficulty of the California bar exam, people list notable failures. The most notable failure being Kathleen Sullivan, former Dean of Stanford Law School, leading constitutional law scholar and possible U.S. Supreme Court nominee. But, talking about people that much smarter than me failing the bar exam only made me more nervous.
There is an attorney that I see at my college fraternity's yearly conference. I can't stand him and every year I see him I head to a computer to check if he is still licensed. As I was studying for the California bar exam, I realized that he is barred in the state of California. I thought, "If this clown can pass the California bar exam, I know I'm going to pass!" It was a very comforting thought. So while your studying, don't think about the smart attorneys that failed, think of all the not-so-bright attorneys that passed!
