For Loyola law students the month of July is not about vacations or a break from classes, it’s what they have prepared their entire law school careers for – the Louisiana Bar Exam.
Robert Owens, law school alumnae, recalls when he took the bar exam.
“I don’t think I’ve ever undergone more incredible stress than that period of time,” Owens said.”If you ask me to recall a single moment from that week, all I remember is just being in that exam room and typing and going home and studying until I had to go to sleep and waking up and going back to it. It was all just a blur.”
Owens is currently a staff attorney with the Louisiana Civil Justice Center. He says that graduating from Loyola has helped him in building connections and opportunities.”When I go to court, when I’m talking to judges or attorneys, it helps for them to know that I went Loyola. It’s a natural ‘in’ because Loyola is one of the more dominant alma maters for the lawyers that practice in New Orleans,” Owens said. According to Rachel Dawson, director of the Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association, the bar exam is administered by each state to test basic law knowledge to ensure that new lawyers possess the skills to professionally and ethically represent clients. A person must pass the bar exam to be licensed to practice law. Loyola law students have consistently ranked third out of the Louisiana law schools in the passage rate of the exam, according to Louisiana Supreme Court bar exam results. According to the February 2011 exam results, Loyola had the second highest number of students pass the bar with 58.8 percent. Bar exam results from 2011 and 2012 indicate that the average passing rate of Loyola students was 60.2 percent. Monica Wallace, Loyola law professor, teaches bar courses to help students prepare for the exam. “What I do every year when the bar comes out is I review the exam. It tells me in my course what I need to make sure that I’m teaching the topical matters that are covered,” Wallace said.
Owens explains how a bar review course was helpful to him.
“It showed you what the exams look like, you get to see the patterns in the test questions, and you get to become a smart test taker,” Owens said.
The previous bar exam was administered in February of this year.
According to the Louisiana Supreme Court bar exam results, the statewide passage rate was at a low with only 40 percent.
Professor Wallace does not think that is has anything to do with the students.
“It’s very distressing to me to see the committee on bar examiners create an examine that has a state wide passage that is below 50 percent when our passage rate ten year ago was 70 and 80 percent. No one will convince me that the students are less smart now,” Wallace said.
Law students not only have to prepare for passing the bar exam, but they also have to prepare for their careers after it.
Howard Murphy, counselor at law of Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles law firm shares what he looks for in hiring a law school graduate.
“When I engage in hiring, I focus on three attributes -intelligence, the ability to reason, and the ability to effectively communicate, both verbally and in writing,” Murphy said.
“Professional experience in an area other than the law also can have great value.
“The graduate must be personable and demonstrate the ability to be convincing in conversation as well as in the composition of legal memoranda and briefs,” Murphy said.
The next Louisiana bar exam will be administered on July 22. As the date approaches, Professor Wallace advises students to dedicate their time to as much preparation as possible.
“I would say to treat it like a marathon and keep a pace,” Wallace said.
“My biggest advice is to treat it like a job. Give up those two and half months of your life and give it up to studying,” Wallace said. “You do it once and don’t have to do it again. It’s worth it to put some things on hold.”
William Duponte, Chief Judge of the 18th Judicial District Court and Loyola alumnae, has similar advice.
“Suck it up and put your time in it,” Duponte said.
“In the scheme of things just put your whole mind, body and soul into it because that’s what is necessary in law school. You just have to drop everything else and get through it and if you do that, it’s easy,” Duponte said.
Alicia Serrano can be reached at [email protected]
