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Bar Exam Film Ups Ante for 6 Law Grads

Posted Jul 26, 2007, 01:24 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

It's hard enough just studying for the bar exam. But six California law graduates decided to up the ante even further by doing so in the public eye. Responding to a 2006 request by documentary filmmakers, they agreed to allow video footage of everything from crying jags and the struggle to find time to spend with a hospitalized child to the moment of truth as they checked online to find out if they had passed.

Not everyone did, and part of the drama of the documentary, A Lawyer Walks into a Bar, is following the law grads' bar-study saga to the sometimes-bitter end, reports the ABA Journal.

One participant, Megan Meadows, says being filmed helped her study even harder. “I didn’t want anyone recording me if I failed,” she says.

But another, Cassandra Hooks, whose struggle to study while her 4-year-old son was hospitalized with a bacterial infection is documented in the film, was matter-of-fact about the extra scrutiny. “I had signed up for the documentary, so it was just part of that," she says. "If I failed, I just did it in front of a lot of people.”

The film will be available on DVD in September.

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Title: Bar Exam Film Ups Ante for 6 Law Grads


Comments

  1. Posted by Denise - 1 year, 1 month, 1 week, 2 days, 21 hours, 8 minutes ago

    Sounds great, I think I will wait till i am done to watch it :)

  2. Posted by Deidre - 1 year, 1 month, 1 week, 2 days, 19 hours, 8 minutes ago

    Interesting!  I’m thinking of doing the NY Bar soon.

  3. Posted by LawGrad - 1 year, 1 month, 1 week, 2 days, 17 hours, 30 minutes ago

    I saw the movie in Austin earlier in the year.  It’s really great and darn funny. I’m sending the DVD to three people who are taking the Bar next year.

  4. Posted by Jen - 1 year, 1 month, 1 week, 2 days, 8 hours, 54 minutes ago

    I wish I would have seen this film before I took the bar exam!

  5. Posted by Dave - 1 year, 1 month, 1 week, 11 hours, 31 minutes ago

    I passed the bar in two states, and didn’t have any drama with the praparation.  If they had filmed my friends and I they would have seen going to the first bar review session and skipping the next three to play frisbee outside.  The killer seems to be the multistate for people that can’t make a decision.


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