This memo is intended to help 3Ls anticipate some of the important things they should be doing, and expenses they’ll have to budget for, over the next six months.
If you plan to practice after graduation in a state
other than Wisconsin, you
will have to take that state’s bar exam.
[If, however, you are admitted to the State Bar of Wisconsin via
the diploma privilege, and you practice exclusively in the area of
federal law – e.g., for a federal agency –
you may practice on the basis of your Wisconsin license and need
not sit for a bar exam]. In 2010, the bar
exam will be given in most states on February 23 and 24
(or on February 24, 25 and 26, in states
like California that have a three day bar exam), and
on July 27 and 28 (or July 28-30, in states like
California and Ohio that have a 3-day
exam).
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
2010:
New York
and New Jersey will
both administer the Multistate Bar Exam on July 29, but
New Jersey's state law essay questions are administered on
July 30, whereas New
York's state-law essay questions
are administered on July 28. One can sit for both
Pennsylvania and New
Jersey concurrently, or for
both Massachusetts
and New York concurrently, as well.
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 if you need to type any part of
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 (e.g., every address you have lived at, and every job you
have had, for the last ten years), 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
within 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.
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).
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 2010, those dates are Saturday, March 6; Friday, August 6; and Saturday, November 6. The MPRE will be offered in Madison, at the Law School, on the March 6 test date.
In early
January, the Career Services Office will receive information and
application materials regarding the 2010 MPRE.
Registration fees and deadlines for the 2010 MPRE have not
yet been announced. However, in recent
years, the registration fee has been $60, 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 $120 rather than $60. 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.
4. Bar Review Courses:
A number of companies and organizations offer bar
review courses to recent law school graduates, to help them study
for the bar exam. Some of them are the
following:
NCBE: The National
Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) offers an “MBE Online Practice
Exam.” This product features 100 questions
drawn from recent Multistate Bar Exams, and gives you feedback on
your answers, including annotations and customized score reports,
for $26. You can order this product online
at www.ncbex.org.
BAR/BRI: BAR/BRI is one of the oldest of these types of organizations. See http://www.barbri.com for information about their courses. David Bonner, Nicole Rute and Manish Jain, all of whom are law students, are the University of Wisconsin Law School BAR/BRI representatives this year – you may contact them at dlbonner@wisc.edu, nmrute@wisc.edu, or mkjain@wisc.edu if you have questions. The registration deadlines for the July 2010 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-taped bar review course here at
the Law School, beginning in late May 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.
Kaplan/PMBR:
Kaplan/PMBR offers a variety of bar review products:
The company’s MBE Foundation and Final Review Courses are
six and three day courses that “supplement” traditional bar
review courses, and are designed to give you intensive preparation
for the MultiState Bar Exam. The company now
also offers general bar review courses for a number of states as
well. See http://www.kaptest.com/Bar-Exam/Home/index.html
MicroMash: See http://www.micromashbar.com
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.