Passing the Bar

Florida State College of Law has one of the best Environmental Law programs in the country. Our Tax Law program is also highly ranked, and we have an International Law program that specializes in Caribbean countries. All of these sounded intriguing when I was deciding what law school to attend

Since coming to law school, however, I've learned that my electives are already largely decided.

That's because I want to pass the bar on the first try. I'm going to be spending my electives on courses like Evidence, Florida Constitutional Law, Gratuitous Transfers, Real Estate Finance, Florida Civil Procedure, etc.

These, among several others, are the subjects tested on the Florida Bar. Perhaps I will have a few electives left to take some other courses- but I don't believe it will be enough to complete something like the International Law or Taxation Law programs.

Many students who attend here take the courses in those programs and then depend on a bar prep course not affiliated with the law school for them to pass the bar. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. One professor told me that Evidence is a complicated course and is probably too much to learn in a month and a half bar prep course. Also, bar prep courses are expensive- costing thousands of dollars for tuition alone-- and there is no money back guarantee if you still fail the bar.

That's not a risk I'm too thrilled about taking. So, the goal with my electives will be to take the subjects tested on the bar.

These are things to think about when considering a law school. I love it here at FSU and do not regret coming to Tallahassee in the slightest, but now I understand how some less prestigious schools in my home state of North Carolina could boast of having higher bar passage rates than Duke or the University of North Carolina. These schools focus on the meat and potatoes of the bar exam, with less emphasis on programs like Caribbean international law like you can find at Florida State...

Here is my favorite laugh from the past week:

My contracts professor was discussing what damages, if any, the plaintiff might get from the emotional suffering she experienced as a result of being fired from her job and not being able to work:

"As opposed to the emotional suffering she experienced from having to go to work every day," he said, "that's a totally different kind of emotional suffering."

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn