To Take a Bar Exam (or Not)

A lot has changed since I started working with law students in 2015. A lot has changed in the world, in my own life, and for the students I serve. It seems every year more students arrive at law school fresh from undergraduate commencement ceremonies. Fewer students have worked in a legal setting, or any professional setting, before embarking on the study of law. This isn’t a bad thing, just a difference I notice with each passing year.

Every August at orientation, the 1Ls are told that they are embarking on a professional journey – that law school is a professional school. We do our best to let them know the expectations are different here than in their undergraduate programs. The workload is heavier. They should be developing professional identities – preparing to one day take an oath of attorney and pledge to ethically represent clients. These are important points that for many describe the path ahead.

Still, less than two weeks out from the bar exam, as the stress mounts on our graduates, I reflect on another change I’ve witnessed over the years. There are more law students who are unsure about whether they want to practice law at all. There are also more law students who are sure they don’t want to practice law. JD advantage career opportunities continue to increase, and students pursue legal education for different reasons than they did a decade ago. Yet the vast majority of graduates continue to take the bar exam.

I’m reminded of the term, emerging adulthood coined by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, PhD back in 2000. He used this term to describe the period of development between the ages of 18 and 29 where adolescents begin having adult experiences that shape their transition into adulthood. It’s a time of self-exploration and identity development, and this individual growth and personal identity formation is happening alongside many law students’ professional development. I would argue that a growing portion of law students leave law school having made major strides in personal identity formation, while remaining ambivalent about their professional identity.

When I talk with graduates taking the bar exam because of family pressure, because it’s what everyone else is doing, or with no real reason in mind, I know it will be a struggle. Not because they can’t do it, but because they are doing it for the wrong reasons. No amount of external pressure will keep you internally motivated to study forty to fifty hours a week for ten weeks.

Every year, I ask my 3L students to write down why they want to take the bar exam. I ask them to save the piece of paper and look at it when bar prep gets hard. Maybe I should also stop and let them know it’s OK if they don’t want to practice law. There are many successful JDs out there who are happily doing something else with their legal education. I could normalize other paths. I could stop reinforcing the notion that the bar exam is a necessary hurdle for all, and instead be clear that it is only necessary for those who seek to practice.

(Ashley Cetnar)