Like Sam I just finished the bar exam, and took in NY so UBE.

I do not feel good about it at all. I primarily used Adaptibar for my MBE prep, which supposedly offers real MBE questions whereas Barbri and other prep courses do not.

I was killing it on there. The overall percentage correct for all Adaptibar users was about 62%, and mine was 76% (which is high enough that I am eligible for their 105% of purchase price money back guarantee if I fail) and felt uber confident going into today, only to find that the questions I saw today did not at all resemble the questions on Adaptibar. On Adaptibar I knew the answer confidently 90+% of the time. Today, there were at least 40-50 questions I had to straight up guess after trying to narrow it.

I also bombed the MPT. Didn't finish either one and just didn't feel confident about my answers. ugh.

I may have passed, but it will be a sweat for sure. I feel much more uneasy than I was hoping and will be worried now until November.

Oh, and I without a doubt studied as much or more than the average test taker.

So yes maddog, the fear is real. It's just a difficult exam objectively, even if most people end up passing due to the curve. And I agree with LKJ, I think there are enough variables in guessing on MBE questions that lots of people who pass could have easily failed had they just guessed the other way on a bunch, and I will include myself in that (assuming I manage to skate through).

And all that is in a UBE state with an average minimum score needed to pass among the UBE states (NY you need 266/400, some states you only need 260 but some you need 270 or higher). I imagine in Cali and other places where the bar passage rate is like 40% (or 60 for first time takers or whatever) that this experience is even doubly traumatic.

I'm very worried about the UBE as well. I didn't feel confident in the slightest. I didn't study near as much as I should have on the essays I guess. I basically learned all the material doing a ridiculous amount of multiple choice questions and learning through failure and I was really confident going in but going out I just felt like there were maybe 30 questions on the entire test I was 100% on then an absurd amount I was only like 65% on and a few I had no idea on.

I didn't put any effort into essays until about a week left thinking that my state is 50/30/20 mpt and at least two of the essays would be mbe topics so learning 8 new subjects for 20% of the tests wasn't high on my agenda but i should have memorized some basic rules better . I thought I would do below average on essays and crush multiple choice but I can't imagine I did that well on them. We will see . The only thing keeping me from full on panic is that basically everyone seemed to feel the same way and I only have to beat out about 80%. Definitely think multiple choice has a ton of variance . I would never ever judge anyone negatively for failing after taking the test it was a lot of pressure and quite difficult

I only wrote about 1k words on each mpt and around 550ish on each essay on average which seems way way too low when there is such a high correlation between essay length and grade in law school . I really needed to regurgitate more bs . Oh well . I won't die if I have to take it again but that says more about my privilege than anything else . If I was in a state where I had s bunch of state specific essays I surely would have failed but I am in one of the easiest states so I'm lucky

ready to get back to law school grind and not write any more motions.

But how many (motions) did you lose?

none yet, motions where I'm from take 6 months to a year to decide.

That's hilarious, back to law school to escape the law practice grind. Get ready!

i like motions practice

Actually don't want to go back now, we might have a specific performance lawsuit brewing, which I didn't even really think happened outside of old cases in contracts class.

Basic facts: we represent sellers in residential real estate transaction. K fully executed and delivered July 19. Purchasers get termite inspection done, house is riddled with termite damage, it will cost over 30k to remedy.

K says purchasers must provide notice of termite damage within 10 days of execution or termite claims are waived. We get notice of termite damage August 10 (22 days too late).

Attorney here drafts letter to opposing counsel that basically says, sorry not sorry, notice not served in time, deal must close as scheduled.

Seller attorney snaps back demanding cancellation of the K and return of down payment.

Closing date is end of next month, if purchasers are a no-show, most likely filing suit to keep the down payment.

idk about irl, but that's a slam dunk bar hypo. Was also an essay on the CA bar (specific performance, that is).

Yeah, it's not a perfect specific performance problem because our client's remedy is retaining the down payment - and clearly the purchaser does not want the house now. But def a real life good property hypo. Now it's really just a matter of who is going to sue the other party first.

Just got back from the wildest PFA hearing. Opposing side tried to bring a PFA against my CL.

This guy subpoena'd 7 people, including 3 minors. The incident occurred at a McDonald's parking lot where allegedly my CL made him threatened for his life by calling the police (no joke). This guy even brought in the McDonald's shift manager, who's only testimony was, "I don't know, I wasn't out there. I was inside." lol.

Judge went off on this guy before the end of the hearing and he actually threatened to hold him in contempt because he kept interrupting the Judge lol. First time I had seen that happen irl.

Finally, after it's pretty much over, I asked for my petition for counsel fees to be heard. Judge just says, "No" and leaves the bench. Not like I expect to get counsel fees, but just seems like you encourage this type of wild behavior in family law if you don't punish bad actors with fees/contempt/etc. So, this guy just put on a circus for 2 hours, had no repercussions because of it, and my CL had to pay for my legal services to defend herself. Seems like if you're a bad actor, no reason not to try, you know?

Idk, just didn't know if others in family law have had success getting fees or not. Only my second time trying for them, and I know they are notoriously hard to get (atleast in my area), but this seemed like a slam-dunk fees assessed situation.

Not trying to be a dick but I'm confused. You said it was a specific performance problem then you said it isn't. I agree that it is not because you're not forcing sale of the house.

Also I think that's a bad hypo because there are no two sides of that fight. there's not much to discuss. It is however not surprising and pretty incredible how lazy real estate can be from what I've seen and heard. I think it's better now after the crash but they are so whatever about title searches and some of the due diligence. Astounding.

We ask for prevailing party and/or bad faith fees in just about all proceedings (I do family law in Vegas). I'd estimate we get at least something like 15-20% of the time we prevail? So yeah, not that high.

I had to look up PFA, but it looks like it's the same as our TPO (Temporary Protection Order) stuff. We only do those when they're part of a custody/divorce case, & I have almost no personal experience with them, so I can't speak to that much.

Yeah, we call them "Protection From Abuse PFA" in Pennsylvania. But, yeah, pretty much same thing. I did only victim work in law school in a clinic, but in practice, I've only ever defended against them.

15% isn't bad tbh, I expected it to be even lower. But right, the point being, if you don't punish these people, seems like they'll never stop bringing ridiculous claims. I'm all for giving some leeway to pro se people, but by not enforcing fees, court just allows these guys to cause a tidal wave of destruction and then just wash their hands of the entire situation. Meh, just my experience so far is all.

Long story short: can't wait to get the wills/trusts/estates practice going more. Family law is good to cut teeth on, and I'm happy for the court experience, but man, the drama is out of control sometimes.

Really poor choice of words on my part.

When in doubt, argue equity. I'd also attempt to argue that a 35k down payment is a penalty, rather than an appropriate sum for liquidated damages (I left out how much the down payment was).

It is quite lazy.

I read that originally as deposit I think. At least in MD I think down payment not due until settlement so there's just a relatively small deposit before then. Would be a penalty I think for $35K.

Had a CL leave my firm today for the first time. Wanted to hear if you guys thought we did anything wrong or just lolfamilylaw.

We picked up CL through a referral service. She showed up with major drama, wanted a divorce from husband. So, okay, we get to work on complaint on day 1. On day 2, she storms into office saying husband was driving across the country to file in a different state, so it needed to be done that day. Okay, we cranked it out (money upfront of course) and got it filed by end of day. (Wasn't true, of course, OP was just visiting his mom)

Few days go by, we get a hearing date for APL. CL complained bc date was too far out (tbf, it was 6 weeks later, but that's how court scheduled it). We tried, to no avail, to move it up. CL keeps constantly calling us with drama, nothing of significance. We talk her down each time, she calms down. Next day, calls in, cycle repeats.

I talked to CL on Thursday last week, calmed the situation re: a random text mssg sent to CL from OP. Seems fine. Today, I get to my desk and we have a letter from a biglaw family law firm in city saying they represent her now/we need to sign their Praecipe of Withdrawal/substitution.

I was 100% caught offguard with the whole situation. I don't think we did anything wrong, but it was just like, so out of the blue. I called new counsel and said I need CL to sign something on their letterhead proving the representation was being terminated and that I still had an attorney-client relationship until then. They got super pissed, and so I just calmly explained that 1. I wasn't trying to keep my client necessarily and 2. until I saw something proving CL terminated on their letterhead, I didn't want to turn over all the files in our possession to a random law firm asking for them.

WUG thread? Is this just common in family law, i.e. clients bailing and switching representation? Do you think it's a good play with requesting a signature to prove rep is terminated? Just seems super bad to just turn over docs/withdraw because you receive a random letter in mail with no signature/email/letter/etc. from the CL. Opposing attorney didn't even bother to sign the enclosure letter lol, just dictated it and left the "dictated, not typed" on the letter itself.

Apologies if that is super long and boring. Just client situations like these never really get taught in school, so I try to use common sense and guide myself, but it's always nice to hear from more experienced lawyers.

Clients move around for whatever reason whenever. In Nevada we always do a Substitution of Attorney executed by the client. No idea about there.

this is the sort of thing i might call for an ethics opinion for, but imo there's no way im shipping over client files without a direct order from the client. absolutely no way.

this is all just imo and not advice etc.

kind of had an odd situation myself recently where i was appellate counsel for a client, and the client was in the process of replacing the firm representing them at the district court level. (this was an interlocutory appeal in federal court, so both courts kept moving along independent of each other).

got pretty awkward, but was very clear with client that i couldnt communicate on anything with their new counsel until they explicitly told me they had been hired and authorized it. always play it safe with stuff like this.

NY is similar to Nevada. There is a document called "consent to change attorney" it must be signed by the incoming attorney, the outgoing attorney, the client, and the client's signature must be notarized.

I would just research it in your jurisdiction what is the proper procedure. I can't believe the practice and custom in your area is just getting a letter from some random attorney and it's like okay here you go, here's all my clients confidential information. Do you work along side a mentor figure? Surely he/she been fired before, every attorney has.

That's also just clients being clients. My dad lost an institutional client (a private high school) because one of the administrators of the school played poker with some random attorney. The random attorney sucked and they came running back within a year.

Word, maybe we didn't **** up after all. My mentor pretty much said, "this may be the first time you lose a client, but it certainly won't be the last." So that seemed to sum it up.


Right? I thought that was wild that the OC got upset I wouldn't just ship out random client files to a different attorney. Guy has been practicing 41 years, so it's not like he's new to this either.


Yeah, I wasn't sure what to make of it tbh. Seemed so informal and just like, no signature, no consent, nothing. Just a random letter saying ship over docs to us or else.

My mentor pretty much said that the other guy is a dick (They graduated law school together in the 70's) and said to do what I had mentioned, i.e. get the CL signature+ OC signature on OC letterhead and could even get it notarized to be safe.

Fwiw, these guys are bigboys in town. Probably the second biggest family law firm with like 15 attorneys or so. Their billing rate is like 3x ours lol, so I understand if our CL had more money, she would drop the new guys and hire the big guns. It's just a random time to do it and it really came out of nowhere. Couldn't help but feel like I was missing some signs along the way or something.

So the inevitable happened and i was asked to resign from my position, being a openly liberal agnostic prosecutor in super conservative catholic DA's office. One of the stated reasons being i didn't put enough people in prison, although arguably i can show i put roughly the same number of people in prison as that of others in my office in my position. But being an at will employee in a political office they don't really need a reason.

I was there for about 2 years and have a few trials under my belt while handling probably over 2000 cases.

Considering my options now, i have connections at the public defender's office in my city and a couple PD's have already talked to the head PD to hire me if i apply. However, the appeal of opening my own shop is extremely high.

I'm friends with several defense attorneys that could serve as mentors, and a couple of the establish successful ones have said they will funnel me cases they aren't interested in to start. Also i'm very close with 4 of the judges i worked with(as it appears everyone in the system loved working with me other than my own senior office) and they will send conflict appointments my way for some guaranteed clients.

It's just very scary to make the jump.

Damn, that's some bull. Sorry that happened to you Slighted.

I'm not as experienced as an attorney as you, but I did open my own shop. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Especially administrative Q's, I can 100% help with those.

God forbid we have some reasonable ****ing prosecutors.

sorry to hear it man. not that it's much consolation but from this post alone it sounds like you're the sort of attorney who is gonna land on their feet quick no matter what you get into next.