you should contact a lawyer

that's the absolute best advice you'll receive in this thread

i destroyed my 1L exams and made a huge jump in rankings by transferring. genuinely believe my long background in being a successful poker player had a LOT to do with being able to game and crush exams.

I'm not sure if my success at poker has led to success in law school. In my law school app personal statements, I wrote about my poker career and how I think the biggest advantage of being a poker player in the legal world is that poker players (at least successful ones) must have the ability to control emotions that can impede rational thought--something that lawyers (especially litigators) must have too.

Granted I haven't officially practiced yet as an attorney, but after 3 years of law school and a bunch of clinics and internships and jobs I'd say I still agree with that. There might be certain aspects of strategy or game theory that are conducive to both professions--but I do think the most important characteristic that the two share is the importance for its adherents to always have a clear, objective mind. This is a skill that poker has taught me and has been very valuable in the way I am able to look at the law and help clients.

I partially don't want to shell out the cash because of the expense. Partly just because I think the whole thing is a scam. Barbri was on campus practically every day I was at law school it seems like. Then professors tell you that everyone really needs to take a bar prep course because law school doesn't teach you what you need to know. Why exactly am I here then? Maybe it should and I'm stupid, but the bar exam doesn't really scare me.

But I guess I kinda sold out for even buying used Barbri books.

To teach you how to think, ldo.

I actually think my law school did a good job of both. Bar prep was 80% review but I still had a good amount of theory without getting absurd.

you would think after the first semester people would learn not to talk about an exam right after its over.

Conversation I overhear between 3 students after con law final:

Student1: Can you believe she didn't test us on the establishment clause?
Student2: I know, I spent a lot of time preparing for that.
Student3: Uh guys, there was an establishment clause essay--it was worth 25% of the exam.
::students 1&2 have nervous breakdown::

Student 3 was correct of course, but I guess he couldn't resist and had to ruin weekend for those other two.

All of the above, but don't underrate the game theory aspect. I can remember specifically on my civ pro exam 1L, the prof had like 10 sections worth varying points. Obviously, I go to the biggest point total sections and complete those first, leaving the smallest for last.

You would think that is intuitive, at least I did, and then I realized, almost nobody did that lol. They just opened the test and went start to finish. I know that's not "game theory" in a formal sense, but as a poker player, that was second nature to me, but not for everyone apaz.



I mean, I had a healthy amount of nerves about the bar exam, but deep down, I was confident if I put in the time, I would pass. If you feel that way and you put in the time studying, I think you'll be fine.

That being said, otoh, if you dropped 100k+ for a law degree, it's a pretty minimal cost to shell out 1.5-2k for a review course to practically gtd a bar pass in most states.

I guess I don't have a strong opinion either way. I'm glad I did Themis and saved money, but I think if I had self-studied, I still would have passed.

I also think poker players in general are anti-BS and good at abstract thinking. Those are good traits in a law student, though maybe not in a lawyer.

Agreed about all the above but I would add that for me taking a year off before law school and having the poker stuff gave me more perspective. I'm sure most of the people in school have the mentality of there is only one path to success and it must be a straight line of good grades to big law firm to lots of money. I guess this is true for anyone who worked before law school, but it's different with poker because there was always the feeling of unlimited potential if you work hard or put in the hours you can do well and generally there is a flexible schedule. As opposed to someone that's coming from a 9 to 5 and going to law school, they didn't necessarily have the feeling of unlimited potential. if anything sometimes they are trying to escape a boring job they dislike with no potential.

Especially with poker in the back of my mind there was always the thought of "well if this doesn't work out..." or poker as a nice supplement. So I knew that I wouldn't be forced into something that I didn't want to do career wise. But also it just helps you stay relaxed when other people were freaking out, and keeps it more well rounded.

You're correct about this too.

This is very helpful in practice, at least in mine. We often take cases that present novel issues (typically of statutory interpretation) to courts, so abstract problem solving is useful when you're trying to stitch together a legal standard that didn't exist before.

also i dont know if you guys watch better call saul, but there's some really subtle nods to the profession in there that i love.

for example, in one scene there's a lawyer who keeps editing her document, alternating between using a semi-colon or an em dash to set off an independent clause. it's not the focus of the scene, and they dont go out of their way to explain it, but i couldnt stop laughing because that happens to me a lot.

+10000

While I'm getting my own practice up, I'm grinding 15-20 hrs/week to pay the bills as we speak. Having that extra income and knowing that I can support myself with poker has been vital to me so far.

Love the show for this and of course the not so subtle stuff. Is clearly written by an attorney or someone really familiar. I love when he thinks he found the perfect client that he can bill for millions of dollars only to find out that the guy created his own money. That whole season I thought had a ton of very accurate stuff like that. Where it's so hard to find good clients that don't have some kind of weird issue.

Yeah the show is great. I like that this thread is temporarily alive again.

better call saul great for lawyers lawyering; so is billions.

I enjoyed The Good Wife quite a bit. Often felt like the cases from week to week were written more for the benefit of law nerds than for the masses.

2L done. Feeling weird because my classmates seem super happy but I feel like nothing important has happened.

prepare for the most useless year of your life

Personally, I did a semester-long internship at the public defender's office in 3L which I thought was far more educational and useful in the long-term than taking Corporations or Wills and Estates as a 2L, but that's me.

Frankly, I'd go back to 3L in a second if it meant I didn't have to be a lawyer for a little while!

I had a great time during 3L.

Took a clinic and got court experience 3L. Did absolutely nothing else. 3L is fun imo

graduating today. my family about to meet hers for the first time. my family is conservative as **** and hers is liberal so uh hopefully this ends okay lol

i did it really wrong 3L year was by far my hardest year actually. i learned a lot but damn some of these classes required a crapload of work. i kind of preferred ****ing around for the whole semester and just cramming for finals instead of actually doing work every week. i think i did a lot more actual lawyer stuff 3l year rather than law school bull****. stuff is hard!


btw for anyone who cares i ended up getting what i think is a really good deal on barbri (1200 with monthly payments). i would recommend negotiating last minute for anyone who has the stomach for it. just don't deal with your student reps who cannot do ****, get straight to the actual rep

3L was awesome for me too, especially this past semester. I really enjoyed law school in general. Pretty sad that it's over.

1200?! Nice! That's a super sick deal for Barbri.

Just my two cents: If you have an account at TLS, follow along with your state bar thread. While it's not perfect obviously, it helped me kind of find out where I was as people were posting which topics they were finishing/what scores they were getting. It was helpful to have a community of folks going through the same thing you are.

If you get super anxious and nervous though, maybe not the best lol. Like, people will post their scores and other posters would get super mad/anxious/upset over it. Idk, just a thought. It helped me stay on track and see where I was at compared to the rest of the pack.

On the other hand, TLS is a cesspool.