Bar Exam Prep

Well, it's May. If you're a law student, May means 1 of 3 things: School's out; Summer school starts; or it's bar exam time.

For me, the bar exam was the hardest, yet easiest test I've ever taken; I guess having the fear of failure is quite a motivator to do very well. On the first day of the exam, I thought I was going to throw up. On the drive to the exam hall, my wife kept asking if I was all right and if we needed to pull over. If I could have thrown up, I probably would have. Truth is, I couldn't even muster enough courage to puke, because of the sudden wave of fear I'd gathered about 90 minutes prior to the exam. By the time the proctors bellowed "begin" though, I was "full guns" and focused.

I used to believe in the principle that Wisconsin adopts: if you attend a state school, you can waive the bar exam. Not any more though. I think every last and recent graduate should suffer just like me. Two days of pure hell, followed by 2 months of anxiety.

The fact is, everyone does it. It's a right of passage, and if you've done what you need to, then you'll be fine. My advice is simple: develop a study routine, and stick to it. Bar prep is your job for the next 2 months (although I worked 30 hours per week from graduation until July 1).

I took the BarBri and PMBR bar exam courses. I know people who didn't, and they passed. Frankly, I think you could do it, but why risk it? The Cowgirl Lawyer, has a well-written blog post, which basically agrees with my philosophy.

You need the study routine to give you comfort and stress relief More importantly, the routine is a method to allow you to accomplish all the studying that has to take place. I'd go to our local city library, or fortunately, to the law school's library (it's surprisingly empty from August to December, January to April, and May 15 to August 15), and sprawl out over a desk. I made sure I only took my study materials, no laptop or other distracting devices. 

Here's my daily routine (beginning July 1):

9:00  50 MBE questions & review

12:00 lunch (30 minutes)

1:00   Review BarBri materials; pick 1 subject to study

5:30   Dinner

6:00   Create study flash cards, posters, review missed MBE questions, etc.

8:00   Relax (tv, movies, etc)

10:30 Bed

I liked my scheduled because it created order out of chaos. The amount of information is overwhelming, and you need a logical way to tackle it. You also need to make sure you're spending some time for yourself. I didn't study on Saturday night, or Sunday. I felt I should have a little time away from the material (although it's always close, no matter what). I also didn't get discouraged if I "slacked" during some study sessions. Slacking is your mind's way of telling you to take a break. Just remember, don't take too long of a break.

The PMBR program recommended 50 questions per day from May to the bar exam. I stuck with it. You need to see a lot of questions to start to understand MBE logic. When I took the MBE, I felt like I knew 75% of the correct answers, just because they were similar to previous questions. I didn't try to "kill" the test, merely make sure I scored my 130 to pass.

In the final 2 weeks before the exam, I started taking regular full MBE exams. I'd do a 3 hour chunk in the morning, followed by review in the afternoon. I always did "discouragingly well" on my practice MBE exams, don't worry. They really are more difficult than the real MBE. By the time I took my final practice, I was scoring 135-140. The important thing is to see the types of questions. 

I didn't do a lot of essays. I don't know whether that helped or hurt me, although I felt like I was fine on the real exam. I knew I could write an essay, so I practiced issue spotting on each practice essay question. Most of the questions had 10-15 issues, large and small. I shot for 75-80% of the issues. The best essay-writing advice I received was to remember that the person reading your essay is a solo/small firm lawyer who has a busy practice and has about 3 minutes to read your answer. Be concise, be clear, and make it very easy to read. Also, add some statement like, "and since this is a rather complex issue, I would always seek the assistance and counsel of my senior partner or mentor." That has to be good for something, right?

I studied alone, I passed the exam. I don't think that group or single studying is a factor. Again, it's important to establish and stick to a routine. 

You're going to do fine, if you get in a good habit. If not, you're going to fail, and you'll re-read this blog post, kick yourself, and work harder. I know several attorneys who didn't pass (they didn't follow any sort of routine to study) on their first, second, or third attempts, it's not a big deal.

Why You Should Personally Control Your Marketing

Many attorneys like to leave their marketing schemes to junior associates or other "media" interns. There's one attorney in my office who's even letting his legal assistant design the site without any input from him. He's taking a "hands off" approach, while the assistant handles the media marketing. In fact, he's so interested in distancing himself from the website design process, that he tunes out all criticism and other input.

The truth is, this is the worst approach to managing your media image. If you want your firm to be at the forefront of people's thoughts, you need to be at the forefront of your media campaign too. You wouldn't let a legal assistant schmooze referral sources, would you? Then why do you permit them to schmooze the potential clients?

I'm certainly not saying that you need to handle every microcosm of your media design. Certainly, at some point it's more efficient for you to handle legal work, while your assistant composes the "About Me" page of your website. The key is, you need to approve every element of the content going into your media campaign.

Your marketing should have your cohesive style to encourage continuity and consistency. Your image is your image. Keep it to yourself, because nobody cares more about you, than you.

If you'd like some suggestions on managing your media, please shoot me an email. I've written several posts on some of the tools I use, so take a minute to search the site.

Why I Blog, and You Should Too

Blogging is the new fondue party, all of the cool people are doing it.

You'll recall that I'm an avid (or maybe not so avid) blogger. I publish this site, and the blog on my law firm site. You'll also recall that on a number of occasions, I've posted articles about blogging, and blogging tools. I'm a particularly avid fan of Wordpress and the Headway Theme.

I think blogging gives you a creative outlet, and an opportunity to keep up-to-date on information and current events.

One of the most difficult things is creating fresh content. My goal is to publish 3 posts to my law firm site per week. At first that doesn't seem like a lot, but if you're like me and you're trying to manage a full-time practice, 3 posts, plus everything else, ends up being quite a task.

To help minimize the workload, I find it helpful to mass produce posts when my creativity is high, and schedule them to appear at a later time and date. Some bloggers don't condone this behavior, and may suggest that fresh means fresh. The content loses some of it's quality. I beg to differ, and suggest that whatever your style may be, is the best approach you can take.

A benefit is that having a website with rapidly-changing content improves your web exposure. I remember the "rush to the web" mentality many law firms had regarding the internet. Now, with over a decade of usable internet time and experience behind us, the internet novelty has collapsed. People expect lawyers to have websites, and I think they're kind of shocked when the attorney doesn't.

Unfortunately, as some have suggested, the truth is that law firm websites are merely the conduit for funneling contacts to your business, it's the relationships that matter most. Great clients breed great client referrals and lasting income.

Solo Advice

Law practice and small firm guru, Carolyn Elefant, republished a couple of articles I think everyone should review. Carolyn does such a fantastic job at reminding us that there's a dignity in being a solo practitioner, and these articles continue that theme.

The first is an article titled, Solos Know Strategies Associates Need to Learn (the post/link at Myshingle.com is broken). This post dishes some especially encouraging advice to BigLaw associates and solos on the practice of law. Carolyn notes some of the common misconceptions about solo practice (it's not just about wills and trusts, and landlord-tenant disputes), and gives meaningful advice to counter these misconceptions.

The second article, Don't Neglect Your Reputation When Leaving A Firm (broken link), gives some more provocative advice for handling and maintaining previous relationships. As you'll learn in the solo practice field, relationships are essential to success in this business.

I think you'll find great tips in these articles to build your practice. Also, if you haven't already (I don't get a "kick back"), I suggest you purchase a copy of Carolyn's book, Solo By Choice (click here to purchase from Amazon). This is hands-down, one of the most useful books for solos. 

Solosez

If you're a new solo attorney, or you're a solo with "older-than-dirt" experience, you need to check out the ABA-hosted listserv, Solosez.

This is a great resource for a "firm" to bounce ideas off of, and seek assistance with difficult legal problems. I can't tell you the amount of useful information, and the number of network connections I've made, since I joined the list 4 years ago.

Many newbies get overwhelmed by the number of emails generated. First, you should get a separate email address, I use a Gmail account, to subscribe with. I prefer not to have Outlook poll this email address. Rather, I let Google manage the conversations, then pick-and-choose the threads that interest me. You must pick-and-choose otherwise you'll get demolished by the number of messages. There are several members who use Outlook rules to manage the message, but I find that Google is an effective tool for stringing conversations together.

Be warned: once you get started, it's addicting and very difficult to stop.

Headway & WordPress, A Winning Combination

For almost nothing, I've got my website with blog up and running. You've heard me ramble on how great the Headway theme is for WordPress. I can't say much more than I've already said.

I keep enjoying how simple the combo is, and how well they produce viable results. 

One of the drawbacks to the Headway Theme is that you need to know/understand a little about web coding to "get" how things work. Other than that, with the visual editor, you're able to move and fix just about anything you need.

Recently, I combined my website & blog (the blog was located on a subdomain). The whole process took me about 1 hour to complete. The editing was painless with WP and Headway.

If you're looking to get your firm online and blogging, Headway & WordPress are certainly the easy way to go.

Backup, Backup, Backup!

Graduates and recently terminated attorneys, here's the sad fact: law jobs are scarce. More new graduates and recently terminated associates, find a dismal spot in the job search arena. Unfortunately, and despite the ABA's glossy outlook, fewer law firms are hiring. Many recent law grads take jobs as administrative assistants, waitresses/restaurant servers, or worse, just to pay their bills. 

The truth is, you need to have a backup plan that you can implement if, and when, you can't find "stable" employment.

The trouble with a backup plan, much like its electronic/IT counterpart, is coming up with the right tools and methods for implementing a stable and reliable system.

Your backup plan should answer the following questions:

1. If I [insert tragic event here: lost my job, couldn't find work after graduation, etc.], then I would do the following: [insert ordered list of possible career choices].
2. In order to work as a [insert first career choice from ordered list] I would need the following skills: [insert an ordered list of skills/training/knowledge]. Continue answering question 2 for each career choice.
3. I have experience in the following job-related areas: [insert ordered list of possible experiences].
4. I need to obtain the following skills if I am going to work as a [insert career choice from question 2]: [list needed skills based on your analysis of the needed skills and current experience from questions 2 and 3].
5. If I [insert tragic event here], I would need [insert amount of money needed to maintain current lifestyle for 3 months] to pay my bills and keep my current standard of living.
6. I can talk to the following people about my unemployment status: [insert ordered list of potential contacts].
7. I can talk to the following people about my desire to work as a [insert first career choice from question 1].
8. I ____ have ____ have not thought about running my own business as a [insert first career choice from question 1]. Continue answering question 8 for each career choice.
9. I have the following fears about "hanging my shingle" (working for myself) as a [insert first "I have" career choice from question 8]: [insert ordered list of fears].
10. I could overcome my fear of [insert first fear] by [insert ordered list or action statement a what you need to do to overcome your first fear]. Continue answering question 10 for each fear.
11. I know the following people who have hung their shingle, which I can talk to about their experiences: [insert list of people you know who are working for themselves].
12. If I started running a business as a [insert first "I have" career choice from question 8], I believe I would need the following: [insert ordered list of necessary supplies, training/education, location, etc.] Note: you should answer this question with everything (cost is irrelevant at this moment) you believe would be necessary to operate the business you have identified. Continue answering question 12 for each career choice.
13. I could realistically operate my business as a [insert first "I have" career choice from question 12], if I had the following: [insert ordered list of essential supplies, training/education, location, equipment, etc.] Note: you should answer this question by narrowing down your list in question 12.
14. Right now I have, or have access to: [ordered list of supplies or materials identified in question 13.] Continue answering question 14 for each career choice.
15. I could realistically do without: [list items identified in question 13, but not identified in question 14, which you would not need at this time.] Continue answering question 15 for each career choice.
16. I believe I could negotiate the following benefits/services/perks, if I decided to open my business as a [[insert first "I have" career choice from question 12]: [insert ordered list of "to do" negotiations; for example, can you negotiate rent?, equipment leasing/purchases?, telephone services?]
17. I could realistically open my business as a [insert first "I have" career choice from question 12] for [insert dollar figure for expected opening operation expense]. Continue answering question 16 for each career choice.
18. After evaluating all of my options, I will [insert an action statement about your choice; are you going to open your own business?, speak to others?, continue to collect unemployment and feel sorry for yourself?, take a 2nd job at Burger King]. 

I don't know that this is a perfect list, but I believe this list has a lot of benefits that will help you gain momentum. I think a lot of people get discouraged because they send out tens, hundreds, or thousands of resumes, only to get rejection after rejection. This discouragement then leads to blind thinking, which thwarts any chance of success.

I think too many recently unemployed people rely too heavily on passive job search techniques. These techniques include mailing resumes and searching the career services job boards. Face it, these are useless. I believe if you're going to succeed, you're going to have to make your own success.

This action plan gives you a direction to help steer your outcome. You eliminate fear and floundering, and through these questions, you have identified areas of interest, strengths and weaknesses, and possible networking connections to help build your success. Hopefully too, you've proven to yourself that you can succeed if you chose to "hang a shingle," and that the cost, both financially and personally, isn't too extravagant.

I'd appreciate any comments that you have, and especially any questions or analysis you think others should add to this list.

Congratulations OKC!

What a fantastic end to a great season!

Unfortunately, the OKC Thunder didn't make it to the finals, but after a less-than-stellar 1st season, this was magical. 

What a way to push LA to a tipping point. Now we know they're vulnerable. It looks like this LA-OKC matchup will become a great rivalry in the future.