For bar exam takers, the journey is just beginning

Hundreds of law students finished taking the Kentucky bar exam yesterday, ending a grueling ordeal that will be etched into their minds for the rest of their legal careers — if they end up passing. Results come out in October.

It seems like not too long ago that I checked the pass list myself, fingers trembling as I scanned through the numbers, then exhaling hard when I saw the good news. But as I thought about the bar exam yesterday, and the people I know who took it, a different thought crossed my mind. The bar was difficult, no doubt, but not nearly as difficult as the months that followed after I was sworn in as a new lawyer.

It's been a whirlwind year, filled with humility, frustration, lots of long hours, and some small victories too. I took and defended my first depositions, argued my first motions in Jefferson Circuit Court, and reached settlement agreements in a bunch of civil cases at the firm where I work. I also had the privilege of participating in a jury trial, launching several class action lawsuits, and giving advice to dozens of clients about their cases. For this week's bar exam takers, the end of studying has arrived, but the real work has not even started. If your experience is anything like mine, the road ahead will be tough but rewarding. Everything will be new. You will make mistakes. But you'll pick things up and move forward, and maybe somewhere around the six-month mark you'll start to feel like you have more answers than questions.

Specializing is a dirty word in our profession — ethics rules prohibit us from saying we "specialize" in a particular area — but it does help to have a niche. Mine is mass torts. I represent people who are injured by defective products, from metal hip implants to dangerous prescription medications. Most of these products are made by large corporations with boundless financial resources. Most of the clients are everyday people who have never filed a lawsuit, but who have suffered horrible and in some cases permanent injuries. It's a cause that is easy for me to be passionate about, and I'm grateful that I am in a tiny corner of the legal profession where I find meaning and purpose in most of the things I do. By the way, terrific book recommendation: All the Justice Money Can Buy, the story of legendary trial lawyer Mark Lanier and the fight about Vioxx and its maker, Merck. Incredibly, I am now actively working on  mass tort cases with both Lanier and many of the other plaintiffs' lawyers who appear in the book, although admittedly my spot on the totem pole is quite a bit lower

— reviewing discovery, drafting pleadings, corresponding with clients. Still, it's thrilling to be a part of something that has seemingly endless potential and room for future growth. Becoming a great lawyer doesn't happen overnight, but you have to start somewhere. Congrats to those who finished the bar exam this week. Your journey is just beginning.

Louisville tops list of most efficient law schools

The University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law scored the number one spot on a new list of the nation's most efficient law schools. Rutgers was second. George Mason was third.

The list was created by U.S. News, the publisher of a closely watched — and highly criticized — annual list that purports to rank the top law schools. Louisville was 68th in the most recent list of best schools, up sharply from previous years. For better or worse, many prospective law students place great weight on this list in deciding where to spend the next three years of their lives before picking up a J.D. Employers also depend on the rankings.

According to the magazine, the new "efficiency" rankings show "which law schools are able to produce the highest educational quality, as determined by their place in our Best Law Schools rankings, but spend relatively less money to achieve that quality."

To be sure, there are areas where this new list could be picked apart and scrutinized. For example, it would seem that schools such as Louisville, which are located in relatively low-cost cities, don't have to pay their professors as much money in salaries, which in turn would boost their efficiency. The nearby University of Kentucky was tenth on the efficiency list. Likewise, schools that receive less financial support from their parent institutions are forced to make do with less. But at the end of the day, it's hard to argue that the No. 1 showing is a bad thing for Brandeis.

During my time at U of L Law from 2009 to 2012, I can recall a lot of terrific professors and classes, and not a whole lot of ornate wood trim or fancy furniture. The place was pretty low key for a professional graduate school, but that never bothered me because I always felt I was getting a good return on my investment — and I continue to feel that way as a lawyer today.  Go Cardinals!

Ten Reasons to Love the Louisville Cardinals

The Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team will get a chance this evening to win its first national championship since 1986. Remarkably, our women's team has a shot at the title as well. In honor of this double success story, and because it's going to be incredibly hard to focus on anything but basketball over the next 12 hours, here's yet another top ten list of reasons why every lawyer should support their hometown team. Some of these are specific to Louisville, but most can be applied anywhere.

10. The law requires a slavish devotion. If you want to be good, you have to put in the time. Rooting for your local sports team gives you something to do outside of work. Everyone needs a hobby.

9. Advocacy. Cheering for the local team gives you a new way to express your allegiance with a particular cause or client. Being an aggressive advocate is an important skill.

8. Kevin Ware.

7. Louisville is on a serious success streak. Football team wins Sugar Bowl. Soccer and baseball teams are tearing it up. And both basketball teams are playing for a national championship -- in a city that is already the nation's top television market for college basketball. Wow.

6. Louisville's law school recently made a giant jump in the US News rankings, landing at 68 in the most recent poll. The University of Kentucky, at 58, also posted a nice gain.

5. Speaking of Kentucky, U of L's rival and sometimes partner, being a passionate fan gives you something else to argue about beyond pre-trial motions and Medicare subrogation. Practice pointer: if you are a hater, i.e. you hate the other team so passionately that you can't celebrate their independent success, keep it to yourself. Bitterness won't win you any business.

4. Road trip! I had an amazing time watching Louisville beat Oregon in the Sweet Sixteen a week ago in Indianapolis. A bunch of friends are in Atlanta right now getting ready for tonight's game. Good excuse for a road trip.

3. Be a winner. Right now, to support Louisville is to associate yourself with a winner. While loyalty is important in any business, being a winner is especially important for attorneys.

2. Business. It makes business sense to show your support for the home team, whether it's Louisville, Kentucky, Indiana, Wichita State, etc. Aligning yourself with the local team is a networking tool, a conversation starter, even a branding tool for your law firm. 

1. Community. This is what it all boils down to. Being a supporter of the local college team shows you care about the community where you live, and the education of future generations of community leaders, including your children and the children of your clients and colleagues. When three fourths of your hometown's residents are going bonkers about the team, flying flags from their car windows and wearing red T-shirts to work instead of suits, why not join em? Go Cards! 

University of Louisville

Six-month checkup: Rookie year couldn't be better

Earlier this week, a law student showed up at our office in downtown Louisville. She was interviewing for a job as a summer law clerk. I was asked to sit down and speak with her. Like most tasks in my first six months as a lawyer, I had about 15 seconds to prepare. But unlike some of the more nerve-wracking ordeals of my rookie year — motion hour, the first few depositions, mediation, trial prep — this one was a piece of cake. Shoot the breeze with a law student for half an hour? No problem. In fact, the experience gave me an excuse to take a short and wistful stroll down memory lane. Just a year ago, I was in a similar position, scratching my head over employment prospects in a dismal job market and wondering if I had made the right choice.

With all the negative press about law school — click here for my previous posts, or here for Exhibit B in the Huffington Post —I felt compelled to offer this student my unsolicited thoughts about why being a lawyer is so great. Even after just six months, I can't imagine not being a lawyer. Sure, it's stressful at times, and the hours are long, but the experiences I've had since last August have been among the most rewarding of my adult working life. I've sued a bunch of giant companies like this one and this one and this one on behalf of injured people who otherwise would not have recourse. I've had the privilege to learn from some fantastic lawyers and judges with decades of war stories and experience under their belts. I've learned about wide-ranging areas of the law — train derailments, banking, medical devices, worker's compensation, prescription drugs to name a few — and gotten a taste of how much more there is to learn.

Although some of it has been terrifying, I can't think of a more invigorating experience than going head to head with another smart attorney, with my client's interests on the line. I realize that not all law students are looking for that pressure. There is plenty of other legal work out there that can be rewarding. At the same time, I'm sure there are many law students and freshly minted lawyers out there who are kicking themselves about the huge level of law school debt, the terrible job market, and the stressful/disappointing/unrewarding nature of their newfound careers. Just don't count me among them.

Thanksgiving Highlights of a First-year Lawyer

As I wind up a week with the family in Hilton Head, I can't help but give thanks for some of the fantastic experiences I've had in the last two months since our swearing in ceremony as lawyers. First of all, I'm grateful to be working at a law firm with flexible partners who haven't blinked an eye at my week-long vacation in the midst of a busy time of year in our business. Other biggies:

Hilton Head 2012 with the boys

• In many ways, I'm grateful that the law school gamble worked out at all. While many members of the Class of 2012 at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law have found great jobs, others are still searching. And by most accounts, the market is tough out there. A recent story in the Washington Post stated that, nine months after graduating, half of all law students last year did not find jobs as lawyers. That's a bad fraction.
• I'm grateful to be playing a small part in some legal cases that bring me deep personal satisfaction. In the last three months, I've helped launch class action lawsuits involving unfair banking fees for college students, a conspiracy linked to Anthem health insurance premiums, and a train derailment that spilled dangerous chemicals into the environment. 
• I'm grateful for technology, which allowed me to edit videos, communicate with clients and other lawyers, and draft pleadings from my laptop during vacation.
• I'm proud to know more than a handful of fellow law graduates who have struck out on their own, starting independent law firms like this one and this one that are running on grit and ambition. They're going to do great things. 
• I'm thankful for all the veteran attorneys and judges, like this guy and this guy and this guy, who have graciously welcomed me into a profession that demands vast knowledge and experience. 
• I'm humbled by the opportunity to help people recover from serious injuries, including cases like this one, that are caused by the negligence of others. It's a responsibility I don't take lightly.  
• More than anything, I'm thankful for family. Cheesy yes, but also true. I'm thankful for a week of building sand castles with my kids, taking oceanfront strolls with my awesome wife,  gorging myself on rich food, and waking up early to run off the calories. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Class action suit targets Kentucky's largest health insurer for conspiracy and unfair price tactics

I'm proud to be the plaintiff's attorney in a federal class action lawsuit filed recently by our firm, Jones Ward PLC. The suit is against Anthem Health Plans of Kentucky, for illegally conspiring to drive up prices for consumers. Anthem is the largest health insurer in Kentucky by far, collecting $326 million in premiums every year. The next largest insurer, Humana, collects just $27 million in premiums. Anthem's status as the 800-pound gorilla of health insurance in the Commonwealth is no accident. Anthem operates under the Blue Cross Blue Shield trademark, and is part of insurance mega-company Wellpoint, Inc. Anthem's strategy for limiting competition is simple. It teams up with other Blue Cross partners and illegally divides up the nation's insurance market in violation of the Sherman Act. The insurance companies then agree to stay on their own turf and not compete with each other. In the process, they drive up prices and keep competitors out.

To read more about this case, and to download a PDF copy of the lawsuit, click here. 

Bad products flood U.S. economy

From exercise bikes and vitamins to coffeemakers and walking shoes, defective products are flooding the U.S. economy and harming consumers in all walks of life. That's the general message of a newspaper story published today by Darla Carter of The Courier-Journal in Louisville. In describing a long list of recalled or defective items, Carter writes that "products that we buy to improve our health or make our lives easier can leave us feeling cheated because they don't live up to marketing hype or have dangerous flaws."
This news story should not come as a surprise to consumers who have been injured by these products. It happens more often than you might think. The attorneys at Jones Ward PLC receive calls every day about problems like this. Here's a list of some of the defective products:

• MR. COFFEE SINGLE CUP BREWING SYSTEM

Sunbeam Products, recalled 520,000 of its coffee machines after more than 60 reports of burn injuries to the face and other body parts.

• REEBOK'S EASYTONE WALKING SHOES

Reebok over-hyped its EasyTone walking shoes and ended up paying $25 million for refunds.

• WINDOW BLINDS BY BLIND XPRESS

These blinds were recalled after a 2-year-old girl was strangled in the loop of a cord that wasn't attached to the wall or floor. This isn't the first miniblind recall. Anyone with children should be especially careful to check the brand's safety record and make sure blinds are properly installed.

• CHILDREN'S VITAMINS

Vitamin marketers including NBTY paid $2.1 million to settle charges about children's multivitamins featuring the Disney Princesses, Winnie the Pooh, and Spider-Man. The vitamins were falsely promoted as being good for healthy brain and eye development.

• AB CIRCLE PRO

The company that makes the Ab Circle Pro will pay up to $25 million to settle charges of deceptive advertising. They claimed that working out three minutes a day on the Ab Circle would lead to a 10-pound weight loss in 14 days. It's ridiculous and sad that a company would even try to make a claim like this. Think about it: a total workout of roughly 45 minutes leading to a 10-pound weight loss.

• EARLY MODEL TRX SUSPENSION TRAINER DEVICES

There have been hundreds of reports of this product breaking, causing injuries to the head, face, shoulder and hip.

• GENERIC ANTIDEPRESSANT BUDEPRION XL 300 MG

This drug, Budeprion XL 300 mg., is marketed as equivalent to Wellbutrin XL 300 mg. Turns out it's not equivalent at all, which means some patients might not get the desired effect with the generic drug, which is used to treat depression and to prevent seasonal affective disorder. It's made by Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and Impax Laboratories.
This list of recalled products could certainly be longer. Indeed, nearly every day a consumer product in the United States is recalled due to safety concerns or fraudulent marketing. If you or a loved one have been injured by one of the above products, or another recalled consumer item, call Attorney Alex Davis at 502-882-6000 for a free case evaluation, or email him at alex@jonesward.com.

Metal hip implant cases moving forward

I've spent most of the last three years learning about how metal hip implants injure people. These medical devices were promoted over the last decade as the best thing since sliced bread. They were pitched as a product that would last forever. Turned out that many of them had a higher than normal failure rate.

Now, hip device companies are facing a mountain of lawsuits from people with a nasty condition called metallosis, which can injure the kidneys, destroy tissue and bone, and cause memory problems. Here's a blog post that I wrote for our law firm, Jones Ward PLC, earlier today about the latest twist in the mass tort world of hip implants.

"Dozens of lawsuits over failed Biomet hip implants are being merged together in a federal court in Indiana, over the objection of Biomet.

The cases, including some from Jones Ward PLC, involve failed metal-on-metal implants made by Biomet. The most common type is the Biomet M2A Magnum. Lawyers for the Indiana company argued that the cases should not be merged together, in part because they claimed the devices were not as defective as other metal-on-metal implants such as the DePuy ASR.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation, or JPML, disagreed. The panel, in a ruling filed Oct. 2, 2012, wrote that Biomet's efforts to settle some cases involving failed Magnums were "dwarfed by the almost 70 cases currently pending in federal court."

That number will almost certainly grow in the coming months as lawyers with Jones Ward PLC and other leading mass tort law firms seek compensation on behalf of those who have been injured by failed metal-on-metal Biomet implants. Sadly, the problems with these implants are similar to the problems with other metal-on-metal implants made by DePuy, Zimmer, and other manufacturers. In certain patients, the metal parts rub against each other, shedding tiny particles of cobalt and chromium into the patient's bloodstream, which can lead to a dangerous condition called metallosis.

The only permanent cure for metallosis is surgery to have the metal implant device removed. Although the cases against Biomet will likely require extensive litigation over the coming years, the recent ruling by the JPML is a step in the right direction toward getting injured implant recipients the compensation they deserve. Unlike a class action lawsuit, these cases will be merged together in Indiana just for the purposes of handling pre-trial testimony and the exchange of evidence, which is called discovery. In theory, each case would return to a local court once the merged case in Indiana is complete. If you or a loved one have been injured by a failed metal-on-metal hip implant made by Biomet, DePuy, or another company, call Attorney Alex Davis at 502-882-6000 for a free case evaluation, or email him at alex@jonesward.com."

Lawsuit of the week: penis amputation case

Our law firm, Jones Ward, was swarmed by reporters this week after we filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a Louisville man whose penis had to be amputated due to poor hospital care. That's right. Amputated. Ouch.

To read a copy of the complaint, click here. Numerous television stations and newspapers, some as far away as England, ran stories about the lawsuit, and it was the focus of a special report on CNN.

What wasn't mentioned in those segments is the fact that the attorneys at Jones Ward PLC deal with these kinds of cases on a daily basis. For example, the law firm currently represents a coal miner who had his foot and lower leg amputated in a job-related accident in eastern Kentucky. It also represents individuals who have had body parts amputated due to failed medical implants. Perhaps the saddest amputation case of all was a jury trial in which the attorneys at Jones Ward successfully argued in favor of a woman who witnessed the amputation of her newborn baby's head in the hospital as the baby was being born. The jury awarded the woman $1.4 million.

In other news, here's a photo of me, obviously pretty pleased with myself, at the swearing in ceremony for new lawyers on Thursday. There's another ceremony in Frankfort on Oct. 19, but I wanted to be official as soon as possible. Time to get to work. 

Sweet, sweet news: Bar Exam results arrive

All my poker chips riding on one number

Life is returning to normal, whatever that means, after a few days of total pandemonium following the release of the July 2012 bar exam results in Kentucky. The good news: I passed. Better news: I don't know of anyone who did not pass. Of course, there are folks who didn't pass the exam. The overall rate of passage in Kentucky was roughly 80 percent for the February exam. First-time exam takers from U of L Law had a 90 percent pass rate last summer, and those with top-notch grades in law school did even better. For a full breakdown of bar passage rates, click here.
I'm just relieved that the process is over. It was  a humbling experience. I'll be sworn in as a lawyer Thursday by Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Lisabeth Hughes Abramson in Louisville. My name will appear on lawsuits as soon as my license is complete, possibly as soon as next week. Then it's on to depositions, discovery, and possibly a trial later this year or early in 2013. Most people don't wake up in the morning and smile when they remember they have to go to work. I honestly can't wait to get to work as a lawyer. Congratulations to all those who passed the Kentucky bar exam.

Five things every new lawyer should know

It's been exactly 13 years since the bar exam in July. OK, maybe not 13 years, but it feels that long. Anyway, the results will be releaseed exactly one week from today in Kentucky. Other states, including Nebraska, Florida, Utah and West Virginia, already have released their scores. But there's no use in lingering over the long wait time. The mountain cannot be moved. Instead, I offer a few modest pointers that I've picked up over the last few months. I'll be adding to this list over the next year, and blogging about my experience and the experience of other young lawyers in the Louisville area.

1. Get a criminal lawyer in your Rolodex. Over the last six weeks, I've been approached by friends and neighbors for help with two different traffic tickets, and a dicey immigration-related matter. Even if I did practice criminal law, I couldn't do anything for these folks because I'm still waiting on my license and bar results. But I probably would still refer them to a friend who focuses on criminal law because they would be better served by someone with experience in that area. So, it pays to have a few criminal defense lawyers on speed dial. And you never know when you might need them for yourself!
2. Find a focus. I'm stubborn, and I'm still learning this one the hard way. My main practice areas are in mass tort litigation and personal injury law. Check out our firm's blog here for details. So when I tried to file a quit claim deed the other day as part of a mortgage application for my house, I had to do it three times before getting the process right. Sometimes, it pays to hire someone who knows exactly what they're doing. 
3. Treat everyone you meet with the same level of respect and courtesy. This one should be a no brainer, but it's been burned into my skull even more over the last two months as I take phone calls and meet with new clients. At least in the world of plaintiff work, it is absolutely impossible to tell at the outset what will turn into a monster case, and what will turn into a non-starter. 
4. Don't forget your law school buddies. I'm trying to meet at least one law school friend for lunch or dinner each week. I'm learning about their experiences, asking advice, and reminding them about the areas where I practice in case they stumble across a whopper client who needs help in my practice area. With a crazy schedule and loads of work, lunch away from my desk once a week is harder than you might think.
5. Stay busy. Especially over the next seven days, I'm packing my schedule with as many client visits, deadlines, and other tasks as I can create. My aim is to forget all about the results of that little test, and the fact that all 130 or so members of our class will be furiously clicking refresh on a certain Web site next Friday afternoon to see if their number pops up. In fact, I am sure that I'll be so busy the results won't even surface in my mind during the 48 hours before they are released. Yeah, good luck with that.

Bar exam in 12 days: scary photos, scarier practice tests, and a final push to the end

It's ten o'clock at night and I'm still buckled down in the living room, poring over special venue provisions for civil actions against Kentucky tobacco growers. Earlier today, it was reams of multiple choice questions for a sample MBE test. In twelve more days, I'll sit down with several hundred other students and take the bar. I'm actually starting to feel OK about it. Over the last few weeks, however, I've been through intellectual boot camp: eight to ten hours a day of studying, thousands of pages of facts and rules, seventeen different outlines, countless essays, etc. As one fellow student put it recently,

Agency, Civil Procedure, Commercial Paper, Secured Transactions, Torts, Wills, Trusts, Administrative Law, Conflict of Law, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Domestic Relations, Evidence, Income Tax, Personal Property, Real Property. Anyone feeling overwhelmed?

After law school, at left, and before the bar, at right

You can get a sense of the pressure and stress from the photo at right, depicting me at graduation from law school (confident, happy, full of wisdom) and then just a few days ago when bar prep was in full swing (haggard, frightened, mentally drained). I'm kidding, of course. Sort of. Maybe. From what I gather, most other recent law grads are going through exactly the same process, straddling the line between burnout and freakout. One of the brighter spots is that I've gotten a lot of great advice from friends, law professors, and practicing attorneys. Some of what they've said:

• Accept the fact that this summer will be the worst summer you have experienced in a long time, and perhaps the worst ever. However, the worse your summer, the better the bar exam. If the summer is going really well, the bar probably will not.
• The bar is a rite of passage, and you'll most likely get through it. It doesn't have a lot to do with actually practicing law, and you can perform below average on the bar and still pass. 
• Bar prep tests are designed to scare the hell out of you (this much is certainly true), so that you'll study harder, and do fine on the real deal. 
• Most law students from Louisville pass the Kentucky bar with no problem (our pass rate is typically around 90 percent). The few who fail either didn't study hard, had a major panic attack during the exam, or had major personal problems strike in the days or weeks before the test. 

This will be my last blog post before the bar. I'm already feeling guilty about my tobacco growers and their venue provisions (please, for everyone's sake, sue them in the county where their warehouse is located, or where the grower resides). I have a feeling that the bar exam will turn out fine, but I'm not leaving anything up to chance. Don't cross your fingers for me. I don't want luck. Pushing hard until the end seems to be the only way to do it.

Bar exam: pressure mounting, five weeks to go

This morning I'm sitting in a second-floor classroom at the U of L law school, doing what I do pretty much every morning: preparing for a marathon lecture about the bar exam. For the next three and a half hours, a curly-haired professor from UNC is going to talk about the ins and outs of constitutional law, from privileges and immunities to interstate commerce and the First Amendment. Earlier this week it was a guy from Yale talking about real property. Before that we marched through the laws of evidence, agency, tax, torts, corporations, and contracts. The material for the bar exam is vast, and the preparation seems endless.
The crazy thing is that we haven't even really started. A lawyer friend who lives in my neighborhood says it doesn't really begin until the "twenties" of June. One of the partners at the firm where I work says the go date is July 1, when I'm supposed to go full time on bar prep. So far, preparing for the bar has been not too different from working as a law clerk. Both require the ability to focus on countless mundane details for hours at a time, and then be able to analyze and remember those details weeks later. This weekend we're going to take a practice run at the MBE, a 200-question multiple choice monster that spans six core topics. The other half of the bar consists of 12 essays, each lasting 30 minutes. So far the summer hasn't been too bad. I've been busy at work, handling helping clients in personal injury and mass tort cases, answering discovery, filing lawsuits, and getting ready to start practicing in earnest this fall. But as we get deeper into studying and the real date of the bar exam draws closer, I can feel the pressure mounting. Full-time bar prep for me starts in less than 10 days, and then it's a month-long slog to the finish line. In times like these, I am grateful that there are other things that fill my life --- kids, wife, a house to worry about, lawns to mow, Monday night soccer, cleaning the swimming pool, etc. Diversions keep me sane, even if time for diversions soon will be precious.

Shift from law school to law job is humbling, hard

Ever heard of the 10,000-hour rule? The idea is that, in order to master a specific skill, you must put in the equivalent of 10,000 hours of practice, or roughly five years of full-time work. The rule is staring me in the face as I begin the steep climb to competence as a rookie lawyer. The members of the Class of 2012  at U of L, myself included, spent the last year as 3Ls, the top dogs in law school. Now we're starting all over at the bottom. Louisville did a great job teaching me the law, but the field is so vast and there are so many things to learn. What's the difference between filling out a summons in state court compared to federal court?  How do you write a claim for loss of consortium? How does Medicare subrogation work?

Bar exam: that's me in eight weeks

Part of me wishes that I could push the fast-forward button and get to the point where I feel at least semi-confident about the areas where I will be practicing. For now, however, practice is not even my biggest worry. Bar prep started a week ago, and the exam itself is looming less than two months away. Listening to the Barbri lectures is like taking a mental stroll back through the first two years of law school. It's mildly interesting to remember all the cases that we read in order to learn tidbits of Contract law and Negotiable Instruments, but for the most part it's a painful process -- four hours a day of lectures so we can remember who gets priority in a fight between two creditors over a secured transaction (the perfected interest, of course), or whether a defendant's rights are violated when police conduct a stop and frisk search without probable cause (no, so long as there is reasonable suspicion of criminal activity). In addition to the lectures, we're supposed to be spending another four or five hours a day reviewing and outlining our subjects. Then there's the four or five hours a day I'm working at the firm that was generous enough to give me a job. How many hours are there in a day again?
Lots of people have given me advice about studying for the bar this summer. They've told me not to worry too much. They've told me to worry a lot. They've told me it's a marathon, and not to get burned out early in the summer. All in all, I've heard way more horror stories than pleasant memories. At least it's comforting to know that Louisville has a high pass rate, especially for students who did well academically in law school. It's also good to know that you only need a score of 75 out of 100 on each essay in order to pass the Kentucky portion of the exam. Then again, there are 12 essays, and only 30 minutes for each. Screw up just one, or fall behind on your timing, and you are in serious trouble. In the end, I imagine that bar prep, and work as a first-year lawyer, will be much like law school: a long and grinding path, with plenty of frustrations along the way but rewards at the end for those who persevere. Final note: I've updated the title of this blog because I am technically no longer a law student, and I've changed my profile accordingly. However, if you are interested in law school at U of L, or in the legal market in Louisville, you can still contact me with questions or thoughts. My email: alex@jonesward.com.

Top Ten List: Law School Graduation Highlights

It's Monday morning, just two days after the graduation ceremony for our law school class. The voice mail light on my phone at work is blinking furiously, and the weekly attorney meeting is just a few minutes away. Still, I can't resist taking one more look back at the moment the Class of 2012 walked across the stage and finished law school. Here's my Top 10 List of the best moments from graduation:

Getting ready to graduate

10. Scanning the program at graduation and thinking about all of the ridiculously successful and hard working, interesting people in our class. We had about 125 people finish law school. There were grads in their mid-twenties, at least one who is older than fifty, some with multiple kids, and a few who had kids during school.

9. Listening to Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Lisabeth Hughes Abramson delivery our commencement speech. She focused on the unexpected ways that life delivers success, and how mistakes and problems can turn into possibilities.

8. Walking across the stage and getting the official handshake from Dean Jim Chen, who will no longer be the school's dean after next month, but will continue to be connected to the law school. He's done a terrific job, and will leave big shoes to fill.

7. Standing up in our chairs on the stage and giving a somewhat unplanned standing ovation to Harrison Rich, the valedictorian of our class. For an interview with Harrison, click here.

6. Not thinking about the bar exam. Even for a minute.

5. Watching all of the other students cross the stage, and thinking about our collective future. Some of us will no doubt run into trouble. Some will be substance abusers. Some will fail the bar. Some will commit ethics violations. But right now, the future seems bright. We're heading into judicial clerkships, first-year associate jobs, additional academic degrees, and all sorts of other lofty pursuits. Louisville Law has done a great job preparing us during the last 1,000 days. The next 1,000 are up to us.

4. Receiving our hoods from Dean Kathy Urbach, head of the law school's Professional Development. I thought it was pretty cool that, in a down economy in which many of us are still struggling to find jobs, we selected her for this honor. If you're thinking about going to law school at Louisville, rest assured that Dean Urbach will not rest until you are employed. Here's a message that she sent to our class a few days ago:

Dear Law School Graduate Peeps,
I find myself thinking about each of you, hoping that your law school experience was meaningful and inspiring.  I suspect the answer is complicated but I sincerely hope that it was more positive than negative.

I can tell you without reservation that your law school experience was meaningful and inspiring to me.  Many of you have allowed me the privilege of getting to know you fairly well, which has been a joy.  I've observed each of you  work hard without stopping, lead with integrity and face the enormous hurdle that is post-law school life with grace.   I've admired your dedication, intelligence, talent and humor both up close and from afar. I'm most honored to be your hooding professor. 

3. Thinking, even during graduation, about how exciting and hectic my life as a lawyer is going to be. I'm already swamped with work, handling demand letters for personal injury cases, interviewing clients for medical malpractice suits, writing subpoenas and briefs, and analyzing thousands of pages of medical records for our mass tort practice, which involves prescription drugs and medical devices. By the way, I'm going to continue using this space to blog about the bar exam this summer, and then life as a lawyer in Louisville. If you have blog ideas, send 'em my way.

2. Throwing a party at my house the night of graduation, and spending time with all of the law students, attorneys, friends and others who showed up. I felt loved beyond anything that I deserved.

1.  Seeing all of my wonderful family and friends before, during, and after graduation. I could not have done the last three years without them. Here's one final sappy thank you.