The thrill is gone.
Last Friday, I found out that I passed the New York bar. How I was able to find that out after five-plus hours of fruitlessly trying to load a page on their website, which crashed approximately 14 minutes after results became available, is another story.
I immediately had that “whoosh” feeling, like 15 tons had just been lifted from my shoulders. I had that same feeling almost exactly one year prior, when I found out that I passed the California bar.
A year ago, I went out, got drunk and took a cute guy home. It was great.
But one year later, the results of the New York exam inspired little in the way of drunken revelry and casual sex.
Why the second bar exam?
I had moved to New York for what was supposed to be a six-month clerkship at DreamJob (yes, you’ve heard of the company. No, I’m not going to name them). After a few months at DreamJob, I fell in love with New York, which prompted me to begin my search for local BigLaw jobs that would help me eventually return to DreamJob as an in-house counsel. In other words, DreamJob doesn’t hire lawyers straight out of law school. They’ll give you a “clerkship” with a meager stipend that won’t even cover the cost of renting an apartment in New York.
But the lawyers at DreamJob did help setup a few BigLaw interviews for me that went something like this:
Partner: “Oh, you’re not licensed in New York. But you’d be willing to take the Bar again, right?”
Me: “Well, I can waive into DC and in five years I can waive into New York…”
Partner: “Not so much.”
Me: “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!”
So I had to regroup, suck it up and sign up for the New York bar.
Let me just tell you 3L’s out there who bitch about studying for the bar: You have nothing else to do but go to class, write some outlines and work out. (I was never in better shape than when I was studying for the California bar. And I’m talking about California-hottie shape, mind you.) Working and paying rent in New York City while studying for the bar was a totally different experience. I worked for most of the summer, found a new apartment, moved and managed to do my first multiple choice questions the weekend of July 4. This was not the plan for success I had followed the year before, and I was nervous. I had an epic breakdown after the test was over. I was so exhausted.
But there was no rest after the July exam It was time to find a job.
Luckily, DreamJob extended my clerkship (with its meager stipend) while I was looking for a job. I thought, yeah, I’ll be out of there in a month. That was back in August. Four months later, I’m still working as a clerk and going on interviews.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that DreamJob’s kicking me to the curb by December 31, and I’m looking at a widespread BigLaw hiring freeze.
So, despite a regular stream of “promising” interviews, this is my life right now:
Ignorant Slut Co-Worker: “Congrats on passing another bar.”
Me: “Thanks.”
Ignorant Slut Co-Worker: “Now if you could only find a job.”
Me: “I hate you.”
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