Opinion
Reforming the Bar Exam to Produce Better Lawyers
A recent overhaul of the test deserves a flunking grade. How about focusing on skills like factual investigation?
By
Ben Bratman
Feb. 25, 2015 7:04 p.m. ET
39 COMMENTS
This week, thousands of aspiring lawyers—most of them recent law-school graduates—are undergoing at least 12 hours of testing in an effort to pass a bar exam and qualify for a law license. But this year’s bar exam is unlike any before it. Effective with this week’s test, the Multistate Bar Exam, a grueling six-hour, 200-question multiple-choice test that is part of the bar exam in almost every state, becomes even more arduous. It will now test an additional field of law: federal civil procedure, the seventh subject covered on the exam.
The addition will require MBE examinees to memorize even more content, in the form of numerous rules and case precedents. Does that help those examinees become better lawyers? Does it help the legal profession? Does it help the clients and the public that lawyers serve? No.
The bar exam is an important tool, a gatekeeper designed to allow through only those who are competent to serve clients. The exam is certainly due for reform. But for four reasons, this week’s change is a regressive one—the wrong reform at the wrong time.
First, knowledge of any particular field of law is not what beginning lawyers need most. A 2013 National Conference of Bar Examiners survey of newly licensed lawyers in a variety of employment settings shows that at least 25 different skills and abilities are more important to their job success than knowledge of any specific body of law.
Lawyers develop specialized legal knowledge primarily through years of representing clients. When employers hire a junior lawyer fresh off the bar exam, they typically do not expect the new hire to be familiar with the areas of law relevant to pending client matters—even if, by some chance, those areas were tested on the bar exam. What they expect is that the new hire will know how to research that law and execute a variety of other basic lawyering skills, including legal analysis and writing.
ENLARGE
Photo: Corbis
Second, the change heightens the priority that examinees must place on memorizing law. The amount of material that has to be mastered for the MBE and state-law essay questions is so substantial that law-school graduates, many already swimming in debt, are all but compelled to pay for a commercial exam-preparation course. Students go bleary-eyed reading thick books full of outlines on tested subjects, and watching professors summarize a whole field of law in a few lengthy lectures. They madly memorize everything from the Rule Against Perpetuities to the elements of res ipsa loquitur, only to forget most of it shortly after the exam ends.
Third, adding even more emphasis on knowledge of law is inconsistent with recent positive trends in legal education. Law school is not about beaming knowledge of law into students’ heads. Yes, students learn rules and case precedents in various fields of law, but law school is much more about gradually developing fundamental skills—most prominently, the ability to reason and communicate like a lawyer. Over the past few decades, law schools have paid more attention to skill development, offering students greater opportunities for experiential learning and more training in previously underaddressed skills such as client counseling, factual investigation, problem solving and negotiation.
Fourth, and perhaps most important, many fundamental skill sets could be tested on a modified bar exam in lieu of a significant chunk of the memorization-based testing. Indeed, some fundamental skills are already being tested as a small part of bar exams around the country. This is done through performance testing, the beauty of which is that it does not test recall of law but rather the ability to do things that lawyers do. Examinees receive a packet of source materials and are directed to draft a document, simulating a real-world assignment from a judge or senior attorney.
Performance tests came on the bar-exam scene in the 1990s, but they have remained limited—evaluating the same small range of legal-analysis skills as when first introduced. Performance testing should be expanded to evaluate the capacity of examinees to strategize for a client, gather facts, research the law and write clearly. Also, more states should implement performance testing and count it more heavily in scoring. Currently, nearly 20% of states do not administer performance tests at all, and those that do weigh it as the least significant section in scoring.
Knowledge of law is not unimportant. But bar examinations are not the only or even the best means to ensure that newly admitted attorneys are familiar with a certain field of law. As a condition of licensure, a state could instead require that new members of the bar take a course on, for example, unique attributes of that state’s law. The Missouri Board of Law Examiners has recently adopted this approach.
The bar exam needs reform, but not the latest kind, which simply adds another subject students must cram into their brains. What it needs is a more sensible balance between testing that primarily requires memorization and testing that requires performance of lawyering skills. That is the reform that will benefit examinees, the legal profession and the public.
Mr. Bratman is an associate professor of legal writing at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Dear godsquadquestion@aol.com:
What is your reasoned opinion about whether Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, may close on Roman Catholic Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday in preference to Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday?
What is your reasoned opinion about the merits (legal or otherwise), if any, of NY PML Sec 109?
I also present the following arguments for your consideration:
1. The rights of Nassau County Bettors secured by NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3 are violated by NY PML Sec 109
2. NY PML Sec 109 is vague, indefinite and/or overly broad in that the terms Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday do not define one and only one Sunday respectively in all years. The Gregorian and Julian Calendars do not define the same holy days in all years.
3. When a bettor walks into Nassau OTB, to bet a race being run without the State of New York, NY PML Sec 109 does not apply as the race is without the State of NY and the bet is within the State of New York.
You can play the slot machines and buy NY State Lottery tickets to be drawn every day of the year.
Employees of Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, of any or no religious persuasion are free to take vacation any day of the year that they wish.
I wish to work on Easter Sundays and Palm Sunday and be off on Christmas and Christmas Eve, even though I am not a Christian. Employees of Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, that work on any Sunday are paid time and half. Employees that are on vacation or sick time are paid straight time.
Christmas is the only religious holiday recognized by the US for US employees. I am of the opinion that the US is a "Christian Nation" since its inception.
Sincerely yours,
Cashier
Background material and references are set forth below for your convenience.
Stop scratching on holidays
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?COMMONQUERY=LAWS
ISTANBUL—
Pope Francis met with refugees fleeing
violence in the Middle East and issued a strong call
for Christian unity in the face of Islamist
extremism, ending a three-day visit to Turkey that
has focused on a message of interreligious tolerance
and outreach.
On the final day of a visit to a country that has taken in more than 1.5 million refugees, the pope met with 100 Christian children and teens who fled Iraq and have taken refuge in Turkey.
Pope Francis has spoken often of the plight of the region’s refugees and sent a personal envoy to northern Iraq this summer with money from the pontiff’s own charitable fund to assist relief efforts. “The degrading conditions in which so many refugees are forced to live are intolerable,” he told the young refugees Sunday.
The pope had pressed his advisers to find a way for him to visit a refugee camp during his visit but said it wasn’t possible. On the flight back to Rome, he said he would still like to visit Iraq but won’t do so at the moment because “it would create serious problems for the authorities in terms of security.”
The decision by Pope Francis to visit Turkey was
viewed as significant given the sectarian strife
along its borders in Iraq and Syria, where Islamic
extremists have killed and persecuted
religious minorities, including Christians. On
Sunday, the pope called the violence by Islamist
extremists is “a profoundly grave sin against God.”
Speaking to journalists during his return flight, the pope said Muslim leaders should issue a global condemnation of violence by Islamist extremists. But, he added, “no one can say that all followers of Islam are terrorists, any more than you can say that all Christians are fundamentalists.”
Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim country, has long served as a bridge between East and West but is under pressure to contain the conflagration on its borders and cope with huge flows of refugees. The pope expressed “deep gratitude” for Turkey’s efforts and called on the international community to help Ankara.
The pope also celebrated a liturgy Sunday together with Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople for the feast of St. Andrew, the patron saint of the Eastern Orthodox church. Patriarch Bartholomew is the spiritual head of the 300-million-member Orthodox Church. Earlier in the day, the pope also met with the Grand Rabbi of Turkey.
The pope and the patriarch are pushing hard to create stronger ties between the Eastern churches and Rome—which split nearly 1,000 years ago—in the belief that they can press their common concerns more effectively when united, particularly on the defense of Christian minorities.
“It seems that the value of human life has been lost” in areas of the Middle East, the pope and Patriarch Bartholomew said in a joint declaration. Orthodox Christians make up a large portion of the Christians in many countries in the Middle East.
When extremists kill Christians, they don’t ask which church they belong to, the pope said on the flight. “The blood that is shed is mixed,” he added.
The pope invited Orthodox leaders to an important meeting of Catholic bishops in Rome in October to discuss problems facing the family. The two sides are holding talks to overcome differences in liturgy and tradition, such as dates for holy days, although full reunion of the two branches of Christianity is unlikely soon. The pope assured Orthodox leaders Sunday that closer ties don't “signify submission of one to the other,” addressing a fear of some Eastern leaders wary of dominance by the Vatican.
The pope’s trip saw him reaffirm his belief in interreligious dialogue, despite rising tensions over the treatment of Christian minorities in many Muslim-majority countries. The symbolic highlight of the trip came Saturday, when the pope visited Istanbul’s 17th-century Sultan Ahmet Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque. He faced Mecca and prayed shoulder-to-shoulder with a senior Muslim cleric.
“I came as a pilgrim,” the pope said afterward. “I prayed above all for peace.”
But the pope also heard calls from Muslim leaders
denounce more forcefully discrimination and violence
against Muslims in the West. On Friday, he met with
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a pious
Muslim who has encouraged a more visible role for
Islam in a country that has for decades been highly
secularized.
“We see increasing prejudice and intolerance against Muslims living in Western countries as well as in Muslim countries,” Mr. Erdogan said at the meeting with the pope. On Sunday, the pope decried the “barbaric and senseless attack” against a mosque in Nigeria that killed scores on Friday.
The trip to a country with only 53,000 Catholics deprived the pope of the large masses and contact with crowds that visibly energize him. He next travels in January to the Philippines, which has one of the world’s biggest Catholic communities, and Sri Lanka.
Write to Deborah Ball at deborah.ball@wsj.com
FORMER COUNSEL TO NYC OTB
Attorney Detail
as of 02/26/2015
Registration Number: 1010271
IRA HOWARD BLOCK
18 COUNTRY CLUB DR
LARCHMONT, NY 10538-1129
United States
(Westchester County)
(914) 833-2620
E-mail Address:
Year Admitted in NY: 1972
Appellate Division
Department of Admission: 2
Law School: YALE
Registration Status: Currently registered
Next Registration: Jun 2016
Disciplinary History: No record of public discipline
The Detail Report above contains information that has been provided by the attorney listed, with the exception of REGISTRATION STATUS, which is generated from the OCA database. Every effort is made to insure the information in the database is accurate and up-to-date.
The good standing of an attorney and/or any information regarding disciplinary actions must be confirmed with the appropriate Appellate Division Department. Information on how to contact the Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court in New York is available at www.nycourts.gov/courts.
If the name of the attorney you are searching for does not appear, please try again with a different spelling. In addition, please be advised that attorneys listed in this database are listed by the name that corresponds to their name in the Appellate Division Admissions file. There are attorneys who currently use a name that differs from the name under which they were admitted. If you need additional information, please contact the NYS Office of Court Administration, Attorney Registration Unit at 212-428-2800.
What is your reasoned opinion about whether Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, may close on Roman Catholic Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday in preference to Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday?
What is your reasoned opinion about the merits (legal or otherwise), if any, of NY PML Sec 109?
I also present the following arguments for your consideration:
1. The rights of Nassau County Bettors secured by NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3 are violated by NY PML Sec 109
2. NY PML Sec 109 is vague, indefinite and/or overly broad in that the terms Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday do not define one and only one Sunday respectively in all years. The Gregorian and Julian Calendars do not define the same holy days in all years.
3. When a bettor walks into Nassau OTB, to bet a race being run without the State of New York, NY PML Sec 109 does not apply as the race is without the State of NY and the bet is within the State of New York.
You can play the slot machines and buy NY State Lottery tickets to be drawn every day of the year.
Employees of Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, of any or no religious persuasion are free to take vacation any day of the year that they wish.
I wish to work on Easter Sundays and Palm Sunday and be off on Christmas and Christmas Eve, even though I am not a Christian. Employees of Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, that work on any Sunday are paid time and half. Employees that are on vacation or sick time are paid straight time.
Christmas is the only religious holiday recognized by the US for US employees. I am of the opinion that the US is a "Christian Nation" since its inception.
Sincerely yours,
Cashier
Background material and references are set forth below for your convenience.
HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy
to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.
Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island
Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma,
NY 11779-7348
Home > LI
Confidential > Stop
scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
OPEN ON 1ST PALM SUNDAY, OTB RAKES IN $2M - NY ...
Apr 14, 2003 - New
York City Off-Track Betting made history
yesterday, taking bets on Palm Sunday. ... New
York State, race tracks have been allowed to operate every
Sunday except for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.
... BY Jerry Bossert ...
OTB FACES HAND SLAP OVER PALM - NY Daily News
Apr 16, 2003 - OTB
FACES HAND SLAP OVER PALM. BY Jerry Bossert
... Aqueduct was also closed on Palm Sunday, but
OTB thrived on action from around ...
Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering and Breeding Law
§ 109. Supplementary regulatory powers of the commission. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law, the commission through its rules and regulations or in allotting dates for racing, simulcasting or in licensing race meetings at which pari-mutuel betting is permitted shall be authorized to: 1. permit racing at which pari-mutuel betting is conducted on any or all dates from the first day of January through the thirty-first day of December, inclusive of Sundays but exclusive of December twenty-fifth, Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday; and 2. fix minimum and maximum charges for admission at any race meeting. § 3. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed in this state to all humankind; and no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness on account of his or her opinions on matters of religious belief; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this state.
Crist: New York restrictions defy belief | Daily Racing Form
Nov 25, 2011 - DRF
Login Loading. ... It's only 126 days until Palm Sunday
and seven more until Easter, more than enough time for New
York to repeal its ...
Hovdey: On Palm Sunday, Rousing Sermon a good hunch ...
Mar 30, 2012 - There
is no horse racing allowed in New York this Sunday, which is
Palm Sunday in the Christian world, because of laws
dating back to 1695.
Off Track Betting to push for Palm Sunday opening
www.saratogian.com/.../off-track-betting-to-push-for-pal...
Jan 23, 2009 - SARATOGA
SPRINGS -- Off Track Betting officials say the plan to
push for legislation that would allow them to stay
open on Palm Sunday.
The Saratogian
Patriarch Bartholomew I,
right, blesses Pope Francis during an
Ecumenical Prayer in the Patriarchal Church of
Saint George in Istanbul. Reuters
On the final day of a visit to a country that has taken in more than 1.5 million refugees, the pope met with 100 Christian children and teens who fled Iraq and have taken refuge in Turkey.
Pope Francis has spoken often of the plight of the region’s refugees and sent a personal envoy to northern Iraq this summer with money from the pontiff’s own charitable fund to assist relief efforts. “The degrading conditions in which so many refugees are forced to live are intolerable,” he told the young refugees Sunday.
The pope had pressed his advisers to find a way for him to visit a refugee camp during his visit but said it wasn’t possible. On the flight back to Rome, he said he would still like to visit Iraq but won’t do so at the moment because “it would create serious problems for the authorities in terms of security.”
On the second of
a three-day trip to Turkey, Pope Francis joined
Grand Mufti Rahmi Yaran in a tour and prayer
inside Istanbul’s historic Blue Mosque. Photo:
AP.
Speaking to journalists during his return flight, the pope said Muslim leaders should issue a global condemnation of violence by Islamist extremists. But, he added, “no one can say that all followers of Islam are terrorists, any more than you can say that all Christians are fundamentalists.”
Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim country, has long served as a bridge between East and West but is under pressure to contain the conflagration on its borders and cope with huge flows of refugees. The pope expressed “deep gratitude” for Turkey’s efforts and called on the international community to help Ankara.
The pope also celebrated a liturgy Sunday together with Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople for the feast of St. Andrew, the patron saint of the Eastern Orthodox church. Patriarch Bartholomew is the spiritual head of the 300-million-member Orthodox Church. Earlier in the day, the pope also met with the Grand Rabbi of Turkey.
The pope and the patriarch are pushing hard to create stronger ties between the Eastern churches and Rome—which split nearly 1,000 years ago—in the belief that they can press their common concerns more effectively when united, particularly on the defense of Christian minorities.
“It seems that the value of human life has been lost” in areas of the Middle East, the pope and Patriarch Bartholomew said in a joint declaration. Orthodox Christians make up a large portion of the Christians in many countries in the Middle East.
When extremists kill Christians, they don’t ask which church they belong to, the pope said on the flight. “The blood that is shed is mixed,” he added.
The pope invited Orthodox leaders to an important meeting of Catholic bishops in Rome in October to discuss problems facing the family. The two sides are holding talks to overcome differences in liturgy and tradition, such as dates for holy days, although full reunion of the two branches of Christianity is unlikely soon. The pope assured Orthodox leaders Sunday that closer ties don't “signify submission of one to the other,” addressing a fear of some Eastern leaders wary of dominance by the Vatican.
The pope’s trip saw him reaffirm his belief in interreligious dialogue, despite rising tensions over the treatment of Christian minorities in many Muslim-majority countries. The symbolic highlight of the trip came Saturday, when the pope visited Istanbul’s 17th-century Sultan Ahmet Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque. He faced Mecca and prayed shoulder-to-shoulder with a senior Muslim cleric.
“I came as a pilgrim,” the pope said afterward. “I prayed above all for peace.”
Pope Francis, left, kisses
Patriarch Bartholomew I after they signed a
joint statement at St. George church, Istanbul,
on Sunday. Agence France-Presse/Getty
Images
“We see increasing prejudice and intolerance against Muslims living in Western countries as well as in Muslim countries,” Mr. Erdogan said at the meeting with the pope. On Sunday, the pope decried the “barbaric and senseless attack” against a mosque in Nigeria that killed scores on Friday.
The trip to a country with only 53,000 Catholics deprived the pope of the large masses and contact with crowds that visibly energize him. He next travels in January to the Philippines, which has one of the world’s biggest Catholic communities, and Sri Lanka.
Write to Deborah Ball at deborah.ball@wsj.com
Legislation would strengthen state OTB corporations ...
liherald.com/.../Legislation-would-strengt...
Mar 29, 2011 -
By Jackie Nash. 1 2 3 4 Next
page >. Jackie Nash/Herald ...
More people go out of state on Palm
Sunday than on Christmas or Easter to
place ...
Herald Community
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FORMER COUNSEL TO NYC OTB
Attorney Detail
as of 02/26/2015
Registration Number: 1010271
IRA HOWARD BLOCK
18 COUNTRY CLUB DR
LARCHMONT, NY 10538-1129
United States
(Westchester County)
(914) 833-2620
E-mail Address:
Year Admitted in NY: 1972
Appellate Division
Department of Admission: 2
Law School: YALE
Registration Status: Currently registered
Next Registration: Jun 2016
Disciplinary History: No record of public discipline
The Detail Report above contains information that has been provided by the attorney listed, with the exception of REGISTRATION STATUS, which is generated from the OCA database. Every effort is made to insure the information in the database is accurate and up-to-date.
The good standing of an attorney and/or any information regarding disciplinary actions must be confirmed with the appropriate Appellate Division Department. Information on how to contact the Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court in New York is available at www.nycourts.gov/courts.
If the name of the attorney you are searching for does not appear, please try again with a different spelling. In addition, please be advised that attorneys listed in this database are listed by the name that corresponds to their name in the Appellate Division Admissions file. There are attorneys who currently use a name that differs from the name under which they were admitted. If you need additional information, please contact the NYS Office of Court Administration, Attorney Registration Unit at 212-428-2800.
