Posted on 10/01/2010 10:40:08 PM PDT by Qbert
It took Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, five attempts to pass the Alaska Bar Exam, a piece of her biography that has gone unreported until now, when she faces a long-shot write-in bid for another term in her Senate seat.
Murkowski, who graduated in 1985 from Willamette University's College of Law in Oregon, wasn't admitted to the Alaska Bar until November 1987.
She flunked the exam in July 1985, February 1986, July 1986 and again in February 1987. She passed on her fifth try in July 1987. Murkowski said that although her failures on the exam aren't something she talks about regularly, she's never hidden them. It's an example of how she "stayed in there," Murkowski said, "and I did not quit."
[Snip]
Miller - the other lawyer in the race - is a 1995 graduate of Yale's law school. He took the Alaska Bar Exam once, passing it in July 1995. He was admitted to practice law in Alaska in November 1995. Generally, about two-thirds of people taking the exam passed it in the years Murkowski failed it. In July 1985 and February 1986, 69 percent passed; 62 percent passed in July 1986, and 74 percent in February 1987.
The year she passed it, 63 percent of exam-takers aced it.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
I've been told the same thing, by someone that has passed both.
Nearly everyone passes on the second attempt and third attempts are rare. I would be willing to bet that no other applicant from her graduating class had to take the exam more than three times.
Obviously, when it comes to law,she is in a league of her own - the Little League.
She is in all probability the only person in here class of applicants to fail 4 times.
The test is difficult, but I guarantee that you, with no legal education, could pass it in five attempts.
I agree with you about the importance of CPAs and the difficulty of their exam. Unfortunately Lawyers have the power. What is wrong with them and the legal system becomes wrong with society. The profession attracts ambitious nitwits like Murkowski.
“having taken and passed, I can only say that it is a horrible experience...”
...my daughter passed it and would agree with you...she said that people were so worked up that by the end the test room smelled like a dog kennel.
MurCow went to Georgetown University (B.A.) in Washington DC. You better believe she applied to East Coast law schools. She got turned down but dear old dad had enough pull to get her into Willamette Law school
Each state is different, some more so than others. For instance, Louisiana state law is based on the Napoleonic code and VA is based on the common law, so the same situation could come out very different depending upon which state it occurred in.
I spent three years of my life and many thousands of dollars to go to a law school, so spending a few thousand dollars and three months learning VA law was a "no brainer."
bump
Thanks Qbert.
She even looks stupid, but Teddy still holds the record for bar exam failure.
5 attempts, but she DID pass it.
He got one in Ilinois but lied on his application and surrendered it.
We know nothing real about that empty suit in the WH except that he is a radical America hater.
“I believe Hillary & Michelle also flunked the bar the first time.”
And yet we were constantly told how smart Hillary was. I can even remember Carville or a Carville Clone describing her IQ as “an IQ that can boil water.” Guess the bar exam board wasn’t told that so they could give her an automatic pass.
Interesting tidbit...
Thanks for posting this.
” we were told that the essay portion was written so you could argue either side of the issue, so “picking a side;” did not determine success or failure. How you analyzed the issues got you the score.”
We were told the same. And it makes sense. Contrary to the fantasy world of movies, books and some of the internet, real life is rarely purely black or purely white. If it were so, the issue would never come to a lawyer. The laws change, as we well know, but the ability to spot salient factors, apply the law as known at the time to those factors, and put it into cohesive language is the real skill needed by attorneys.
That is why failing four times is a serious red flag in my mind. I’m not sure even now Murkowski can see the forest for the trees at her nose.
“We should care less about attorneys and more about CPA’s.
I hear that exam is worse than the Bar.
Ergo the desire to destroy Mr. Hoffman in NY-23 and Michelle Bachmann. They are both CPA’s.”
—The new CPA exam has four sections, taken on different dates, and IIRC, only about 20% of participants pass all four sections on the first try. And if you don’t pass *all four* sections within a certain period of time, you have to go back and take them all over again until you pass them all. So, yeah, I think most people would agree that the CPA exam is much, much harder.
To correct one fact you stated- Michele Bachmann was a tax attorney, with an LL.M. in taxation before she was elected to Congress (and not a CPA). Close enough...and we need more like her.
Want more CPA’s in Congress? Donate to a good conservative and a CPA:
http://dioguardiforussenate.com/
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