Step 1 - enrollment for the NSW Bar Exam

My mother once told me that if you have the intelligence, persistence and character to successfully enroll in a tertiary institution and arrange your timetable appropriately, then you should automatically be granted a degree. The reasoning goes that, in achieving this milestone, you have demonstrated more than enough ability to successfully complete the course in question. It is, in reality, an indictment on the painful bureaucracy that binds many tertiary institutions and bodies.

I can attest to this in several instances. The ANU in Canberra is one, or at least qualified as such in the late 1990's when I was a student there. The UWS in Sydney was not quite as bad during my time there, but was still not easy. The New York Bar Association is a tangle of painful barriers that I dare not elaborate on here.

Thankfully, the New South Wales Bar Association has not, at least at this early stage, displayed these characteristics.

The July Bar Exam is a three-part exam comprising of three components:

Practice and Procedure (3 hours, July 19, 2010 in Sydney);

Evidence (3 hours, July 21 in Sydney); and

Ethics for Barristers (3 hours, July 23 in Sydney).

As an applicant residing in a foreign country, the Bar Association require me to take the bar exam roughly a week-and-a-half before the takers in Sydney. I also need to arrange a supervisor and a suitable test location. Fortunately, this shouldn't be overly difficult (touch wood). The supervisor requires legal admission, and I have many friends who would qualify.

I am thrilled that I can take the exam here in New York and save myself the hassle of flying back for it. Cudos to the NSW Bar Association for their flexibility in this regard!

A pass mark requires at least a 75% grade in all three papers. Study material is online and becomes available upon registration for the Bar Exam.

If I manage to pass the Bar Exam, I then have 10 months to complete the Bar Practice Course. We will cross that bridge when we come to it. Step 1 is the exam.

Enrollment is underway. A Hiccup with payment notwithstanding, I expect to be enrolled within the next couple of days and thereafter to have access to the relevant online study material.

Stay tuned!

CGW.

Introduction...

Dear Readers,

I am about to embark on a journey that I have been anticipating for a number of years. Though I didn't know it at the time, this journey began when I first entered the Australian National University Faculty of Law in February 1997 as a clueless 18 year old high-school graduate.

At that time, I had no desire to pursue a career in law. My focus was Economics, and my ultimate objective was "to make alot of money" as a "banker". I had only decided on studying a double-degree after prodding from my mother (a respected and successful Solicitor and Arbitrator), and also from a pierced and tattooed program advisor at the ANU open day in late 1996.

After stumbling in to university life, however, I quickly realized that Economics was actually very boring, and that Law was interesting and stimulating. Thank you Professor Davis et al!

After three years of Law School, I began a clerkship with a respected Sydney firm at the end of the 1999 semester, and transferred to the University of Western Sydney to complete my studies. I graduated in 2002 and, after taking a year off to travel, was finally admitted to practice in New South Wales as a Solicitor in February 2004.

Life intervened again after this, and after a brief period of post-admission practice as a Commercial Litigator and a Land and Environment Solicitor, I married my sweetheart, an American girl. For various reasons this necessitated a move to the United States, during which time I sat and passed the New York State Bar Exam (February 2005) and worked for some four years as a Legal Research Consultant for a large legal information conglomerate in New York.

Still, my heart strongly pulls me toward the Bar, and back toward Australia. Both my wife and I have a desire to return if and when the opportunity presents itself. Is THIS that opportunity?

This blog is dedicated to keeping my friends, both real and vicarious, up-to-date with my progress in this journey. I welcome any comments, suggestions, criticism (of a constructive nature) and encouragement that you may choose to direct to me along the way. I hope you enjoy the blog!

Sincerely,

CGW.