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.