What nobody tells you, and what no one really understands until they've done it, is how much of a pain the APPLICATION process of being a lawyer is.
You can't just show up and take a test. You have to apply. YEARS and MONTHS ahead of when you actually plan to take the bar. And it's not just a standard application. You have to list every place you've lived and worked in the last 10 years. For most of us that includes our parent's houses (my p's have lived in 3 in the last 10 years), Dorms, college apartments, sorority houses, etc. Yes, I had to go look up the address of my freshman year dorm.
And not only is the application a monster pain, but they have to APPROVE it! So it's not like you just send it in and it's done. They actually check it out.
I have been going back and forth with the woman in charge of reviewing my application because no one responded from the car dealership that I worked at when I was 16 years old. That's because the car dealership has since closed, duh. It was 10 years ago.
So her suggestion? What about a roommate who knew you worked there?
Listen lady, I was 16 years old at the time. If you want my mom to confirm that I had a job there, that's fine with me.
No, parents won't work, what about a friend who knew you worked there?
Okay, fine, my friend A worked there with me. Here's her e-mail address.
Okay great.
This afternoon I get a text message from that friend:
"Ummm I'm glad that I now have your FULL SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER.
lovely State of Illinois, just e-mailing it out to God knows who."
So yes, apparently instead of just sending her an e-mail that read "Do you know Legally Fabulous? Is she a decent person?" they felt that they had to send out my FULL social security number. In case she thought that the state of Illinois was referring to another person with my incredibly uncommon first name and equally as uncommon last name?!
Also - this weekend in the mail I got a form. They want to run a full background check on me in Texas. Apparently they can't do that with just my name and social security number (which is being thrown around like it's a street address), they need me to actually go to a freaking police station and get fingerprinted.
You know, just in case I committed any crimes using an alias when I lived in Texas at age 14.
Who knew being a lawyer would be such a freaking complicated process?!
I cannot believe they would send your SSN around like that. Especially through email!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness. I am not looking forward to this :(
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. I did the application twice, once in NH and once in NY. I passed the bar in July and am literally just being sworn in next week. That is, after I get INTERVIEWED by a bar examiner, since the 40 page application with every job I've ever had listed and every address I've ever lived at listed, references from every legal employer I've had and people who have known me for years is not enough, they still need to meet me in person before I am admitted. This process is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with your application. It's almost as hard as the test itself.
Wow seriously? I'm surprised at how complicated bar admission is in other states. CA wasn't that complicated at all, from what I can remember (that's probably why we have SO MANY LAWYERS). The background check/job application for my Fed job? An entirely different story. I had to come in to be fingerprinted w/in a certain time after completing the paperwork online, which wanted my work and address history, including gaps of unaccounted for time (just in case you were a prostitute, drug dealer or made money through some other illegal means) and the names of numbers who could verify each period of employment/residence. I def feel your pain!
ReplyDeleteUgh. I KNEW there was a reason I never became a lawyer :)
ReplyDeleteAnd you forgot expensive. Extremely expensive...thank GOD my law firm paid for it, the total with fingerprints, notary fees, mailing, application fees was almost $800!!!
ReplyDeleteI never knew this was what happened. But my brother is about to apply for law schools so I will give him the warning!!!
ReplyDeletehttp://senseofstyleiseternal.blogspot.com/
Effin' whores. That is all.
ReplyDeletewow. That is bad. I would file a complaint if I were you.
ReplyDeleteOh God this brings me back. I had to do it in Texas and Illinois. And you would not believe the hell I went through about my "noise violation" in college. Well, a petty misdemeanor $138 ticket was the result of a highly publicized gang fight in Minnesota that I blogged about a while back. Tie those things together and you get one big effing mess. I had to go in front of the Board of Law Examiners in TX and IL and EXPLAIN myself and why I didn't include it in my application as being convicted of a crime. I'm sorry, this is the equivalent of a parking ticket. Not a crime. Then they threatened to throw me out of school AFTER I went through two years, and two years of incurring tuition payments. I had to get fingerprinted in TX too, but I don't think I had to in IL. It's all a blur now. I never even sat for the TX bar. What a pain in the ass.
ReplyDeleteSorry you have to deal with all this too - I know how much it blows.
I had a similar problem. The sorority where I was working in law school (yes, I was a house mom) never responded to the requests. Luckily, I found the envelope and personally gave it to the oldest woman alive and told her what to do with it.
ReplyDeleteThank GOD I didn't live in a different state and had never been convicted of more than a parking ticket (which, you apparently have to disclose?). I, too, had to find my freshman year dorm. The whole time I thought, "Can't I just put '6-pack, U of I'?"
Best of luck to you. Just think, by 8/1, you'll be allll done with this (knock on wood)