Becoming a Lawyer Without Law School – Part 2: Ten Tips for Success in the Law Office Study Program
A selection of my study materials, most of which I borrowed or bought second hand
This is the second in a two-part blog series about California's Law Office Study Program. If you haven't already read my first blog and its external links and if you are not already familiar with the LOSP requirements, please read the first blog post here before reading this one.
The following is my practical advice based on my own experience. This is the advice that I wish someone gave me as I was first starting the LOSP.
#1 - Take your legal education into your own hands
The LOSP works best for highly self-motivated, proactive, assertive people. It is a challenge for anyone to successfully complete this program and obtain their license to practice law, and many people begin it without finishing. If you are one of those people who struggles to complete tasks without externally imposed deadlines, then the LOSP might be especially challenging for you and you might carefully consider whether or not it's a realistic path for you.
Most likely, your supervising attorney will have their hands full serving clients so they have limited time to think about how your studies are going, so you need to be in the driver’s seat of your own LOSP journey. The rules require that supervising attorneys directly supervise their students for 5 hours per week, and students need to commit at least 18 hours per week to their studies. It's unlikely that your supervising attorney will have more than 5 hours per week available to directly supervise you so to succeed in this program you need to be prepared to spend considerable time studying without your attorney guiding you. You should look to your supervising attorney as a mentor but not as someone who will necessarily hold your hand in every step of the process or remind you about deadlines for filing papers with the State Bar because in only 5 hours per week they won’t have time to help you with everything you need to do to succeed.
In the law office, take initiative to ask questions of attorneys (not just of your official supervisor) as often as you have the opportunity. Consider keeping a list of questions or topics you'd like to discuss with your supervising attorney as they come up throughout the week to make optimal use of your direct supervision time with your supervising attorney. Ask attorneys if you can look at documents they prepare, even if not directly related to your assignments. Ask to observe client meetings or other meetings related to topics that interest you, even those not directly related to one of your assignments. You might even find it informative to sit in on some administrative meetings of the law firm (if you are invited, or if you apprentice for a solo attorney then ask them about the business side of things) to learn about more practical business aspects of running a law practice.
#2 - Find or create a study group / peer support group
While self-motivation and self-discipline are essential to success in the LOSP, it also helps to have comrades. Getting through the FYLSE and Bar Exam can be miserable so it helps to have people to commiserate and struggle with you. It also helps to have a study group to hold you accountable to your study goals. Ideally there will be other LOSP students in your law office studying alongside you, but this is not always possible, in which case you should try to find other students in your area and arrange occasional study sessions.
Supervising attorneys took the Bar Exam many years ago and they have probably forgotten some of the key concepts around topics that don’t come up in their practice. Your supervising attorney also may not have much personal interest in discussing all the FYLSE and Bar Exam topics with you. Finally, your supervising attorney will have limited time with you, so it’s best to utilize their time and attention for learning about their area(s) of expertise.
#3 - Find a variety of used study materials online, but preferably not from Amazon
There are lots of great used Bar Exam and general law study books available.
I ordered a lot of useful law books from Powell's, the giant bookstore in Portland, OR. You can browse and order books from Powell's online. I also bought and/or borrowed books directly from former law students I know. Ask around in your law office, as there may be former law students who are happy to give away or sell their study materials. I'm sure there are a ton of law books on Amazon but Jeff Bezos is rich enough so please use Amazon only as a last resort.
I collected a lot of different study materials, however, the ones I found most helpful were the following:
Wolters Kluwer Examples & Explanations books
any books containing practice multiple choice questions with an answer key that provides detailed explanations of the correct answer - there are many sources for these
Past essay questions from FYLSE and Bar Exams, with model answers (available on the State Bar's website for free) – study the model answers carefully!
There are many other study materials available. Some LOSP students enroll in a bar test prep course, which usually comes with its own materials (my first blog in this series discusses test prep courses).
#4 - Stay organized
The first few times I had to submit a 6 month report to the State Bar I found myself scrambling to make lists of materials I had studied, to collect and copy all my exams, and then to submit my report on time. Get organized from the beginning so you don't become frantic every six months when it's time to file your report. Make a set of labeled folders or do whatever you need to do to organize your monthly exams and study notes. Make copies of your exams as you go in case you lose anything. Keep a list of materials you studied as you study them so when your report is due you can assemble this information quickly and easily. It's important to submit a complete and timely semi-annual report with the required fee in order to get credit for your study time.
Additionally, developing good document organization and backup habits will help you in your law practice once you become an attorney.
#5 - Budget for re-taking the FYLSE
Most students do not pass the FYLSE on the first try. Hopefully you'll be one of the ones who pass on the first try so that you can happily move on, but it's best to be financially and emotionally prepared for having to re-take the exam. If you have to re-take it, study the essay materials and scores that will be returned to you by the Bar. This will likely be useful feedback on how you did on different parts of the exam.
#6 - When unsure what else to do to prepare for exams, take another practice test
Preparing for the FYLSE and the Bar Exam can be done with some of the same strategies and materials. The format and difficulty of the two exams are very similar. The difference between the exams is just that the FYLSE covers only criminal law, contract law, and tort law while the Bar Exam covers those three subjects plus several more. So the advice in this blog and in particular this tip is relevant to both the FYLSE and the Bar Exam.
There is a vast amount of legal knowledge in your study books and it's easy to get lost trying to understand and memorize it all. Fortunately, you can pass the FYLSE and Bar Exam without memorizing absolutely all of the content of your study books. Probably nobody ever will memorize all the nuances of law that could be tested on the Bar Exam. You just need to understand and memorize enough of the legal substance and make sure you are very familiar with the format of the exam, the patterns of model essay answers, and the pace of the exam. Don't be afraid to try out some practice exam questions before you feel like you've really mastered all of the content of an exam topic because the process of taking the practice test and reviewing answers and explanations carefully will be extremely informative.
Passing the FYLSE and Bar Exam, like with most standardized tests, requires a good test taking strategy in addition to subject matter knowledge. Being an expert in some legal subject doesn't necessarily mean you will write an essay on that subject that checks off all the boxes on the list of things the examiners are looking for, etc..
Thus, it's vital to do lots of practice tests and to review your answers against model answers for essay questions, or answer keys with explanations for multiple choice questions. The model answers and explanations are essential for understanding what the examiners are looking for and for learning from your mistakes.
#7 - Find More than One Mentor
While you only need one supervising attorney to sign off on your LOSP paperwork, your legal skill and knowledge will benefit from having relationships with many different attorneys who can offer different kinds of mentorship. Some LOSP students stick with the same attorney for the duration of their LOSP participation, and some intentionally seek to change supervisors and law offices every so often so as to learn from attorneys practicing in different areas of law. Even if you stick with the same official supervising attorney for the entire LOSP, it's useful to have multiple informal attorney mentors for a bunch of reasons. One reason is that it's not safe to assume you can study with the same attorney for your entire 4+ years of LOSP participation, so it's good to have relationships with other mentors in case your supervising attorney leaves their job or has to end their supervision of your studies for any reason, causing you to have to look for a new supervising attorney. I had to change supervising attorneys on multiple occasions because of attorneys changing roles in the law office and one going on parental leave. Another reason is that different attorneys will have different work styles and experiences so undoubtedly it will be enriching to have multiple mentors, even if only one is your official supervising attorney for LOSP purposes.
#8 - Remember that Studying for the FYLSE and Bar Exam is Totally Different from Actually Practicing Law
Being prepared to pass the Bar Exam and being able to practice law effectively are two distinct abilities. While participating in the LOSP you can and should try to develop both abilities along the way. Make time for each. Your supervising attorney is probably better suited to help you learn how to actually practice law so you should lean on them more for this more than for preparing for the FYLSE and Bar Exam. There are many resources to help you with studying for the exams, and hopefully you will find a peer study group to help. Different students juggle these two types of learning in different ways. Some LOSP students have full time paying jobs in their law offices so they have to carefully make time to study exam materials on top of their work. Some LOSP students are essentially unpaid interns and therefore may have more flexibility to devote larger chunks of their work day to studying as they see fit for their needs. I always had part time work while I was participating in the LOSP and my workload varied over time but even though my paid jobs were part-time I found it hard to make the time and space in my brain for studying for the two big exams. I also was very drawn to learn about the area of law that my first two supervising attorneys specialize in, which is securities law, which is a topic that is seldom tested on the Bar Exam, and never tested on the FYLSE. So, in the early years of my apprenticeship I put in many hours studying securities law which was very helpful for preparing me to practice securities law but not at all useful for passing the FYLSE and Bar Exam. This is one reason I struggled with the FYLSE and had to re-take it. Other LOSP students I know have had varying experiences in terms of balancing paid and unpaid work, study time that is relevant to building skills as an attorney, and study time that is necessary for exam preparation. You will have to make your own plan that works for you—this is the beauty and the challenge of the LOSP!
#9 - Self care is super important!
I know talking about self care is cliche now, but it is really important. Among lawyers and law students (and American society generally) there is a culture that celebrates over-work. Many law students and young attorneys suffer from notions that working extremely long hours will help them succeed. The reality is that while hard work is definitely involved making it through the LOSP and in succeeding in the practice of law, it's just as important to invest in getting enough sleep, eating well, maintaining relationships with family and friends, and making time to relax. Your brain can only intake and retain so much new information per day—it needs time to process and store new information in order to retain it. It's important to make time for things other than studying and work, including time for doing nothing. The Bar Exam and FYLSE are not tests you can cram for like you did for final exams in college. You need to pace yourself and take care of yourself along the way.
#10 - If at first you don't succeed, try again!
There will be challenges and setbacks. Keep in mind that many successful attorneys (among those who went to law school and those who didn’t) had to re-take the Bar Exam multiple times before passing. I took the FYLSE three times, but fortunately I learned from so many mistakes in that process that I passed the Bar Exam on the first try. You may encounter other challenges in the workplace or in your personal life that distract from your studies. Everyone faces some setbacks along the way to becoming an attorney. With most setbacks you may face, there will be opportunities to try again. Becoming a lawyer is a process where patience and persistence usually pay off.