It may be premature

but I started wondering who (else?) has failed the bar in the past yet gone on to success or infamy? I know that I am not the first bar taker to think along these lines. So, of course I googled my question. Google, not suprisingly, had an answer.

Here's one blog entry from Louisiana. Another by a CA bar taker who passed. The LA Times had an interesting piece on CA bar takers of Feb/2006 -- all 5,260 of them.

In addition to this little gem:

Kathleen Sullivan, former dean of Stanford Law School and a former Harvard Law School professor, is considered such a legal superstar that news of her flunking the California bar last year made the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Sullivan remains a full law professor at Stanford and is associated with a private law firm.

See the following:

Tough testing
California had the lowest percentage of people passing the bar exam in 2004. Here are the states that had the greatest and smallest percentage of people passing the bar in 2004:

Top 5
1. Utah: 87% [but, UT requires the highest MPRE score of any state: 89]
2. Mississippi: 86%
3. Minnesota: 83%
4. Missouri: 81%
5. Iowa: 80%

Bottom 5
47. Wyoming: 60%
48. Nevada: 56%
48. New Hampshire: 56%
49. District of Columbia: 51%
50. California: 44% [take a look at this about the lawyer who tried 47 times to pass the CA bar -- but he did!]

And here's an interesting essay by someone who took and passed the CA bar.

MD isn't nearly as sexy as the CA bar. We only have two days of testing (thank goodness!). The overall passage rate for the exam varies between the mid-60s to about 75% passage. So two-thirds to three-quarters pass. I may very well be in that minority of those who don't... being in the minority? Story of my life!

UPDATE: Here's a 3L blogger who plans on taking the MD bar without attending a bar review course at all. Self-study. I am incredulous, but wish him/her well.