Author Blames Yale and ‘Having a Good Time’ for Failing NY Bar

Law Schools

Author Blames Yale and ‘Having a Good Time’ for Failing NY Bar

Posted Nov 20, 2008, 08:00 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A famous Yale Law School graduate who has written books about her struggles with depression and addiction has failed the New York bar exam.

Elizabeth Wurtzel blamed the failure partly on Yale Law School and partly on her study habits, the New York Observer reports. Wurtzel has written the books Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America; Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women; and More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction.

A New York Observer reporter informed Wurtzel about the bad bar-exam news during a poetry reading.

"Wow, really? I had no idea. I didn't even see that. That's interesting," she told the reporter. "It's a weird test. I think when you go to a different school than Yale you are better prepared for it. It was definitely hard. I guess when I should have been studying, I was kind of having a good time."

Wurtzel is working at Boies, Schiller, & Flexner. The New York Times visited Wurtzel at Yale last fall and reported she had been offered a job at WilmerHale. “With her oversize earrings, high-heel black boots, and nose stud, she blended in with her fellow graduate students,” the newspaper said.

Hat tip to Above the Law.

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Posted by JR - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 23 hours, 56 minutes ago

As a Yale Law School alumnus of 34 years, I take exception to the headling about “blaming” the law school. First of all, Ms. Wurtzel did not blame Yale. Anyway, students there realize that they learn an approach to law and legal principles, not how to pass a bar exam. For that, we took bar review.
More important, as my mother used to say, since the law can change any time, far better to learn how to shape the law than memorize that latest laws of the legislature and the most recent pronouncements of judges,
Posted by B. McLeod - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 19 hours, 58 minutes ago

Based on the quotation, it appears she did suggest that schools other than Yale do a better job of preparing their graduates for the exam. What we would call the “foundation” for this statement is not evident. Did Ms. Wurtzel attend these different law schools? Seems more likely it would have to do with the “should have been studying” part. The point of real interest (but not covered in the story) would be what practice area she works. It is probably a good thing she can write books.
Posted by Martha Chemas - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 8 hours, 21 minutes ago

Ms. Wurtzel has already achieved a measure of success with her literary career that many attorneys will never realize. What scrutiny success brings! Prozac Nation’s core messages gently prodded me (and others I know) through law school, and the challenging post-law-school summer dedicated to editing and eventually publishing my first novel… about depression and affliction.
Thanks for the inspiration Liz!

Regarding bar prep: I graduated from CUNY Law when it was pass/fail and passed the NY bar the first try (Bar-Bri; thanks dad!).
Enough said?
Posted by Anonymous - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 6 hours, 51 minutes ago

I graduated from a school at the bottom of the fourth tier, worked 60 hours a week at a lousy document review job, didn’t take one day off to study, and spent most of my nights traveling back and forth between home and my girlfriend’s home, and was able to pass the New York exam. Well, ok I’ll admit I did about 20 practice MBE questions in preparation. I guess she has her books and I’ll have my license, not sure I wouldn’t trade.
Posted by Touchy - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes ago

So sensitive are these Yale graduates. Take a chill pill and come on over to Boalt Hall where you would learn a thing or two about the law, policy and having a good time. On a second thought, don’t come over because we don’t need stuffy people like you in our house.
Posted by Dietrich Pielsticker - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 5 hours, 26 minutes ago

I passed the NY Bar in 1989. At that time I was admitted as lawyer in Munich, Germany and had been working with Herzfeld & Rubin (New York) since 6 months. I never studied law in the US, but took Marino and Piper. The exam were 2 tough days, but a good experience. For me it is hard to believe that you fail the bar exam although you were at Yale. Good luck for the next chance.
Posted by HCB - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 4 hours, 25 minutes ago

Wurtzell is an example of the downside of Yale’s effort to select “distinctive” people. Her LSAT was way below the School’s mean, perhaps even the lowest in her class (this topic was discussed thoroughly on the blogs when she was admitted), and apart from being self-consciously depressed, it’s not clear that she has done anything significant in life. Every now and then someone gets lucky in the famous 3-person, 12 point, file reading system, drawing people with pathologies similar to her own. I predict we’ll never hear of Wurtzell again. That David Boies would hire her is embarrassing.
Posted by silencedogood - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 3 hours, 26 minutes ago

Pieper people pass (the first time). I remember taking the exam in the Egg up at Albany and seeing a large number of people scattered around the underground halls like loose paper furiously cramming and thinking “if you don’t know it by now, that won’t do any good.”

Perhaps Ms. Wurtzell should have crammed at least a bit…or not—what is she doing working as a lawyer after writing all those books anyway? Research for a book on corporate sadism perhaps?
Posted by Dan - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 3 hours ago

Just glad I passed… Who cares what some too-cool-for-the-room author wanna-be lawyer did?
Posted by Dan - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 2 hours, 47 minutes ago

Has anyone noticed anything this morning?

I can’t help but think this story would be right up a certain caps-lock using young “lawyer’s” alley… Where is she?
Posted by Dan - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 2 hours, 45 minutes ago

Holy cow… I didn’t see this before…

http://www.abajournal.com/news/no_more_ellen_barshevsky_and_other_comment_policy_notes/

Guess that answers my question! LOL
Posted by Where's Ellen? - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 2 hours, 8 minutes ago

I am scouring the articles to find Ellen B. Has anyone seen her? I need to get my fix on her and her boyfriend before Turkey day. Ellen, your audience awaits!
Posted by lol ivy league - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 2 hours, 5 minutes ago

Just goes to show you that ivy league students are not always the best and the brightest.

Maybe they should start giving grades at Ivy League schools so we can see how many C students really go there.
Posted by B. McLeod - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 2 hours, 1 minute ago

For Ellen, check the blawg links.
Posted by Robert S. Campbell - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 52 minutes ago

E. Wurtzel has no one but herself to fault for her failure of the NY Bar Exam. Yale is a fine law school with a strong curriculum, but its purpose is not as a bar exam cram course. Maybe Wurtzel ought to try studying NY law if she wants to be a lawyer. Sounds like she doesn’t.
Posted by EBH3 - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 46 minutes ago

http://www.abajournal.com/news/ellen_has_her_own_blawg_after_being_banned_from_this_site/

Now we won’t be subjected to Ellen, but can choose to suffer the fool if we so desire
Posted by bond - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 45 minutes ago

Right, one exam failure shows she is not “the best and the brightest.” Her three books prove her to be a total loser. Get real! Addicts usually have higher IQs on average, and can study less than others. In this instance it showed her she needs to study more, that’s all.
Posted by JB - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 37 minutes ago

I can’t believe a reporter broke the news to her. How horrible is that. “Um…excuse me…but the exam results were juust posted on line. You failed. What do you have to say?” It reminds me of some NYC tv news reporters who show up to a grieving mother’s house to ask “how do you feel about the murder of your child.” I’m surprised Wurtzel’s respose wasn’t filled with profanity.
Posted by rs - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 13 minutes ago

Comment removed by moderator.
Posted by HVB - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 10 minutes ago

I’ve heard that there are bottom tier schools with great pass rates b/c they are basically a 3 year prep course. Similarly, it was ofter the students withthe highest GPA’s who failed, b/c they got their A’s writing for academics and then were graded by working lawyers. Anyway, her comment, I thought, was appropriate. The headline makes it sound like she was whining about it; she just a comment when caught by surprise
Posted by Eric n the Red - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 8 minutes ago

The law school one attends has absolutely no relation to passing a bar exam. If we remember the New York Post’s well publicized headings when JFK Jr. (a Harvard Grad) repeatedly failed the NY bar-“The Hunk Flunks” “The Hunk Flunks Again.” Passing a bar exam is merely a function of studying the subjects that are going to be on the bar exam and the writing style needed to pass. Bar/Bri or a similar course can prepare most good students to pass a bar exam, even if they never went to law school.
Posted by rc - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 8 minutes ago

This is what happens when you use criteria other than LSAT and academic performance to admit people into schools, give them jobs, etc etc
Posted by rc - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 7 minutes ago

Apparently the moderator sensors opinions he doesn’t agree with.
Posted by dgh - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

Really, we need to discuss this? Depression is a tough road to hoe, but other than her insights in that regard, why “listen” to her. People fail to pass the Bar Exam for any number of reasons, but they all center upon the individual taking the test. (Who would hire her except for publicity?)
Posted by Not a JFK - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 29 minutes ago

To Eric in Red: JFK, Jr. graduated from NYU Law, not HLS…. he went to Brown undergrad.
Posted by LHS - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 23 hours, 16 minutes ago

Blaming Yale? Give me a break. Hofstra didn’t teach us sh*t, not one single friggen thing, but we still managed to bring the school up at least 3 places in bar passage rates last year. (Everything we learned was from BarBri…)
Posted by No duh - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 23 hours, 4 minutes ago

As others have pointed out, law school isn’t about preparing you for that one big exam.

“I guess when I should have been studying, I was kind of having a good time.” Sounds like this was her problem. Anyone who wants to pass the bar exam knows to study, not party.
Posted by SS - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 23 hours, 4 minutes ago

To DGH. that would be a “tough row to hoe.” Not ‘road’. To be a good lawyer you should be well rounded and enjoy words and phrases. The hoe is a farming instrument despite what NY radio talkers say.
And i’m a big city guy, born and bred, passed the Illinois bar the first time when it was all essay (thanks BRI).
Posted by Michael T - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 23 hours, 4 minutes ago

She didn’t pass because she didn’t study properly for the bar exam. Her comments seeking to blame other things or people speak volumes about her character. I’m really surprised any law firm would offer someone like that a job.
Posted by Doneil - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes ago

All this talk about the bar exam and performance as a lawyer brings up an interesting question: Did one of our greatest lwayers, Clarence Darrow, really fail the bar exam six times? Or was that just a myth?
Posted by John in WV - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 28 minutes ago

Unlikely Clarence Darrow had to take a bar exam in 1880, about when he would have ‘read’ for the law. An intelligent person can skip law school, take Bar-Bri and pass the NY bar exam. The reson this is even news is that she’s a minor (very) celeb and Yale is an easy target. Now, get back to work.
Posted by sb - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 18 minutes ago

I don’t know what Yale does, but my law school told us to study for the bar exam, recommending that we take a study course, in the state in which we would practice. A law school cannot prepare you for every state’s bar exam, which is, by necessity, largely based on the law in that state. For those of you who are geographically challenged, Yale isn’t in New York.

I think there is a danger of these kids who think they’re so smart when they graduate from a top-tier law school, or in the top of their class (or both), and then think they don’t HAVE to study for the bar exam because they’re so smart. Fortunately, I studied, went through the BarBRI course, and passed first time out. The main thing one should learn from attending school is how much he or she DOESN’T know.

I mainly agree with Ms. Wurtzel’s statement that she probably failed the bar because she was partying too much instead of studying. I also would point out that this was an off-the-cuff answer to suddenly received news, so her reference to the school really shouldn’t be criticized too harshly, even if it is unwarranted. When I can’t find my shoes, I blame my kids—until I notice that I had inadvertently kicked them under the bed the night before—and no one cares because I’m not famous.
Posted by ccbl - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 20 hours, 34 minutes ago

Blaming Yale? How ridiculous! At Pitt Law, one of my ethics professors was vilified for correctly suggesting that lawyers from Ivy League schools always get the benefit of their presumed competence over their public law school counterparts. She warned her Pitt Law students that we’d have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good as her fellow Yale alumni. That said, my experience with the NY bar was do or die: if I didn’t take and pass the bar when I was 5 months pregnant, I would have had to contend with studying for the bar and caring for 4 children rather than 3. Thanks to a great series of tapes and books from Celebration Bar Review, I studied poolside and passed the first time.
Posted by Mike N - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 20 hours, 20 minutes ago

While Yale Law School grads probably get preference in the real world over those from “lesser” schools, that doesn’t affect the bar exam which is (at least supposedly) graded anonymously.

That being said, I graduated from Brooklyn Law School while an acquaintance graduated from Yale’s Ivy “sibling”, Columbia. He told me that at orientation, he was told that Columbia was a “national” law school which meant that its emphasis was on so-called universal legal principles which would be helpful for the multi-state portion of the bar exam but not for the NY day.
Posted by John T. Miesner - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 19 hours, 55 minutes ago

Anyone ever have a client ask how many times you had to take the bar exam to pass?
Posted by Krishan K Channan - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 19 hours, 53 minutes ago

It appears to me that Ms Wurtzel failed N.Y.Bar Exam by failing to follow one or all of the following:
1.Did she read her matatreial according to 3Rs.(read recite and revise)?
2. Did she read her material using her eyes and brain and not her mouth ( vocalisation ion and or subvocalisation)?
3.Did she take a meditation course to keep her alert and to avoid mental and physical stress?
Kris K Channan
Posted by big old bj - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 19 hours, 46 minutes ago

The moderator is a censor. This site bites!
Posted by Pieter R - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 19 hours, 38 minutes ago

Of what use law school?

Doesn’t teach you how to pass the bar.
Doesn’t teach you how to practice law.
Doesn’t teach you how to write.

I learned more about the law from the case books than from instructors who spent far too much time trying to be clever and mysterious.

Law school has one purpose: to serve as a costly gateway to the practice of law.

Neither graduating from law school nor passing the bar exam can serve as any true measure of competence for the practice of law, as these programs do nothing to prepare the student for the actual practice of law.
Posted by binky - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, 57 minutes ago

You surely don’t have to applolgize or make an excuse for failing the NY Bar Exam. It’s tough.
That said, it is foolish not to take a prep course, and take it seriously. I feel a little sorry for what’s-her-name if only because she feels compelled to blame anyone but herself. That is also a bad habit to be in when practicing law. It is called whining.
Posted by HC - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, 55 minutes ago

Law school doesn’t prepare you for the bar exam or the practice of law. In addition to law school debt then you have to pay more to some overpriced bar prep course. Then if you pass the bar you have to pay the state annual dues, for what? Its a racket. If you graduate from an “ABA accredited” school then you should just be able to register with any state and pay your annual dues because that is all the state is after anyway…money.
Posted by realist - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, 43 minutes ago

She can take it again. All lawyers know what the bar exam is and what it isn’t. Plenty of bright people fail the exam. It is a game, plain and simple. Pouring over 10 phone book tests of Bar Bri information does not always help.

Here is what helped me with the MBE

www.adaptibar.com

It helped because it gave me a printed read-out of my weak areas. Primo, excellent. I then used my available hours studying my weak areas.

The law is a strange profession and a strange culture. I came to it as a highly successful mental health professional, attended full time while working part time, being on a journal and keeping up in my first field.

I have my JD and my license and a keen awareness of the pompous, self-important, and socially inept people who are in our law schools. My, oh, my! I hear them hear slamming this woman for making some thoughtless statements at an embarassing time in her life.
Posted by B. McLeod - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 15 hours, 53 minutes ago

Well said, and (I must expostulate with the EB blog on this point), the lady takes a good picture.
Posted by Jbeard - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 15 hours, 12 minutes ago

Wow, do I like her books? No, I think they’re endless rants. Does she have style? That’s subjective but evidently by her success many believe she does.

From a look at her quote, is she blaming Yale? NO.

Lawyers are supposed to excel at reading comprehension. The ABA Journal in this regards, reads like a tabloid.
Posted by Lawyerly - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 13 hours, 35 minutes ago

I don’t know much about the NY bar exam, but I recently passed the IL bar exam. I read most of the comments, and I too often hear “well, I passed so who cares about anyone else?” Same thing about law schools with mandatory (scam) flunk- outs. The whole bar process was pathetic, in my opine, and I passed fine, the 1st time, so I say this objectively. After all the work and hurdles we overcome to get doctorates, we ought to be ready, and not have to prepare for an overly tricky test which doesn’t have much to do with our respective legal paths. And we have to spend thousands on bar- prep courses, who knows if they are in cahoots too? The bar I took, one young girl, very nice, who flunked, committed suicide. I never hear studies as to what happens to that still too large percentage of those who flunk, but I am sure it’s not the first time. It ruins lives, costs tons of $$$ stress and time, and is not a proper means to an end, rather uses flawed logic to reach a conclusion, as to why we must even pass it to go on. I think we can probably come up with a better system than this, and it’s certainly not a proper way to limit the number of lawyers who practice in a given state. That should be done at the law school level, don’t admit someone unless they can make it to become lawyers, don’t take their money and then ruin lives. I mean at some point, I remember thinking while suffering through the bar prep days, being able to practice law does become a right, and not a privilege, or at least an entitlement…
Posted by Martin Snitow - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 11 hours, 3 minutes ago

I graduated from Yale Law in 1969 and passed the NY Bar the first time. The only difficulty I had with the exam was caused by another Yale Law grad, John V. Lindsay, ‘48L, Mayor of the City of New York.

I stayed up late the night before the first day of the exam, to watch the first Moon landing of Apollo 11. I went to sleep soon after Neil Armstrong said: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”

The next morning I went to the subway station for the trip into Manhattan. I found out that Mayor Lindsay had declared a half-holiday in honor of the Moon landing. What is a half-holiday? The buses and subways were on a Sunday schedule, but everyone was going to work!

After I made it to the exam room only a few minutes late, I was sure that I was destined to pass. And I did.
Posted by jeremiah - 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 43 minutes ago

The written portion of the bar exam tests you more on how fast you can write (or type) than on what you know. In the real world, lawyers use dictaphones, stenographers, software, etc. What difference does it make in practice to have the manual dexterity to be able to write or type really fast?
Posted by Billie Gray - 1 month, 2 weeks, 1 day, 15 hours, 14 minutes ago

This lady is just plain silly. I attended a medium-good law school. Didn’t do well. Took Pieper, worked my head off, passed the NY Bar the first time. P.S. I could not stand Pieper, personally, but if you failed the exam after taking his course, you have to have wanted to.
Posted by Robert - 1 month, 1 week, 6 days, 8 hours, 15 minutes ago

Sounds like the excuse that almost every student makes at some time (partying too much) to avoid confronting the possible truth that you may not be sufficiently intelligent to pass.

Law school teaches you legal logic and how to use common sense within that framework. I didn’t get it until later, but am forever grateful to law school for teaching me that. Ellen Wurtzel can still get it at some time and pass the Bar, but if she continues to make excuses, she will never pass.

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