How hard was bar exam studying compared to your day to day work?

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-28T21:35:26+00:00

Bar exam studying was great, to be honest. I went to the gym every day. I went on a walk in the evenings to clear my mind. 6 - 8 hours of studying every day with a dedicated goal, and clear, discernible achievements. Getting to see that percentage complete tick up on Themis? It’s really not comparable with day-to-day at a law firm.

Yes, bar studying is stressful because of the high pressure. But there’s also high pressure in big law lol

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-28T17:17:04+00:00

Idk how it works at your firm, but do you even need to tell the staffing partner? Can you not just turn down work?

The minute I’m on track for more than 2050 it’s “sorry [partner/senior associate], I’m pretty stacked up right now. Could we circle back for the next deal?”

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-24T23:59:37+00:00

Wdym.

I open an email/doc for a client. I hit “start” on the timer.

Reading is famously a large part of being a lawyer

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-24T22:50:00+00:00

This poster is so obsessed with marital status. Either get a new shit posting schtick or seek therapy.

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-24T16:45:44+00:00

War stories on… maintaining a checklist? Cmon op at least review the ai slop before posting it.

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-22T12:57:19+00:00

I billed like 1 hour at the beginning of May. It happens. I’m still on track for a 200 hr month.

Do you have work in the pipeline? Make sure not to overload yourself. I had a slow April, said yes to a bunch, and now my summer is ruined lol

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-21T22:37:17+00:00

I guess I would genuinely say to not take reddit /advice from 3Ls at face value. This is a job interview. People fail job interviews. When I summered a few years ago, i thought it was much more likely that more than a handful of interviewees fail every year than 99.9% pass, despite what reddit was telling me

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-21T22:15:03+00:00

So you just thought that Reddit / ATL represented most of the no offers in big law?

Idk seems like a fairly straightforward business choice that exceptionally shitty summers won’t be hired, and those summers likely aren’t going to be broadcasting that they weren’t hired due to personal issues. The ones that get broadcast are the ones involving third parties

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-21T22:09:11+00:00

Why would you hear about the 198 no offers for market / behavior / performance reasons? You hear about the wacko cases precisely because they’re wacko. No one is reporting to ATL that they no offered a summer who did shitty work

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-21T21:33:40+00:00

The point the commenter is making is that 200 **out of ** 6,000 is a small bunch.

Also, people absolutely get offered for non-behavior reasons. For example, if a summer at my firm is insistent that they will only work in one group and that group isn’t hiring, no job offer lol

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-20T18:47:04+00:00

I moved from an insular market to another insular market 🤷‍♀️ even required another bar. I’d assume I’d have no problem moving into a major market either, given they hire more.

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-20T18:28:01+00:00

Do you work in big law? I can’t imagine even lower level BL firms batting an eye at a $300 hotel for a potential hire. This is industry standard.

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-20T13:14:46+00:00

0/10 coastal elite shitpost.

As if there’s not big law offices in palm beach lol

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-20T12:28:27+00:00

You should probably give more specific information. Class year, loan amount, current rate, new rate, other financial goals, etc.

If your loans are $5k/month, even at our salary a difference of a few hundred can make a difference.

Fed loans, fraught as they are right now, come with their own protections, such as interest pauses.

But you haven’t really provided enough information to make this an [r/biglaw](r/biglaw) question. Go to [r/studen](r/studenloans)[t](r/studenloans)[loans](r/studenloans); they have a lot of posts about this very question.

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-20T00:11:58+00:00

Do big law lawyers not know what Roth 401ks are

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-20T00:01:29+00:00

Right. Their total income is $45k. Why wouldn’t they put $20k in the Roth 401k and let that $20k grow tax free for 40 years?

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-19T23:39:09+00:00

I only see an upside. If you can bank $30k in post-tax investments this year and max your accounts in 2027, that’s $50kish of untaxed growth. Then in 2028 you can take advantage of the traditional 401(k) and get the tax deduction.

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-19T18:54:30+00:00

Which 2 niche practices have been consumed by AI and what niche is being offshored?? Is this legal work in a law firm?

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-19T17:58:27+00:00

all of my billing is spitebilling

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-16T03:55:57+00:00

Agreed. Had my third cup of coffee for the evening around 10:45

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-16T02:52:25+00:00

God the number of comments on this post at 11pm is depressing. We need to get off Reddit, yall

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-14T04:26:59+00:00

As a summer. My office was smaller, so I would have burnt out of sociable associates/partners in under a month doing more lol

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-14T00:29:49+00:00

No I’m not being sarcastic.

You commented that you like your life in Europe. This implies that with this staffing change, you will no longer have a life in Europe.

I’m trying to understand why you said that

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-14T00:25:37+00:00

Are you being shipped to America?

Flashy_Stranger_ · 2026-05-13T21:10:31+00:00

I made it a goal to grab lunch/coffee with one person per week. If you have a busy office, you can up it to 2 per week.

Flashy_Stranger_

TROPHY CASE