by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
Time is winding down for students in their last year of law school. With only a few short months until graduation, law students are not only preparing to study for the Bar Exam, they are making sure their Bar and Examination applications are completed to take the exam this summer.
Whether students are taking the Bar Exam in Florida or in a different state, third-year law students all have to complete the Bar and Examination applications by their respective filing deadlines.
To take the Florida Bar Exam on July 24 & 25 in Tampa, law students must have their applications completed by May 1. Even though that is about two months away, there is a lot that has to be done.
Florida Coastal School of Law advises their students at the beginning of their first semester of law school to register as a first-year student within the first 180 days to pay the lowest fee. If a law student files a Bar application within those first 180 days, they will pay $375 — compared to $875 if a student doesn’t file an application within the first 180 days.
“We encourage our students to file early,” said Odessa Alm, director of Bar Preparation Services at FCSL. “If you wait, you may have to wait to be sworn in if the background check isn’t complete. The earlier you do it, the better.”
Michele Gavagni, executive director of the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, said it is best to register as a first-year student.
“There are two advantages to filing early,” she said. “One, you are saving money and secondly students should be focusing on preparing for the Bar (exam) rather than worrying if their application is OK.”
It is important for law students to realize the Bar application is in-depth and it takes six to eight months for the background check to be complete. Law students will receive their Bar exam scores by mid or late September, said Gavagni. But if their background check is not complete by then, they have to wait until it is complete to be sworn in.
Gavagni said not everyone files their application during their first 180 days of law school.
“It varies from law school to law school,” Gavagni said about how many register as a first-year student. “Some (schools) see as many as 2/3 and as few as 1/3.”
Help from technology
Gavagni said the application requirements have not changed over the years, but there are a few things that have changed, thanks to technology.
“All forms are available on-line,” she said. “Everything is at their fingertips. It gave us the ability to decrease the amount of time it takes to complete a background check.”
Gavagni added that even though the applications can be filled out online, everything still must be sent by mail to the Florida Board of Governors.
Since 2001, law students have been allowed to apply to use laptop computers to take the Bar Exam.
“We give them restrictive software that locks out any other programs that are on the computer,” she said. “It is similar to what some students experience in law school and they appreciate the opportunity to be able to use their laptops.”
The answers to the exam are then uploaded to a secure sever that is later downloaded by the Florida Board of Bar Examiners for grading.
FCSL’s Bar preparation services
Alm said she answers a lot of questions about the application processes.
“It can be very time-consuming and it is different for everyone,” she said. “Everything that goes on the applications is from the age of 16 until now.”
She gets questions like, “I had 20 different jobs and I don’t remember all of my supervisors names,” or “I got a ticket from a university police officer while in college ... where do I put that?”
“Everyone is always worried about the process,” she said. “That is why it is important to start early.”
FCSL’s Bar Preparation Services department does more than just answer questions about filing a Bar and Exam application.
At the beginning of the first semester of their last year of law school, students attend an information session explaining all of the deadlines that have to be met before they take the exam following graduation.
“We increase our services during the last semester of law school,” said Alm.
The school hosts voluntary workshops for the students where speakers explain topics that will be on both the Florida Bar Exam and the multi-state exam.
“They are very well attended,” she said.
Alm also provides services to law students even after they graduate and begin taking Bar preparation courses.
“I meet with them individually and before they walk in my office they must say, ‘I am a first-time Bar passer,’” she said. “It is a critical time and we provide a lot of emotional support, too.”
Alm added that most law schools do not have a Bar preparation service.
“The whole department is dedicated to Bar preparation,” she said. “Not many schools have a department like this. Some have academic support departments, but nothing like this (at FCSL).”
The department also has its own notary service in the office as well as the fingerprint cards that are required to be completed and sent to the Florida Board of Bar Examiners with the applications.
Third-year law student at FCSL, Renee Raborn, said she is happy she filed her application within the first 180 days of law school.
“You save around $400 if you do it your first year,” she said. “But there are people who don’t (file an application early), because they don’t know where they want to go after law school.”
Raborn said the workshops FCSL hosts have been very helpful.
“Other schools don’t have that,” she said. “That has been one of the really good things the school has done for us.”
Alm said she is happy the students have an information source if they have questions about anything concerning the application process or the exam itself.
“It is especially important to me to see students succeed,” said Alm.