Law School in New York, Bar Exam in California?

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• 1 Like

  Selene Steelman Free Trial Member Admissions Consultant

  April 2019 2037 karma

  Congratulations on your offers and awards! It is not crazy to attend a school in one state and then take the bar and work in another state. If you look at the Standard 509 Disclosures for schools at http://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/EmploymentOutcomes.aspx, you can research the top three states where the graduates of any law school ended up working in a given year. USNews also gives a breakdown in the Careers section of graduates who work in state vs out of state. The geographic reach of a school is definitely something to consider when evaluating your school choices. If the graduates of the law schools you are considering do not typically end up in a particular state, that doesn't mean that you can't be a trailblazer and still achieve your professional goals. It just means that there might not be the institutional resources and alumni network to help you through the process. Good luck!
• cqas190517 Alum Member 🍌

  April 2019 535 karma

  I would not. The CA bar is notoriously difficult, and most local schools (I'm in SoCal) will gear their bar classes toward the exam. You're at a definite disadvantage out of the gate by not going to school here if you want to license here. There's also the fact that you may be locked out of the market- we will all have interned and done clinics here and have jobs lined up to close to being lined up for us by the time we are 3L, and you're going to be coming in cold into a VERY competitive market where tons of first year lawyers already have a leg up on networking and connections. I would advise that in a finicky market like this, you go to a local school.
• Selene Steelman Free Trial Member Admissions Consultant

  April 2019 2037 karma

  Cquas190517 brings up many excellent points that applicants should consider in terms of building up a network while in law school. Proximity to your target legal market is important as internships, and clinics are valuable educational and professional resources.
• Leah M B Alum Member ⭐

  April 2019 8392 karma

  Seconding @cqas190517 here. The CA bar is horribly difficult. Schools in CA, even the lower ranked ones, tend to have much higher CA bar pass rates. You can look on law school transparency and see the CA bar passage rates for schools. This doesn’t automatically mean you should pay way more to go to a school there. But it might be wise to try your hardest to negotiate up scholarships, or perhaps even consider waiting another year and trying to improve your LSAT, or maybe applying to schools in different parts of CA, like SoCal instead of NorCal or vice versa. I think if you 100% want to work in California, it will really be best to go to school within the state.
• Better every day Member

  April 2019 246 karma

  @"SF City Du" said:
  Would appreciate all and anyone's thoughts on this.

  The largest scholarships I received were to good schools in New York, but I have always planned on moving back home to California after law school. Is it normal to NOT take the bar for the state your law school is in, and to take it for another state instead? Is this crazy? Unheard of? Normal??

  Help me!!

  Taking the bar for a state outside your law school happens all the time, but I have heard California’s bar exam is incredibly difficult. I think it kind of depends on your schools here. What do you mean by good schools? I wouldn’t turn down higher ranked schools with scholarship money just to go to any California school.