Thousands of aspiring lawyers in Texas just got the results of the July 2019 bar exam—results they’ve been eagerly awaiting, or dreading, for months. “Dreading” is an apt description for many, since only 77.87 percent of first-time takers of the Texas Bar Examination passed it last year, a decline of more than 3 percent from the previous year. Nationwide, the bar passage rate for first-time examinees was 74.82 percent, also a decline from 2017. But for those who do fail, is that it? Do your professional hopes die? Does life as you know it come to a screeching halt? Will you be doomed to an existence like Vincent Gambini, the protagonist from “My Cousin Vinny,” who was always hoping “six times is the charm?”
Of course not. Plenty of famous, distinguished people have failed the bar exam. Past residents of the White House have even failed the bar exam: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who failed the bar initially before passing it in 1907, and former First Lady Michelle Obama, who failed the Illinois bar exam the first time (and she graduated from Harvard Law School). Another former First Lady, and presidential candidate, also failed the bar. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed her first bar attempt, the District of Columbia bar exam in 1973, after graduating from Yale Law School (she later passed the Arkansas bar exam). And among the crowded field of Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sen. Kamala Harris failed the California bar initially. That temporary setback didn’t prevent her from becoming the state’s attorney general or a U.S. Senator. Christian broadcasting mogul and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson failed the New York bar exam after graduating from Yale, and he doesn’t seem to be complaining.
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