by Richard Prior
Daily Record Staff Writer
How time flies when you’re having fun.
And how it drags with chains on its leaden feet when you’re waiting to learn
if you passed the bar exam.
“It was pretty intense,” said Michael Cecil, a graduate of Western Illinois
University and Florida Coastal School of Law. “I was on the Internet from
about 9 o’clock until I got the results.”
Cecil was one of many young lawyers invited to a “Come One-Come All” happy
hour Monday at River City Brewing Co. on the Southbank, sponsored by the Young
Lawyers Section of the Jacksonville Bar Association. The occasion was to
congratulate — or console — those who had received their bar exam scores,
which had been posted about six hours earlier.
“I was woken up about 7:15 a.m. by a friend of mine who works in St.
Augustine, singing me a song about ‘the rest of our lives,’ “ he recalled.
“It was pretty funny. But I couldn’t fall asleep after that at all.”
Cecil knows exactly what time he saw the news. It was 11:37 a.m.
“I feel at ease with the universe once again,” he said.
Robert Heekin Jr., who got his bachelor’s and law degrees at the University of
Florida, began searching the Internet site early Monday morning. And searched
some more.
“Finally, when I got back from lunch, they were there,” he said. “I
printed it off, drew the line, double-checked my number. There’s a lot of
anxiety. You think how you invested, not just four, five, six years of college,
but your three years on top of that to get a graduate degree.”
Brian Boyd knew the best way to get through the morning was to stay busy.
“When you’re looking down that list for your number, your heart’s beating,
you have no idea what to expect,” he said. “You finally get there, and,
whew. It’s such a relief.
“The only way I made it to 11:30 was to keep some work in front of me.”
Boyd received his bachelor’s degree from Appalachian State University in
Boone, N.C., and his law degree from Florida Coastal School of Law.
He is doing personal injury protection work at Camerlengo & Brockwell, where
he clerked throughout law school.
The exam takes two full days. The first day covers Florida law with three essays
and 100 multiple-choice questions. The morning and afternoon sessions on the
second day each ask 100 multi-state multiple-choice questions.
The three young men all agreed the test was difficult but that it was manageable
with the right preparation.
They also agreed they don’t want to do it again any time soon.
“You hope for the best, but you expect the worst,” said Cecil, who has sent
out 120 resumes in search of a job. “I really didn’t have that much
confidence in myself with the multi-state portion on the second day. But I
passed it.
“The Florida portion, I felt I tore it up like a wet piece of bread.”
Heekin found the Florida portion the more challenging of the two and was
relieved to find he passed them both.
He is working with his uncle, Geoffrey Heekin, at Bartlett Heekin Smith Green
& Malin. His father also practices in Jacksonville.
Whether an applicant finds either portion particularly difficult depends on
preparation, Boyd said.
“I would say, though, with three or four issues per essay, you’ll definitely
spend the whole time writing,” he said. “There’s no time to spare. They
cram enough in there to make you work the whole time.”
The emphasis in law school is on understanding the law, its history and
evolution, Heekin said.
“The bar exam itself,” he added, “really tested your knowledge of legal
principles in a very time-compressed fashion. If you pass, it obviously shows
you have the ability to confront a factual situation and make some quick
judgments initially on where a case may be going and what issues may apply.”
The courses at Florida Coastal, many of which are taught by Jacksonville
attorneys, gave Boyd a solid foundation for the exam.
“It’s an excellent program,” he said. “It gears you up for how to
practice as well as learning the law.”
