NY Bar Exam

Over!

July 2008 essay subjects:
1) Torts (negligence) / Property (landlord-tenant tort liability) / NY Practice (standard for judgment as matter of law, comparative negligence)
2) Partnership (fiduciary duties, liability of partners & partnership on contracts) / Contracts (substantial performance)
3) Criminal Procedure (search & seizure, right to counsel) / Evidence (hearsay, Confrontation Clause)
4) Wills (valid execution, adoption issues, anti-lapse, ademption) / Secured Transactions (gifts of secured property, priority of liens)
5) Domestic Relations (divorce) / Agency (power of attorney) / Property (easement by necessity)

Hard or easy? I heard both views from people who had already taken the exam. My impression: the overall experience of preparing for the exam and taking it is hard, but the exam itself is relatively easy (assuming you've prepared).

Hard because there is a lot of law to learn during the two months of preparation.

Relatively easy because the legal issues to discuss were not difficult to spot. And because the bulk of the test covered the major areas we expected to see--my nightmarish scenario of staring at questions without any idea of how to proceed did not play out.

But only relatively easy--not easy--because a number of points in the essays turned on minor, specific rules within the major subjects. Sometimes rules that weren't covered at all in Barbri. I'm assuming that making educated guesses at the correct rules in these areas was good enough to pass. If not, I'll have to change my assessment of the whole exam to very hard. We'll see.