Bar Tips of the Week

Civil Procedure - Jurisdiction Review

• Federal question
• Federal law
• Watch out for questions that may present a 1st Amendment defense yet do not present a federal question
• Subject-Matter Jurisdiction v. Personal Jurisdiction
• SMJ
• diverse
• domiciled in different states
• where you intend to remain
• PJ
• minimum contacts
• purposeful availment

Tort Review

• Negligence
• Duty
• Breach
• Causation
• Damages
• All superseding = intervening
• Not all intervening = superseding

General Bar Tips

• Do  not just restate facts, use them
• Do not make the person grading the bar have to figure anything out
• Be clear
• Do not use parenthesis
• The person grading your bar exam should not have to read your answer twice
• You are not writing a law review article
• Be simple
• Be repetitive 
• Short sentences
• Think...Where do I get the most points?
• The bar exam wants to test issue spotting/application of the law
• The bar exam does not care if you are right or wrong; the bar exam does care about how you get there