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Sunday, January 04, 2009

Obama May Select Kathleen Sullivan to be Solicitor General

As reported by Bloomberg. (h/t) Sullivan, who is apparently a lesbian (natch), is a former dean of Stanford Law School. I'm really only posting this news item because it affords me the opportunity to mention the relatively amusing fact that Sullivan, a graduate of Harvard Law, failed the California Bar, i.e., law licensing, Exam in 2005 (she passed it on her second try in 2006).

In case you're wondering, I passed the California Bar Exam on my first try right after graduating from a no-name law school in 2001. On average, over 60 percent of first time takers pass.

5 comments:

Mark D. said...

You failed to mention that she flunked the California bar after getting hired as an appellate lawyer by a major-league California law firm.

She went from school, got a law firm job, and flunked the bar! She reminds me of friends I had in law school!

Cheers!

Mark D. said...

Hey, I've added you to my link list on my blog. Great work you're doing here!

Roger H. said...

Thanks, Mark. I will reciprocate the link.

Mark D. said...

Cool. Much appreciated!

PG said...

Mark in Spokane,

I think you misunderstand the chronology. Sullivan graduated from Harvard Law in 1981 (after getting her BA at Cornell and being a Marshall Scholar at Oxford), and clerked on the 2d Cir. She passed the NY bar on her first try and became admitted in 1982. She taught law at Harvard 1984-1993, then at Stanford 1993-1999, then as Dean at Stanford Law 1999-2004. She literally wrote the book -- at least, one of the leading casebooks and the one I used -- on constitutional law.

When Quinn Emanuel asked her to become the chair of their Appellate Practice, she took the CA bar exam without preparation and failed. She prepped, retook and passed. Given that the overwhelming majority of people who do pass bar exams have taken a prep course -- including, I'm guessing, Roger H. -- the fact that she failed isn't surprising.