How it started vs How it's going, part 1

I first heard about the California Bar's legal apprenticeship program in 2021, at the height of COVID. I was on unemployment for most of the pandemic, and floating in a strange headspace between survival and self-actualization. One day, I watched a YouTube video that I had bookmarked in 2019 or 2020 about how to become a lawyer without going to law school. I watch a lot of YouTube videos about fashion, music production, dog training, leftist politics, baking science, how to do all kinds of British accents, and other weird things, so this was not a particularly special video for me. I was interested because it sounded subversive; I was not seriously considering a career in law. 

I had an attorney at the time who was helping me with a discrimination case I filed against my previous employer (a sketchy bro-filled tech company where I worked a brief stint as office manager). The case didn't end up panning out, but that was the one attorney contact I had in my phone. By late summer 2021 my unemployment insurance was running out, and I had to get a job. I planned on either going back into the restaurant industry or trying something (anything) new and maybe more lucrative. So when I got an email from the legal assistant at my attorney's office saying that she was leaving to go to law school, I emailed back asking if her boss (my attorney) was hiring for the open position. Her firm wasn't hiring, but another co-counseling firm was, and I got that job. 

My boss at that firm - a "boutique Plaintiff's employment law office" - had me work as a newbie legal assistant for a whole year before she was willing to meet with me about the apprenticeship. When we finally did meet about it, she agreed cautiously to serve as my mentor. Since the apprenticeship works in 6-month chunks, I did the first 6 months of study under her mentorship. I may write about that elsewhere, but suffice it to say it was a lot of flying by the seat of my pants. Shortly after that segment ended, I quit that job for a higher paying paralegal position at a legal clinic closer to my house. I've been working there for a year now, and I've since completed the second "chunk" of the apprenticeship here under a new mentor. 

After 1 year in the program, you're eligible to take what's called the "Baby Bar", or First Year Law Students' Exam (FYLSE). It covers the 3 main topics that every 1L in law school studies: criminal law, torts (civil law), and contracts. Students in traditional law schools do not have to take this test, but students in non-accredited law schools or in apprenticeship programs like mine must take it in order to continue their studies. Basically, if you don't pass, the Bar says "you can't be out here pretending to be a real law student, it's back to the scullery for you!". [Just kidding, you get 3 tries to get it right.] The pass rate is about 21% - indicative of how hard the test can be, sure, but also (I think) of the motley crue of students who take it. We're all a bit ragged, either zooming along solo on the frontage road or hitchhiking our way in via cheaper, more accessible law programs. No one is holding our hands while we cry, but no famous old white men are cold-calling us every day either. It's an elitist world and we're multiple-choicing our way into it.

I take this test in 2 weeks. I've been cramming and practicing and re-writing my notes and now it's go time. Wish me luck.