This week, thousands of law students across the country tackled one of the final obstacles before becoming attorneys: they took the bar exam.

“When I took the bar exam,” recalls our founding attorney Darrell Castle, “my thought process was something like this: failure is not an option. I didn’t spend three years of my life doing this to fail.”

The exam lasts two days and is pass/fail. It covers such a wide range of legal issues that many students choose to study all day, every day for months to learn the laws they might have to remember for the test. That is why they are all favorites of ours this week. Congratulations on the accomplishment!

Of course, many aspiring law students do not pass the bar their first time around. The process can be grueling, especially after three hard years of law school.

“I had gone through law school with a group of friends kind of like the same group that you go through military service with. You always want to be one of the survivors,” Castle says. “Besides, failure would have been embarrassing, and I was just starting my family life. We were excited about that and I wanted to move on with my career.”

For some students, the bar exam may come back to haunt them this time around, or even again a second time. But for many students, this week ends a period of formal study and serves as a gateway into the legal profession. Castle recalls his time preparing for the bar, and the legal career that took off after that, as a time to grow and excel even more than in his years of study before that:

“Some people demonstrate ability on the bar exam and in their careers beyond what they demonstrated in school. I like to think I was one of those and so were some of my closest friends.”

Good luck, from us to you. And for those who pass, welcome!