Part 17

And when articling, I was working about half a day  -- that is from 8 in the morning until about 8 at night.  Not unusual for articling students.  Weekends were for research at the law library.

In September, Judy gave birth to Darin and it was the beginning of me spending no less time at the job leaving Judy to figure out how to raise the baby.  It was the same thing when Ryan and Mitchell came along.  Not good.  Not nice and literally no excuses.

Near the end of my articling experience the law partners indicated that they would like me to join the firm.  So I went immediately from finishing my articles to working part time while going through the bar admission course.  Obviously I did not have the common sense or resources to consider that my life style was not conducive to a sensible life style.  If I was to do it all over again - I would probably do the same thing because I am what I am!  Only psycho analysis could provide an answer and that is definitely not an option.  

Articles were supposed to last 11 months.  Mine never ended.  Since I started on May 5 or so -  I could have been finished the first week in April.  However, that was not to be.  The two partners asked if I was interested in staying with the law firm after the bar admission course.  It was not a hard decision to make.

I agreed to be part of the firm, and even more, I continued to work full time right to the start of the bar admission course and while at doing the course, still working part time.   So I would go to downtown Toronto for classes from 9 to 12 and then go to Richmond Hill from 2 to 6 or 7.  That doesn't sound too bad until it is noted that courses went from Monday to Thursday with an exam on Friday except for a couple of courses that went for two weeks.  

Since I had spent a great deal of time doing real estate transactions I was ready for the first exam on the first Friday.  The exam was held in an armory at Jarvis and Dundas in Toronto.  It had a track above the floor and was manned by proctors.  I recall about 1100 students taking the exam.  

After we finished we could go to Osgoode Hall at Queen and University and see the answers to the questions.  When I did the review I almost fainted.  I had about a 55 on the exam.  60 was a pass.  I was distraught along with a number of other individuals including FK who stood 2nd in law school and eventually became a judge.

We set up a meeting with the course instructor and reviewed the exam.  Apparently the course instructor had delegated or abdicated his responsibility in preparing the exam.  One of the junior lawyers in his firm prepared the exam.  He obviously was neither a real estate lawyer or a rocket scientist.  

We were able to correct about 75% of the answers.  I ended up with about a 75 which did not make me happy.  It turned out that the less you knew the better you did.  They did not bother to lower any of the marks of persons who had passed the exam.

and that was my introduction to the class of '76 bar admission course.