By Mike Sims, BARBRI President
If you are a graduating 3L student, you can probably relate to these tweets:
You never realize how many addresses you’ve had for the past 10 years until you fill out the bar’s character and fitness. #lawschoolproblems
It’s fun listing employers like Show-Me’s and Tequila Wyld on my bar application #lawschoolproblems
If not, let me welcome you to Character and Fitness season.
In all 50 states and the District of Columbia, third year law students are making preparations for graduation and beginning to think about the bar exam. Finally, after almost three years of law school, the end is in sight … almost. But before these soon-to-be-lawyers can take the bar exam, they must complete the dreaded character and fitness application.
THE QUESTIONS ARE MEANT TO CHALLENGE YOU
Most people outside the legal profession would probably be surprised to learn that lawyers have to pass a character and fitness test prior to becoming licensed as an attorney. Or they might joke that lawyers have to prove we have bad character. Or we’re out of shape from sitting and reading all the time. Well, nothing could be farther from the truth.

I’ve got a new hero.
He’s this guy in Vermont named Bo Muller-Moore.
Apparently he’s a folk artist, and is known for the tee shirts he makes that proclaim “Eat More Kale.” In fact, according to what I’ve read, he’s known as the “Eat More Kale” guy. But really, how much kale can you eat?
Well, Mr. Muller-Moore (aka Mr. EMK) received a letter from the fast food chain, Chick-Fil-A. Now while it’s always nice to receive mail (unless it’s from the IRS), the chain was not offering him any special discounts. Instead, they were threatening to sue him for infringing their registered trademark, “Eat Mor Chikin’.”
Quick trademark primer: The hallmark to any trademark infringement claim is a likelihood of consumer confusion. Specifically, a likelihood of confusion exists when consumers are likely to assume that a product or service is associated with a source other than its actual source because of similarities between the marks or the parties’ marketing techniques. See Metro Publishing Ltd. v. San Jose Mercury News, 987 F.2d 637, 639 (9th Cir. 1993). In fact, all trademark cases, including parodies, are subject to the likelihood of confusion test. See Dr. Seuss Enter. L.P. v. Penguin Books USA, Inc., 109 F.3d 1394, 1405 (9th Cir. 1997) (affirming preliminary injunction prohibiting publication and distribution of Dr. Juice’s The Cat Not In The Hat, an account of the O.J. Simpson murder trial composed in the styling of Dr. Seuss’ Cat In The Hat); but see Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records Inc., 296 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 2002).

Originally posted on Courtoons

The Official Site of The Tampa Bay Rays | raysbaseball.com: Homepage.
How do you know your wife is a keeper? Is it that she puts up with you for years? That she sighs when you screw up? That she still feeds you? Or, does she become a keeper when she allows you to take her to a Rays game on date night, even though she has to bring a book to keep from being bored to tears? Of course, She Who Must Be Obeyed, as you have already guessed, is a keeper. She is coming to the Rays game with me tomorrow night, and she will grin and bear it, because she loves me. My wife, I think I'll keep her. :-)

So says Time in Why Banks Love Debit Cards Again.  The report begins as follows:
Debit cards were supposed to be toast. The industry started writing their obituary when financial reform targeted overdraft fees and interchange or “swipe” fees, which had made debit cards extremely lucrative for banks. So why is it that banks are now pushing debit cards like never before?
A couple years ago, the banking industry warned federal regulators that reform efforts could lead to both an increase in fees and a decrease in debit card usage. “Banks and credit unions could charge for various debit card‐related products and services that are now offered free of charge, such as free debit cards and free debit card transactions,” a consortium of financial industry executives wrote in a 2011 letter to the Federal Reserve arguing against reform. “Issuers could also be forced to discourage the use of debit cards for certain transactions … there could also be a reduction or termination of various products and services associated with debit card programs.”

By Mary Goza, BARBRI Vice President
The trend is underway to reduce the need for new lawyers to take another bar exam in order to become licensed in another state. With the advent of the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), an applicant may sit for one bar exam and become licensed in several jurisdictions. With proper planning, you can enhance your marketability through the UBE.
UBE SCORES ARE UNIFORMALLY ACCEPTED
The UBE is a two-day exam drafted by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), consisting of the Multistate Essay Exam (30%), Multistate Performance Test (20%) and Multistate Bar Exam (50%).
The components of the UBE are not new and have long been part of the bar exam format in many states. However, the UBE rests upon an agreement, whereby a state agrees to give full faith and credit to a score achieved on the bar exam in another jurisdiction because that jurisdiction uniformly administers, grades and scores the exam. Currently 13 states have adopted the Uniform Bar Exam:

In this edition of Trivia Tuesday, our weekly glimpse into a leading law school’s offerings, we’re taking a look at Michigan Law’s Summer Start Program, which we discuss along with a host of other programs, traditions and institutions in the Clear Admit Guide to Michigan Law School.
A Michigan institution for nearly a century, Summer Start allows up to a quarter of the incoming class to start their law school career in early June and complete their first semester of courses by mid August, just before the rest of the 1L class arrives for orientation. Under the early-start program, Summer Starters take just two foundational law courses (such as Torts or Civil Procedure) during the summer term, as opposed to the three that 1Ls take per semester during the rest of the year. By beginning law school early, students who participated in Summer Start have the option of graduating one semester before the rest of their class.

Is A Career In Medical Negligence For You?
Axiclaim
Torts, is often a law student’s favorite subject during law school and is usually where the “juiciest” (quite literally) cases come from. All of us remember the (in) famous Donoghue v. Stevenson case where poor Donoghue found a snail in her ginger beer. She decided to sue Stevenson for breaching his duty of care to provide a safe product to Donoghue. Though her claim was for a measly £500, this case set out the law for negligence and perhaps rid England and Scotland of snail-infected ginger beer!

As law students are back to school around the country, I wanted to share with you five things I think are critical to setting yourself up for second-semester success.
1. Review old exams and figure out what went wrong.
How can you make changes if you don’t know what went wrong? You must collect those exams, visit your professors, and learn about what went wrong (and right) on your past exams. It might be somewhat uncomfortable meeting with a professor who gave you disappointing grades, but you must do it anyway! It is a critical step in doing better this semester.