Pataki's Daughter Fails Bar Exam

[dcfca]

<p>Ouch, this has to sting.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nypost.com/seven/11152006/gossip/pagesix/study_harder_pagesix_.htm[/url]”>http://www.nypost.com/seven/11152006/gossip/pagesix/study_harder_pagesix_.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

Governor Pataki’s 23 year old daughter, Emily, failed the bar exam:</p>

<p>“It is something I have to accept at this point in time,” New York’s first daughter said in an e-mail yesterday to her colleagues at White & Case that was posted on the New York Observer’s political blog. The Yale graduate concludes, “I hope you know I did my very best, and have come to a crossroads where my best just was not good enough the first time around. I’ll try and keep my chin up and will work even harder to earn the respect of you all. Please know already that you have mine.”

</p>

[stacy]

<p>wow. </p>

<p>a) like it doesn’t suck badly enough to fail, poor kid had to have it all over the papers.</p>

<p>b) NY is one of the harder bar exams</p>

<p>c) I thought I’d be a young law school grad (24 if I didn’t stay for a dual degree). but 23 and taking the bar?!? amazing.</p>

[nspeds]

<p>Who cares? Why does it matter?</p>

[marny1]

<p>Why should we be surprised? Do you think Pataki’s d would have gotten into Yale or the job at White and Case without daddy’s influence?? Do you think George Bush would have gotten into Yale, a Harvard MBA, and out of Viet Nam without poppy’s help?? I am sure kids of the powerful do get special treatment.<br>
It’s just the rest of us shlubs who have to fight for everything we get.</p>

[sallyawp]

<p>Well, plenty of other schlubs and non-schlubs also failed the New York bar exam. As far as I know, this woman has done little to nothing to put herself in the spotlight, so I think that it is quite unfair that she should be singled out in the NY Post (and the gossip column, no less!) for failing the NY bar like the hundreds, if not thousands, of others who failed.</p>

[marny1]

<p>I really am sympathetic to the kids of the rich and famous. They often are very hard working, decent kids who really have not asked to be in the spotlight and really do not seem to have that “air of entitlement”. I’ll put Pataki’s kid, Bloomberg’s, Clinton’s d and a host of others in that category.
( G Bush is another story- I do not even think the guy has a clue how he really got into the National Guard and avoided service in Viet Nam. Does he really think everyone had the same opportunity to get into the Guard as he did?? This guy’s sense of entitlement is beyond belief. I can’t wait until all these psychological profile books come out about him after he gets out of office.)
But unfortunately for the kids of privledge, their every move is scrutinized and discussed by the general public.<br>
But again- they do have major advantages too- I am sure Emily Pataki is one of thousands of smart NY kids who applied to the Ivy League, but without daddy’s pull, she may not have gotten into Yale as so many other equally qualified NY kids were rejected and went elsewhere. I think dad was also an alum so I am sure that helped a bit too. It’s the price one pays for “fame”. Unfortunately it affects the next generation too.</p>

[dadofsam]

<p>I know nothing about Emily Pataki, including her level of intelligence or abilities. However, a lot of smart people, including a number of high-ranking law students, don’t pass the bar exam on the first try, for various reasons. Most of them don’t have the fortune (good or bad, as the case may be) to have famous parents. So I wouldn’t make much of this news.</p>

[sakky]

<p>I have 4 thoughts:</p>

<p>1) I agree with others here that it is unfortunate that she was exposed on the gossip columns despite not being a public figure herself. </p>

<p>2) To place the result in context, John F. Kennedy Jr. failed the NY Bar twice.</p>

<p>

c) I thought I’d be a young law school grad (24 if I didn’t stay for a dual degree). but 23 and taking the bar?!? amazing.

</p>

<p>3) I have a suspicion that she’s not really 23, and that the gossip column got her age wrong. </p>

<p>For example, here are some other articles written in 2002 that also state that she was 23 years old at the time. So somebody has got her age wrong.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.georgepataki.com/cgi-data/p4p_news/files/6.shtml[/url]”>http://www.georgepataki.com/cgi-data/p4p_news/files/6.shtml&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.gothamgazette.com/eyeonalbany/jun2002.shtml[/url]”>http://www.gothamgazette.com/eyeonalbany/jun2002.shtml&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.georgepataki.com/cgi-data/p4p_news/files/27.shtml[/url]”>http://www.georgepataki.com/cgi-data/p4p_news/files/27.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>4) I find it VERY interesting that neither the gossip column in question, nor anybody else here has actually stated WHICH law school Ms. Pataki graduated from. She didn’t go to Yale Law School, she went to Columbia Law. If you’re talking about a budding lawyer, isn’t the law school the most relevant school to be listing, not the undergrad school? Why keep talking about the undergrad school and give nary a mention to the law school? </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.law.columbia.edu/media_inquiries/news_events/2006/May/commencement[/url]”>http://www.law.columbia.edu/media_inquiries/news_events/2006/May/commencement&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It reminds me of the situation when the Unabomber was touted in the press as a “Harvard-trained mathematician”. You had to dig hard to discover that Ted Kacyznski actually got his PhD in mathematics from Michigan. So it is actually more accurate to say that he is a “Michigan-trained mathematician”, as it is Michigan where he got his REAL mathematics training. After all, I think we can all agree that a PhD is a far more impressive and extensive degree than is a bachelor’s degree. There were even some news stories about how Harvard But I suppose that writing a story of a “Michigan-trained mathematician” who is also a serial killer makes for a less gripping story. </p>

<p>For example, here is are some articles that describe Kaczynski as a “Harvard-trained mathematician”, but make not a single mention of Michigan.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/05/01/unabomber.cabin.reut/index.html[/url]”>http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/05/01/unabomber.cabin.reut/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/18/supremecourt/main503975.shtml[/url]”>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/18/supremecourt/main503975.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[marny1]

<p>Poor Em- looks like the story was picked up by AP as it is a story in today’s Long Island Newsday. The article mentions that JFK Jr. also failed the bar exam twice as well as former NYS attorney General Dennis Vacco (passed it on 2nd try). According to the story, 10,448 candidates took it in July and 7,258 passed (about 70% ??) Of the 8660 first timers who took it, 6873 passed.<br>
Maybe she should have opted for Cardoza instead of Columbia Law. I think they have an 86% passing rate.<br>
Why would anyone put that info on an office e-mail???</p>

[jonri]

<p>…why would anyone leak an internal email? My hunch is that if W & C finds out who leaked it, that person’s job is in more jeopardy that Ms. Pataki’s. </p>

<p>She’s definitely NOT 23. Her younger brother, Teddy, is. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/lookupstoryref/200571103231[/url]”>http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/lookupstoryref/200571103231&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I suspect somebody confused their birth dates.</p>

[Fratastic]

<p>A friend at Yale who works in the admissions department told me that Pataki’s younger daughter got into the class of 2010 last year SCEA with a 13-something SAT score.</p>

[tomslawsky]

<p>George Bush had higher SAT scores and better Yale grades than JF-Kerry</p>

[richs73cas]

<p>Link to Article: <a href=“http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05340/618227.stm[/url]”>http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05340/618227.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This article discusses Kathleen Sullivan’s, (former Stanford University Law School Dean) attempt to pass the California Bar in 2005.

But it’s unusual for the exam to claim a top-notch constitutional lawyer at the peak of her game. “She is a rock star,” says William Urquhart, who last year recruited Ms. Sullivan to join his firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP. “Practically every lawyer in the U.S. knows who Kathleen Sullivan is.” If anyone should have passed, Mr. Urquhart says, it is Ms. Sullivan. “The problem is not with Kathleen Sullivan, it is with the person who drafted the exam or the person who graded it.”

Main Lesson to be learned is to prepare and not give up.

Maxcy Dean Filer, who may hold the California bar endurance record, having passed in 1991 after 47 unsuccessful tries. The Compton, Calif., man, . . . says he always tried to psych himself up before taking the test by repeating, “I didn’t fail the bar, the bar failed me.”

</p>

<p>The NY Board of Law Examiners <a href=“http://www.nybarexam.org/[/url]”>http://www.nybarexam.org/&lt;/a&gt; issued a study on the effect of increasing the passing grade on the bar exam. (Proposed to increase to 675 on a 1000 point scale from 660 in five point increments each year. It was raised to 665 in July 2005 but then further increases were put on hold pending the results of the study on the effects of the increase.)
On page 26 of the study there is a table showing the number of attempts people have made. (The highest number of attempts in the July 2005 administration was 59 times. - It doesn’t report if that person was successful.) <a href=“http://www.nybarexam.org/ncberep.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nybarexam.org/ncberep.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;