Barry S. Josephson

Barry S. Josephson – a graduate of UCLA and the preeminent University of Michigan Law School – has unequaled experience and expertise in helping both law students and bar applicants (first-timers, repeaters, and out-of-state attorneys) get through some of the most stressful ordeals of their lives: coping with the intimidating and ego-shattering law school process and preparing for and passing the country’s toughest bar exams. Mr. Josephson has analyzed the bar examination and law school processes for more than 35 years, and has helped tens of thousands of law students and bar applicants turn their dreams into reality. Whether a bar applicant or law student needs help in understanding the substantive law, learning or implementing effective exam-taking techniques, or dealing with the tremendous emotional stresses inherent in the law school and bar exam processes, Mr. Josephson can use his knowledge and expertise to help his clients make the kinds of dramatic changes on which success or failure, and serenity or a sense of frustration and terror, so often depend.

For 20 years, Mr. Josephson devoted his career to studying virtually every aspect of the law school and bar review processes and to using his knowledge and understanding of those processes to help design and create the most innovative, efficient, and effective bar review courses and law school study aids that the nation has ever seen. As one of the most prolific and well-respected writers of bar review materials and law school study aids in the country, the materials prepared by Mr. Josephson were "bibles" for tens of thousands of bar applicants and law students. Mr. Josephson was also one of the most popular lecturers for two different national bar review courses, lecturing to groups of up to several hundred students at a time at some of the finest law schools throughout California and the rest of the country. Thus, unlike some self-proclaimed bar exam and/or law study "experts," Mr. Josephson has the intellectual depth, experience, and undisputed expertise – and a long-established, unparalleled track record – which ensures the accuracy, quality, and effectiveness of his assistance and advice.

However, at the same time that Mr. Josephson was designing, writing, and lecturing for "the mass market" (and thus focused on what most law students and/or bar applicants needed to know and do, which is really all that any major or would-be mass-market course can do), he genuinely enjoyed the challenge of helping individuals who seemed to "fall through the cracks." As a result, Mr. Josephson always took the time to work with individuals on a personal, one-on-one basis – helping them identify their specific problems and figure out specifically and precisely what each of them needed to do to improve his or her understanding and performance. Having worked with hundreds of such persons on a one-on-one basis over the years, Mr. Josephson is acutely aware that there are plenty of "exceptions to the rule" and that many, many law students and bar applicants simply get lost in the process because they can't tell which parts of the generic advice that the mass-market bar reviewers (and even some individual tutors) dispense to everyone applies to them or how those individuals can modify their long-standing (and often unproductive) habits to make the kinds of changes that are necessary to attain the the level of success that they are trying to achieve. Since few (if any) other high-level experts in the field have the time or interest to do this, Mr. Josephson is genuinely an expert even among the experts.

Today, Mr. Josephson is no longer interested in offering or teaching any mass-market course (or any formal course at all), but instead limits his bar review and law school services to working with individual bar applicants and law students on a personal, one-on-one basis. With no mass markets to conquer, Mr, Josephson has no agenda other than to help each and every person he tutors with his or her specific issues and to help each such person maximize his or her scores on every test that he on she might have to take. For the same reason, Mr. Josephson is happy to provide his assistance within the framework of any "traditional" bar review course that his clients may be taking (assuming that they wish him to do so); to design a regimen which is specifically and uniquely tailored to address the specific problems that the particular student or bar applicant seems to be having – whether it is a problem of substantive law in one of many areas, exam-taking skills, or in dealing with stress (or any combination of them); or anything in between.

Mr. Josephson is also a practicing lawyer engaging in a general civil practice in Los Angeles. Today, his practice deals primarily with contracts, leases, and other transactional work and, secondarily with business litigation, but he has also handled a wide variety of other matters over the years and still works with other kinds of cases from time to time if they are sufficiently challenging or interesting.

Mr. Josephson also regularly consults with other attorneys and law firms when they need assistance in analyzing or dealing with particularly complex or difficult cases or issues or when they need help in dealing with "law and motion" matters or with the drafting of particularly important or difficult pleadings and/or discovery. Mr. Josephson also helps other lawyers by making appearances, taking and efending depositions, conducting legal research, and providing other assistance as his own cases and tutoring permit.