Studying for the Bar by watching soap operas -- take that Bar Bri lecturers!

I don’t actually recommend this method of preparation, especially not early on when it will just raise more questions than you can possibly answer, but in the later weeks of bar prep, I spent a lot of time on the treadmill in the afternoons, when the only thing on TV was soaps. So I used them to my advantage and multitasked by reviewing at the same time. Of course, watching soaps during bar prep also made me mad about how much of my memory was taken up by soap-related information, even though I haven’t watched them in a good five years. I can pretty much trace every family tree on GH – a useful skill while interning at soap opera digest, but that brain space could probably have been put to better use in the past few months.

Here are some of the best soaps to watch for various legal topics:

Lawyer-client confidentiality: Definitely General Hospital. Sonny Corinthos has gone through his share of lawyers – mostly because they keep getting shot at – and every one of them has breached the rules of professional conduct by not revealing information they knew about Sonny’s actions that would, without a doubt, result in the deaths of other people.

Family Law: Lately, I would say Young and the Restless because Victor Newman has decided to disinherit two of his children, which creates a lot of questions about who will take under his will and who would take if he happened to die intestate. Will it be Adam, the son Victor had with the blind woman Hope after his plane crashed down in the middle of farmland?

Corporations: Someone is always trying to takeover Forrester Creations on Bold and the Beautiful. Not only is it a close corporation, mostly family run, but Brooke, its sometime-president, has been in relationships with three of the Forrester men – Eric and two of his sons. Now, if that doesn’t spell breach of fiduciary duty, I don’t know what would.

Criminal law: If Todd Manning is replaced by a whiny, wimpy actor fifteen years younger who doesn’t even have the same tough scar on his face, does the statute of limitations start to run all over again on his former crimes?

Legal rights for same sex couples: Since there are only really about four gay characters in all of daytime, this one was easy. If CBS is lame and only lets Luke and Noah kiss once every year or so, could they ever qualify for same-sex benefits?