Supreme Court Shatters 80-Year-Old Man’s Dream of Becoming a Lawyer

Bob Joost woke up Tuesday morning in his Boston apartment to the familiar briny air of Boston Harbor pouring in through his window. He walked over to his office space, where his monitor and laptop stand, the same spot where he’s spent the past 50 years drafting Supreme Court and appellate briefs.

He opened his email to find a new message from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, addressed to him as the “attorney of record” on a case he had appealed to the highest court in the state. They had made a decision on his case.

“Test the knowledge not from whence it came,” Bob Joost told us.

Earlier this year, Bob had appealed a decision from the Board of Bar Overseers that barred him from taking the bar exam, citing his lack of a bachelor’s or law degree—requirements mandated by Massachusetts law. He brought the case to the Supreme Judicial Court, only to be flatly denied once again. The opinion was devoid of any complex legal language or detailed reasoning; it simply stated that he did not meet the necessary prerequisites and, therefore, could not sit for the bar.

But, true to his nature as a lawyer, Bob did not waver.

“This is just the beginning” Bob told us. “I’m going to the Supreme Court of the United States next.”

Born and raised in Boston, Bob’s father died of tuberculosis when he was a kid. After that, Bob worked in various occupations before he started hobnobbing with local law legends in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

He became somewhat of a socialite in legal circles, rubbing shoulders with big wigs at major firms including Robinson Cole, and with federal judges.

“A federal judge once told me that I could be on the bench” Bob laughed.

After working as a paralegal for 50 years, filing appellate and Supreme Court briefs, Bob didn’t get the idea to become a lawyer until he turned 80.

“It’s funny, I ride a bike all the time and the guy who fixes my bike said he’s going to go to school and become a lawyer and he gave me an idea. I did all the paperwork on the case, filed all the briefs.”

Between working late nights on high level civil cases and spending time with his children, 3 grandkids, and 8 great grandkids, Bob simply doesn’t have the time to go back to undergrad and then graduate school.

Bob believes his experience speaks for itself.

“Who would people rather have defending you in court?” Bob asked, “Someone who just passed the bar and don’t know jack shit, or someone who has 50 years experience and has gone to the Supreme Court?”

In some states, Bob would be a lawyer by now. California, Vermont, Washington and Virginia allow people to become lawyers by being apprentices first.

Wisconsin, Oregon, and Washington take it a step further and don’t even require the bar exam.

Does Law School Even Teach You ANything?

As someone who’s been through law school and taken the bar, I’ll say this: neither actually teaches you how to practice law.

What they do teach you, though, are the fundamental principles of the law—the underlying theories and mechanisms that you’ll encounter in practice.

So, while law school and the bar exam won’t show you how to file a deed, conduct a trial, or evict a tenant, they provide a crucial foundation for understanding what’s happening “under the hood.”

That said, I have to side with Bob on this one. After 50 years of working as a paralegal, I think he’s already light years ahead of most law students—and likely even many lawyers.