College of Law grad earns top score in Florida bar exam

Vanessa Adrian/Contributing Writer
news@fiusm.com

Like all aspiring lawyers, Alexander Martini hoped for a good score on the Florida Bar exam.

Martini, a recent University law graduate, did more than just good— he received the top score in the state.

The examination is administered twice per year and consists of two parts: the Florida portion and the multistate portion. Each part is divided for the individuals to complete within two days.

Martini said he had a lot of experience taking licensure tests: He took an insurance/annuity exam, three security exams and four Certified Public Accountant exams.

“I was confident my study approach would be effective,” he said.

Martini dedicated time outside of his work in the engineering offices to study religiously for the exam.

“For nine weeks, I studied every weekend, every evening after work, during lunch and listened to recordings in the car while driving,” he said.

Martini began FIU Law in Aug. 2010, after attending undergraduate and graduate school at Florida Atlantic University.  Martini’s background as an undergraduate was in accounting and finance, but during the pursuit of his master’s degree, he began to focus on tax.

Before arriving at FIU, he stumbled through different career choices before ultimately making his decision.

“Coming from a family of modest means, I had a passion for financial planning and wanted to make a career of it,” he said.

Martini began working in banking and financial services, obtaining insurance and security license, along with beginning his MBA with a focus on financial planning.

“As fate would have it, FAU cancelled the financial planning concentration at the same time that I became tired of the instability and sales involved in the financial service industry,” he said.

After that, Martini decided to shift focus, changing the area of his master’s degree to taxation and taking a position with the IRS as a revenue agent.

“At that point, I knew that I was going to law school and my goal was to become an attorney in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel,” he said.

While working full-time in banking after finishing his associate’s degree, Martini took a full load of graduate classes.

“I think the complexity of tax law motivated me to go to law school,” he said. “I recognized how pervasive the impact of the law is in society, and I felt that a legal education could make me a more informed, more empowered citizen.”

He continued to work full-time while completing his bachelor’s, master’s and law degrees and was a revenue agent throughout law school. While accomplishing this, Martini also left a large impact on his professors.

“I was delighted to hear that Alexander had done so well, but I was not at all surprised, given his outstanding performance in law school,” said Professor Jose Gabilondo. “The Florida Bar will be lucky to have him.”

Along with Gabilondo’s courses, Martini took Professor Thomas Baker’s Constitutional Law and First Amendment courses and had the opportunity to work with him as one of his research assistants for his last year-and-a-half of law school.

“Alex is a credit to this law school,” Baker said. “He will be an excellent lawyer.”

After working very hard in law school and studying for the bar exam, Martini started working as a Chief Counsel attorney in September and fulfilled his dreams.

“It was surreal to know that I finished one long, hard chapter of my life and was beginning a new one,” Martini said.