11-Year-Old Now Lawyer After 14 Tries

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - A 74-year-old man has become a lawyer, after 19 years of study and 14 tries at the State Bar exam.

Ben Roll of Newport Beach went to his mailbox last week and found the letter he has waited for since his law-school graduation in 1990: "The State Bar of California is delighted to report that you achieved a passing score," it said.

"I opened it. I could hardly contain myself. I went out and mowed the lawn," Roll said, flush with excitement.

Roll said he has no plans to practice law "intensely" but may take on a case or two.

State Bar officials aren't sure if Roll is the oldest person ever to pass the exam because they don't keep those statistics. But spokeswoman Anne Charles said she hasn't heard of anyone older.

"Sounds old to me," Charles said. "That's pretty amazing."

Maxcy Dean Filer, a Compton city councilman, gained attention when he passed the exam in 1991 at age 63 after taking it 48 times.

Roll, a former real-estate broker and retired Army officer, started law school in 1978 at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton to give moral support to his son, Thomas Roll, now a Mission Viejo lawyer.

The father and son hoped to practice law together one day. But the elder Roll's education was interrupted when he and his wife Garnet, 72, were sent to Hawaii as missionaries for the Mormon church.

Two years later, the Rolls went to Kentucky, where Roll worked four years in the oil fields.

When Roll returned to California, Western State told him he had to re-take his two years' worth of courses because too much time had elapsed.

So he started all over again.

After his graduation from the law school, he took the bar exam every time it was offered.

"I said to myself, I'm gonna pass this cotton-pickin' thing if I live long enough. I'm not going to give up. My wife never fussed at me or told me I was dumb or stupid," he said.

Roll will be allowed to practice law after his swearing-in, which will be administered by his son.

Roll said he flunked the exam 13 times because his style of thinking isn't all that lawyerly.

"On the test, they don't give a hoot what the solution is," he explained. "They want you to dance all around the issue, and I wanted to tell them what the solution was."

Roll now says that he's done with school for good. His next move is to get business cards. They'll say "Roll and Father, attorneys at law."