Catch Me If You Can reveals that Frank Abagnale Jr. worked as a New Orleans lawyer, so how did he pass the Louisiana State Bar exam? Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the focal con artist in Steven Spielberg's 2002 crime biopic, which mostly stays true to the historic facts despite a few alterations for dramatic purposes. In a climactic moment, Abagnale Jr. explains the backstory for his faux legal career, though it's unclear if he's actually telling the truth.
The real Abagnale Jr. wasn't directly involved with the making of Catch Me If You Can, however the storyline was adapted from his eponymous 1980 book. Screenwriter Jeff Nathanson seemingly provides an authentic account, as the subject did indeed pose as a Pan Am pilot and a pediatrician in Georgia. According to a 2014 report (via The University News), Abagnale Jr. appeared much older as a teenager because of his graying hair. Incidentally, the young con man managed to land a job with the Louisiana State Attorney General's office at only 19 years old, as depicted in Spielberg's film. Catch Me If You Can ends with Abagnale Jr. telling FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) that he passed the bar exam by studying for two weeks.
The real Abagnale Jr. did indeed pass the Louisiana State Bar exam without cheating, at least during the test itself. First, he forged a Harvard University transcript after learning about an opportunity from a Pan Am stewardess. Then, he initially failed in his first two attempts to pass the bar exam but had a successful third attempt after studying for eight weeks (via Test Max), rather than the two that DiCaprio's character cites in the Steven Spielberg movie. According to a 2014 article (via Crime Library), Abagnale Jr. knew that he would eventually pass after forging the necessary documents:
"Louisiana, at the time, allowed you to take the Bar over and over as many times as you needed. It was really a matter of eliminating what you got wrong."
Catch Me If You Can shows Abagnale Jr. being embarrassed by a judge during a preliminary hearing, but the real-life subject was a legal assistant and not a prosecutor. He has described himself as a "gopher boy" who went on coffee runs for his boss and stated that he ultimately left the job after eight months when a real Harvard graduate began asking too many questions (per the aforementioned Test Max report). In a 2012 article (via the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal), Abagnale Jr. states that impersonating a lawyer was the easiest of all his cons because it involved research and the art of persuasion.
In 2002, Abagnale Jr. admitted that some of the exploits from his book were exaggerated (via abagnale.com), but he doesn't make any specific remarks about his eight-month tenure as a legal assistant:
"I was interviewed by the co-writer only about four times. I believe he did a great job of telling the story, but he also over dramatized and exaggerated some of the story. That was his style and what the editor wanted. He always reminded me that he was just telling a story and not writing my biography."
In Catch Me If You Can, Spielberg and Nathanson cover the biggest events in Abagnale Jr.'s story but also embellish the facts about the most influential men in his life. For example, the real con artist never saw his father again after running away from home, but the feature film adaptation uses the lawyer subplot for a dramatic reunion scene. Hanks' character is also a fictionalized version of FBI agent Joseph Shea, who didn't want to participate in the film. The film version of Catch Me If You Can does steadily reinforce the concept that DiCaprio's antihero pursued positions of power, such as his lawyer gig, because he lacked control of his own personal life.