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SideBar(ish): 25 things about me
I generally do a post about what I’ve been up to for the month, but I’m planning to make that a little bit more exciting (and visual!). So I’m changing it up this month and decided to do 25 things about me so you could get to know me better! I grew up in Indiana I am a makeup aficionado I am a proud member of the Beyhive and don’t even think of criticizing her one iota around me because I will ice you out of my life. In law school, I really thought I wanted to be a public defender. I am so happy I am not a public…
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My PreLaw Summer: How to Prepare for Law School
Ten years ago I graduated college. Ack! I remember graduation day so vividly because I was so excited about what was to come—law school, finally! If I had only known just how difficult my summer was going to be, I don’t think I would have been as excited. I’ve mentioned before that summer before law school was incredibly difficult. There were a lot of family issues happening that made things very tight, financially. Literally, I scraped together my final deposit check through what then seemed like a miracle. It was really touch and go. All that uncertainty about whether I would even be able to enroll into law school, put…
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Take a Break: Managing Work-Related Stress
So I am the biggest proponent for mental health days–I wish employers (especially law firms) were more supportive/less judgmental of people taking a day when they need it. And lawyers need it! I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but obviously this job is stressful as our profession suffers from high rates of depression, anxiety, and problematic drinking. To me, it’s no surprise–for most of us, we often meet our clients at one of the worst, most stressful time in their lives. We also see an ugly side of humanity, when people dig their heels in, unwilling to compromise to stick it to the other side. The work…
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Dichos de Mami that Got Me Through Law School
Seeing that mother’s day just passed (for most of Latin America) and many more celebrate this Sunday, I thought it would be great to share some of my mom’s favorite dichos, osea, sayings that helped me become a lawyer—even if I didn’t know it at the time and even if I’d never in a million years tell her this (haha she’s reading this right now, I’m sure 🙂 ). One. No se dice que, se dice mande. Etched into my brain from infancy is the need to be polite. And in the real legal world, politeness goes a long way—especially when most other attorneys’ default is to rage and…
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Be the Boss: Exuding Grace Under Pressure
A while ago, I attended a panel of local Latinas who are also General Counsel in their jobs and they had a ton of advice to offer. One of their big pieces of advice, that they all agreed on, was the need to exude confidence and grace under pressure. This is easier said than done—especially if you practice in a field where everything is high risk or you’re in a firm where people act like everything is a crisis. How can you cultivate this skill? Being calm and exuding confidence takes practice. It’s mindful and purposeful. It requires working on your reactions and demeanor both in and out of the…
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Sidebar: Roller Coaster
It’s already May! Like yes, you know that, but still April basically vanished. It was crazy busy for me. Mostly because I started the month thinking I was going to have to file a ton of cases because of an immigration form update, but thankfully, there’s a delay on that so work is back to normal. But more importantly, the beginning of the month, I went to a great event that was so re-energizing and purposeful. It was a get together of amazing woke women and it was amazing. There were so many random and happy connections that I knew this empowerment group was made to be. I left with…
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Breaking Barriers: Selecting the Right Law School
Law school is different when you’re brown. It shouldn’t be, but it is. I mean, you already know that life is different for us. I think about this past summer when I did an outreach trip with coworkers and we traveled in southern Illinois. Someone wanted to stop to get a drink at a hole in the wall bar, but I became a wet blanket and encouraged us to just get to our next meeting spot. Not because I didn’t want a drink–hello, you must be new, but because I was so hesitant about entering a bar in the middle of S. Illinois. Whether that’s fair to those residents or…
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Summer Fashion for New Interns: dos & don’ts
I always am hesitant to talk about clothing and young women. I just think finger-wagging about what women in their 20s wear is such a slippery slope that leads to micro-managing, is patronizing, and just a ball of trouble. And also the older I get, the more bitter I would look going around talking about “girls” these days. Like, I’m not about that look. So here is my preface regarding this post. Wear what you want. If you need whatever flare you think is helping you feel more put together than go for it. I mean, who am I to say that that short skirt you may wear is any…
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Career Advancement: Are You Blooming?
I’ve been really fortunate that a lot of my job duties and focus have changed about every two years. This has kept me interested and learning new areas of laws and skills, which is really fortunate because there’s a risk that we get stuck in the day to day and accidentally become stagnant in the work we do. And that is a disaster for your career. We should be constantly growing and looking for new opportunities, and I don’t mean job-hopping, I mean really growing in your craft. Of course, when you’re new to practicing everything is challenging and new, obvi, but a few years in you need to make…
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Sidebar: Busy Bday
It’s like almost the end of April and I’m barely writing about March. That’s how cray things have been. So my March was ridiculously busy and I’m not about to bore you so some highlights: The first weekend, I attended a Latina blogger conference in L.A. This was my second year and aside from learning new ways to make this site and community better, the best part of the trip was getting to meet my law school bestie’s new baby. Baby G is so cute! Does anything feel better than a tiny baby’s little baby head? Omg, I died. The rest of the trip was good and informative, but obvi…