• Law School

    Three Gentle Truths to Remember A Month Before the Bar Exam

    “It’s going to be the worst summer of your life,” that’s what my trust and estates prof told me one night when our class went out with some professors. She made me so scared for bar prep–here I was a barely making it by as a student (at least that was the vision I had of myself) and here she was, this super successful professor telling me it was going to be horrible. If it was horrible for her, how could I make it? I don’t begrudge the professor’s blunt warning because it did help me prepare for a mental storm that many of us experience during Bar prep. And…

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  • SideBar

    Side Bar: A cultural smorgasbord

    May was super busy, super fun, and boy did it cost me. More on that later! This month was sort of the calm before the storm because summer kicks off some serious and important engagement events. It also marks the first month since December where we did have multiple huge community events (just one, so not so bad!). I leaned into it by attending a ton of cultural events that always makes me so proud to call this city home. First, with a Cinco de Mayo celebration hosted by the Mexican consulate—who confirmed this is not a holiday celebrated in Mexico but that it exists in the imagination of Americans…

  • Law School

    Adjusting to Office Work: What Every First Gen Needs to Know

    As summer is getting closer and closer, I’m thinking a lot about my summer experiences in law school. My 1L summer was also the first long-term exposure I had a professional/office setting and I’m so grateful it was in a small social service agency, focused on Latino community because it let me “ease in” to those office standards and it didn’t feel so jarring. Looking back at my other experience, I do think one reason I always felt out of place in the other internships—and thus, didn’t really make the most of my experiences—was because I felt like I was playing a role of a professional rather than being one.…

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  • Law School

    Prepping for Your Summer Internship

    As many of you celebrate the end of the semester, take a sigh of relief to be done with finals, one thing you may also be looking forward to is starting your summer internship! My 1L summer internship was a complete fluke and yet it changed the entire trajectory of my legal career. It opened doors to new opportunities and helped reignite my passion for law and justice after a somewhat turbulent 1L year. I hope that whatever you’re doing this summer, you love it and it adds to your professional development. Thankfully there is not much to do but wait for the internship to start, but, if you’re like…

  • SideBar,  Work Life Balance

    Sidebar: Rest and Relaxation

    April owes me nothing! It was a great month full of rest. Much needed. It started with a big professional accomplishment—I facilitated my first city-wide town hall meeting by myself. How grown up lol Basically the city often puts on open meetings to discuss important issues and receive feedback from community. And of course depending on the topic, things can go south. Thankfully, my years of experience training other attorneys, facilitating discussions, and camera work all prepared me to take this on. I was really nervous for lots of reasons but not only did it not go terrible, people enjoyed my approach so it was nice to be able to…

  • Law School,  Legal Practice,  Work Life Balance

    Graduation Gift Guide: Law Student Edition 2022

    Well, grads, you did it! I know that the last few weeks before the semester ends, things are stressful and bittersweet because this chapter is ending. I remember how excited I was when I finished high school, how sad I was to be done with college, and how terrified but proud and grateful I felt to finish law school. I mentioned that in law school, especially, it is a swirl of emotions. It’s so much excitement about finally FINALLY being done with school, with earning a hard-fought degree, but also that bar exam looming in the corner not letting you quite truly celebrate. But you still need to celebrate! And…

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  • Legal Practice

    On Being Liked…

    Over vacation, I finally read The Likeability Trap: How to Break Free and Succeed as You Are by Alicia Menendez. I’ve had it for a while and fiiiiinally read it—and I’m so glad I did. I recommend it, especially for those a few years into their careers and trying to figure out the next steps. The Likeability Trap is about just that—the trap that women fall into when trying to succeed at work. It’s the rock and hard place where if we’re too nice we’re seen as ineffective but if we’re not nice enough we’re seen as aggressive and angry—far too emotional to be leaders. The book goes into case…

  • Law School,  Legal Practice

    Summer Series: writers wanted

    Believe it or not, summer is almost here! And that means Summer Series!!! My fave series where we feature law students, law grads, and 0Ls who share their summer with us. Over the past years, we’ve heard from students whose passion for the law is re-ignited during their summer internships, students who discover exactly what kind of lawyer they want to be; we hear from Law grads who use their strength and grit to get through the Bar exam & empower all of us to keep fighting for our goals; and we hear from incoming students who are bright-eyed and ready to take on this new, difficult challenge. And the…

  • SideBar

    Side Bar: Aries Szn

    March was—very march like. Which for me means a lot of energy, ups, and some downs. Always. March is my bday month and when I was little, I think up until I went to college I used to get really sick around my bday. Like clockwork. So there was always some melancholy around my bday of not always feeling the best. This year’s drama was that I accidentally exposed Javert to lilies which are fatally poisonous to cats and he had to spend a night at the hospital. I was a wreck. Even though the prognosis was good (thankfully the flowers were still bulbs so not a lot of pollen…

  • Law School

    Self-Motivation In the Face of Discouragement

    We are on the cusp on making history. Hopefully soon, a new SCOTUS Justice will be confirmed and we’ll have the first Black woman on the bench. If you watched the confirmation hearings you saw that Judge Brown Jackson was grace under pressure and one response was a beautiful description of what it was like to feel so out of place in distinguished spaces. I encourage you to watch it here, which starts around 17:08. But today I want to talk about what happened a few minutes before (around 14:50). Senator Padilla starts his question with a comment about when he was a in high school a well-meaning counselor discouraged…