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Finding a Work/Life Balance: Time Management
Women professionals are constantly bombarded with warnings of maintaining a healthy work/life balance, and I must admit that I’ve also pleaded for this on many occasions. However, for those of us who are the first in our families to enter professional careers, it can be difficult to determine what a healthy work/life balance even looks like. And while it’s hard for any profession, as attorneys we also get a lot of strong signals about what how important work should be above almost everything else. Like, if you’re trying to make partner you can guarantee that you’ll be putting in long hours with little down time; it’s the nature of firm…
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Final Freakouts: Handling Mishaps during Law School Finals
If you’re in the midst of studying for finals, you’re likely stressed (ha!) so I don’t want to add more to your plate, but I want to give a one small warning about finals. Not the study time leading up to the actual exam, but the day of and the (minimal) possibility of an emergency during the exam. An emergency meaning you have a mini-freakout because something goes awry. What would you do if your software exam crashes and you suddenly can’t type your exam? What if the person next to you has a cold that means they’re constantly making distracting noises? It may seem like overkill, but there is…
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Latinas in Law School: What Made You So Lucky?
A few months ago I was at a forum where the moderator asked the panelist (all Latinos working in large firms/government) what made them so lucky in the face of dismal statistics that say Latinos can’t make it in law. It’s a difficult question and I think the instinctive reaction is to think of the hard things you did to make sense of how we overcame a system of oppression to join a privileged profession. Because if I think back on my journey to become an attorney, I can pick out countless of examples of difficult things I had to do to succeed—long nights; working multiple jobs; feeling lonely because…
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Creating Good Habits in Law School
I’ve never felt a constantly physical ill feeling until I started law school and neared finals. It felt like such a do or die period and I was so 1) completely ignorant of the process and 2) incredibly nervous. I started having a lot of physical symptoms (b/c that’s how I manifest stress) that resulted in making a lot of bad choices because those brought instant-gratification and would quell my stress. But of course, that became a vicious cycle because often that bad choice would eventually make me feel worse–and did little to help my stress. I’m sure many of you who are starting finals are beginning to feel that…
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Stress and the New Lawyer
When you start a new job as an attorney it’s super exciting. Not only are you working at a job that likely pays more than what you’re used to; you are also working as an attorney–hello?! a major goal you’ve accomplished. It’s normal to be excited. But it seems that soon enough that excitement fades and it turns into stress. Yes, you’re being paid more but you’ve got student loans. Yes, you get to be an attorney, but maybe it’s not exactly how you envisioned; plus you’re working hard cases, long hours, in possibly tough atmospheres. How do we handle the realities of the day to day mental stresses? The…
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Culture Conflict: Extracurricular Activities and Latinos
Last week we talked about the importance of cultivating soft factors for law school. Most of that entailed getting involved in activities outside of school. However, I’m classifying getting involved in extracurriculars as a cultural conflict because Latino involvement in these programs is the lowest compared to other ethnic groups. There are many reasons why our participation is low: 1) our cultures really encourage children (girls, especially) to stay home; 2) finances may severely limit a family’s ability to pay for extraneous things; 3) parents (who may not have obtained their education in the U.S.) don’t understand the importance of these activities or connect how they relate to advancement in education;…
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Raise Your Voice: Student Activism
My freshman year in college, I innocently walked into a workshop about white supremacy. I had imagined I would learn about overt acts of racism (a la the KKK) but I when the workshop ended, I walked out stunned. My 19 year old brain had never been exposed to the idea of systemic oppression (please cut me some slack–it was very early 2000s and information did not travel like it does now). That day was probably one of the most formative days in school–it was like a curtain had been pulled back and suddenly so many things made sense, while so many more created confusion. After that workshop, it still…
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Breaking Barriers: Cultivating Soft Factors
This series, Breaking Law School Barriers, tackles the big and small issues that come into play when you’re deciding if you’ll even attend law school. The purpose is to give practical advice for college students, and for current law students and attorneys to give suggestions about their real world experience. If you’ve researched applying for law school then you know that LSAT score and GPA is king. And if you believe most online forums, then you may think that you shouldn’t bother to apply if you don’t have Elle Woods type stats. I remember when I first started applying, I believed all the hype from the forums and became nervous because I…
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Happy Latina Feminist: We Should All Be Feminist Review
I know I just did a book review a few weeks ago, but this isn’t technically a book review (oK?). We Should All Be Feminist by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is actually a transcript of one of her speeches given at a TEDx talk, which you can listen to here. It’s such a fantastic description of feminism and what it means to really use critical thinking skills to dissect how gender roles impact us and what we can do to work towards a more equal society. It also bases much of its premise on, what seems to me to be, common sense. I really encourage people to listen to her speech…
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Figuring out your work place culture
We talk a lot about fitting in with your work culture because it’s important to show that you get what it takes to belong at your job. You want to impress your coworkers and higher-ups based on your intelligence and ability to lawyer-not to distract them because you don’t get the memo and constantly stand out in a way that makes them question your judgement or creates limits for future progress in your career. In order to ensure you fit in with your work culture, you need to assess the overall standard look, actions, and expectations of your job. Knowing that you fit in with your workplace culture will allow…