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What Can Mentorships Look Like?
We have spoken before about finding mentors that work for you. And having someone (or many someones) guide you is vital to a flourishing professional career. But when you’re new to this profession; when your family doesn’t consist of professionals—how do you find someone to take you under their wing? Because I came up without having much (any) connections to the legal industry, I thought it would be helpful to show what my mentorships have looked like and how these relationships formed. Overall, the main theme has been that my relationships grew organically—I never sought anyone out and asked if they would mentor me. Rather, I formed relationships with professors/professionals…
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Celebrating Accomplishments: Si Se Pudo
It’s that time of year again–Bar announcements. And I’ve seen many have already gotten really great news! Felicidades! It’s such an exciting time! So this seemed like a great time to talk about the importance of acknowledging professional accomplishments. A common theme we see as women is that our professional achievements aren’t celebrated as strongly as events tied to family. This article does a great job of describing the problem. I also remember reading an article years ago where a girl from a small town, where many of her peers couldn’t go to college because of teen pregnancy, graduated high school and was accepted into college. Her achievement was so foreign…
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Start Hustling Now: Preparing for your Summer Legal Job Search
It may seem too soon to start looking for summer jobs, but before you know it you’ll be frantically writing outlines, cramming for finals, trying to keep up with readings, and –oh yeah—apply for jobs. Knowing that there’s a huge time-crunch coming down the pike means you should what you can now so that you don’t half-ass your job search. I’ve mentioned before, but the end of October during my first semester in law school was one family issue after another. I, unfortunately, got distracted and suddenly it was second semester and I still didn’t have anything lined up. I got really lucky, but you shouldn’t depend on luck! While you’re…
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Uno, Dos, Tres: Hello Fall
It’s the end of the month—in case you weren’t bombarded with a million fall like photos yet: It’s Fall. I’m not really ready for it; not enough beach days this year. My tan was only so-so. Though I am happy that I can now wear more black. Yay, black everything! To keep the mood festive, here three things that really made me happy this month: Uno. Everyone and their mama is celebrating Lin-Manuel’s Hamilton! This is the one time in my life I’m actually jealous to not live in New York because it’s going to be a minute before it gets to Chicago. And when it does get here, it…
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Cultural Conflict: Finding the Balance between Keeping it Real and Selling Out
One of the my favorite IG pics is Kermit, reminding us that we can all turn hood if we need to—and even for those of us that didn’t grow up “hood,” as people of color, we code-switch all the time. When we decide to play the game of being an attorney/joining a professional field we have to take stock of what it takes to be successful in that field and decide whether or not to assimilate to those standards. Speaking quietly, acting obedient, dressing modestly, and doing everything possible to not seem Brown is expected in seemingly all areas—even wine trains; but especially in the legal field. For example, I…
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Fighting Back: Using our Power to Advance Education in the Latino Community
I recently read the article of a young Latina sharing her graduation with her parents who work in the fields. One thing that stuck out to me was the stress she felt while at school, worried that upon return home her parents could have been picked up by immigration. I’ve been realizing more and more just how overwhelming the added trauma undocumented children (and children of undocumented parents) must feel day in and day out at what the government could do to them and their families. Maritza Ramos, from OITNB, has also described the gut-wrenching feeling of coming home to a deported parents. I hear stories like this and think–what are systems of…
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Using Our Political Power During Hispanic Heritage Month
To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (or Latino Heritage, if you prefer) in these times is a bold statement. Unfortunately, at this moment there is an undercurrent, a fervor that feels very much anti-Latino. Yes, the focus seems to be on immigrants—and while fewer and fewer Latinos are identifying as immigrants, it’s hard to separate us from this issue. To me, being anti-immigrant is the same as being anti-Latino. People may try to make distinctions—oh I’m not anti-immigrant, just illegal immigration—but the vitriol feels very personal. It’s perfectly reasonable to feel angry at this mistreatment—and it should make us angry that there are people who are, allegedly, trying to earn our…
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Law School Study Groups: Help or Hinder?
One of the good & bad things about law school is the push for everyone to study a certain way. It’s good because it may open up new avenues of learning information that you hadn’t used before but it can also work against you because you may feel pressured to do what everyone else is doing—even if that doesn’t work for you. A big part of studying in law school is Study Groups, now obviously study groups happen anywhere but they are a different beast in law school. In many schools, study groups take on a weird, competitive nature of resume collecting, secretive note-sharing, and other weird behavior. That’s not…
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The Importance of Self-Care for Attorneys
Today is a perfect day to talk about trauma and self-care. Vicarious trauma occurs from exposure to other people’s trauma. We usually think of ER doctors, counselors, police, and other first responders as professions that are likely to experience this, but lawyers are also susceptible and do experience vicarious trauma as well. And how could we not when we help clients almost always in their darkest time of need. If you practice in an area that has a real human component, then you generally are exposed to sad, traumatic stories. But it’s the dirty secret in this profession, and we’re supposed to act like nothing affects us. Those that admit…
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Being a Leader: Giving Constructive Criticism
I remember when I first started working with interns and I didn’t know how to give them appropriate guidance or instruction–I was a brand new attorney myself so it just didn’t feel natural to manage others. Then as I got more comfortable with giving guidance, I realized I would hit a stumbling block when it came to giving real feedback. In fact, I would avoid it most of the time because I just didn’t know how to do it without sounding mean–and that’s wasn’t really helpful for me or the student. When it comes to giving constructive criticism it can be especially difficult to do when you’re a new attorney.…