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Gift Guide for Law Students
We’re sharing some gift ideas for law students! If you’re in the midst of finals, you may not have been able to give suggestions to family/friends that ask you what you’d like for the holidays. So today’s gift guide has ideas for useful presents that can come in handy for most law students. Gift Cards: Gift cards to restaurants and coffee shops are great, but you can also consider giving a gift card to Amazon or any store that sells text books at much cheaper rates than school bookstores. I know, text book purchases aren’t very fun, but any little bit helps, right? Coffee tumbler: Coffee is a given and…
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Seedy Energy Salad
We talk a lot about trying to eat healthy and try to occasionally share quick and healthy recipes for everyone to try. One thing that’s difficult (for me) in my attempt to eat healthy is what to bring for lunch at work. I tend to go in cycles, but always seem end up back at salads. Lately, I’ve been craving nutty, seedy salads and today’s recipe really satisfies this craving. It is filling even without meat, but I keep tuna packets at work and usually add it to the mix. However, I’ve also eaten it without tuna and it keeps me just as full and satisfied throughout the day. Mostly, it’s…
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Gift Guide for New Attorneys
I love seeing all the status updates on people being sworn-in during this time of the year! Being admitted to the Bar is always such a special moment, and for us Latinas it’s a hard-won prize. It’s important to celebrate this milestone and if you have a new attorney in your life (or even one that has been practicing for a few years) the holidays are a perfect time to acknowledge this accomplishment! Business Card Holder. A very necessary tool for networking, and a card holder is the best way to keep your cards nice and clean. Giftcards. Yes, the new attorney may be starting their journey as a young legal…
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Easy and Healthy Snacks for Stressful Times
For people that knew me in law school, they may laugh that I’m about to encourage people to eat healthy during law school finals. I would laugh too. Not only did I tend to not snack healthy during school, but I wasn’t eating healthy–period. So, I totally understand how during this time in school, you’re more likely to say, “screw it,” and go to bed instead of packing a healthy lunch for the next day. Or more likely, say, “screw it,” and eat the free pizza that the bar prep course/student organization is offering instead of staying cooped up at the library. But it’s not just easy to eat poorly…
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Happy Thanksgiving: Link Round Up
We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We are on the mend of a really bad head cold (in fact, I just googled “can I harm my brain from coughing,” because this cough is still something fierce). But instead of wallowing about being sick, I’m trying to enjoy having time off work and getting to spend quality time with family. Though I know for many people it’s the beginning of high stress season with finals approaching. I mentioned on instagram that Thanksgiving as a 1L was so stressful and sad–so even though I’m sick, I’m still much happier today than when I had to work Black Friday and cram for exams…
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Beating Anxiety During Finals
Anxiety during final exams is no joke. It’s bad in college, but hits an all time high once you’re in law school. I remember that I would get really bad heartburn the day of exams my 1L year because I was just so nervous and anxious. Hopefully everyone is more chill than that, but the likelihood is that things are bad. And I get why it’s so high-stress–there’s so much riding on your grades! Obviously, nothing will help beat the anxiety more than being well-prepared in the material–that’s a given. But even when you’re fully prepared there’s still a sense of urgency and pressure you’re working under. How do you…
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Advice to a Baby Lawyer
This week marked my fourth year as a practicing attorney. I still remember how excited I was to be shown my own office. It was the former windowless library/storage area that had been converted into an office, but it was mine! Thankfully, my first year proved to be a really great experience that confirmed that my life-long goal of being an attorney was exactly what I wanted to be doing. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t bumps along the road. So I thought it would be fun to give my old self some advice—maybe it will be helpful to all you new baby lawyers! Dear Nubia, Ok so you…
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Culture Conflict: Being Humble
Being humble is often held up as a positive attribute among Latino families. How many times have we heard our parents or family talk about being humilde? Humble is defined as not thinking of yourself as better than other people. It is someone who is not proud or haughty. This can be a great quality and one that is definitely venerated by most of our communities. However, there is a second part of that definition that blurs the line and makes me call into question as to whether this quality is a trait that will help you succeed in your legal career. For some, being humble also means someone who is easily…
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What Not to do at a Job Interview
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of networking and interviewing with students. I really enjoy this interaction and am super impressed with most students. Acing interviews really requires a lot of preparation, both in knowing the company, the job description, and your own strengths. Of course there are people who stumble. Often the stumbles occur because of self-doubt or (even worse) being ill-prepared. It’s really awkward to see a good candidate miss the mark because they did something that was very avoidable. I mean, it’s awkward for me, but it’s bad for the candidate because a big stumble may result in not getting an offer. Let’s avoid that! …
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Supervising Law Students
I remember the first student I ever supervised as a new attorney. It was an awkward relationship. I was all of 9 months removed from law school and felt so out of my element asking this student to help me do research. I was weak and hesitant in my requests, and remember being surprised when the student turned in her “research”–not a memo like I had expected, but rather print-out of a whole bunch of cases. Yikes. Though in her defense, I never once explained or clarified what kind of work I wanted from her. Thankfully, I have learned a lot since then and am pretty confident in managing student…