Law School
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Here to Stay: Balancing Social Media with Your Legal Career
Bloomberg’s latest article discusses the pitfalls of Biglaw attorneys on TikTok. It discusses how slow firms are to respond and how conflicted they are with associates being active on social media. I’ve been seeing more and more legal content on TikTok and when a recent Cravath associate opted to resign then to stop creating content (content that seems to be very lucrative), I couldn’t help but notice how far we’ve come! fyi, Cravath is the most white shoe of white shoe firms–if any firm is going to have a conservative stance on social media it’s going to be these type of firms. In 2015, I wrote a social media dos…
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Overcoming Frustration: Building New Skills in Law School
Law school makes you a new person. There are many ways that it changes you, good and bad, but its main goal is to provide you a new way to think, write, and argue. And you’re thrown into this situation without much awareness of what’s to come. And when you’re in those classes, it can be really frustrating because all the ways you used to think, write, and argue are not necessarily wrong, but they’re just not right for this setting. Learning new skills is frustrating in general (hello, all my impatient Aries bebes!), but law school makes it worse because it also plays people against each other and makes…
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What I did Right in Law School
Surprise, not everything I did in law school was a mess LOL. Though I often share all my mistakes and upsets in law school, I did, in fact, manage to graduate on dean’s list after 1L year and snagged some cool experiences that helped me land employment post-graduation. But I rarely share that mostly because the overwhelming stress and chaos of law school seems to reign supreme. But as many are about to start another semester, I figured it was a good time to share some things that I did right when I was in school. And by “right” I mean that despite the internal doubt and external barriers, I…
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Taking Control: Applying to the Right Law Schools
Out of 200 choices, how do you pick? When it’s time to apply for law school, choosing which ones to apply to can feel overwhelming. Where do you even start? And each of the applications cost money? And what if you’re not sure that you’re T14 material, do you still just apply to the top schools? The first thing to remember is that the application process is a numbers game and while you shouldn’t limit yourself, you should be realistic about where to apply to make sure it’s the best option for you. And there are so many other things to consider beyond rank. Take my case, for example, I…
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Summer Series: Breaking the Glass Ceiling in IP Law
It’s another Summer Series post! The series where law students, law grads, and pre-laws share what they’re doing for the summer. Today we hear from Cassidy, a rising 2L who will share about her experience in intellectual property—one of the more difficult areas of law to break into because it’s one of the few that does require a specific background, but Cassidy is doing it! Let’s hear more from her! Hello everyone! My name is Cassidy Aranda, and I am a rising 2L at Chicago-Kent Law School. I am currently working as an Intellectual Property Summer Associate at Ice Miller in Chicago. Intellectual Property focuses on protecting people’s innovations. Intellectual Property…
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Summer Series: Discovering Public Interest Law
It’s another Summer Series post! The series where law students, law grads, and pre-laws share what they’re doing for the summer. Today we hear from Amanda, a rising 3L who has not one, but two, roles this summer—working for a major public interest institution and researching for a profession. Learn about her summer and how one class opened up so many more professional opportunities. Hi everyone! My name is Amanda McElfresh, and I am a rising 3L at the University of Kansas School of Law. This summer I have been working for Kansas Appleseed and for a professor at my school as a research assistant. At Kansas Appleseed, my role…
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Summer Series: Making it in Big Law
It’s time for Summer Series! The series where law students, law grads, and pre-laws share what they’re doing for the summer. I’m THRILLED to kick it off with Maria, a rising 3L in Chicago. A point of privilege, is that I’ve had the honor of knowing her before she started law school and have been blown away by how she has mastered this system. Get to know a little about her here and what a day in the life of a summer associate is like! Unlike many of my high school peers, I never considered higher education a realistic aspiration. Between financial instability and navigating the immigration system, I genuinely…
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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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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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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…