Law School
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Game Plan the Bar Exam
I am all about to-do lists and making action plans to get to your goal. If your goal is to pass the the bar this summer then how are you going to do that? I remember starting my Barbri course just days after graduation and just jumping into the content. Then I realized how I apparently didn’t remember anything from 1L year because I kept scoring SO low in torts and I was sure that this was a sign that I wouldn’t be able to pass. The truth is that bar studies is a long-form game because you have to study, memorize, and recall content in the certain way, so of course,…
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My PreLaw Summer: How to Prepare for Law School
Ten years ago I graduated college. Ack! I remember graduation day so vividly because I was so excited about what was to come—law school, finally! If I had only known just how difficult my summer was going to be, I don’t think I would have been as excited. I’ve mentioned before that summer before law school was incredibly difficult. There were a lot of family issues happening that made things very tight, financially. Literally, I scraped together my final deposit check through what then seemed like a miracle. It was really touch and go. All that uncertainty about whether I would even be able to enroll into law school, put…
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Dichos de Mami that Got Me Through Law School
Seeing that mother’s day just passed (for most of Latin America) and many more celebrate this Sunday, I thought it would be great to share some of my mom’s favorite dichos, osea, sayings that helped me become a lawyer—even if I didn’t know it at the time and even if I’d never in a million years tell her this (haha she’s reading this right now, I’m sure 🙂 ). One. No se dice que, se dice mande. Etched into my brain from infancy is the need to be polite. And in the real legal world, politeness goes a long way—especially when most other attorneys’ default is to rage and…
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Breaking Barriers: Selecting the Right Law School
Law school is different when you’re brown. It shouldn’t be, but it is. I mean, you already know that life is different for us. I think about this past summer when I did an outreach trip with coworkers and we traveled in southern Illinois. Someone wanted to stop to get a drink at a hole in the wall bar, but I became a wet blanket and encouraged us to just get to our next meeting spot. Not because I didn’t want a drink–hello, you must be new, but because I was so hesitant about entering a bar in the middle of S. Illinois. Whether that’s fair to those residents or…
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Summer Fashion for New Interns: dos & don’ts
I always am hesitant to talk about clothing and young women. I just think finger-wagging about what women in their 20s wear is such a slippery slope that leads to micro-managing, is patronizing, and just a ball of trouble. And also the older I get, the more bitter I would look going around talking about “girls” these days. Like, I’m not about that look. So here is my preface regarding this post. Wear what you want. If you need whatever flare you think is helping you feel more put together than go for it. I mean, who am I to say that that short skirt you may wear is any…
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Breaking Barriers: FAFSA and Proving You’re Low-Income
April is Financial Literacy Month and I want to talk about financial aid for school. For the most part, I depended on FAFSA to help pay for college and law school. I was super thankful to have access to grants, scholarships, and loans but it wasn’t easy to navigate the financial aid system with little help. While I’m years removed from filing for FAFSA, I do recall the feelings of anxiety—would this year’s package give me enough to cover everything? How will my mom help pay the family portion? How much will I need to earn this summer? Can I find another campus job? I’ll be honest that I hella…
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First Impression: What if You’re Not Good Enough?
A few weeks ago I read some reports from the Yellow Paper Series—reports on studies conducted on racism and bias in the legal field. The report, Written in Black & White, discusses the way implicit bias impacts how supervising attorneys review written assignments by attorneys of color, specifically Black attorneys. Previous studies have shown that supervising attorney are more likely than not to perceive Black lawyers as having subpar writing skills in comparison to their white counterparts. Written in Black & White delved further in the topic by seeking out whether confirmation bias causes supervising attorneys to then evaluate legal writing by Black attorneys in a more negative light. Implicit…
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Grow Your Circle: The Benefits of Being an Active Alumna
A common theme I hear from attorneys of color is the disconnect they feel from their law school. It’s a disconnect I have often felt. While the school never feels purposefully unwelcoming, it’s always very obvious that this is a space that’s not necessarily for us. For most of us, it’s all about getting our JD and bouncing. And because we never felt like that space was for us, we often don’t take the time to come back, in meaningful ways, to make sure the students after us have a better experience. I get why–you have a real job, real friends, family, responsibilities that take priority. Duh. But I fear…
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Mastering Law School: What Worked for Me
If you’ve been reading this for a while, you know I’m a proponent of “study how you study,” as the only real way to study case law. Meaning, if you do flash cards, do flash cards, but if that’s not your style then don’t sweat it. When I first started, I wrote up case briefs, but had no real idea of the purpose. I wrote them up, ready to glance at them if I was called on in class, but never used them as a study tool. It was a waste of my time. I also didn’t have a study schedule, doing all my readings the night before class (why…
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Skills Beyond Question: Beating the Imposter Syndrome
I have been writing a few pieces outside of this site lately and have been trying to find the guts to make pitches to “bigger” platforms because there’s a voice in the back of my head that questions my ability to write? And to be honest, I would have taken the leap to do more and more writing a year ago, but my fear kept holding me back. I keep thinking that I’m not that good, I have no real training, is my voice even needed? But a few things happened that encouraged me to push myself. Maybe I will fall flat on my face in my attempts to write…