Law School
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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…
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Graduation Gift Guide: Law Student Edition 2022
Well, grads, you did it! I know that the last few weeks before the semester ends, things are stressful and bittersweet because this chapter is ending. I remember how excited I was when I finished high school, how sad I was to be done with college, and how terrified but proud and grateful I felt to finish law school. I mentioned that in law school, especially, it is a swirl of emotions. It’s so much excitement about finally FINALLY being done with school, with earning a hard-fought degree, but also that bar exam looming in the corner not letting you quite truly celebrate. But you still need to celebrate! And…
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Summer Series: writers wanted
Believe it or not, summer is almost here! And that means Summer Series!!! My fave series where we feature law students, law grads, and 0Ls who share their summer with us. Over the past years, we’ve heard from students whose passion for the law is re-ignited during their summer internships, students who discover exactly what kind of lawyer they want to be; we hear from Law grads who use their strength and grit to get through the Bar exam & empower all of us to keep fighting for our goals; and we hear from incoming students who are bright-eyed and ready to take on this new, difficult challenge. And the…
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Self-Motivation In the Face of Discouragement
We are on the cusp on making history. Hopefully soon, a new SCOTUS Justice will be confirmed and we’ll have the first Black woman on the bench. If you watched the confirmation hearings you saw that Judge Brown Jackson was grace under pressure and one response was a beautiful description of what it was like to feel so out of place in distinguished spaces. I encourage you to watch it here, which starts around 17:08. But today I want to talk about what happened a few minutes before (around 14:50). Senator Padilla starts his question with a comment about when he was a in high school a well-meaning counselor discouraged…
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The Magic and Panic of Post-Bar Life
If you took the February Bar, I have one thing to say–CONGRATULATIONS! YOU DID IT! Ok, I actually have more than one thing to say (obvi). It is such a relief to be done but the reality is that even after putting in all that work, you don’t know the results for weeks and the anxiety of what if can really drag you down. Life post-bar is filled with both the magic of what is possible–your entire career ahead of you. And the panic, “what if I didn’t pass?” It’s a horrible predicament. I remember, still, the weeks after the test where I’d have moments so excited about what…
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How to Prepare if You’re Not Taking a Gap Year
When you’re in undergrad and know you want to be a lawyer, there’s a fork in the road where you have to decide whether you’re going to go straight through or take a gap year. I have spoken before on why a gap year is helpful and I do encourage folks to take one. But maybe you’re like me and won’t. In those instances, being in your early/mid-twenties and going into law school does require a little extra preparation to ensure you go in steady on your feet. If I could do it all over again (I’d take a gap year lol) ok but if I was going straight through…