Law School
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Raise Your Voice: Student Activism
My freshman year in college, I innocently walked into a workshop about white supremacy. I had imagined I would learn about overt acts of racism (a la the KKK) but I when the workshop ended, I walked out stunned. My 19 year old brain had never been exposed to the idea of systemic oppression (please cut me some slack–it was very early 2000s and information did not travel like it does now). That day was probably one of the most formative days in school–it was like a curtain had been pulled back and suddenly so many things made sense, while so many more created confusion. After that workshop, it still…
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Breaking Barriers: Cultivating Soft Factors
This series, Breaking Law School Barriers, tackles the big and small issues that come into play when you’re deciding if you’ll even attend law school. The purpose is to give practical advice for college students, and for current law students and attorneys to give suggestions about their real world experience. If you’ve researched applying for law school then you know that LSAT score and GPA is king. And if you believe most online forums, then you may think that you shouldn’t bother to apply if you don’t have Elle Woods type stats. I remember when I first started applying, I believed all the hype from the forums and became nervous because I…
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When Family Emergencies Impact Law School
The unfortunate thing about law school is that you don’t go through it in a vacuum. Other people keep living their lives and experience milestones and setbacks while you’re trying to make it to the next semester. If big emergencies arise it can really affect your grades and law school trajectory in big ways. In my case, the morning we were supposed to register for our spring semester 1L courses–I spent the day sobbing because my father had been diagnosed with cancer (he’s healthy now, thank God). I was just an emotional wreck, and while I needed to let it all out emotionally, I ended up missing out on registering…
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The Importance of Diversity (and I’m not talking about Race)
If I have not scared you enough into preparing for your summer job then rest assured I will keep trying. Appointments with career services will be here soon and deadlines will be fast approaching, and one of the things you have to decide soon is where you’re planning to apply. Perhaps you had a really good experience with an agency your 1L summer. Or you’ve been interning during the fall semester with a new agency that you really are enjoying. It’s natural to want to keep working for a place you enjoy. However, if you’re dealing with a legal market where offers are not certain, or you’re working public interest where…
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The Question to Ask during Mid-Terms: Am I doing Ok?
One of the most common problems with law school is that we barrel past every week without thinking much about what you just learned. This makes sense because who has time to sit down and think about past topics when you have so many new ones to learn, on top of papers, job applications, life… But it’s a big misstep to not stop and ask yourself during mid-terms: am I doing ok? And I’m not referring to mental health (though do stop occasionally to think about that). Rather, are you understanding the material? Do you get what the professors are trying to teach you? Are you forming and flexing the…
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Spotlight On! Family Law Attorney Jennifer Alfonso
This is another installment of the series, Spotlight On! A series where we showcases Latina lawyers and learn about the early successes in their careers. Today we meet Jennifer Alfonso, a dynamic Latina lawyer. If you follow her on Instagram, then you know how refreshing it is to see that she really enjoys practicing law! Today she shows us what it means to trust your instinct even if it takes you to a place you didn’t at first envision for yourself! When did you start practicing? About a year and a half ago. What made you want to pursue a career in law? Being a journalism major and never wanting…
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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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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…