Legal Practice
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A Survival Framework: The Magic is in the Balance
At this point, I am resigned to the fact that life will continue to be “unprecedented,” with extreme highs and lows. I guess such is life, and we have to figure out how to not just survive it but overcome it and find joy, hope, resiliency–all the good things. Again, I don’t want to come off as polly-anna–things are rough, to say the least, and it’s only day two. But I was an immigration attorney, on the ground, during the first term and I practiced for a long time prior to that. I am old enough to have a plan and also wise enough to know that I don’t know…
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2024 Latina Equal Pay Day: The Power of Walking Away
Today is Latina Equal Pay Day, which means we finally earned that dollar that a white man earned months and months ago. It’s an important day to acknowledge because Latinas face one of the largest wage gaps of social group, earning as little as 52 to 54 cents to the dollar. And in some of the largest Latina populated states (like California) Latinas earn even less. We’ve spoken for years on this topic and the damage it does—not just to the psyche but the literal damage of what it means to be short-changed and unable to afford necessities the way others may be able to do. As we make note…
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200 days of a rest: lessons learned during my sabbatical
“But I’ve always worked?” That is what I kept telling myself a little more than a year ago when I was weeks away from my job ending. I was going back and forth on finding a job (any job) so that I could keep working or following the lead of some of my colleagues and take a break before looking for my next role. I ultimately took the leap and went on break for 210 days. It was exactly what I needed to rest and reflect. I’d like to share a few lessons learned and encourage you to invest in self, in whatever way that looks for you. First, at…
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Emotional Damage: Preparing for the Bar Exam
Why the bar exam so difficult? It’s stressful, emotionally draining, and usually makes those studying a ball of frustration and anxiety. Why? Over one exam?! I’ve shared before that the summer I studied for the Bar, was beyond stressful. I did nothing but study for 12-14 hours a day, freaking out every day that I was going to fail, and on exam day when I read the first question I was -literally-embarassed at how much I had freaked out because the test was just like my law school exams. Duh. That’s what everyone who had taken the test said, but I just couldn’t believe them. So I know that in…
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Solo Navigation: Career Advancement as a First-Generation Attorney
What do you do when you’re the first to enter a space? When no one in your family or close friends have been in those spaces, how do you figure out how to act and advance to the next stage? I recently saw a TikTok of a guy mentioning how he is in spaces where now has to figure things out alone because he didn’t come from a family who had professional jobs and sometimes it didn’t make sense to follow their advice. This resonated with me and reminded me of the advice many first-gens get about keeping our head down at work. Thinking that eventually our good work will…
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“If You Don’t Know How, Learn.” Lessons from A Million Miles Away
Last week after an especially jolting 5k (pro tip: don’t decide to run a 5k and then fail to train when you have asthma), I decided to take it easy for the day and watch A Million Miles Away. oh. my. god. I was a sobbing mess. It’s a must see, if you’re Latino, if you feel connected to migrant farmworkers and their story, or if you simply want to see a story about perseverance and determination. AMMA is a biopic of the first Latino to go into space, Jose Hernandez. He grew up as a migrant child farmworker, earned a degree in engineering and went on to join NASA,…
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Hello, It’s Me.
I feel like a negligent parent because I really thought a summer break would mean more and more written content, but that is not what happened! My bad. Last we spoke, my job was ending and I was figuring out what my next steps would be. In early May, I decided I would take the summer to figure out—really assess—what I wanted to do next. While I kept my law license active, the days of traditional practice seem behind me. Not in a “I wish I could go back” way, but rather my goals have moved past direct rep. I put in ten good years doing it and when I…
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What Flamin’ Hot Teaches Us About Success
First, if you haven’t seen Flamin’ Hot—you must! It’s a great American story and Eva Longoria knocks it out of the park with her directing. I’m probably going to watch it a few times because there were so many moments in the movie that resonated deeply and symbolism that’s worth re-watching. But when I was watching it, the piece that jumped out at me like a huge neon sign on How to Succeed happens towards the end of the movie. Not when Ricky pushes himself to be the best employee despite his circumstances; not when he gets the courage to advocate for himself and his idea; not when he recognizes that…
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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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Big Law is Horrible…Or is it? What the Latest Big Law Drama Can Teach Us
This week a slide from an alleged presentation by Paul Hastings dropped and boy…did people have a lot to say. Whether or not it was actually part of the presentation, the overall consensus was the Big Law is horrible and this is just another example. And I get it—seeing the slide by itself and how it prioritizes work above everything seems, at the very least, a little unhealthy while others may see it and think those expectations just come with the job. There is a widening gap in the way people approach work with a younger generation being more attuned with their rights and pushing for a more tenable work/life…