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From Day to Night: Makeup for Networking Events
One thing I hate is lugging makeup with me back and forth to work. I keep some cosmetics at work (mostly lip balms and lotions), but I don’t take a full case of makeup to do touchups throughout the day. I just figure that by 5 o’clock everyone looks just as drained—and again, the culture of my work doesn’t really call for a full face of makeup throughout the day. However, whenever I have events in the evening, I always do my best to prepare so that my face looks bright-eyed and polished; especially when it’s a networking event with private attorneys. I mean, let’s be real, other legal aid…
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Summer Series: What Art can Teach Us about the Law
Our Summer Series continues! This series highlights different Latina students and law grads as they embark in their summer jobs and/or bar prep all across the country. We hope to provide a variety of work experiences, options for a healthy work-life balance, and general motivation through different guest contributors to help you to take charge of your summer and professional goals! Today, we hear from Roxanne, a rising 3L who is studying in Europe, and describes the intersection between Art and the Law. I’m Roxanne, rising 3L at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. I decided to study law because I realized that many people who are being taken advantage of don’t realize they…
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Brain Food and the Bar
Ok so it’s almost impossible to balance a healthy lifestyle while you study for the Bar. I mean you can try, but more often than not you’re going to opt for comfort and ease during these times. Your best bet is it try as much as you can at the beginning of bar prep to maintain some form of healthiness so that when you’re in the last few weeks of prep hell you haven’t yet completely spiraled out of control. With that in mind, you can’t ignore how the food you eat affects how you feel and your level of energy. And while you don’t have the luxury of time to…
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Controlling Emotions at Work: Anger
When we talk about women and emotions at work, the discussion usually revolves around whether crying is ok or not. I’d like to have that discussion some day, but I thought I’d start with a more common emotion that lawyers tend to experience at work: anger. I remember the first time I got really upset at work with an opposing counsel. We were having a telephone conversation and they were being so aggravatingly condescending. I was still a brand new attorney so I know now that part of my reaction was due to my pride. But o.m.g. was I pissed at how he was talking to me! He got nasty,…
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Summer Series: Balancing your Responsibilities with the Bar
Our Summer Series continues! This series highlights different Latina students and law grads as they embark in their summer jobs and/or bar prep all across the country. We hope to provide a variety of work experiences, options for a healthy work-life balance, and general motivation through different guest contributors to help you to take charge of your summer and professional goals! Today we hear from Ariana and her great tips on balancing your life responsibilities while studying for the bar! My name is Ariana, I just graduated law school and I’m currently studying for the NY & NJ bar exams this July. In addition to having a big Dominican family, I also had a…
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Turning your Internship into a Job
Let me paint a scenario of a time when I let a big opportunity slip through my fingers: The time: fall 2008, and I’m half-way into an externship with a really great agency. I turn in an assignment to my supervising attorney who reminds me that applications for summer internships at this agency are due in a week. Cue: me saying, “oh ok,” and totally missing the huge sign of my boss encouraging me to apply for a PAID summer internship. No, instead I decide to apply to a different agency that summer for an internship that does not pay me for my time (an internship I could have done during the school…
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Mastering the Business Lunch
One summer I participated in a program where I interacted with a lot of private attorneys. This resulted in a lot of business lunches, which was fun, but there were also some cringe-inducing moments. I remember one lunch where a coworker’s main focus seemed to be figuring out how many glasses of wine he could drink. This wasn’t a lunch among friends or even same-level staff, but rather with clients and supervisors! Needless to say his behavior ended up being super awkward. Now that it’s summer (though it’s constantly raining here in Chicago), there are more opportunities to step outside the office for networking lunches, and of course, if you…
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Summer Series: Selecting Your Bar Exam
Our Summer Series officially begins! This series highlights different Latina students and law grads as they embark in their summer jobs and/or bar prep all across the country. We hope to provide a variety of work experiences, options for a healthy work-life balance, and general motivation through different guest contributors to help you to take charge of your summer and professional goals! Today we hear from Jannette and her decision on which Bar to take, and some tips to help you make your decision as well! Hello Ladies! My name is Jannette, and I just graduated law school! I was born and raised near Chicago, IL, but I attended law school in…
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Rocking your Internship
Once the excitement of a new internship dies down, you may feel like you’re not getting everything you can out of your experience. I remember one stint I did as an extern (meaning, I was basically paying my school to volunteer at this agency), where by week three it seemed like the attorneys had no time for me; I was going to get lost in the shuffle, and basically just observe court every day if I didn’t become more proactive in attempting to get some experience. It wasn’t easy for me to be proactive in that environment. I had assumed the attorneys I was paired with wanted my help, and would…
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Networking Basics: How to Master a Networking Event
Late spring/summer always seems to have so many networking opportunities. Usually there are events to help students network, but a lot of professional orgs and alumni groups have get togethers around this time as well. I remember the summer before starting law school I attended my first legit networking event and was kind of confused about what to do. Thankfully, with practice it gets easier (and sometimes it’s actually fun). But when you’re first starting out as a new professional, you really have to work on managing and maintaining your professional image at these events because you never know when you’ll cross paths again. Usually when people don’t seem to…