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Picking the Right Internship
Your first year of law school, it can feel like a lottery as to where you end up for your first summer job and, unfortunately, it still is a struggle to gain clarity as you move on to your second year. If you are a 2L/3L, picking internships can feel like such a make or break experience and as if you’re at the mercy of the potential internship site/employer. Let me share a story: when I was a 3L, I attended the biggest public interest job fair in my area (fun fact, I had missed the previous year because I had to work and a law school admin sort of…
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What to do with a Gap Year
For those planning to attend law school, you may hear about the importance of a gap year. A gap year, generally speaking, is a year+ long break between undergrad and law school. I like to encourage them even though I went straight through. What is the goal of a gap year? It can be anything you want it to be, really. You can spend the time getting your money right so you can afford to apply for law school; you can spend the time getting more information about the legal profession/meeting lawyers so you can be sure the law is for you; and/or you can spend the time strengthening your…
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Mastering the Interview
Soon, it will be interview season for folks looking for summer positions. I’ve been thinking about my first interview for my 1L summer job and how grateful I am that the organization was so Latino-centered that they gave me a lot of grace that I wouldn’t have received in other spaces. It’s not that I didn’t take the interview seriously, it’s just that having only ever worked retail or service jobs, I didn’t get that there is an added polish that is expected in the legal industry. So if you’re about to interview what are the things you should focus on for this extra polish? Looks. Ugh, I hate offering…
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Make or Break: Summer Job Search
On top of finals, and memos, and the holidays, and next semester (anything else? A pandemic?), it’s also time to start your job search for next summer. I want to emphasize here, especially for those that didn’t grow up with parents in professional jobs, just how normal it is in this industry to apply for jobs that start six months from now. When I started law school, my only work experience was hourly work in retail/restaurants. The kind that hired you on the spot or a few weeks after you submitted an application. It was completely new to me that anyone would hire anyone for a job that started months…
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Tough Choices: How to Know Which Law School is Right for You
Like everything else in life, picking a law school is complicated. If it was a science, then you would just go to the highest ranked school, but that is not always the best choice. And what if you got into schools all similarly ranked? How can you really know which one is the better option? Thankfully, with just a little extra research you can make a decision that best fits your goals and plans. One. What’s the vibe? It’s important to visit your schools if you can. Visiting will let you get a feel of the school, the lectures, the students, and the nearby businesses. Of course, it may not…
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Don’t Go to Law School If It’s Not Free? Ignore This Bad Advice
If you’re starting to look into law school there is one thing you’ll see that’s highlighted over and over again and that is how expensive law school can be–it’s like, ridiculous. Grad school and other professional degrees are really pricy and can be enough to scare you from applying. The other thing you may notice as you’re doing your research are well-meaning (maybe) folks that say if you’re not going to a T14 law school, you should only go if it’s free. And do that I say, “yikes, your classism is showing.” To the first point, a T14 school is the top tier law schools that are highly ranked…
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Never Making Partner: Can You Be a Happy as a Lawyer?
The ABA recently issued a report on Women of Color in the law on why they leave or stay in the profession. The results are …stark. It was nothing surprising, but even still, it was disappointing to know the same issues I’m struggling with for a decade are issues women who have been practicing twice as long have endured. It’s like, ya, guey. Please stop. The study (which is worth reviewing) discusses the bias and stereotyping the participants (all women practicing for more than 15 years) experience. They discuss the prove it again bias; the othering we experience as attorneys; how we are never seen as equals by those in…
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Wait, How is this Going to Work? Career Planning the Midst of a Pandemic
Hello, so with all the way people’s lives have been upended, it’s really normal to feel dread about what this may mean for your career. Of course, that may not be your first worry, which makes total sense. But at times, you could feel worried about your career and then feel guilty for worrying and all those things are normal. For those on the edge of becoming lawyers, this is the milestone you’ve been working towards for a long time, so it’s completely understandable that you’re nervous and worried. I was nervous and worried too right when I graduated law school. I want to share what it was like when…
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The Guilt that Comes with Family Financial Contributions
A million years ago I watched the documentary about the Baltimore step team and one of the girls was heading to a top college. But she started to get concerned because the FAFSA form included a line of how much her family was expected to contribute and she felt guilty at asking her parents to give so much. Her parents got her all the way together and told her to not worry about their finances. She was their responsibility and they would make sure she got to school. Not everyone has parents with this type of philosophy or have parents that can (or maybe even want to) provide the…
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Is Law School Worth It?
We’ve spoken before about how law school isn’t really for anyone–it’s a difficult experience for almost everyone. But here I am pushing all lawtinas to reach this goal and for what? We definitely hear about all the downsides of law school (primarily the debt), but what are the real tangible, benefits you receive once you earn a JD? One of the reasons I encourage more of us to become attorneys is because being a lawyer isn’t just another career option. Lawyers are leaders. They are the ones looked to during crisis. They are the ones that help create, set, and executive policies and laws that impact our loved ones’ daily…