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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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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…
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How to Study for the Bar
So–I wrote this post a million years ago in a different forum but thought I’d share here rather than create new material on how to study for the bar since this was written when the Bar was still fresh in my mind. For those that have started your bar prep course, you’ve likely found that you don’t remember much from 1L year and aren’t scoring very high on the tests and essays. That is completely normal. It takes a while to remember the basics, but what happens is that everyone starts to freak out and then it’s hard to handle the stress. So first, regardless of how you’re doing on…
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Working with Interns as a New Attorney
Summer is my favorite time at work—not because of the nice weather or all the trips planned, but because we have a ton of student interns working with us, and that means that I’m going to get a ton of work done. A TON! Now, when I was still very new, I was uncomfortable directing students and didn’t know how to give them proper guidance. I would be disappointed in the completed work, and instead of confronting the student; I’d decide to just do the work myself. I think that is the method a lot of attorneys take because they get frustrated in the amount of work they have to…
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Mistakes to Avoid as a Legal Intern
Summer internships/externships/clerkships/associate positions are starting soon (if they haven’t already started). It goes without saying that these next few weeks are an important part of your legal career. You expand your professional network, increase your legal skillsets, and get a better idea of what kind of law you do (and don’t) want to practice. It’s also true that first impressions really matter and you have to make sure that you portray yourself as a professional, capable, and attentive intern. With that said, here are some missteps you want to avoid so as to put your best foot forward. One. Don’t be distracted by electronics. Let me tell you how annoying…
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Things to Know Before the Bar
I always thought it was so unfair how short lived the celebration for law school graduation was since I had to start my bar prep course the Monday after my graduation weekend. It’s like, can I please have a second to take in this accomplishment? Instead, we jump right into Bar studying and what will likely be known as one of the most stressful periods of your life. Yay! The reality is that the Bar shouldn’t be as intimidating as it is. If you’ve taken essay courses in law school then you know what to expect from the exam. But there is so much riding on this exam that the…