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Using Our Political Power During Hispanic Heritage Month
To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (or Latino Heritage, if you prefer) in these times is a bold statement. Unfortunately, at this moment there is an undercurrent, a fervor that feels very much anti-Latino. Yes, the focus seems to be on immigrants—and while fewer and fewer Latinos are identifying as immigrants, it’s hard to separate us from this issue. To me, being anti-immigrant is the same as being anti-Latino. People may try to make distinctions—oh I’m not anti-immigrant, just illegal immigration—but the vitriol feels very personal. It’s perfectly reasonable to feel angry at this mistreatment—and it should make us angry that there are people who are, allegedly, trying to earn our…
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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…
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The Importance of Self-Care for Attorneys
Today is a perfect day to talk about trauma and self-care. Vicarious trauma occurs from exposure to other people’s trauma. We usually think of ER doctors, counselors, police, and other first responders as professions that are likely to experience this, but lawyers are also susceptible and do experience vicarious trauma as well. And how could we not when we help clients almost always in their darkest time of need. If you practice in an area that has a real human component, then you generally are exposed to sad, traumatic stories. But it’s the dirty secret in this profession, and we’re supposed to act like nothing affects us. Those that admit…
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Being a Leader: Giving Constructive Criticism
I remember when I first started working with interns and I didn’t know how to give them appropriate guidance or instruction–I was a brand new attorney myself so it just didn’t feel natural to manage others. Then as I got more comfortable with giving guidance, I realized I would hit a stumbling block when it came to giving real feedback. In fact, I would avoid it most of the time because I just didn’t know how to do it without sounding mean–and that’s wasn’t really helpful for me or the student. When it comes to giving constructive criticism it can be especially difficult to do when you’re a new attorney.…
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Brain Food: Easy Lunch Options for Law Students
Happy Labor Day! I wish I was on a beach, but I’m actually getting a head start on work. womp womp. I was talking to a friend recently about all my missteps in law school and one of them (as I’ve mentioned before) is how bonkers my eating habits became. My school was located right near Michigan Ave, so it was full of so many dining options that it became easier to just purchase lunch rather than make something every day. Of course, I thought I was being smart by getting tuna sandwiches (brain food, right? lolol) completely ignoring the fact that it was laden with mayo, like wtf was…
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Reacting to Inappropriate & Privileged Comments in Class.
One of the great things about law school is that you’re interacting with a lot of smart people and most of them have specialized interest for justice. It can really broaden your horizons and expose you to knew causes and pursuits. That was very much the case for me. On the flip side, you will also encounter some of the most close-minded and culturally bereft people in your life. Meaning that you may have classmates who have lived in such sheltered, privileged way of life that they make comments without thinking (or caring) about the implications. Case in point, when I was a 2L we had to take a class…
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Rules and Limits as you Practice Law
It’s no secret being an attorney is tough. Most often, clients need you at their most worst: accused of crimes; financially destitute; dealing with divorce; scared of immigration; angry with neighbors, employers, former friends. The list goes on and on. For most Latina lawyers, we practice in these emotionally heavy areas, and all attorneys working in these high stress areas experience what’s called vicarious trauma–a sort of second-hand stress from these stories and interactions. It’s a dirty secret that we don’t talk about for fear of seeming weak or unable to advocate like all the other attorneys who seem to be cool with what they’re hearing. But other attorneys experience vicarious…
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Mastering Law School Classes
Law School classes are like no other because aside from reading often arcane cases and trying to figure out just exactly what’s happening in those crazy fact patterns, you also go into class with terror in your gut that you’ll be the one called on today and omg, what happens if I freeze?! It’s really quite stressful. The fear gets easier overtime, but what you really need to cultivate during the early part of the semester is paying attention so that you actually understand. I know it seems like a no-brainer, but law school is tricky. It tricks you into thinking you can listen and browse the internet at the…
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Competition in Law School
I mentioned last week how intimidating my law school orientation was partly because I heard about so many accomplished students who were part of my year, and it was intimidating to compete against them. What I wish I had known then was that almost everyone—even the very accomplished—were just in the dark as I was. For the most part, we were all new to reading case law, briefing cases, the Socratic Method, and thinking like a lawyer. Now, of course, it wasn’t a completely even playing field. There were students that seemed to magically understand the concepts the professors were presenting; they knew which supplementals to use; they knew how…
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Healthy & Easy Coffee Alternatives
No I’m not crazy—I’m very certain everyone in law school will have/has increased their caffeine and sugar intake during school. I’m not really anti-coffee. Coffee by itself has a lot of benefits, but if you’re like me—it’s not the coffee but the sugar and cream that makes it unhealthy. I also try to limit my coffee-intake because I don’t like being the type of person that can’t function without some type of substance. I have enough vices and don’t need to add one more, you know? In the last year, I felt like I was drinking (and buying) too much sugary coffee and decided to stop what…