First year | mom's law blog

Jul 10 2016

1L, 2L, 3L, Career, First year, Hiring, Law school, Life after Law

Being on the Other Side of the Table

Reputation

Does anyone else Google “how to answer interview questions?” Or “how to make a good first impression in an interview?” I have. Even when I am not interviewing for a job. I do this because I have often times been on the other side of the table . . . the interviewer. I want to know which candidates are giving canned responses and what the internet is telling people will “land you the job of your dreams.”

In my past position, I interviewed numerous candidates to fill the vacancies for staff that held support functions in our office. Now, as an attorney, I have been asked to continue my role as a panel interviewer for incoming attorneys. I was blown away when they asked me to stay on in that role and I have enjoyed every minute of it.

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting on an interview panel at my law school. During the part of the interview when the interviewer asks “so, do you have any questions for me?,” the last candidate of the day turned to me and asked:

“I heard you are an alum of this law school. Can you tell me the one thing that you learned in law school that makes you successful in your job?”

Without even thinking about it, I responded “protect your reputation, because you never know who will be sitting on the other side of the table.”

It’s more true than I think some new attorneys will ever have the ability to understand. I started to appreciate that fact more when I started interviewing other attorneys that I either knew of or heard of during law school.

I explained to the candidate that your reputation in the legal community starts in law school because you are sitting next to your future colleagues. People who you will work with for the rest of your career. How they know you in law school will be how they perceive you for the rest of the time you interact with them during your legal career.

I can think of two attorneys that I currently work with as opposing counsel. I know how they played fast and loose in law school and I know they are probably flying by the seat of their pants in the cases we have together. I can think of another currently unemployed attorney who reached out to me for a referral for a position in my office. I was very direct and explained to them that I did not know anything about their work ethic as they were rarely in class and failed to show up to our final group presentation. And for those reasons, I was not comfortable in making the referral. They probably cussed me out, deleted my email, and moved on to find the next person they could suck a referral out of. All I know is that I will never refer someone for a job in my office that I cannot personally see myself working alongside of.

So, to all of you thinking about going to law school, starting your 1L year, or even entering your 2L year, protect your reputation because you never know who will be across from you at that table when it comes time to interview for that job you really want.

Tagged 1L, 2L, 3L, attorney, Decisions, interviews, law job, Law school, lawyer

Nov 17 2014

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1L, 3L, First year, Law school

This Isn’t Underwater Basket Weaving

If there is one thing I was told prior to entering law school that resonated more than all the other advice was to forget everything you think you know about the law. That was spot on! Seriously, forgot everything you have ever seen on Law & Order. Disregard all of the news coverage of high profile cases.

When you want to show boat on your first day of class using an episode of The Good Wife as your reference, think again. I can’t tell you how many times a former police officer, or current paralegal, or even a law librarian turned law student have dug themselves into a hole by opening their mouths and starting with “well, I know this is X because I saw it on T.V.” Bad move! You will be shut down so quickly you may never want to speak again.

Law school courses are not easy, pass-fail classes like underwater basket weaving. This is serious stuff full of substance and nuances. So until you have done the reading and can apply what you have read to the scenarios the professor provides you, don’t open your mouth. TRUST ME!

Tagged 1L, 3L, First Year, Law school

Sep 18 2014

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First year, Law school, Little Bit

How I Decided to Have a Baby While in Law School

I cannot count the number of times that when people found out I got pregnant on purpose during law school, the look on their face was one of doubt as to my choice. A gabillion! I guess I see their concern. Law school is a stressful time. Pregnancy is a stressful time. Combine both of those and you have a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Here is the thought process we went through to decide it was the right time for us to have a baby:

Timing

I kept saying we will have a baby when the time is “right.” What does that even mean? I have no clue what I meant. I think it was my way of stalling the process. Mr. Mister finally noticed that we will always find a reason as to why it was the wrong time. So I navigated my way through my first year and I established a good study routine. When we decided a baby would fit into our lives between semesters of my 2L year, I checked the week all of my finals would fall on, tracked back to an ovulation calculator (TMI? Sorry!), and decided we would have a two-month window with which we could conceive and have a safe buffer to deliver during my break between semesters. Once we had the date nailed down and finalized, it all became VERY real.

Finances

Law school is not cheap! Also, babies are not cheap! Combine those with a house payment, a car payment, utilities, etc. and you have a big ol’ debt sheet racking up. Mr. Mister and I sat down and seriously looked at our finances. We cut out the luxuries (who has time to watch TV anyway?), sold an extra vehicle we had, finished up all of the big “to-do” projects around the house, and made sure we had some savings stashed away in the event of an emergency. Knowing that we were being fiscally responsible helped eliminate a lot of the stress of simultaneous school and pregnancy.

Research

Ah, this is where my love for blogs began. I spent countless late night hours reading blogs. I searched things like: pregnant during law school; mothers in law school; effects of stress on a fetus J. I read how little amount of sleep I could get before it would affect a fetus. I read about other mother’s journey through law school while being pregnant or raising a child. I also talked to my doctor about risks and precautions I needed to take and talked to other mom friends to see just what this whole mothering thing was all about.

Support

I am not one to brag, but Mr. Mister is pretty fantastic! His support warrants its own blog post soon. I cannot express how motivational he was during my pregnancy. He was also a worrier; I always said he worried enough for all three of us. He’d make sure our fridge was stocked with yummy and healthy snacks. He would make sure I was taking vitamins, getting enough sleep (well enough relative to being a law school student and full time employee), and always made sure to call and check on me. The best thing he did was tell me when I’d had enough for the day and make sure I had actual “me” time. That may have resulted in one too many naps.

For those of you women wondering if it is a good idea to have a baby while in law school, I say it’s right if YOU feel its right. You know what you are capable of. You know how you handle stress, pressure, and criticism. You know how you are at prioritizing and time management. Take a while to sit down an analyze the situation you will be entering into and decided whether having a baby while in law school is right for you.

Tagged Decisions, Law school, Pregnant

Sep 09 2014

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1L, 3L, First year, Law school

This is Only a Means to an End . . . Kinda

Why are we all going to law school? For most, it is so we can take the bar and become licensed to practice law. In order to take the bar you need to graduate from law school (with few exceptions). In order to alleviate a little bit of the stress and anxiety you may be feeling, here is a little secret: the bar doesn’t care that you got all A’s. To that same end, the bar doesn’t care that you got all C’s.

I remember after my first semester grades came out I heard students saying “C’s equal degrees.” And that was the mantra they have maintained throughout their law school career. Those students chose to do the bare-bones work that was required, put in the amount of effort they felt was sufficient to get a passing grade and they were fine with that. However, these were also the same people who seemed a little less stressed because they utilized their free time to go out with friends, spend time with their families, and enjoy their time leisurely as opposed to being locked away in a library reading supplements and going through practice question. These people are still going to walk out of the law school with the same degree as all those people who chose to be disciplined enough to read the supplements, meet with professors to review concepts that they don’t understand and who took the extra time to run through some practice questions and ace their exams.

When I say law school is only a means to an end, you should take that with a grain of salt. Although you ultimately are enrolled to obtain a degree to take the bar, there are some VERY good reasons why you should strive to obtain good grades to get that degree.

Here are some reasons why I did not subscribe to the mantra that “C’s equal degrees.”

MONEY

Need I say more?! If I maintained a 3.0 average, my generous scholarship would be renewed and possibly increased! Not to mention, for those who plan on getting a big law firm job after graduation, you may want to assure you can put a good GPA and class rank on a revenue.

RECOGNITION

Whoo-wee, recognition is nice. Even if it is just from my husband telling my I did a great job or my school noting my academic achievements in the newsletter or various monitors around the school. Furthermore, potential employers may recognize one candidate’s higher GPA over the next candidate.

SATISFACTION

Don’t you feel better at the end of the day knowing you worked hard for that degree? That you didn’t take the easy way out? That you set goal and gave it everything you had to achieve it? I know I do. I get satisfaction knowing I earned by grade.

Tagged 1L, First Year, Law school

Aug 07 2014

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1L, 2L, 3L, Day in the Life, First year, Law school

A Part-Time Schedule With a Full Time Gig

As I mentioned before, I decided to attend a law school that, in addition to the traditional schedule, offered a non-traditional schedule for those students who wanted to continue to work during the semester or who had other obligations during the day that prevented them from attending classes full-time during the day. ABA rules require that a student attending law school on a full-time basis work no more than 20 hours per week during the semester. However, on a part-time schedule that ABA rule does not apply. At my school, full time is considered 13 credit hours and above (4-6 classes) and part-time was considered between 9-12 credit hours; the equivalent of 3-4 classes.

If you take the traditional route you are slated to graduate in 3 years. The non-traditional flex schedule extends the graduation date by a year (4 years total). With that extra year comes the added expense of an additional year of living expenses, book costs, school fees, and tuition. Although tuition is slightly cheaper on the part-time schedule, it still adds on an additional few thousands of dollars a year for those who choose to attend part-time.

I decided to take the part-time route for many reasons. Money was a big concern and I also carried the health insurance for my husband and I. However, one of the most appealing aspects to keeping my job and going to school was that the school I wanted to attend had a campus a block away from my work. This afforded me the added opportunity of attending student functions during the day, an easier way of meeting on campus with professors and employers, and if there was ever anything I needed to get done during the day I could just walk across the street on my lunch hour. Win-win!

One thing that I would like to stress about taking the part-time route is that IT IS NOT THE EASY ROUTE! Professor do not “take it easier on you,” you aren’t assigned less readings, and you don’t have more time to do the work since you are taking less classes. On the contrary, you are stretched thin trying to juggle work and law school; the readings, assignments, networking, student functions, to say the least, are all inevitable in law school. Try getting all that done after work and on weekends and tell me that it’s easier than solely focusing on all those aspects of law school. IT’S NOT EASY! It damn near killed me a few times. But, the more work I put into it going in, the easier it got. So, although it was hell in the beginning, it gets easier. I think this is true regardless of whether you attend full-time or part-time.

My first year schedule looked a little something like this:

6:00 a.m.- Wake up and get ready

6:30 a.m. – Head out the door and off to work

6:45 a.m. – Pick up coffee and a bagel on the way because I most likely failed to pack my breakfast and lunch the night before

7:00 a.m.- Arrive at work and get crackin’ on emails and voicemails that I missed the day before and make a to-do list (have I mentioned that I love lists?!)

11:00 a.m.- Call in a lunch order because I failed to seize the opportunity to wake up early enough to pack a lunch and I need to save as much of my lunch hour to review my notes for that night’s class
(Note: This is a good tip! Spend at least 10 minute before each class reviewing the notes you have made regarding the readings assigned for that class.)

11:15- 12:15- Lunch and studying

5:00 p.m.- Clock out and head over to school

5:10 p.m.- Grab a coffee and finish reviewing notes or get a head start on another class’s readings

6:00 p.m.- 7:30 p.m. – Class #1 and then grab a quick snack from the vending machine (ugh,the evil vending machines of law school!)

7:45-9:15 p.m.- Class #2

9:20 p.m. – Whenever I have to start re-reading what I have just read in order to retain the information- head home and get to bed. Sometimes this is 10:30 p.m. and other times I last until as late as midnight.

Wake-up and do it all over again….at least until Friday when I didn’t have classes. Friday night was a date night with my husband and the weekends were spent tucked away completing the readings for the following week. I, personally, felt more prepared having all of the readings done for the week finished on the weekends. It allowed me to feel more prepared for class discussions, to clean up my case briefs, and to fill out my outline where I felt I needed clarification on some issues. However, I had friends who would read the cases right before class and not make any notes and they were just as successful. Sometimes I made my weekend readings a little more interesting…to each their own.

Tagged 1L, 2L, 3L, Decisions, First Year, law job, Law school

Jul 21 2014

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1L, First year, Law school

Let Me Introduce Myself

Becoming a lawyer was something I have wanted to pursue for a long time. I can’t recall when or where this notion came to my mind (note: consider this because you will be asked this question a zillion times your first year). All I know is that when I graduated with my Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice I had this feeling that I wasn’t done with school yet. So, with some inner struggle I decided to go.

To make this decision there was a whole lot of back and forth with my husband. Not because he didn’t want me to go, but because he wanted to make sure it was the right time for us. We were about to get married, go on our honeymoon, and planned to have a baby in the future. Not to mention, the financial concern was a big factor for us. So, after a lot of planning and charting (we do this a lot, we’re planners) we decided I would start in the Fall of 2012 after we were married and returned from our honeymoon. We decided to delay trying to get pregnant for at least the first couple of years.

After deciding to go back to school I had to choose where to go. My option was the traditional 3-year law school wherein I would quit working and focus solely on school. Or I could go to another law school that offered a non-traditional flexible schedule that allowed me to keep my job, go to school in the evenings, and attend for four years. Again, after some back and forth, we decided we liked the lifestyle and opportunities my income allowed us to have and that was not something we were willing to let go. So, I took the non-traditional path.

NOTE: Because I am not sure of the full extent of this blog I am putting out there on the inter-web and because I will be on the prowl for a J-O-B soon, I would like to keep a majority of my personal information private. I will use pseudonyms for the people in my life and will be very abstract about my location. However, I plan on being very detailed and clear about the information that I think is necessary in order for me to get my points across and to provide the salient information for readers who come here for some insight.

So, I took the LSAT, applied to the school, got accepted, got married, returned from Italy and ordered my books. The rest is history still in the making.

DISCLAIMER: I am now in my 3^rd year of law school. One intent for this blog is a way to look back at my experience, reflect upon it, and hopefully offer some insight and advice to those considering attending law school who happen to stumble across this little ol’ blog of mine.

Tagged 1L, First Year, Law school

mom's law blog

Managing motherhood and life after law school, one day at a time

Category Archives: First year

Being on the Other Side of the Table

This Isn’t Underwater Basket Weaving

How I Decided to Have a Baby While in Law School

This is Only a Means to an End . . . Kinda

A Part-Time Schedule With a Full Time Gig

Let Me Introduce Myself