Where do I begin?! I am sorry. I am sorry for the silence. I am sorry for not planning better. I am sorry for having poor time management. But, I am back.
Life as a working attorney is FAR different than life as a law student and life awaiting bar results. As soon as my admission to the state bar was complete, I started working as an attorney in my office the following week. It has been a whirlwind, to say the least.
I have a lot of post ideas saved up. Now, to find the time to write them.
As soon as my state bar number hit my inbox I hit the ground running. Well, kind of.
I have had my eye set on three small to medium size firms that I wanted to apply to. Unfortunately, none of them are hiring. Fortunately, I received a call back from each of them wanting to have either an informal interview or a chat over coffee for introductions. They all went well and I was so pleased to get some face time with some of the partners and my face and resume is now in their minds in the event a position opens up!
My career counselor always told us to network, network, network! Although I chose to network within a small group of firms, I feel I benefited greatly not just from the face time, but from the advice each partner was able to give to me as far as my path in this new law career of mine. To see them let down their guard and just chat about their love of their jobs and their dislikes was invaluable. I may have left a little giddy from each meeting. Almost as if I had some unknown knowledge that others didn’t.
So, needless to say, this past month has been a crazy month. In addition to the three private firms, I also submitted an application to my own office for which I was hustled through an interview and the formal background process with a tentative start date of August 10th. I can’t complain. I knew upon graduation I would have a job, it was just a matter of where.
Hopefully now that I have settled down with all of the job hunting craziness I can get back to posting more regularly. I miss this.
“Probably not.” This is my response to the persistent question I have been asked now a trillion times. “Can I get free legal advice from you now?”
First, I am not being rude. I simply just can’t give every person I know free “legal advice.” Building a book of business should be treated just as such, a business. While there are the occasional free consultations to get the ball rolling on a new business relationship I can’t just sit down with every acquaintance who asks. Plus, any firm I work for will probably want my acquiantance as a client not just a free consultation.
Second, I just don’t know the answer. Apparently the outside world believes law students leave law school knowing everything there is to know about every area of law. Sorry folks, that’s just not the case. We leave knowing how to read a case, synthesize information, and think critically. We do not know about every area that concerns the law. If we did, don’t you think we’d need a little more schooling?
Lastly, although I can give any person the low down on most issues of criminal prosecution in my own state, I won’t. As every law student knows the answer is “it depends” because each fact situation is different. So when an acquaintance comes calling for a recent arrest on an alleged crime I will point them to the directory of lawyers who will be willing to take their case…for a fee.
… my name!
Thursday while at work I was a big ball of stress. The impending release of the bar pass names was obviously weighing on me. Getting no work done, my boss suggested I take a half day and enjoy some time with my family and relax on Friday while I waited for the bar results to be posted.
I went home, napped, made dinner, played with Little Bit and tried (unsuccessfully) to keep the thought of the results being posted out of my head. Friday was not much better. I did menial things around the house and played and napped some more. From 3:00-4:00 the hour just stalled. It was as if time stood still. LONGEST. HOUR. OF. MY. LIFE.
But then there we were. Refreshing the page where the results were to be posted. Little Bit sitting on the couch in the office with Alex and Aldo trying to weasel their way up to the couch as well. Mr. Mister was in control of the mouse-clicking, refreshing every second and I stood behind him, knees shaking, biting my nails, waiting for the link to appear. Mr. Mister was refreshing the screen so quickly he missed it but I saw the blue hyperlink appear. I screamed “there is it! Stop! Stop! Stop! Click here.” And I pointed out to him what he had overlooked.
The attachment opened and my heart quickened. My knees started to get a little weak and suddenly the sound of Little Bit’s animal noise toys was muted from my ears and all I heard was my own pounding heartbeat. And there it was, my name.
I passed the state bar exam! I was ecstatic! Elated! Happy! I jumped up and down and hugged my husband and cried knowing that the stress of law school was behind me and I only had the joy of starting a new career in front of me.
For those starting bar prep for the July bar, put in the study time. It doesn’t have to be excessive, but it should be quality. I hope you get the same excitement I did when you see your name on a pass list.
Eight weeks have passed since I took the bar exam. As I mentioned before, I had a job to go back to. Some of the test takers had no job to go to and thus were stuck trying to determine how to kill time during the day. My biggest problem was what I would do to fill my evening hours.
For the past three years my evenings were filled with reading or studying. The past year added my maternal responsibilities to that list as well. Needless to say, the days were packed full of things I needed to do and not the things I wanted to do. With most of that behind me now (I guess my maternal responsibilities will never end, so I am told) people ask what I do with all of my “free time.” I found it very comical that compared to law school, having a husband, a child, and a full-time job equaled “free time.” But hey, I’ll take it. My evenings and weekends are mine again and here is how I have been filling my free time:
Reading for my own entertainment- There were so many books piling up on my night table and Kindle that I never had time to read while in law school. I have tackled a book a week and IT. FEELS. GREAT! There were some that became outdated such as What to Expect During Your Child’s First Year. Part of me is glad I missed the opportunity to read that one. Something tells me that if I were forewarned about some of the things Little Bit would surprise us with, I may have enrolled back in school for another degree to avoid them.
Reconnected with family and friends- I didn’t realize how much I missed my friends and family. All of them were very understanding of my absence from functions. But once I started attending more gatherings, I realized I missed the genuine laughter that I experience when I am with them. Add to that I get to see Little Bit play with her cousins and the children of some of my dear friends. I am glad I don’t have to miss that anymore.
Exercise! – Before law school started I challenged myself to run two half-marathons. Done! It was the best feeling completing those. I vowed that I would continue to run during law school as an outlet for all of the stress I would feel. Although I did well at first, as I took more classes, engaged in more associations, and took on more projects at work, something had to give. Unfortunately it was my exercise. Although I didn’t pack on much weight from the dreaded vending machines, I was not able to get right back to a good exercise routine after I gave birth nor after graduating since I had to go right into bar prep. As soon as I had a couple weeks to relax and de-stress from the huge accomplishment I had just achieved I got right back into the gym. I must say, I think cycling may be my new passion.
Job hunting- I have not hit this with the full force that others may have since I currently have a job in the legal field that I could obtain an attorney position if worse comes to worse. However, as bar results get closer I have started brushing up my resume, researching firms in the field I want to work, and have had the opportunity to take three meetings with different firms. But with no other extraordinary worries such as how I am going to pay my student loans or if I will have a job after all is said and done, job hunting has been a pretty stress free process so far. Hopefully my bar results prove favorable and I can ramp up on making the connections in the firms I want to be in.
Traveling- We missed out on so many vacation opportunities due to school and having a little one at home. We use to take annual vacations and some mini-vacations throughout the year. During law school, we only got one big trip to D.C. and New York in. Now that I have “free time,” we have a few trips planned and it was so nice not having to try to fit those in between school breaks, work requirements, and our parental responsibilities. Up next, California, Hawaii, Mexico, and a snow boarding trip of some sort.
Relaxing!- If nothing else, I like being able to jut relax with my little family on the weekends. Mr. Mister is stoked that he has his weekends free to make plans without having to arrange for a babysitter. I’m stoked that it’s currently patio weather were I live and I can enjoy a nice glass of Malbec sitting on our outdoor couch with no school books or study materials in front of me.
It’s the little things.
One thing I dread hearing from anyone’s mouth is “what are you going to do when you graduate?” UGH! I don’t know! This late in the game you would think I had an idea, right?!
Atleast I know what I don’t want to do; oh yeah, narrowing down my options. I want to stay away from criminal law and family law. I am too disillusioned to prosecute and too scared to defend criminals. I also don’t have the sympathy necessary to work in family law. So, with that in mind, I took a look at this list and realized I better keep on choppin’ down my list of “want not’s” to make my list of “wants.”
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.
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Managing motherhood and life after law school, one day at a time
Managing motherhood and life after law school, one day at a time
Managing motherhood and life after law school, one day at a time
Managing motherhood and life after law school, one day at a time
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