MILS = Moms in Law School

Saramel over at Reasonable Expectations has teamed up with A Little Fish in Law School and PT-LawMom to rotate a weekly roundup of blog posts by moms in law school (MILS). There are a number of excellent law student mom bloggers out there and this is a cool way to bring them together for your reading pleasure.

Are all of my customer service complaints doomed to be seen as illegitimate?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, "A Lawyer Bride Sues Her Florist" which reminded me of sintecho's recent post "Does Your Partner Hide Behind Your Skirts?"

Bookmark This!

Yet again, the lovely Carolyn Elefant has brought to my attention a site formerly unknown to me: Mommy Track'd I am not a mommy so it may have been a while before I ever found this on my own, but for those of you who are moms or hope to be a mom someday - check the site out.

Congressional Babies!

I am not the best when it comes to keeping up with news and politics - granted, I have become more informed and inquisitive as I get older - but I don't know the ins and outs of Washington and I certainly don't keep up with news on the players - but this article about Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers caught my attention and I thought I would mention it because, well, I thought it was a nice piece.

Challenging the Perpetual Debate

When it comes to preparing for job interviews, I can’t help but notice that the initial concern of many (if not most) women is “what do I wear?”

This apparent concern with appearances often baffles men. I can recall asking a group of men what their advice on the matter might be - and they seemed concerned with my priorities and advised me to worry about the interview questions and other matters relating to the “substance” of the interview. While this is, or at least it should be what matters in an interview, I challenge you to show me someone (who isn’t blind) that is immune from the human instinct of making judgments or assumptions about a person based on appearances.

Networking No-Nos?

I recently saw this article (The Case of the Pushy Lady by Liz Ryan) headlining my yahoo homepage and must admit that I was a bit disappointed when I read it. I suppose it isn't anyone's fault but my own - the headline said something about "Networking No-Nos", it was silly of me to expect the how-to guide that I continue to seek when it comes to the skill of networking... The article pointed out some of the things I have grappled with in other posts here on Ms. JD

Reality Check

Ms. Gail Cutter recently wrote a piece for the New York Law Journal/nylawyer.com called Career Coach: The Myths Of Ms. JD which I hope you will take a moment to read if you have not done so already.

Introductions Matter

Despite the fact that Carolyn Elefant's "My Shingle" is amongst the blawgs I most frequently visit, I somehow missed this post from March 24th highlighting an easily overlooked situation which has a simple enough (I think) solution.

The article is in response to a post by Lawyer Mama illustrating how a typical business introduction may be insufficient to combat the assumption that a woman in a law firm is a secretary, not an attorney.

BigLaw Swag and Sway

As most of my other posts reveals, I enjoy skimming law.com and nylawyer.com and tend to use these affiliate sites as my main source of news... so you are probably unsurprised that this post is inspired by an article recently published on law.com - I am so predictable.

I think many large law firms are predictable as well. When I read an article entitled "Firms Predict More Work, Less Equity" I was saddened, but unsurprised.

The article predicts that law firms will see even less expansion of their equity partner ranks, while at the same time more expansion in the associate ranks and a higher demand of billable hours.

A shift in focus from the "opt-out" to the "opt-in"

Both Lawjobs.com (via law.com) and NYLawyer.com have recently reported new programs at Hastings and Pace University which are designed to bridge the gap and ease re-entry into the legal market for professionals who have taken a year or more off of work.

Not surprisingly, most of the individuals enrolling in such programs are women who have taken time off to have/raise kids.