Don't Forget the Summer

As I typed a client letter today at work, I realized for the first time that it is the middle of June already! As I have sat at my desk for the past month, the warm haze of summer has set in, but I have only seen it out of the corner of my eye as the sun shines in to my office window. Granted, I am working full-time at an amazing legal services agency, and I have been taking classes at school part-time so that I have less of a load during my last school year, but I realized that I have been unable to engage in any of the frivolous activities of summer thus far! I have yet to don a bathing suit, or even a pair of shorts. My always fair skin has yet to need a substantial dose of sunscreen. This is not good.

I am sure that we sometimes feel as if we are more busy this summer than during the school year. Despite complaining all year long about the stresses of the classroom, it almost seems safe now--to hide behind my laptop screen and relax in the safety of being one student among eighty others. Now, I am one of eight clerks and there is nowhere to hide if I botch a memo or write a bad letter. I almost miss the hours set aside for studying, where I had the ability to stop for ten minutes and check Perez Hilton in between 150 pages of casebook reading. Now, I fight myself for 8 hours a day to try and bill six hours! I quickly scan assignments over dinner before my evening class. THIS is summer vacation?

And the worst of it is that my kids are having a BALL! And they should. They're kids and it's summer. They go to the pool, the zoo, our science center. But they are doing all of this with the nanny and my heart is full of jealousy when I get home and kiss their greasy faces that have been slathered with sunscreen for a day of fun without me. I love my job and enjoy the work that I do, but I can't help thinking about what kind of memories my kids will have of childhood. Will I be a part of that, or will it just be thoughts of their time with our nanny?

1Ls: Finals Are Over, Time to Find a Summer Job

For those of you finishing up your first semester this week: Congratualtions! Next step: summer job. 1L summer jobs can be found in firms, non-profits, government agencies, judges' chambers, and law school. Each has distinct benefits and its own application timetable. It's time to think about all of them now, because winter break may be your chance to get a foot in the door.

Networking

Today I received my final rejection letter for a 1L summer associate position. Naively, I thought that having a bit of firm and administrative law experience and being en route to a JD from a top 15 law school would have appeal somewhere. So I applied machine gun style: I sent my resume to over 30 firms in the Bay area, hoping I'd hit at least one or two. Turns out, it was more like zero. Over 30 little white envelopes filled my mailbox over the following two weeks.