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First Generation Success Story: When Life Gets In The Way
By Shirlene Armstrong • October 27, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
I want to address a very important topic that doesn’t always seem to correlate with law school: life. Despite popular belief, life continues on even when you enter law school. Your personal life does not cease to exist outside of the law school. People grow, things change, and life-altering events still happen. However, as a law student, you are stuck inside the four walls of your school just trying to survive each week. It is very easy to put yourself in a ‘law school bubble’ in which you focus all your time and energy studying (believe me, it is…
Thank You For Attending LaddHer Up
By Janee • October 22, 2018 •Ms. JD, Conference, Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life, Mentoring and Networking
Thank You for Attending LaddHer Up With Ms. J.D. On October 18-19, 2018, Ms. JD brought over 30 women general counsel and 50 early career associates together at the Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa, California for its inaugural LaddHer Up retreat! LaddHer Up’s unique program provided great general counsel networking opportunities, interesting expert workshops, small group recreational activities and 2:1 career meet-ups where each general counsel informally provided career advice to associates. Avery Blank gave great advice on negotiating your career effectively during her "PowHer Up to Negotiate Your Career" discussion. There are many misconceptions about the…
Making My Own Path: A Woman in Private Criminal Defense
By Stefanie Murphy • October 18, 2018 •Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
From an early age, I knew I wanted to go to law school, but not for the reason most people go. I wanted to go into law school to go into law enforcement and become a special agent. I was applying for jobs in while in law school and received an offer as a special agent in my second year, but turned down the job in order to finish law school. In my third year of law school, I met a private attorney and was asked if I wanted to work for his criminal defense law firm. I started off…
In Praise of Lawyer Moms
By Susan Smith Blakely • October 11, 2018 •Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
I am a lawyer/mom. Although my children are grown now and have become lawyers themselves, the memories of struggles as a lawyer/mom are still very vivid for me --- as well as the joys and the successes. It is not an easy "row to hoe" as my own mom would have said. So, when I read several articles about another lawyer/mom, including one on Above the Law by Grover Cleveland, author of Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks, I surely identified with it. I found, however, that my identification with Michelle Travis, the woman lawyer/professor of law/mom in these articles, ran deeper than…
Pushed & Pulled: The Kavanaugh Effect
By Katherine Macfarlane • September 30, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Careers, Legal Academia, Politics and Government, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination
It was not an easy week, last week. I don’t have it in me to tell you how my disability affected my work, because though it certainly did, as it always does, I was pulled in multiple directions by something else. I was both teacher and witness, professor and person. It was not an easy week to be all of those things. It was not easy to decide what to do on the day of the hearings. Should I cancel class, encouraging my students to watch history unfold, a history that speaks to their future as members of the legal…
You’re Writing Your To-Do Lists Wrong
By Kate Miceli • September 19, 2018 •Law School, Other Law School Issues, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
When I was 9, I tried to learn to juggle. After several dedicated minutes of tossing and dropping the pins, I gave up and declared my career as a juggler was over. 16 years later, it was reborn. But, instead of tossing brightly colored objects in the air I was tossing classes, extracurricular’s, and sleep. Although I’m still no juggling expert, here are three strategies that helped me keep all my balls in the air. Swallow Your Biggest Frog First There’s nothing worse than staring at a long to-do list not knowing where to begin. You become filled with dread…
A Career Planning Primer
By Diana LaMorie • September 05, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Careers, Other Career Issues, Law School, Choosing a Career and Landing a Job, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life, Mentoring and Networking
Estate planning. Retirement planning. Trip planning. Family planning. Business planning. Anything worth doing is worth planning. Rarely is anything accomplished overnight. In fact, I don't think there's such a thing as overnight success. Behind the hit song, hit movie, or ascension to CEO (or fill-in-the-blank top of your chosen field), came a lot of hard work, sacrifice and dedication. Success in your profession doesn't happen on its own either. A little bit of deliberation can help get you where you want to go in a more organized fashion and help keep your eye on the prize when you're feeling disoriented…
5 Things Busy Lawyers Can Do to Find the Time to Exercise
By Claire E. Parsons • August 22, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
Late last year, I started exercising regularly again after a long period of doing hardly anything at all. It wasn’t until this happened that I realized how much I missed physical activity. Law practice, after all, is not something that lends itself well to movement or even sensory stimulation. Instead, lawyers often spend long hours cooped up in an office and huddled over a computer or stacks of documents. We also tend to keep long hours, have little control over our schedules, and may feel at the end of the day like we have little else to give.…
Five Small Ways You Can Combat the Motherhood Penalty
By Amanda Norris Ames • August 20, 2018 •Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Other Career Issues, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life, Mentoring and Networking, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination
The ABA recently released research from its inquiry into why women leave the law. The study revealed issues all too familiar to many practicing female attorneys--discrimination, salary dissatisfaction, caregiving responsibilities that are incompatible with the pace of practice. And while the ABA’s efforts are ongoing, I was surprised to see a lack of focus on what numerous other studies have dubbed the “motherhood penalty”--or the earnings (and corresponding promotion) gap between mothers and non-parents in the workplace. Research shows a significant decline in a woman's earnings after the birth of her first child, with that disparity continuing throughout her career.…