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You’ll Pay For This: It Is Time To Dig Out Of Your Financial Hole
By Kerriann Stout • April 03, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Careers, Other Career Issues, Law School, Other Law School Issues, Issues, Other Issues
Welcome back! So far, we’ve covered the bleak reality of the student loan crisis and learned how to read our student loan statements (all highly riveting, I assure you.) This month, we are ready to discuss how to start digging yourself out of the financial hole in which you find yourself. Now, you may be wondering why you should take any advice from me -what with my $200k+ student loans and all - about paying debt off. Well, my husband and I used the following 6 tips to pay off over $60,000 in 2 years (and managed to save money towards…
Ms. J.D. Attends “Hidden Figures: Honoring Trailblazers in Tampa Bay,” by the FBA-Tampa
By Janee Prince • February 28, 2018 •Issues, Other Issues
Photo by Keith Lindquist After engaging in a bit of observational data analysis, also known as “creeping” on the Federal Bar Association –Tampa Chapter’s event last year, entitled “Staying in the Game: Getting to the Top,” and documenting my experience, I jumped at the opportunity to attend another fantastic, well-thought-out event with the FBA. Appropriately entitled “Hidden Figures,” this event honored Tampa Bay’s legal trailblazers. The individuals recognized have impacted, not just the Florida legal community, but the Nation as a whole. Merely being in the presence of such legal greatness provided palpable energy and a buzz within the Grand…
You’ll Pay For This: What In The World Does Your Student Loan Statement Say?
By Kerriann Stout • February 28, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Other Law School Issues, Issues, Other Issues
I would compare reading about law school loans to watching a car accident happen. You don’t really WANT to watch it, but you also can’t seem to turn away. This month, I am rewarding your curiosity with a more in depth analysis of how student loans work. As you may recall from last month, I spent a good deal of time (almost 2 years) after graduation completely avoiding the fact that I had student loans at all. A big part of the reason I was so scared to even look at my student loan accounts after I graduated was that I…
From Paralegal to Associate: Are you still doing “office housework”?
By Nadia Ennaji • February 26, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Careers, Issues, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination, Women and Law in the Media, Other Issues
I recently read an article written by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant on women doing office housework.[1] It couldn’t ring truer to my ears than now. As a paralegal, it is your job to do all the admin tasks being delegated by the attorneys. But as an attorney, I somewhat still am asked to do those admin tasks on top of the workload of an attorney. Recently, during a trial, not only was I expected to do all the preparation for the trial, but I was also expected to put the exhibits together, and prepare the binders. What is one supposed…
10 Habits of Wealthy Lawyers
By Joshua Holt • February 25, 2018 •Careers, Legal Academia, Law School, Pre-Law, Issues, Other Issues, Features, Myths & Truths
Setting yourself up for financial success isn’t about making one good decision. If willpower were all it took to get rich, we’d all have a million dollars by 3 pm and on a flight to a tropical island by 7 pm. Unfortunately (or fortunately really), building wealth is about changing behaviors through developing new habits. And just like any habit you’ve ever changed, it’s not something that happens overnight. You’ll have to build these habits over time. Here are my top 10 habits of financially successful people. Habit 1: Paradigm Shift People that are successful with money believe that money…
LEGALXX 2018: Women’s Legal Tech Event
By Nikki Torres • February 21, 2018 •Issues, Other Issues
Planning to visit ABA TECHSHOW? Interested in closing the gender gap for women in legal tech or women lawyers representing tech companies? Join us for a free, one-day symposium on closing the legal tech gender gap. Learn more at: https://www.legalxx.org/ LEGALXX - Women. Law. Technology. Wed, March 7, 2018 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM CST Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Institute of Technology 565 West Adams Street Chicago, IL 60661 Women are woefully underrepresented in the tech field, often facing sexism and harassment. As startup founders, investors, or tech employees, men often outnumber women many times over. If women play…
Don’t Be An Investing Clown
By Joshua Holt • February 10, 2018 •Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Issues, Other Issues, Features, Myths & Truths
The stock market just finished a great year. For every dollar invested on January 1, 2017, in an index fund tracking the S&P 500, the market returned a whopping 19.42% in appreciation by the end of the year. That’s not even taking into consideration the dividends paid. If you add in those, the index investor saw a return of 21.83% on each dollar invested (less fees, which of course should be kept to a minimum). Those are exciting numbers. What does a 21.83% return get you? Well, it doubles your money every 3.3 years for a start. You could get…
Female Lawyers: a Doubtful Advantage
By Ben Tor • January 31, 2018 •Issues, Other Issues
Harvard University presented the results of a study concerning graduates-lawyers. Among other observations of the career of those who came from an elite educational institution, it turned out that women who have made a career in law receive less, make marriages less often, and work more than their male counterparts. The study, entitled "Men and Women of the Harvard Law School", in which the 1975, 1985, 1995 and 2000 issues were studied, demonstrated how different are the lives of lawyers and professionals of different sexes. The differences were more than enough. Researchers - from the time of job search and…
When The Law Breaks Your Heart
By Kendra Strobel • January 30, 2018 •Issues, Other Issues
Law school taught me a lot of things. It taught me how to read a case, write a brief, argue an issue, and drink as much coffee as humanly possible. Among the things that law school didn’t teach me, however, was how devastating it would be the first time the law broke my heart. In all fairness, I’m not blaming law school for this – I have no idea how you teach someone what it will feel like when you watch a family torn apart and can’t do anything to stop it. For those of you who haven’t faced this…