From Paralegal to Associate: How to Handle Stress During the First Year as an Associate
By Nadia Ennaji • May 29, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Careers, Other Career Issues, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life, Other Issues
It is no secret that the schedule of an attorney is a hectic one. Balancing a personal life with the pressure of billable hour is a tricky job. The typical day of an attorney starts around 8:30 am and rarely ends until 7:30 pm. Add to this the commute to and from home. And with the new technology, are you truly ever disconnected from work? All of these contribute to higher than normal stress level in the legal profession. The first year of a new associate is even more difficult, as there is the continuous pressure to adjust to the…
Selfie with no Filter: the 1L Life - Academic Advice
By Britt Wiegand • May 29, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Pre-Law, Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics, Other Law School Issues
Whew. It's over! Finals ended over two weeks ago and I still have days when I'm still not sure that I completely feel it yet. Sometimes I think I do, then (like the other day) I'm driving to meet friends for lunch, see someone with a backpack crossing the street, and automatically think "sh*t I've gotta get back to studying!" Though the feeling is still sinking in, I've received grades and gotten a chance to reflect on what I would do differently. Since I can't go back, my hope is to shed some light for future students. I did a good bit…
Drive Your Journey: Facebook as a Pathway to Increasing Your Brand Presence
By Delania Barbee • May 28, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Careers
A recent Pew Research Center study shows that the majority of U.S. adults are on present on Facebook, and three-quarters of those adults visit Facebook every day. This makes Facebook a great online platform for building a brand. So, what should you do to maximize your use of Facebook? Below are several suggestions: Create a page. If you are familiar with Facebook, you are likely aware that there is a difference between a profile, which is where you allow people to be added as “friends”, and a profile, which people follow by “liking” the page. Pages are not just reserved…
Business Etiquette: Enhancing Communication
By Tori Keith • May 30, 2018 •Writers in Residence
Last month I had the good fortune of attending the annual conference hosted by the National Association of Legal Placement, aka NALP. One of the most informative sessions to me was on law firm associate retention and the role that interpersonal relationships play in associate satisfaction. Given that 75% of associates leave the firm in which they start within 5 years, I was eager to know why, and what made the other 25% happy enough to stay? Turns out the biggest factor is engagement - feeling heard and valued. Engagement increases productivity, loyalty, and innovative work and generates a positive…
Seasoned Lawyers are Critical as Mentors for All Young Lawyers
By Susan Smith Blakely • May 31, 2018 •Careers, Firms and the Private Sector
Sometimes you just read something that you know is wrong. Not just wrong, but Wrong, Wrong, Real Wrong. Well, that happened to me just the other day. I was reading the Above The Law blog, and I came upon an article captioned "Why Today's Seasoned Lawyers Shouldn't Mentor Newbies." Because I have written so much on mentoring, including in my new book to be released this summer, the article immediately interested me. In that new book, What Millennial Lawyers Want (Wolters Kluwer/Aspen Publishers), I argue that young lawyers want more --- not less --- attention from senior lawyers. I argue that it is the isolation…
Disability & the Summer Associate Gig: To Disclose or Not to Disclose?
By Katherine Macfarlane • June 03, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Choosing a Career and Landing a Job, Issues, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination
During my 1L year, I was thrilled to receive a summer position at an employment rights firm that represented plaintiffs in anti-discrimination suits. I’d convinced the firm to waive its practice of hiring only rising 3Ls for summer law clerk positions. I entered my summer job with high hopes about the extraordinary cases I’d be a part of, and an understanding that, as a rising 2L, I’d need to prove myself. I knew that the firm’s associates worked around the clock, but for summer law clerks, the hours were reasonable. Feedback on my research and writing was strong, and it appeared that…
The Quintessential JD Preferred Career: An Interview with Valerie Chianuri
By Diana LaMorie • May 30, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Careers
Hot off the heels of our 2-part interview with a high caliber legal recruiter in March and April, my list of accomplished Ms. JD interviewees grows with Valerie Chianuri (another fellow BLS alumna), Senior Director of Exusia Inc., a global technology consulting company. Valerie has had the quintessential JD Preferred career, holding cutting edge roles in the fields of entrepreneurism, privacy and payments law (and beyond). No matter what field you are in, her story is an inspiring one and makes the case for alternate uses for a JD better and more succinctly than I can in a year’s worth of blog posts. ***************** Tell…
Career Tips for Women Lawyers
By Susan Smith Blakely • May 29, 2018
Recently I attended the Georgetown Women's Forum, which expanded the Georgetown Law Women's Forum to Georgetown University graduates in celebration of the 25th year of the Forum. As in years past, the program was inspiring. Having attended the Forum for many years and also participated as a panelist, I take great pride in the quality of the programs. From the welcome by Savannah Guthrie, a Georgetown Law graduate, to the keynote address by Sally Yates, who briefly joined the Georgetown Law faculty after departing the Justice Department last year, to the final moments of dedication to careers, the program was…
Innovative Law Schools: Aspirational or Unattainable?
By Shundra Crumpton • May 29, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics
UPDATE: I graduated from law school on May 11, 2018, so I am now Ms. Innovative Psychic, J.D.! I cannot believe that three years of the Socratic method, curved grades, and outlines are finally behind me. I still remember my first day of law school. As commonly experienced by many beginning law students, but rarely uttered, my main concern at the time was whether I should wear a suit to my first class or jeans. Over the years, I went from dreading cold calling to wishing that the professor would call on me so that I could be “off the…