Advice on Passing the Bar Exam: Part III
By K Hernan • February 11, 2008 •Bar Exam
Following up on the recent posts giving advice for passing the bar, I have a couple of tips to add to the great information already provided on this site. I sat for (and passed) the July 2007 Bar Exam in California. The two tips that I will share here relate to the written portion of the test and I think now is the perfect time to share them as the July test is just weeks away! Both of these tips relate to matching how you study to how you will test. During the first 8 weeks or so of studying for the exam,…
A book you can skip: It’s Harder in Heels: Essays by Women Lawyers Achieving Work-Life Balance (July 2007)
By K Hernan • November 27, 2007 •Other Career Issues
I am sorry to report that this book with a very promising title is really not that good. I am infinitely interested in how women lawyers make it all work, how they balance work and life, how they network, who their mentors are, etc etc. I purchased this book with extreme excitement over the possibility that this would be the lawyer's counterpart to the Mommy Wars book which was basically written by journalists. The back cover promises essays that are "inspiring, observant, introspective, insightful, and wise." Well, it is sad, but this book is a real disappointment. Instead of being…
Money Talks: The free-market answer to more diversity in law firms
By K Hernan • November 02, 2007 •Firms and the Private Sector
With all the talk about diversity being a good business practice for law firms, it is nice to finally see a client put some pressure on law firms to change. In the November issue of Corporate Counsel magazine there is a short story about General Motors and the demands it makes of its outside counsel to be more diverse. Earlier this year, [GM] became one of the first companies to link reduced billing rates to diversity goals. ...In the second quarter of this year, the law department began a pilot program that sets individual diversity goals for six of its…
Note to readers
By K Hernan • November 01, 2007 •Other Career Issues
I have recently come up on some personal/political obstacles that will require me to change the name under which I post here on Ms. JD. As Jessie would say, the personal is political. Over the last few months, I have gotten a lot more personal in my posts than I intended (which is good, I think) so I am going to have to make my identity a little more cryptic so that I maintain more control over who knows what I am writing. I am not ashamed of anything that I've written and I whole-heartedly believe in what I've said.…
Making different life choices than my Mom
By K Hernan • October 10, 2007 •Other Career Issues
There is a post on The Juggle that made me stop to think about another dimension in this inner-struggle that we working mothers face everyday – you know, the struggle to be a good lawyer and a good mom at the same time. That dimension is my own mother’s opinion about my choice. I actually have the best sort of mother that any adult woman could ask for. She was a great role model for me growing up and gave me lots of guidance and advice when I needed it most. Now, she is a great listener and a great…
BigLaw fit for women?
By K Hernan • May 29, 2007 •Firms and the Private Sector
I want to take a minute to go against the grain and ask the seemingly counter-intuitive question about women in the profession: Could Big Law be the best place for us to practice law?I was asked by a new acquaintance last week if I thought I could handle the "negative work environment" of the big firm. My response was that I think I actually prefer a negative work environment. More about that perhaps-unusual answer in a future post. For now, I'd like to explore why I think that big organizations are better for women. The idea for this blog was…
Mommy Wars: A problem of the privileged - okay. Imaginary…nope.
By K Hernan • May 03, 2007 •Women and Law in the Media
There was an article in the Washington Post last week that boldly asserts that the "Mommy Wars" are a figment of our imagination, a creation of the media that always likes to showcase a good cat fight. The article is very well researched and propounds an interesting stance on the so-called conflict between working moms and stay at home moms ("SAHM").I completely believe that all the press coverage of the Mommy Wars is meant to "[tug] at the guilt of the privileged." After all, I put myself in the categories of privileged and guilty and feel myself getting tugged on…