The OnRamp Fellowship—A Pipeline Back Into Practice
By Megan Boyd • November 24, 2015 •Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
According to a 2010 study by the Center for Work-Life Policy, nearly 75 percent of women attempting to return to the workforce after voluntarily leaving have difficulty finding a job. What’s a talented, driven, hard-working woman to do? Enter the OnRamp Fellowship program, an “experiential re-entry platform” designed to help women lawyers return to the workforce. The program, which began in 2014, is the brainchild of Caren Ulrich Stacy, who spent 20 years inside law firms recruiting talent. She says during those years, she saw hundreds of resumes from qualified women who were attempting to re-enter the profession after leaving,…
Getting to Know Jennifer Rubin, Mintz Levin’s Fearless “Dudette”
By Megan Boyd • October 16, 2015 •Ms. JD, Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Other Career Issues, Law School, Choosing a Career and Landing a Job, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life, •Mentoring and Networking, Features, Guest Bloggers and Profiles of Women in the Law
I recently spoke to Mintz Levin Partner Jennifer Rubin, who was gracious enough to give me a few minutes of her time for an interview for Ms. JD. I was extremely impressed by Rubin, and I think you will be too. In her 25-year career as a lawyer, Rubin has gone from handling general commercial litigation cases as a young associate to building a bi-coastal employment practice. It would seem that someone this dedicated should have been preparing all her life to be a lawyer. But Rubin isn’t one of those people. She “wasn’t a very good student” in high school and never thought…
Law School Rules: Five to Keep and Five to Break
By Megan Boyd • August 09, 2015 •Law School, Pre-Law, Other Law School Issues, Features, Guest Bloggers and Profiles of Women in the Law, Myths & Truths
As you’ve probably already discovered, when you tell people you’re going to law school, everyone wants to offer tips and advice, even those people who were never law students themselves! Much of the guidance you’ve heard (or will hear) is contradictory. Based on my experience as a law student, the experiences of my friends and colleagues, and what I’ve seen teaching first-year law students, I’ve compiled a list of five law school rules you can break and five you should definitely follow! Rule to Break #1—Read the Cases and You’ll Do Well in Law School This rule isn’t 100% wrong—you…
Surviving and Thriving in the Early Years: Tackling Legal Research and Writing
By Megan Boyd • February 06, 2015 •Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Nonprofits and the Public Interest, Politics and Government, Features, Guest Bloggers and Profiles of Women in the Law
I’ve known very few people who made an “easy” transition from law school to practice—I certainly didn’t. Law practice requires many skills you weren’t taught in law school. As a young attorney, you’ll frequently be researching and drafting memos and briefs. You practiced these skills in law school during your legal writing courses, but research and writing aren’t as simple once the stakes are higher and your clients’ interests are on the line. Below are 10 tips to survive and thrive in your research and writing assignments. 1. Take thorough notes and read any written assignment carefully. If you receive…
Supreme Ambitions: A Book Review
By Megan Boyd • December 08, 2014 •Ms. JD, Ms. JD Book Reviews, Careers, Politics and Government, Law School, Internships and Clerkships, Issues, Women and Law in the Media, •Features, Guest Bloggers and Profiles of Women in the Law
David Lat, of Above the Law and Underneath Their Robes fame, has released his first novel, Supreme Ambitions. The protagonist, Audrey Coyne, is a smart but socially underdeveloped baby lawyer. After graduating from Harvard and Yale Law School, Audrey takes a clerkship with her judicial idol, Judge Christina Wong Stinson, a rare conservative on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Audrey’s dream is to one day clerk for a Supreme Court justice, and she thinks Judge Stinson may be her ticket to that prestigious clerkship and the perks that come with it. But clerking isn’t all Audrey thought it would…