Blog Article
How Long Does It Take to Get a Divorce in Florida?
By Anonymous • April 01, 2022 •Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
The answer is that there is no answer because it depends on the circumstances. Divorcing a spouse in Florida can be quick in some cases, and quite lengthy in others. The bigger question would be better started with “Do I qualify for an uncontested divorce?” or “Must my divorce be contested?” The fastest way to get a divorce in Florida is by filing an uncontested divorce. These usually take around 3 months on average provided that it is in fact uncontested. The average contested divorce in Florida usually takes about a year but may take up to two years or even longer, given the nature…
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Heat & Light: A Discussion with Michele Coleman Mayes on Corporate Social Responsibility
By Ms. JD Editor • April 12, 2021 •Ms. JD
Excerpts of an interview conducted by Ms. JD Fellow Lisa J. Cole on March 09, 2021. “You need heat and light. And by that I mean you need pressure, but you can also educate.” Please briefly introduce yourself. Who you are and what you do? I’m Michele Coleman Mayes and I am General Counsel for the New York Public Library. I’ve been in this position just about eight and a half years. What do you do as General Counsel for the New York Public Library? What is a normal day in the life? There is no such thing as a…
Blog Article
How RBG Helped Lead the Way to Women’s Financial Independence
By Susan Smith Blakely • September 29, 2020 •Issues, Other Issues
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is gone. Our mentor is missing. We all should be very sad. Our politics do not matter in this context. We all are women. We all should be grateful that this small and powerful woman walked amongst us. I was in law school at Georgetown Law (then Georgetown University Law Center (GULC)) during the mid 1970’s when Ruth Bader Ginsburg was arguing cases on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union and setting the foundation for women’s rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is entirely possible that most…
Blog Article
Decoding the Language of Inventorship and Why it Matters
By Desiree Goff • April 30, 2020 •Ms. JD, Writers in Residence
I was recently asked by a client what classifies one as an inventor. This can be broken down to the technical elements and definitions including conception, reduction to practice, collaboration and contribution to claims. But what struck me about this question is that subjects which seem obvious to us as attorneys are often complete mysteries to our clients. It takes recognition and effort on our part to break down the shroud of legalese that can pervade our profession in order to help them. Any profession has a certain amount of definition-based language, which once understood, helps those not trained in…
Blog Article
The Influencers: The All-Woman Texas Supreme Court
By Carron Nicks • March 30, 2020 •Writers in Residence
Being a Texan (non-native, but proud nevertheless), I love tales of interesting episodes in Texas history. There are many, but one of my favorites tells of what may be the most unusual state supreme court ever. The events in our story occurred almost a hundred years ago. At that time, the Supreme Court of Texas consisted of a chief justice and two associate justices. You will be forgiven if you assume that in 1924 and 1925 all three sitting justices were male. This fact would come to pose a problem for the governor and the court. At the time, fraternal organizations were…
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The Influencers: America’s First Woman Lawyer?
By Carron Nicks • February 29, 2020 •Ms. JD, Writers in Residence
Who was the first woman lawyer in America? Was it a woman who bucked tradition in the heavily male-dominated American Colonies? How about a woman who studied law not in the powerhouse commercial centers of the East, but the American Heartland after the Civil War? Or the woman who took the denial of her bar application to the US Supreme Court? History tells us that lawyers have been plying their trade since the days of ancient Rome and Greece. But history also tells us that those were male lawyers. From what we know, there were no female lawyers in America…
Blog Article
Something Blue: Bringing Blue-Collar Roots to the Legal Profession – An Interview with Rexanah Wyse
By Molly Timko • September 29, 2019 •Ms. JD, Writers in Residence, Careers, Law School
For this month's post, I am delighted to feature an interview with Rexanah P. Wyse, a first generation attorney and former prosecutor dedicated to changing the narrative for vulnerable populations. Rexanah currently works for the federal government where she serves on a policy team that is focused on youth homelessness, criminal justice, racial equity, human trafficking, and ending homelessness for families. Could you tell Ms. JD blog readers about your background and what prompted you to apply to law school? My lineage is directly tied to Sierra Leone in West Africa. A small developing nation with a powerful history of…
Blog Article
Managing the Costs of Law School
By Caambridge Horton • July 30, 2019 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Pre-Law
The costs associated with seeking higher education can be astronomical. At this point in time, debt is an issue that plagues many students and their families. As the nation becomes more sensitive to the negative implications associated with student debt, it is essential to seek ways to keep the costs of receiving an education low. 1. Make sure you apply to law school early The majority if not all law schools have rolling admission. Rolling admissions means the law school evaluates applications as they are received and continue to evaluate applications until the seats are filled for the incoming class.…
Blog Article
How to Get Leadership Positions to Build Your Practice
By Claire E. Parsons • June 10, 2019 •Ms. JD, Writers in Residence, Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Issues, Mentoring and Networking
Ask most experienced attorneys how they built their practice and they’ll tell you they “got involved” in the community or professional organizations. Maybe this advice doesn’t always use the term “leadership” but that’s what it means. If you really want to “get involved” and build your reputation, you need to do some real work rather than just paying a membership fee and adding your name to a list. This may be a little scary for young attorneys, since it is easy to think that you haven’t paid your dues long enough to qualify as a leader. It may be easy to…
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Interview with Genie Doi, Esports Immigration Lawyer - On the Field: Women in Sports Law
By Tatum Wheeler • April 26, 2019 •Ms. JD, Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Issues, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination, Women and Law in the Media
I am pleased to introduce Ms. Genie Doi, founder and attorney-in-chief of immigrate.la and of counsel to ESG Law. Genie worked at top immigration firms in the Los Angeles Area after graduating from Loyola Law School with a concentration in Immigrant Advocacy in 2014. Prior to starting immigrate.la to handle immigration services for the Silicon Beach community in 2017, Genie served as General Counsel and Vice President of Operations for a mobile app development company. Genie became of counsel to ESG Law in 2018, joining Ms. Krista Hiner in the first US law firm devoted to esports. Thank you so much for your time today!…Connect with us
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