Why You Should Take Classes Outside of Your Comfort Zone

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou

Gaining control of your class schedule is one of the most exciting aspects of leaving 1L behind and moving forward in your law school journey. Aside from the anxiety it induces as everyone gathers around tables in the yellow room or library to sign up for classes at the exact time that the registration window opens, the chance to pick all your courses is one of the most fun parts of law school. But not enough people take full advantage of this freedom. I understand the temptation to use your future career path as a guide for course selection. Yet more students should utilize their time in school to explore various areas of the law. Studying at Boston College Law School means we have access to some of the sharpest and most thoughtful legal minds across a wide variety of subjects. Take advantage of that bounty of intellectual acumen while you can. Doing so will make us all better lawyers and students, and, more importantly, more well-rounded people, regardless of our future professional track.

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Supreme Court Considers FCC’s Jury Trial Problem

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has loomed large on the Supreme Court’s docket recently. Last term, the Justices addressed E-Rate fraud prevention efforts, the agency’s authority to bind courts, and the constitutionality of its Universal Service Program. Now the Commission is before the High Court. This new case, FCC v. AT&T, asks whether the FCC’s power to levy punitive fines violates the Seventh Amendment right to a trial by jury—a question whose resolution could reshape not just telecommunications regulation but the balance of power among agencies, courts, and juries.

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To Clinic or To Extern? That ‘Tis the Question

/ Samantha Torre / Leave a comment

Another semester is well underway, and for 1Ls currently staring down approximately a couple hundred pages of reading per week, it might be heartening to remember that with 2L comes opportunities to practically build your legal skills. 

Two of these opportunities, externships and clinics, allow students to engage with the legal profession practically. This all sounds amazing, but when I was a 1L I had questions: what’s a clinic? What’s an externship? How are they different? Can you do both? 

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The Great White Hurricane: When Providence Showed Off

/ Alex Mostaghimi / Leave a comment

This weekend’s bitter cold reminded me of a three-day storm long in the past that makes our modern Nor’easters look positively quaint. On March 11-14, 1888, the “Great White Hurricane” buried the Northeast under 50 inches of snow coupled with 85 mph winds. According to contemporary account in the New York Evening Sun, “It came in whirls, it descended in layers, it shot along in great blocks, it rose and fell and corkscrewed and zigzagged and played merry havoc with everything it could swing or batter or bang or carry away.”

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A Tale of Two Newtons: Life as a Freshman and Law Student

/ Joe Monti / Leave a comment

Before I ever stepped foot onto the grounds of Boston College, I learned that I would be living on the Newton campus my freshman year.

I did not think much of it at first, but as I descended the hill to Duchesne Hall for the first time, I prepared myself for an entire year of living in the lowest place on campus, both figuratively and literally. Although I had some challenges adjusting to my new living situation, I came to love Newton campus and defend it against anybody willing to talk poorly about it. I met some of my best friends in Duchesne and on the Newton bus, and I would not trade those experiences for anything. Only on Newton campus will you see people being hurled down a hill of snow and ice in a trash can and call it “sledding.” Only on Newton campus will freshmen buy BC Law sweatshirts to try to study in the Law Library.

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From Imposter Syndrome to Winning a Jury Trial: My First Semester in the BC Defenders Clinic

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / 1 Comment

This guest post was written by Natalie Reysa, a third-year student at BC Law.

“Oh boy, am I glad to see you!” This reaction was the opposite of what I expected from the first client I met in lockup, on my first duty day in the Dorchester Division of the Boston Municipal Court.

I had imagined this day repeatedly, convinced that my future clients would take one look at me and immediately doubt my abilities to represent them. The potential reasons floated in my head: young female law student, intimidated by public speaking and thinking on my feet, no background in public defense trial work…the list went on.

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Four Tips for Navigating Grade Disappointment

/ Alexandra Staller / 1 Comment

Once again I am directly addressing the 1L class, and also airing out my dirty laundry. Everything I write below—like all my Impact posts—is what I wish someone could have told me before coming to school. As always, all opinions and experiences are my own, as I can only speak to what I endured during my 1L year.

“Endure” will be the theme here. It’s a strong word I typically find only in my romantasy books. Merriam-Webster tells us it means “to remain firm under suffering or misfortune without yielding.” Very dramatic. But to say a student endures his or her 1L year does not fail to satisfy Merriam-Webster’s definition. Some of you may feel like you’re hanging by a thread, trying to go through the motions of law school one day at a time. You are enduring.

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Happy New Year: A Time for Renewal and New Beginnings

/ Staniel Brutis / Leave a comment

The New Year has come. This time of the year serves as a period for renewal and new beginnings for law students like myself, who have survived the previous semester. New classes, professors, and classmates provide us with an opportunity to feel rejuvenated ahead of the remainder of the spring semester. 

However, after 3 years of being a Massachusetts resident, I’ve found that the weather of this winter season fails to produce the same vibration of revival that is felt upon campus. It seems that spring fits the theme of the new year much better than the snow and 4pm nightfall that this dead period brings. Curious as to why the weather and seasons misalign, I took a quick look into history and found answers within the civilizations of classical antiquity, particularly the Romans.

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