Month: January 2025

Need a Reset? Find Peace on the BC Ski Trip

/ Catherine Beveridge / Leave a comment

I lived in Washington D.C. for two years before moving to Boston. After growing up in New York and spending plenty of time in Maine, the one thing I missed most in DC was winter. When I took my first BC Law tour, my tour guide mentioned the Killington ski trip. My mom, who joined me on the tour, saw my face light up and knew I was sold, as silly as it might seem.

This past weekend was the long-awaited trip, and I was nervous about it. I finally recovered from a bad flu that made the start of the semester wobbly at best. I got back to the gym and danced once I healed up, but was worried my body and mind were out of sorts. I was also rooming alone and wondered if I was missing out on the bonding experiences 2Ls and 3Ls talked about on prior trips. 

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Four Things to Know for Those Considering Clerking

/ Alex Mostaghimi / Leave a comment

A judicial law clerk assists a judge in their most important duties: preparing to supervise an oral argument, drafting opinions, and preparing jury instructions. With direct contact from the arbiters of the law, the value of a judicial clerkship cannot be matched. Not only will a judicial clerk’s writing, reading, and analytical skills vastly improve, their network among members of the Bar, other clerks, and judges will also expand.

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After Net Neutrality: The Return of the States

/ 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.

I recently discussed the Sixth Circuit decision classifying broadband as a Title I information service and effectively eliminating the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) general power to regulate broadband. But like nature, regulators abhor a vacuum. While closing the door to federal regulators, the decision also creates opportunities for states to act. This post examines the present and potential future of state-level broadband regulation.

Historically, state regulators were key players in the telecommunications space. The Communications Act of 1934 divided the telecommunications world into two neat hemispheres: The FCC regulated interstate long-distance service, while state commissions regulated local and intrastate long distance. This division of authority made sense in a world where 98 percent of calls were local, and long-distance calls were a luxury. But the Telecommunications Act of 1996 dramatically rearranged the balance of power between the federal government and the states. Meanwhile, local telephone service largely disappeared as a separate market, before communication shifted from the telephone to broadband networks. As a result, most states shuttered their telecommunications regulators early in the 21st century.

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Legal Podcast Review: ‘Rebuttal’ Pod

/ Samantha Torre / Leave a comment

If you’ve ever seen Once Upon A Time in Hollywood – or are chronically online (like me) — you’re familiar with the image of Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo Dicaprio in a violently yellow t-shirt, pointing furiously at an (off-camera) television screen. The image was reenacted by me recently, as I poured over my criminal law reading this week. 

The reason I was furiously pointing at a case from the 1800s? Well, I recognized it. Not from a previous class, but from a podcast I had listened to on my commute to work this summer – ‘Rebuttal,’

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Reading List for Rising Lawyers

/ Sangeeta Kishore / Leave a comment

The number one question I get from incoming 1Ls is: how do I prepare for law school? 

The short answer is: you shouldn’t prepare. Whether you’ve worked a long career or you’re fresh out of college like I was, use your time before law school to decompress and reset. I promise you won’t fall behind. The briefing, the outlining, the cold call, it’ll all come together eventually. 

But if you’re looking for something to do or want to get the gears turning ahead of time, here’s a list of my favorite legal reads: 

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Environmental Law and the Climate Apocalypse

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

He rounded a bend to hear the roar of the conflagration and see a fire a half mile ahead like a black-and-red curtain dropped from a night sky. Even from that distance the heat stopped him. He collapsed to his knees, sat in the warm ashes through which he’d been wading, and wept.  – Denis Johnson, Train Dreams.

Fire has always been an inherent part of life in the American West. The mountains, plains, and forests that sprawl from the Mississippi to the Pacific see conflagrations that can reduce thousands of acres of landscape into smoldering ash in just a few days. Then, over time, the plants and wildlife return, and the ecology and lifestyles of the place return to normal over time. But nothing is normal anymore. And I fear we are long past the point where any legal efforts can save humanity from the bed it has made for itself.

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Sixth Circuit Strikes Net Neutrality in Victory for Tech, Administrative Law

/ 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.

My fellow tech policy enthusiasts, our long national nightmare is over. Last week, the Sixth Circuit brought an end to the decade-long fight over net neutrality by prohibiting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from applying Title II common carrier regulation to broadband providers. The decision is a victory for tech policy, freeing Internet access from the shadow of overbearing regulation. It’s also a win for administrative law, as it aligns with the Supreme Court’s guidance that courts, not agencies, should resolve disputes over statutory interpretations. The ruling reaffirms the principle that important policy decisions should be made by Congress, not by agencies under the guise of interpreting ambiguous statutes.

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The Language of Law: Meet Alvin Synarong

/ Sangeeta Kishore / 6 Comments

There are numerous roads to law school, and no one-size fits all path to a successful legal career. Follow along with our series highlighting BC Law students and how they got here! 

Our first three entries were with Sara Womble, a 2L from Winston Salem, NC, Elias Massion, who comes from Nashville, TN and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Samina Gagné from London and Columbia University. Today’s Q&A is with Alvin Synarong from Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Princeton.

Name, Hometown, Educational Background

Alvin Synarong; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; I went to Princeton and received a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Portuguese with minors in Finance and Latin American Studies (Brazil emphasis).

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