Student Life

What Students Are Thankful for at Boston College Law School

/ Tess Halpern / Leave a comment

Thanksgiving comes at a difficult time of year for law students. While we want to enjoy the holiday, the hours of travel and time away from our computers can make it stressful as finals inch ever closer. But this year, I wanted to make sure we as a community took at least a little time to focus on what the holiday is all about. There’s plenty to be thankful for here at Boston College Law School, so take a moment to remember what you love about this school. Here’s what some students had to say when they were asked what they’re thankful for at BC Law.

Conner Packebush, 1L: The community, which is incredibly kind. It’s also so easy to talk and connect with professors.

Maria Russo, 2L: Friends who make the stressful finals season more bearable.

Adel Clemonds, 3L: Affinity groups and free food.

Meghan Doyle, 1L: The welcoming community.

Jared Coltey, 2L: First Generation Professionals — this group has given me a sense of community and belonging during stressful times in law school.

Katie Cross, 3L: The amazing friends Boston College has given me that make coming to school everyday something to look forward to.

Christian Bilgrien, 1L: The professors showing care for our mental health.

Laura Stateler, 2L: Community, community, community. 

Paul Sevigny, 3L: Community, support, and being treated like a human first and foremost.

Katarina Bettencourt, 1L: The kindness and support of students and faculty.

Nicole Kerrigan, 2L: My section’s softball team.

Aaron Morris, 3L: The understanding and appreciation of life outside of law school from professors, faculty, and other students that allow law school — and the stresses it brings — to not overtake my entire life.

Andres Leiva, 1L: The opportunity to meet lawyers from big law firm practices and make professional connections.

Cordelia Houck, 2L: The sense of community both inside and outside the classroom, which makes the stress of law school more manageable. When things get stressful, the people around me keep me grounded and remind me that there’s more to life than law school. 

Gabriel (Gabe) McCarthy, 3L: The friends I have met from all walks of life, and the chance to learn from such amazing professors.

Tess Halpern is a third-year student and president of the Impact blog. Contact her at halperte@bc.edu.

The Yearly Conundrum: Three Ways to Get Ahead of Flu Season and Exams

/ Alex Mostaghimi / Leave a comment

It’s not like a solar eclipse or Hadley’s comet, it’s the annual convergence between flu season and first-semester exams. Lucky enough for us, nature dropped a new addition on the menu of discontent four years ago, in the form of Covid-19. Unless humanity manages to eradicate the most common seasonal viruses or the earth’s hemispheres flip, it is a problem we must contend with as long as the school year begins in Autumn.  

Inevitably, there is a cost-benefit analysis within every fevered mind: the need to balance the benefits of attending a class where material is likely to be more complex as the semester wraps up and the cost of potentially infecting your classmates, neglecting rest and recovery, and having to face a long day in a fatigued state. Moreover, professors still need cold call victims and a dwindling pool of targets only increases the burden of each unwilling participant. Finally, professors are more likely to drop hints at what will be covered in the exam the following month.  

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Get to Know the CSO: Amy Kolb

/ Tess Halpern / Leave a comment

A career services advisor can be an amazing resource in law school as you navigate OCI, externships, clerkship applications, and more. However, it’s important that you find the advisor who can best help you reach your personal goals! To do so, follow along with this new series to learn about each CSO advisor at Boston College Law School. Here is our interview with Amy Kolb.

What’s the best piece of career advice you can offer students?

I think it’s important for students to stay flexible and open-minded during their job searches and throughout their careers. By approaching a job search with an adaptable mindset, students may discover unexpected interests and opportunities they would’ve otherwise overlooked.

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The Implied Warranty of Fitness

/ Justin Sells / Leave a comment

As finals season approaches, many of us are buried in our textbooks, reviewing case briefs, finalizing outlines and memos, and visiting professors during office hours. In doing so, a few may have encountered the doctrine of “implied warranty of fitness.” For some, this doctrine might sound familiar from contract law.1 For others, it might sound familiar from property law.2 But the “implied warranty of fitness” I’m referring to exists beyond model codes, cases, and classrooms: the implied need to be physically and mentally fit. 

For newly minted 1Ls, law school has shown us that we constantly engage in rigorous and complex thought processes, from comprehending unnecessarily convoluted cases and writing legal memos to pondering hypotheticals and participating in competitions. These “mental gymnastics” require countless hours studying in the library and at home on top of regularly scheduled class time—all of which is spent sitting down. Evidently, life in the legal world is largely sedentary, which makes sense considering that physical fitness is neither an ABA requirement nor testable material on the UBE.

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Get to Know the CSO: Dorothy Commons

/ Tess Halpern / Leave a comment

A career services advisor can be an amazing resource in law school as you navigate OCI, externships, clerkship applications, and more. However, it’s important that you find the advisor who can best help you reach your personal goals! To do so, follow along with this new series to learn about each CSO advisor at Boston College Law School. Here is our interview with Dorothy Commons.

What’s the best piece of career advice you can offer students?

Believe in yourself and embrace a growth mindset. As an advisor, I often browse through LinkedIn to identify alums who are in certain practice areas or settings, and while doing so, I come across many who I worked with when they were law students. This has become a fun practice, because our alums are doing some really cool things with their careers — which should be no surprise because, like you, they are smart people who went to a great law school! I often notice that many are in very different positions from the first ones they had, and some have pivoted a few times. I know some started with what they thought was their dream job, and others began in positions they knew they would move on from. The common thread here is that they worked hard, remained curious, believed in themselves, and moved forward. 

All the stresses of law school can, at times, make some students doubt themselves, and the stress of any job search is real. But please remember that you are here for a reason. Believing in yourself, putting yourself out there again and again, and reflecting on your experiences will help you learn, grow, and find opportunities. 

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Get to Know the CSO: Jill Hwang

/ Tess Halpern / Leave a comment

A career services advisor can be an amazing resource in law school as you navigate OCI, externships, clerkship applications, and more. However, it’s important that you find the advisor who can best help you reach your personal goals! To do so, follow along with this new series to learn about each CSO advisor at Boston College Law School. Here is our interview with Jill Hwang.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in law school, and how did you overcome it?

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Halloween is Here: The Best Law School Costumes

/ kristievhoang / Leave a comment

The Law Student Association is selling Halloween wristbands, so Spooky Season is officially upon us. If you’re scrambling for last-minute costume ideas, have no fear. These are classroom and bar crawl appropriate outfits that will set you apart from everyone else who decides to be Elle Woods or a Supreme Court Justice. 

Lexis Nexis Representative

Needs:

  1. Large Red Lexis Nexis Tumblr
  2. 1 Lexis Nexis highlighter in their pocket 
  3. 1 handful of assorted snacks 
  4. 1 Pocket Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (by Lexis, of course)

Stand outside the Law Library with a folding table for maximum costume authenticity. Since you’ll likely have most of these costume materials in your backpack, this costume can be assembled in less than five minutes on your way to class. 

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When Fall Comes to New England, Law School Can Wait (ish)

/ Reilly Doak / Leave a comment

Before attending BC Law, I had spent next to zero time in New England. Years ago, I remembered listening to the song When Fall Comes to New England by Cheryl Wheeler on car rides with my dad. Once I came to Boston, I was determined to ensure that I could sing along after graduating without feeling like a fraud. As I finish my final semester here, I want to have no regrets about enjoying New England’s fall.

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LAHANAS: Welcome Back to Campus

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

Welcome back, BC Law students! We, the student directors of LAHANAS, wanted to re-introduce ourselves. 

LAHANAS is the student-led umbrella organization, open to all, with a particular focus on supporting BC Law’s affinity student groups, including:

  • Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA)
  • Black Law Students Association (BLSA)
  • Disability Law Students Association (DLSA)
  • Latin American Law Students Association (LALSA)
  • Lambda Law Students Association
  • Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA)
  • Native American Law Students Association (NALSA)
  • South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA)

We are committed to addressing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging issues on campus and we work closely with Lisa Brathwaite, Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, all of the student affinity groups, the Career Services Office, the Academic Success Program and Academic & Student Services to ensure that BC Law is and feels like an inclusive and supportive community.

We want all BC Law students to feel comfortable and safe being their full selves, and we recognize the importance of having an intersectional and supportive network to rely on. Please do not hesitate to be in touch with us directly via email should you have any questions about who we are and how we can support you. Welcome back again, and we look forward to an exciting year ahead. 

Ali Shafi (3L), Jasmine Lee (3L), and Kristie-Valerie Hoang
LAHANAS Student Directors