The Ambiguity of Probable Cause: My Path to Law School

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This guest post is by Dave Sainte-Luce, a brand new 1L student at BC Law.

My fascination with law enforcement stretches as far back as my childhood. I was your normal cop-loving kid, who always perked up and watched in awe as those Ford Crown Victorias roared by with their sirens blaring and lights flashing. With each visit to the store, I could never leave without convincing my dad to buy me a new toy police car. At that age, I only understood cops as being brave and strong, running headfirst toward danger to fight crime and maintain law and order. Accordingly, I thought all criminals deserved to be punished, and the cops did the dirty work of putting the bad guys away to keep our community safe. With such a simple yet honorable equation, how could I not love the police?

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Can a Night Owl Become an Early Bird in Law School? Yes—Here’s How

/ Catherine Beveridge / Leave a comment

I became a morning person early in my childhood. In middle school, I started showering in the mornings. By high school, I woke at 5:30 am to walk our very impatient family dog. When I was a US Senate press intern in college, I got up at 4:45 am to start assembling news clips. 

This summer, I drove an hour and twenty minutes each day to the US District Court in Concord, New Hampshire for my judicial internship. My wake-up actually was more humane than my prior gigs: 6:00 am and complete with a shower and full breakfast. 

Some of us are going to have longer treks than others to school, and many of us are readjusting our schedules for the semester. With the start of the new academic year upon us, I thought I would share my tips for becoming a morning person.

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Four Notorious 2L Summer Associate Stories

/ Alex Mostaghimi / Leave a comment

Every 2L summer associate dreams of a smooth path to a six-figure salary. But not everyone makes it to the finish line. For a select few, the summer ends not with an offer letter, but with a quiet email, a closed-door meeting, or in some cases, an HR debrief no one forgets.

Inspired by the most recent crazy case of the summer “Biglaw Biter,” the following are four other infamous examples of 2L summer associates who really went off the rails. All of them, for better or worse, are unforgettable—so unbelievable, you might think I’m making them up (so I included sources for you to prove it).

I probably don’t have to tell you this, but let this be your reminder: Biglaw firms are watching—and they never forget.

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Welcome Back to Impact

/ Sangeeta Kishore / Leave a comment

This week marks the start of the 2025-2026 school year at BC Law, and things are already in full swing! After a jam-packed schedule with the LAHANAS retreat, three days of Orientation, capped off by the inaugural 1L Bar Preview, the 1Ls are now ready for casebooks and cold calls. But before getting too engrossed in Civ Pro or Torts or Contracts, let’s get involved! The Student Involvement Fair will be held this Wednesday, August 27 on Stuart Lawn and will be the who’s who of all that BC Law has to offer. Being a 1L rep—whether it be for an affinity group or professional organization—helps build leadership experience early on in law school. But if you just want to figure out when each org will be having free lunch, that’s honorable, too. 

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Prison Call Order Delays Reform of Market Ripe for Disruption

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

Earlier this summer, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unexpectedly delayed implementation of its 2024 prison call order until 2027. The order, which was mandated by Congress and had bipartisan support in the agency and on Capitol Hill, sought to correct long-standing market distortions through a combination of cost-based pricing and competition-friendly rules. The delay was requested by incumbent providers and correctional facilities based on unexpected implementation challenges. But this postponement is unfortunate, coming right as new entrants such as Ameelio are poised to challenge those incumbents and perpetuating inefficiencies, high costs, and limited innovation in a sector ripe for disruption.

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No Good Answers to Health Insurance Cutbacks at Congressional Town Halls

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Constituents jeer and boo Nebraska lawmaker over healthcare concerns

This post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.

Over the past two weeks, Nebraska constituents grilled a Republican congressman on recent health insurance cutbacks during a pair of town halls. Their angry response — and the congressman’s difficulty in allaying their concerns — signal potential voter backlash as those cutbacks are rolled out.

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Coercion will Fail, but Trade will Endure

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This guest post by BC Law Professor Frank Garcia originally appeared in the Cambridge University Press blog.

The first year of Trump’s second term has been a chaotic one for trade, as for so much else. Before inauguration, the President had already threatened tariffs against Denmark to force a “sale” of Greenland. Within days of taking office, he began threatening or imposing illegal tariffs against Colombia, China, Mexico, Canada, all steel and aluminum exporters, the EU, and now virtually all nations that trade with us. Each of these blows is a stark reminder that we live in a time when economic coercion masquerades as trade policy. 

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The Great Risk Shift 2.0

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The rollbacks to social safety nets in H.R. 1 are just the latest effort in a 50-year campaign to shift financial risk from big institutions and monied interests onto ordinary households.

This post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.

Today, the typical family is worse off economically than it was in the 1960s, due to a concerted campaign by businesses and governments to dump their financial risks onto breadwinners and their families. This column examines how H.R. 1 continues that campaign while undermining some of the newer social safety nets established in recent years.

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Empathy: The driving force of entrepreneurship

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For people facing long odds, an entrepreneurial mind-set matters

This post was originally published in the Boston Business Journal. Authors & Innovators is a regular column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, BC Law adjunct professor and founder of Project Entrepreneur, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.

About 77 million Americans have a criminal record. Experts expect that number to be 100 million by 2030. For the estimated 600,000 people returning home from incarceration annually, a criminal record creates substantial barriers to obtaining housing, employment, government benefits and continuing education, due to myriad federal and state restrictions. Getting an ID and finding a job — any job — are immediate priorities. No surprise that recidivism rates for returning citizens range from 29% to 59%, depending on the state.

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