1L

I Survived the Waitlist—and You Can, Too

/ Isabella Calise / Leave a comment

Because the admissions cycle is hard enough, here’s a little story of having hope during (and surviving) the process.

When the word “waitlist” appeared in bold on my decision portal, I slammed my laptop shut so fast it nearly caught my fingers. I had braced for rejection, prayed for acceptance, and instead landed in the purgatory no one prepares you for. I’m not a betting woman, but if you had asked me then whether I thought I’d get in, I would’ve said no. Still, seeing it stung.

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Cold Calling Is Good, Actually

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

“I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it is an illusion to me. Failure always made me try harder next time.” – Michael Jordan

One of the (many) things that causes law students the most angst is the dreaded cold call. The fear is so pronounced that before I even attended a single 1L class, BC Law had shown me the famous cold calling scene from Legally Blonde multiple times. I understand why cold calling induces anxiety, especially in your early days of law school when you have likely never experienced it in other classroom settings. To be clear, this post should not be taken to suggest that cold calling does not make me nervous or that I never get a cold call embarrassingly wrong (I definitely do). But getting things wrong is kind of the point of learning and law school; otherwise, we’d be practicing attorneys already. 

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Survival Tips for Commuting in Boston

/ Joe Monti / Leave a comment

Boston’s charm lies significantly in its ancient origins that locals and tourists alike can still sense to this day. The vast expanse of Boston Common, centuries-old churches lining busy streets, and historic event markers all play a role in shaping a familiar image of the city. I firmly believe that no other big city in the United States can claim this aesthetic to the extent that Boston can. This memorable layout does, however, come at a cost.

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Discovering Advocacy Before the Courtroom: My Journey to Law School

/ Isabella Calise / Leave a comment

One Monday morning in the summer of 2022, I was greeted at work by my boss eagerly telling me today I would be meeting the defendant in the self-defense case I just started working on. After anxiously waiting until lunch, I watched with surprise as a young boy—barely five foot seven and still sporting a baby face—walked through my door and told me he was just seventeen yet was being tried as an adult for second-degree murder. 

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How 2L Year Has Already Taught Me What I Really Have to Offer

/ Catherine Beveridge / Leave a comment

As a 1L, I compared Orientation and the first week of classes to drinking from a firehose. You have classwork, networking opportunities, resume revisions, meeting new friends—the list is exhausting. You sit at your desk reading cases, briefing, trying to find rules, going through classes, feeling decent in cold calls but not feeling anything click yet.

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How My Grandmother’s Escape from Persecution Helped Me Discover My Own Path

/ Rebecca Carcieri / Leave a comment

Ilovik, Croatia, is a sparsely developed island with a compact area of just five square miles. With only 60 permanent residents and a modest influx of expatriates each summer, Ilovik’s way of life is characterized by its isolation and limited resources. The idyllic beauty of the island belies the history and complex legal struggles of many of its inhabitants. I have spent most of my childhood summers visiting my Baba, Croatian for grandmother, in Ilovik. During these visits, as I listened to Baba’s poignant recollections of her time on and off the island, I discovered my calling to pursue a career in law.

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The Case for Doing Less

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” ― Ferris Bueller

In the throes of 1L year, while dealing with difficult material, a new learning environment, networking events, and perhaps feeling completely overwhelmed and lost, a law student is likely to hear a common refrain. It often goes something like, “I know this is rough, 1L is so tough, but it gets so much better in 2L.” And like most aphorisms, it contains a nugget of truth. In many ways, the law school experience changes fundamentally between your first year and your second. The classroom experience becomes less intimidating and more familiar. You can choose your own class schedule and have agency over the areas of law you wish to study. Even more importantly, for some, you have the chance to partake in experiential learning opportunities, such as clinics and externships, which are not available to 1Ls.

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The Ambiguity of Probable Cause: My Path to Law School

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

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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Overcoming the Comparison Trap of 1L

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

It was the night before my first final as a 1L, and I was starting to feel overwhelmed. I knew, in a sort of intangible way, that an entire semester’s worth of work would come down to one test. And I could not help but be aware of the fact that this would prove stressful; everyone I knew who went to law school told me as much, as did most of my current peers. I suppose it’s also self-evident when you see the syllabus and read the words “your entire course grade will rest on the final examination” that you will have to perform on the day or pay the price.

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The Struggling Majority

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

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.

A few years ago, I was doing research as a law professor at Boston College, and I stumbled across this disturbing fact: more than half of American households do not have enough income every month to pay their basic expenses. We’re not talking about small luxuries like dining out, going to the movies, or streaming services either. Instead, these families do not even have enough money to pay for their bare-bones essentials every month, including food, housing, and clothing. They are constantly juggling bills and robbing Peter to pay Paul. They cannot get ahead.

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