3l

The Real Reason to Become a Prosecutor

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

This guest post was written by 3L Alyssa Hatfield.

“Alyssa Hatfield on behalf of the Commonwealth.” 

As introductions go, this one might be the most terrifying. What does it mean to represent the Commonwealth? To represent an entire group of people, the defendant included? It’s a heavy weight to bear, but it’s not meant to be borne alone. 

This semester, I joined the Prosecution Clinic. As a part of the clinic, you learn a few things really fast. One: court moves really quickly. Like, really quickly. Two: how to swap stories like old-timers, because people commit some pretty odd crimes in some pretty odd ways that are ripe for class discussion. And three: to “do justice” might be the hardest and most unattainable mission to live by.

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Bar for the Course: Comparing Different Bar Prep Options

/ Eddie Godino / Leave a comment

With my 3L year rapidly coming to a close, one of the biggest questions on my mind for the past few months has been what bar prep course I should use. We’ve all gotten the emails and seen the representatives sitting outside the library, but what is the difference between all the different options? Although I have yet to actually go through any bar prep course myself, here is what I’ve learned from my many hours questioning reps and otherwise scouring the internet.

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How the God of Wine and Madness (and Pinecones) Helped Me Find My Lawyer Mask

/ Michael Deere / Leave a comment

I was supposed to write this post last week, but you know how it is. Busy, busy, busy. And in the grand scheme of things, who cares? The universe is billions of years old, so what’s an extra week? And a week wouldn’t really matter at all except that last week was Halloween, and Halloween got me thinking about masks. Masks and Dionysos. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: what in the pumpkins does any of that have to do with law school? But sit tight; I’m getting there. You’ll see.

Everybody knows Dionysos. The god of wine, madness, and somewhat oddly, pinecones. But nobody actually gets to see the god. That’s the funny thing. Dionysos is always masked, always appearing as something he is not. On the one hand, that’s pretty typical for the Greeks. Mortal eyes cannot gaze upon the divine form and all that jazz. But on the other hand, Dionysos is unique in that regard. You don’t see him; you just feel him looking at you, like a disappointed grandmother. And even though you can’t look at him, when Dionysos looks at you, you feel it right down to your soon-to-be dancing toes. That’s when you learn about a whole new dimension of yourself. 

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Why I’m Okay with Being a ‘Non-Traditional Student’

/ Michael Deere / Leave a comment

I’ve never quite belonged in law school. I was told when I started the application process – and many times since – that I’m a ‘non-traditional’ student, which seemed mainly to mean that I was older than everybody else. I didn’t mind; I am older than everybody else. But before law school I never thought of myself as non-traditional. Or old, for that matter. Now it feels like I’m inescapably both, whether I like it or not.

Law school is hard enough without being told you don’t ‘really’ fit in – and that’s ultimately what being ‘non-traditional’ means. You don’t fit in. And in truth, I don’t. For one thing, people call me by my first name here all the time. Outside of a doctor’s office or Starbucks, I haven’t heard my first name this much in twenty years. It was always “Professor Deere,” or “Dr. Deere,” or just…Deere. Which is what I was before all this first-name calling business.

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Making the Most out of 3L Year in the AG’s Office

/ Eddie Godino / Leave a comment

I’ve heard many of my peers say that they think law school should only last two years. I see their point – after all, many of the subjects on the bar are covered in the very first year of law school. But beyond that, it can be strange to go from the classroom, to working in the summer, then readjusting to the classroom all over again. Particularly after 2L summer, when many students take on more substantial roles as summer associates and law clerks, it can feel like a regression to go back to class – especially if you already know where you’ll be working after graduation.

But law school is three years – not two. And although I’ve only just started my 3L year, I’m becoming more convinced that that’s a good thing.

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3L is Finally Here: Why This One is so Special

/ kristievhoang / Leave a comment

Thank goodness the library doesn’t issue noise complaints on the first day of school. 

My friends and I — running on the high of eating a grocery store salad in the Yellow Room — skipped to the fourth floor of the library. There, we each took turns accidentally playing Instagram Reels on full volume. Like clockwork, anxious 1L’s flooded the library atrium at 3:00 p.m., muttering reflections about their inaugural lectures and cold calls to new friends. 

There’s nothing like the first day of 3L — or as my friends and I have dubbed it, “senior year.” Novelty accompanies familiarity: freshly-painted Stuart Hall walls and large-scale portraits dot the paths we’ve spent pacing between classes. Somehow, Legal Grounds manages to brew better coffee every year. And even the light streaming through the library’s fourth floor windows cuts different shadows on the books and reports lining the shelves. 

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Two Weddings, a Funeral, and a Naturalization Ceremony

/ Jonathan Bertulis-Fernandes / Leave a comment

Two weddings, a funeral, and a naturalization ceremony. This pretty much sums up my time in law school, in many ways. I lost my dad suddenly at the end of my 1L Spring semester (during finals: really wouldn’t recommend). During my 2L and 3L years I had two weddings: one in the U.S. and one in the U.K., where I grew up and my family still live. (For the sake of clarity: these weddings were to the same person. I’m nothing if not consistent.) And after having lived in the U.S. since 2016, I became a citizen in February of last year.

Of course, my time in law school was marked by a great deal more. But, when I think back to my time at BC Law, these are the progress points—the proverbial highway markers as it were—that map out the last three years for me temporally. These events were the points at which “life” most intruded into law school. Law school is all-consuming in a way I do not think I fully comprehended before I began my 1L year. I had worked for five years before returning to school, including three and a half years in a high-pressure role in New York City. But nothing prepared me for the way that law school threatened to take over and take me away from my sense of self. The death of my father, marrying my wife, cementing my life over in the U.S.: these were the events and the life-is-what-happens-to-you-while-you’re-busy-making-other-plans moments that burst the illusion of the bubble of law school for me. 

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Our Dreams Are Not Just Our Own

/ Seung Hye Yang / Leave a comment

Two years ago, I watched as my mother ironed my clothes on the frayed wooden floors of our home in Queens in preparation for my first day as a summer associate at a Biglaw firm. I hadn’t realized that the only professional suit I owned was badly wrinkled from my travels between Boston and New York. Frustrated with the slow pace and sloppiness of my handiwork, my mom–like any other impatient mom watching her daughter panic over clothes–took over. She used the floor in lieu of our lack of a proper ironing board, wielding the same iron that we’ve had since we immigrated to the United States 20 years ago. Her wizened hands smoothed out the creases in my blazer, and I wondered how much time had passed while I hadn’t even noticed that my mom had grown old in the years she waited for me to achieve my dream.

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The Supreme Court Experience

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / 1 Comment

Today’s guest post about Professor Kent Greenfield’s class “The Supreme Court Experience” is by 3L Elijah Rockhold. Watch a video about the class here.

When imagining the institutions of government in Washington, D.C., people might think of the grandiose Capitol building, with its intimidating Rotunda, massive chambers, and spacious steps where Presidents are inaugurated. Or they imagine the lawns on either side of the White House: the tours of the nation’s home and seat of power. Fewer people may imagine the Supreme Court, a beautiful building by its own terms, but smaller and less imposing than the other two branches of government. The building is tucked behind the Capitol, not viewable from the mall, and the public access is limited compared to other D.C. buildings. Even inside, the Courtroom in the center of the building is small: only about one hundred spectators can watch arguments in the room. 

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Reflections as a 3L

/ Seung Hye Yang / Leave a comment

When people told me as a 1L that law school would fly by in the blink of an eye, I never really believed them. It sounded like a tall tale at the time, when I was still trying to figure out whether Quimbeeing cases was worth it (spoiler alert: Quimbee is always a good choice and will save you so much time). But now as a 3L, I have to say that law school did indeed fly by–and as the end of my law school career approaches, I have much to reflect on.

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