advice

Conquering the Cold Call

/ Sangeeta Kishore / Leave a comment

I’ve only been in law school for a few weeks, and I’ve already been confronted with my biggest fear: the cold call. It’s unlikely that I’m alone in this. Like many of us, my initial visions of law school came from that scene in Legally Blonde where Elle was publicly shamed by the professor and kicked out of the classroom, with even the overachieving readers of Aristotle riddled with fear. 

The film’s exaggerations aside, I still felt daunted by the idea of entering a law school class. I won’t deny the panic I felt seeing the dreaded phrase on nearly every syllabus. “Why can’t I just answer when I feel like answering?” I could already picture it in my head: doing all the readings, knowing the cases front to back, and still freezing up the moment I get called on. It seemed like beyond all preparation, my mortification was inevitable. 

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The Duality of 3L

/ Reilly Doak / Leave a comment

Returning to BC Law after 2L Summer – no matter your internship – takes an adjustment. Over the summer we have been trusted with real legal responsibilities, worked on case teams, represented clients in court, drafted transactional and litigation documents, and previewed the careers waiting for us upon graduation. 

There are two emerging approaches to tackling our 3L year. The first is escaping school work and maximizing experiential opportunities, the second is soaking up every moment of student life. I fall in the first category, my friend Taylor MacDonald falls in the latter, and we will do our best to encapsulate these two approaches.

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What Your Classroom Seat Says About You

/ Tess Halpern / Leave a comment

There’s nothing quite like the first few days of law school. Everyone shows up to class twenty minutes early to scope out the perfect seat that they’ll occupy for the next three-and-a-half months. I kid you not when I say that I showed up to one class seven minutes early last week, and I was still the last one to arrive before class started.

While this may just seem like law students being more Type A than usual, the stakes of this decision could be legitimately high. Are you going to do well in this class? Or are you going to become way more invested in the online shopping habits of the person in front of you than the ins and outs of civil procedure? It all comes down to the seat you’re going to be sitting in every day and the view it provides you.

Fortunately, you still have a few more days before the opportunity to choose a new seat is over until January. But, the window is closing fast. Here’s the vibe of each possible section at your disposal.

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OCI Don’t Know What I’m Doing

/ Michael Deere / Leave a comment

Toward the end of my first semester of law school, I began to hear whispers of ‘OCI’ and ‘biglaw.’ By the early part of my second semester, the whispers had grown to full-throated yelling. Big bad biglaw and the pressure cooker of 20-minute, all or nothing screener interviews. It sounded scary, at least to me. But then, I’d never heard of any of this before. Biglaw? OCI?

I lost track of it during the semester. I was focused on school, grades, and life in general. OCI was a long way away, and most importantly, it was after finals. And finals were the only thing I was allowing myself to be worried about. I learned fast in law school that you need to prioritize your worries. One worry at a time, and no cutting in line. I would worry about OCI when I started getting emails about it. Not before.

Then I started getting emails about it…

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Alumni Spotlight: Venus Chui

/ Venus Chui / Leave a comment

The BC Law Impact blog is running a special series of alumni interviews featuring former Impact bloggers. Catch them all here.

What are you doing now? / What was your path to your current position?

After graduating from BC Law in 2018, I began working at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, NY as an Assistant District Attorney. I worked there for about four years until mid-2022, when my husband, son, and I moved to Japan. I am currently learning Japanese and volunteering with a church, in hopes of eventually using my legal education and experience in Japan.

Something you wish you did while at BC?

I wish that I spent more time asking questions and getting to know my professors during office hours!

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Food Review: Sugar! Newton’s Bakeries

/ Travis Salters / Leave a comment

This year, we launched a spotlight series focused on local foods, because no one should need to search far for good food. We started with a quintessential breakfast staple (bagels), and we then moved to a food item that’s perfect for lunch or dinner on the go (burritos). Today, we’re taking the only logical next step and focusing on desserts. We scoured coffee shops and bakeries in the immediate Newton area surrounding the BC Law campus to determine which one is the best of the best. 

Travis Salters and I traveled to six different locations for donuts, cupcakes, tarts, and more. Depending on the breadth of each place’s menu, we opted for one to two treats per stop. Several days later, we have emerged from our sugar comas and are ready to share our results. Whether you’re looking for some goodies for a graduation party or are just treating yourself after a busy year in law school, these are some options to consider.

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Four Things I Wish I Knew Before Law School

/ Eddie Godino / Leave a comment

Time flies when you’re having fun — and apparently it flies in law school, too. Jokes aside, as my 1L year comes to a close, I can safely say that I’ve had a great experience at BC so far. Still, looking back, there are certain things I wish I had known beforehand or done differently. For those of you with lawyers in the family or who did a lot more research than me before enrolling, some of these tips may seem like common sense. But for those who are less informed — and as an ode to a classic impact blog series — here are four things I wish I knew before coming to BC.

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Reilly’s Declassified OCI Survival Guide

/ Reilly Doak / Leave a comment

Remember that your job search is a mutual process– you want to be somewhere that values you as much as you value them.

Two of the biggest reasons I chose BC Law was the high Big Law placement and my positive interactions with the Career Services Office when I was a prospective student. Recruiting for any position out of law school can be very stressful, but our CSO is an experienced and talented group of people who do a great job supporting students in their preferred career paths. 

The third reason I chose BC Law, and it cannot be overstated, is the collegial culture. Applying to Big Law jobs and OCI is competitive but I never felt like I was competing with my friends. I had a great support system and loved sharing things I’d learned, mistakes I’d made, and celebrating my friends’ successes when they landed their 2L summer jobs. 

Before I go through any of the tips, please bookmark BC’s CSO Drive (BC Law students only, sorry). CSO does an amazing job including everything you could possibly need to know in that drive. 

I have written 10 tips to help you navigate the OCI process. If you have questions I did not answer, check out the CSO Drive, speak with CSO, or feel free to reach out to me! I love talking about all things OCI. I would like to give a huge thank you to CSO Associate Director Dorothy Commons who looked over my article to make sure I was sharing accurate information!

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Should You Apply for Law Review?

/ Tess Halpern / 1 Comment

After my last final of 1L year, I basically wanted to nap for a month until my internship started in June. However, that isn’t an option if you’re going to apply for Law Review.

Law Review is a scholarly journal, and a majority of law schools have their own versions of this journal that publish research drafted by students and professionals. To become a Staff Writer on the Boston College Law Review, there’s an extensive application process that begins right at the start of the summer. This means, if you aren’t sure whether you want to apply this year, you’ll have to decide in only a few short weeks.

As a 2L who’s nearly done with her first year on Law Review and who lived to tell the tale, I can say with confidence that I’m glad I applied and had this experience. However, there were definitely some things I wish I knew beforehand that could’ve helped me make an even more informed choice when deciding to apply. To ensure you make the right decision in May, weigh the following pros and cons.

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Experiencing Grief and Loss in Law School

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

In support of the well-being of lawyers across the professional spectrum—from students in the classroom to attorneys in all walks of legal life—we have launched a Mental Health Impact Blog Series, in partnership with alumnus Jim Warner ’92. Comprising deeply personal essays by community members who have struggled with mental health issues, the series provides restorative insights and resources to fellow lawyers in need. Read them all here.

The Mental Health Impact Blog Series coincides with a Law School-wide initiative, which will include lectures and workshops to support and promote mental well-being. With this latest post, we are also offering a companion podcast interview with Jim Warner and Mike Cavoto (see below). To get involved in the activities or to write a guest post, contact jim.warner.uk@gmail.com.

By Michael Cavoto ’19

This is my story of experiencing personal loss in law school. I’ve kept some details purposefully short and omitted others. The point of this story is to address loss and how we deal with it (or don’t). I will speak only to my own experiences and conclusions. This story also references sensitive matters, including–but not limited to–suicide. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call, chat, or text 988 to speak to someone.

Law school dominates students’ lives: classes all day, networking events in the evenings, pretending to study in the Yellow Room in the afternoons. It demands full commitment from participants. 

The grind doesn’t stop after you graduate. Studying for the bar requires dedication and fresh graduates launch themselves fully into bar prep right after graduation. 

Professional life doesn’t give much room for breathing either. Lawyers at the big firms are expected to hit the billable requirement, which usually equates to billing somewhere around 40 hours per week of strictly billable time, without factoring in vacations or holidays. 

The common word here is “commitment.” The practice of law demands your attention. So, what happens when you can’t fully commit? What happens when reality plucks you away from coursework and legal practice? The question for me was: how could I advance in my professional life when my personal life was so unstable?

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