advice

How Do You Find Your Peace? Running Away from The Fishbowl

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

I’m the kind of person who likes to be by himself. To put a finer point on it, I’m the type of person who doesn’t find it painful to be alone. 

– Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About when I Talk About Running

Most days, especially as fall rolls into winter, I get up before the sun. In the pre-dawn hours, I fumble around in the darkness of my quiet, slumbering apartment, attempting to make coffee and not wake up my partner. As this process gets underway, my dog follows me around dutifully, eyes shining like copper pennies, ears at full mast, ready to head out for another morning jaunt. His herding eye remains trained on its quarry as I put on my running shoes, and he readies himself for our adventure, stretching and strutting around on my creaky wood floors. 

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The Study Spot Guide (NOT the BC Law Library)

/ Haley Cole / 1 Comment

This is part one of a two part study spot series. Catch part two covering on-campus options on 11/20.

Happy finals season! We are in the homestretch of the fall semester, which means BC Law students find themselves with their heads in their books and spending far more time inside. As we are all preparing for finals, I would like to offer some alternative study spots in the Newton-Boston area that are NOT the BC Law Library we are all very (too) familiar with. Happy studying, you’re almost there!

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The Art of Letting Go: From Division 1 Gymnastics to LP Memos

/ Malcolm Baytop / Leave a comment

As a former collegiate gymnast, I am no stranger to the discipline and intensity of mastering a technical craft. Excellent performance in the sport requires grueling hours dedicated to conditioning your mind and body for precise alignment. For example, when flying over the high bar, stretching your arms just a bit more after you let go of the bar could be the difference between catching it and falling flat on your face. 

Even at its most foundational level, like holding a handstand, gymnastics requires an extremely detail-oriented and analytical approach. When I decided to become a lawyer, I knew that years of painstakingly paying attention to detail in gymnastics would come in handy for the high standards of diligence in the legal profession. However, I did not expect the personal insights I gained from years of striving towards perfection in the sport to apply in my 1L law practice course.

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What’s the Deal with the 1L Elective?

/ Sangeeta Kishore / Leave a comment

We’re nearing the end of the fall semester, and course registration is almost upon us. For 1Ls, that means being able to choose your spring 1L elective. While the idea of an extra class may seem overwhelming, for me, the 1L elective ended up being an opportunity to discover a new area of the law.

The 1L electives fall into three buckets. The large majority are “Experiential” classes that allow 1Ls to gain practical knowledge from practitioners, in topics ranging from Mergers & Acquisitions to Criminal Law to Work Law. Some are “Perspectives” courses which push students to think about the meaning of “law” and “justice” through the humanities and social sciences. My 1L elective, Introduction to Human Rights, Refugee, & Humanitarian Law, was a Perspectives course, and taught me both the successes and challenges of defining and litigating human rights issues. Our class also visited the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington D.C. to see this work in action (check out Alex’s great article about the trip!). Finally, the policy-oriented courses, like Restorative Justice in Courts, take a critical look at our legal institutions and explore pathways for reform. 

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The Most Important Thing I’ve Learned About Law School So Far: The “I Love Me More” Approach

/ Alexandra Staller / Leave a comment

Now more than halfway through my first law school semester, the initial warnings and disclaimers that I had been told before coming are starting to make sense. This line I am walking between letting law school take over my time and giving myself time to breathe is one I find becomes blurry depending on what my days or weeks look like. For example, last week my section had our first memo draft due on Friday. On top of all the other classwork I had, all I could think about was the memo. Wake up: memo. Drive to school: memo. Read my Contracts cases: memo. Fold my laundry: memo. Call Mom: memo.

One night as I was laying in bed, I felt an overwhelming wave of law school rise over me. My post-9pm thoughts were racing, and I wondered if this was the thing that was bound to happen that would stick with me until my graduation in May 2027: that all I am is law school. 

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BC Eagles or Butterflies? I Say Both 

/ Malcolm Baytop / Leave a comment

Lately, law school feels like I am slowly emerging from the eye of a storm, armed with the certainty of its chaotic whirlwinds but anxious about how I will forge a path through it. As a 1L, the uptick in unfamiliar networking events and professional panels amidst the first-time memos and midterms makes the near future seem especially tumultuous. Many of my classmates surely feel the same. While I cannot stop the inevitability of our chaotic law school eras, I can offer some existential insight on navigating them based on my conveniently related interest in the butterfly effect.

The butterfly effect stems from the scientific study of chaos theory, which explains limitations to predictions in dynamic systems seemingly governed by deterministic laws. It captures how small changes in initial conditions within one area of a dynamic system can result in substantial effects in another. Explained metaphorically, this means that the mere flap of wings from a butterfly in one area of the world could cause a tornado elsewhere—or it could not. 

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Does a “Not Real Job” On a Resume Mean Anything? Yes, and Here’s Why.

/ Catherine Beveridge / Leave a comment

The fall feels like the time of year everyone works on their resumes. Along with the changing New England leaves and pumpkin spice lattes, current and prospective law students all partake in a seasonal refresh after a busy summer. 

It was before one of these seasonal resume workshops I heard a common talking point. 

“Oh I’ve never had a real job.” 

“Is it bad that I have no political work on my resume?” 

“I was stuck working retail during the pandemic.”

This is an anxiety that many, if not all, law students have encountered at some point. Maybe it was during our application process, or maybe it’s manifesting now. We fear our experiences are not relevant to this field. Our skills from assisting with college orientation to dishwashing are not applicable to being an attorney. 

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Past Experience Pays Off: How A Podcasting Career Prepared Me For 1L

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

“It is not down on any map; true places never are.”
― Herman Melville, Moby Dick

A little more than four years ago, I found myself in the producer’s chair, attempting to put together my first podcast for Wondery Media. The episode centered around a mystery story, one that remains unsolved. It was no unsolved murder or whodunit yarn, but instead a tale about what happened to a 7-foot 900 lbs bronze statue of Joe Paterno, the disgraced former-head football coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. The statue disappeared in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal that rocked the State College community back in 2011 and led to Paterno’s firing; a previously unbelievable outcome for a coach who at that time led the NCAA in career victories. The whereabouts of the statue remain unknown, and while that mystery remained, what became clear to me as I bumbled my way through putting that story together was just how little I knew about what an adequate producer does every day. 

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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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