This summer, I’m interning at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, a nonprofit organization that seeks to assist San Diego County residents and provide free legal representation, advice, and information. As the right to an attorney does not exist in legal cases, many litigants have to navigate complicated processes and forms, which can make it much more difficult for them to achieve their desired result in a case than parties with an attorney. The LASSD seeks to bridge that gap. The goal of the self-help clinics is not to provide representation, but to make the civil legal system more accessible for litigants.
Continue readingemployment
No Post-Grad Job Offer? No Problem!
The journey of getting a J.D. is fraught with uncertainty, but there is a particular lasting uncertainty that many public-interest law students feel as they navigate their way through school. Specifically, public-interest students can find themselves at the end of a three-year J.D. program unclear on where their next journey lies.
One may find it unfortunate that the public interest sector does not have a defined linear track like the big-law business lays out for law students. It can feel daunting to constantly search for your next summer experience each school year without the certainty that you will be offered long-term employment.
Continue readingIf It’s Meant to Be, It Will Be
When I was around 9 years old, my mom bought me a brown dress to wear to my sister’s Bat Mitzvah. I loved that dress, but we knew it would be difficult to find shoes to match. My only real option was to find a pair in the same, specific brown, so we put the dress in a shopping bag and went to the mall.
We went to store after store finding shoes that were too uncomfortable, too hard to walk in, or, of course, the wrong shade of brown, until we found the perfect pair. Not too high of a heel, a flattering shape, the right price, and almost the exact color of the dress. The only problem was, they didn’t have my size. This was in 2006 and online shopping wasn’t exactly what it is today, so if they didn’t have the shoes in the store, we weren’t going to be able to buy them. My mom put the shoe back on the display, looked at me, and said, “It wasn’t meant to be.” She walked out, and I followed.
Continue readingThese New BC Law Employment Numbers are Crazy Good
Numbers talk.
BC Law’s Career Services office submitted its employment data to the American Bar Association this past month. Of a class of 243 students, 239 (or 97.9%) were employed, with 96.7% in a full-time, long-term, bar-passage required or JD advantage position.
72% were employed in law firms, and 22% were employed in positions in government, public interest, or a judicial clerkship. Massachusetts was the most popular destination for students post-graduation, with New York and California following behind.
Continue readingHave You Heard of Plaintiff-Side Law?
In navigating career options, many law students find themselves torn between pursuing Biglaw or public interest. Within the public interest sector, it can seem as though you are constrained to only government or non-profit work. Though both settings can offer fulfilling opportunities for impactful work, public interest law is a broad field encompassing various avenues beyond government and non-profit contexts.
One such avenue is plaintiff-side law. To shed more light on this area of practice I sought insights from attorneys Christine Webber, Partner and co-chair of the Employment & Civil Rights practice group at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC in Washington, D.C., and Lauren Barnes, Partner at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro in Boston, MA. Both Christine and Lauren have successful careers at their respective plaintiff-side firms and offered valuable perspectives on this field.
Continue readingGet to Know the CSO: Amy Kolb
A career services advisor can be an amazing resource in law school as you navigate OCI, externships, clerkship applications, and more. However, it’s important that you find the advisor who can best help you reach your personal goals! To do so, follow along with this new series to learn about each CSO advisor at Boston College Law School. Here is our interview with Amy Kolb.
What’s the best piece of career advice you can offer students?
I think it’s important for students to stay flexible and open-minded during their job searches and throughout their careers. By approaching a job search with an adaptable mindset, students may discover unexpected interests and opportunities they would’ve otherwise overlooked.
Continue reading4 Ways to Stay in Touch With Your Summer Mentors
While interning at a law firm, nonprofit organization, or government agency last summer, you likely found some professionals who you really clicked with. Maybe they were your direct supervisors, or maybe they were just attorneys with positions or career paths that really spoke to you. Either way, it’s important that you don’t let the busy school season prevent you from maintaining the relationships you cultivated just a few months ago. To make sure you aren’t forgotten by your mentors, follow these four tips.
Continue readingWhat My Part-Time Job Taught Me
This semester, I worked part time as an ELL Writing Specialist with BC’s English department. I work with 5 non-native English speakers, undergraduate students who need extra linguistic support. Of course, at first, I was apprehensive about whether I’d be able to balance a job and the rigorous 1L courseload. However, as the semester comes to a close and I reflect on the past couple of months, I’m realizing how much I grew just by being a tutor. I’m really grateful for my job and I wanted to share some lessons I’ve learned this semester.
What Are We Up To This Summer?
Exams are wrapping up, we’re finishing those last spot checks of final papers, and most importantly, getting ready for our summer jobs. Here’s what some of the Impact bloggers are up to this summer.
Brianna: I will be working this summer at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) in Washington, D.C. PEER is a national nonprofit that fills the unique niche of serving the public employees who protect our environment. PEER works with government agency employees to address environmental wrongs while protecting their identities and also provides free legal help for those who suffer retaliation from their supervisors after blowing the whistle themselves. PEER advocates for strong scientific integrity policies and procedures and has an array of ongoing policy and public education campaigns. As a Legal Intern, I will assist the Senior Counsel, Executive Director, Staff Attorney, and Field Directors in litigation, working on tasks that could range from complaint drafting to discovery to settlement negotiations or trial prep. PEER’s cases often involve federal legislation such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, and the Freedom of Information Act. I will also conduct initial intake interviews with public employees who contact PEER and legal research to explore any potential environmental law and ethics violations that these callers raise.
Marcus: This summer I’m going to be at Ropes & Gray, a stronghold law firm, splitting my time between their Boston and NYC offices. I’ll be doing corporate work, rotating between their various corporate departments.
Christina: I will be doing a judicial internship at Riverhead Justice Court on Long Island, New York, for Judge Allen Smith.
Erika: I am interning at Hurwitz, Richard & Sencabaugh LLP this summer. They are a small firm that does some licensing and business law. I’ll be doing research and perfecting my memo writing.
Jae: I am joining the Office of Massachusetts Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Strike Force as a summer legal intern. The Strike Force (a division of the Office’s Energy and Environment Bureau) investigates/prosecutes polluters that harm or pose a significant threat to the state’s environment, natural resources, or the health and safety of the public. I came to law school to study environmental law, and could not be happier.
Jorge: This summer I’ll be working as a Legal Intern at TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools that check hundreds of websites to find the best prices. The sites operate in 47 countries worldwide, reaching 350 million unique monthly visitors and 290 million reviews and opinions covering more than 5.3 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions. The in-house team handles a majority of TripAdvisor’s legal matters including: Contracts, SEC Reporting, Compliance, Corporate Governance, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Employment Law and International Matters. As a legal intern, I will be assigned projects across these diverse legal areas to maximize my exposure. This business setting provides a unique outlook on the implications of the law because, in a sense, we are the client.
Alex: This summer I’ll be at the Capital Appeals Project in New Orleans, LA, working on death penalty appeals. CAP is a non-profit contracted by the state of Louisiana to handle all indigent death penalty appellate cases. I’m excited to be in a new (albeit humid) city and to explore the South on weekends.
Things I Wish I Knew, Vol. 9: Law school doesn’t teach you how to be a lawyer, and that’s kind of okay
It defies our concepts of professional school, right?
Dentistry school: learn how to make people’s teeth healthy. Physical therapy school: help people regain lost movement. Electrician school, beauty school, you name it – all pretty much teach you everything you need to know to accomplish the job you’ll have after graduation.
Law school is the odd man out. Even attorneys I know who took classes in the area of law they now practice say that they learned most of how to do their job after they got it. That’s why I when someone asks me what type of law I want to practice, I always want to reply, “Well, I don’t think I know how to practice any type of law.”
