No, that noise you hear as the calendar flips to November isn’t the sound of leaves blowing in the fall wind. Rather, it it a collective sigh of relief coming from BC Law 2Ls that the OCI process has finally come to a close. OCI, short for “on campus interviewing,” serves as the major recruitment tool for most large, national firms looking to hire summer associates. Over the summer, 2L students may submit resumes, cover letters, and transcripts to all of the firms that they are interested in interviewing with. The firms then select students they wish to meet with for screener interviews on the law school campus. These initial interviews are about twenty minutes long and are generally a way for firms to get a feel for whether or not the candidate is a good “fit.”
networking
Want to Practice in New York?
In the summer of 2016, I was faced with a dilemma: should I attend law school at BC, a school that I absolutely love, and at which I know I’ll receive a quality education? Or should I attend law school in New York – my home city, and the city where I want to eventually practice law – even though the school has a lower ranking?
After months of deliberation, speaking with lawyers and law students, and prayer, I decided to attend BC Law. I was convinced that it was the best place for me to receive the education I need to be a good lawyer, and to also enjoy the law school experience (and as a rising 3L, I can say that I was right!). However, a concern still lingered in my mind throughout my 1L year: will I be able to find a job back at home in New York City once I graduate? This blog post is for any prospective or current students who are wondering the same thing.
Our Alumni Association Network
I’m pleased to host today’s blog from Kenneth Sanchez ’03 and Dionna F. Shear ’14, the co-chairs of the Los Angeles chapter of the BC Law Alumni Association. Our alumni network is one of the strongest in the country, and I think their post gives you a sense of our alumni’s commitment to each other and to new generations of students.
Life after law school can get very busy, very fast. After three years of law school and the associated neurosis, stress, and countless nights of no sleep, you get to do it all over again. Life as a practicing attorney can be even more stressful when balancing the needs of your clients, meeting minimum billables, and trying to maintain some kind of social life outside of work.
Who has the time to do anything else? Who wants to mingle with other lawyers after spending the entire day dealing with them? What could my law school possibly have to offer me beyond a legal education? The answer to all that is very simple. Alumni should be involved with their alumni association because besides your education, the most valuable thing your law school offers you—and the students who come after you—is a network.
Meet the Ambassadors: Hanna and Lauren
The BC Law Student Ambassadors program launched last year. It is designed to enhance the on-campus experience for every prospective student who visits BC Law. The Ambassadors lead campus tours, help out at Admitted Students Day, and serve as a resource for applicants and admitted students who are considering enrolling at BC Law.
I’ll be profiling the dozen or so new Ambassadors during the next few months. Here are the first two! You can read through our archives to see previous profiles. If you are a prospective student and notice something about any of our Ambassadors that you’d like to discuss with him or her – whether it’s a shared alma mater, an interesting extracurricular, or an appealing summer job – do not hesitate to reach out. After all, that’s what we’re here for!
Name: Hanna Lipman
Year: 2019
Undergraduate institution: Tulane
Experiences between college and law school: Worked in luxury fashion marketing in Dallas, CSR marketing in NYC, at Equinox in NYC, and helped open an Orangetheory in Brooklyn.
A Time for Reflection
Note: I’m pleased to host a guest blog today from Ed Hanley, Class of 1986. Ed is tax director of a regional accounting firm in San Francisco. He started being involved as an alumnus in 1989 when he joined the Alumni Board as the young alumni representative. When he moved to Washington DC, he joined with Carroll Dubuq (Class of 1962) to co-found the BC Law Club of Washington, DC. He is active in alumni events on the West Coast and recently rejoined the board of the Alumni Association, taking partial responsibility for reunions.
Ed and his partner Bill split their time between San Francisco and Popponesset Beach, Cape Cod.
Reunion Weekend is an excellent opportunity to catch up with old friends, take in the sights and sounds of a campus so similar and yet so very different from years ago, and to remember why BC Law is such a special place. This year’s Reunion brought up so many memories for me—and a few surprises, too.
Toward Inclusivity and Cultural Competence
Hi everyone and happy summer! I am very pleased to be able to host a guest blog today from the BC Law Alumni Board member Ingrid Schroffner, Assistant General Counsel at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
I am passionate about—and feel fortunate to be able to work on—diversity and unconscious bias issues at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS). My cross-cultural upbringing and my experience as an Asian-American lawyer contribute to my interest in this area.
My maternal grandfather immigrated from Okinawa to Hawaii in the first part of the 20th century to work in the sugarcane fields. I attended Japanese school when I was a child, and my household was filled with Japanese culture.
I also have a cross-cultural, East-West perspective. My father is a first-generation immigrant from Salzburg, Austria. I learned German from my father (and later, in school) and spent a summer living and working in Austria with my relatives. None of my grandparents spoke English. These two diverse heritages comprise my background.
Why PILF’s Annual Auction is Awesome
BC Law’s Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) hosted its 28th annual auction last Thursday at the offices of Morgan Lewis in downtown Boston. The auction is PILF’s biggest event of the year and is always well-attended by students, professors, and alumni.
As a 1L attending my first PILF auction, I found it to be pretty awesome for two main reasons.
Things I Wish I Knew Vol. 16: You can come see the school, even if you can’t come see the school
Hi everyone! It’s been a while since my last post because I and the admissions committee have been hard at work on a few projects (one soon to come – stay tuned!) including this one.
We know that getting to campus for a visit may be cost-prohibitive or otherwise impossible for some of our students outside of the Northeast, and in conjunction with the Office of Admissions, we’ve made it so that you can take a tour from the comfort of your own home! Watch the replay on You Tube:
Things I Wish I Knew, Vol. 15: Mentors are basically life’s “Google Search” feature
“Mom, Dad, why don’t you just Google it?”
It’s a phrase I must have said a million times in my short 23 years. The basic premise there is that someone out there in the big wide world has had the same question, and there is always someone who knows more than you who has the answer.
Okay, but it’s one thing entirely to ask Google why a certain word you misspelled in a text once has suddenly become your phones default spelling, and another entirely to ask how to navigate law school or find a job doing what you want with the salary and work-life balance you want given all of your specific life experiences.
That’s where mentorship comes in. And in a lot of ways, it’s even better than a Google search.
Things I Wish I Knew, Vol. 12: Networking 101 – They can totally tell you just came for the food
(Let me preface this post by mentioning that I like food. A lot.)
So I figured I would post this now because, believe it or not, some of you have your first networking events looming on the immediate horizon. (Hint hint: orientation.) And I know many of you are probably a little nervous about diving in headfirst into the networking pool, so allow me to provide you some water wings:
The food is a trap.
Well, not entirely. You see, whenever you go to a networking event, you’ll see delightful, delicious, and most importantly, free food laid out all ready to be eaten.
The spread at a BC Law Admitted Students reception
We college students are adept at eating anything that doesn’t run away from us, so the temptation is almost unwieldily at times. But you must resist! I don’t know why these employers torture us with food we can’t possibly eat in a polite way, but I know that you too will be faced with your culinary kryptonite (for me, it was spare ribs), and have to just say no. Continue reading
