perspectives

The Opportunity Cost of Early BigLaw Recruiting

/ Dave Sainte-Luce / Leave a comment

It’s your first semester of law school at BC Law. It’s been just a few weeks since orientation, and you’re trying to get your footing. Torts makes sense, because slapping someone is obviously a battery. Contracts feels manageable too; you think about your apartment lease, or your brother’s offer to buy you McDonald’s, to think through offer and acceptance. Law Practice is a bit frustrating because you’re expected to learn the Bluebook on the fly. And Civ Pro? You have no idea what’s going on there—but that’s a problem for later.

Meanwhile, you’re figuring out how to be a law student. Do you take notes like you did in undergrad, buy color-coded notebooks to handwrite in class, or type a near-transcript of everything your professor says? When do you start outlining—and what even is an outline? Will you sound stupid if you go to office hours to ask about Twombly? And then there’s the club fair. Should you apply to that 1L Representative position for the Law Student Association? Or for the Business Law Society? Both would look great on your resume. But not too many commitments so soon—you still need time to read your cases, pour hours into over-detailed briefs, and prepare for class. Maybe one club application and casual involvement in the others will be enough for now.

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Is Love Possible in Law School? Lessons from St. Valentine

/ Staniel Brutis / Leave a comment

Recently, while traversing the aisles of my local Target, I found myself nearly drowning in a red sea of assorted teddy bears, flowers, chocolates, and fatigued sales associates. Like Moses though, I split through the waters by politely saying excuse me and performing an awkward penguin-like shuffle by. As I finally made it to the aisle that contained Draino, the purpose of my shopping trip, I thought to myself that there must be much more to Valentine’s Day than modern American consumerism. My intuition was right. 

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“Fully Mindful of the Treachery of Superlatives:” Memories of Associate Dean Francis J. Larkin

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

This guest post was written by The Hon. David Mills ’67.

I am eighty-three years old today, and I was twenty-two in September of 1964 when I walked into my first class at Boston College Law School. The school was still in the old building across from Saint Ignatius Church. My first class was Real Property with Professor Richard G. Huber, a rite of passage for every first-year student. We entered nearly two hundred strong; by second year we were about one hundred twenty, and most of us made it through to the end. 

To this day, I believe I could not have found finer
professors or a better place to begin learning to love the rule of law. Frank Larkin was Associate Dean. Our Dean, Jesuit Robert F. Drinan, S.J.—often described as “peripatetic ”—was, in my experience, a very good man. Frank’s office sat down the hall on the second floor. His indispensable right hand was Charlie Pepper, who typed faster than anyone I have ever seen. Charlie came to know most of us simply by transcribing the hundreds, if not thousands, of letters Frank wrote to law firms, judges, and potential employers on behalf of BC Law graduates. We often joked that Charlie Pepper wore out more IBM Selectrics than any typist in modern history. Each letter was tailored to the student it concerned, and each contained Frank’s signature phrase: “fully mindful of the treachery of superlatives.” I adopted that phrase myself in the many letters of recommendation I later wrote for my law clerks, interns, and colleagues—letters typed by the generous and competent people who endured my dictation over the years in both public and private offices. When graduation approached in the spring of 1967, I cannot say that Frank and I had an immediate friendship. Yet he seemed to know every graduating
student—our backgrounds, our interests, our hopes, and our intentions.

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Why You Should Take Classes Outside of Your Comfort Zone

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou

Gaining control of your class schedule is one of the most exciting aspects of leaving 1L behind and moving forward in your law school journey. Aside from the anxiety it induces as everyone gathers around tables in the yellow room or library to sign up for classes at the exact time that the registration window opens, the chance to pick all your courses is one of the most fun parts of law school. But not enough people take full advantage of this freedom. I understand the temptation to use your future career path as a guide for course selection. Yet more students should utilize their time in school to explore various areas of the law. Studying at Boston College Law School means we have access to some of the sharpest and most thoughtful legal minds across a wide variety of subjects. Take advantage of that bounty of intellectual acumen while you can. Doing so will make us all better lawyers and students, and, more importantly, more well-rounded people, regardless of our future professional track.

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To Clinic or To Extern? That ‘Tis the Question

/ Samantha Torre / Leave a comment

Another semester is well underway, and for 1Ls currently staring down approximately a couple hundred pages of reading per week, it might be heartening to remember that with 2L comes opportunities to practically build your legal skills. 

Two of these opportunities, externships and clinics, allow students to engage with the legal profession practically. This all sounds amazing, but when I was a 1L I had questions: what’s a clinic? What’s an externship? How are they different? Can you do both? 

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A Tale of Two Newtons: Life as a Freshman and Law Student

/ Joe Monti / Leave a comment

Before I ever stepped foot onto the grounds of Boston College, I learned that I would be living on the Newton campus my freshman year.

I did not think much of it at first, but as I descended the hill to Duchesne Hall for the first time, I prepared myself for an entire year of living in the lowest place on campus, both figuratively and literally. Although I had some challenges adjusting to my new living situation, I came to love Newton campus and defend it against anybody willing to talk poorly about it. I met some of my best friends in Duchesne and on the Newton bus, and I would not trade those experiences for anything. Only on Newton campus will you see people being hurled down a hill of snow and ice in a trash can and call it “sledding.” Only on Newton campus will freshmen buy BC Law sweatshirts to try to study in the Law Library.

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Four Tips for Navigating Grade Disappointment

/ Alexandra Staller / 1 Comment

Once again I am directly addressing the 1L class, and also airing out my dirty laundry. Everything I write below—like all my Impact posts—is what I wish someone could have told me before coming to school. As always, all opinions and experiences are my own, as I can only speak to what I endured during my 1L year.

“Endure” will be the theme here. It’s a strong word I typically find only in my romantasy books. Merriam-Webster tells us it means “to remain firm under suffering or misfortune without yielding.” Very dramatic. But to say a student endures his or her 1L year does not fail to satisfy Merriam-Webster’s definition. Some of you may feel like you’re hanging by a thread, trying to go through the motions of law school one day at a time. You are enduring.

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