For many law students, a consistent record of success follows them. A high undergraduate GPA, strong LSAT scores, and glowing recommendations make it seem like aptitude is a given and success is inevitable. Nevertheless, the heavier and harsh realities of law school quickly tear apart fanciful notions of an easy-breezy life. But if there was ever a place to fail, law school would be the place.
Let me explain.
Continue readingI. INTRODUCTION
As a law student, I am confident that we are all familiar with anxiety. An invisible entity that has psychological and physiological effects upon the individual in whom it arises. It causes us to experience fear and trembling in moments where opportunity and possibility are the ripest. Chronic or severe anxiety can manifest in the form of emotional distress, obsessive thinking, compulsive behaviors, relational struggles, and general restlessness. Anxiety often carries a negative connotation due to these effects. However, in this essay, I’d like to offer a different perspective on anxiety, a perspective that diminishes anxiety to a mere nothing while simultaneously promoting it as the most transformative feeling an individual can experience. An absurd paradox.
Continue readingThere are numerous roads to law school, and no one-size fits all path to a successful legal career. Follow along with our series highlighting BC Law students and how they got here!
Our first six entries were with Sara Womble, from Winston Salem, NC, Elias Massion, who comes from Nashville, TN and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Samina Gagné from London and Columbia University, Alvin Synarong from Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Princeton, Ruchita Jain from Edina, Minnesota and Boston University, and Nicole Bauer from Michigan and Stanford University.
Name: Carlos Robles-Cruz
Hometown: Puerto Rico
Educational Background: B.S., Finance and Accounting, Boston College, Carroll School of Management; M.S., Accounting, Boston College, Carroll School of Management
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and while I’m not pulling my hair out over the prospect of finals, I’m thinking wistfully about summer plans. Not a vacation, no – I’m thinking of the 48 hours I will have every week, free of assigned readings and impeding cold calls.
The perfect amount of time to visit one of the city’s many bookstores. For those of you who will be in Boston this summer, here’s a small guide.
Continue readingThis past week, like many of my 2L peers, I took the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam or the MPRE. This exam is a vital prerequisite or co-requisite to the bar exam for admission in most U.S. jurisdictions. So why have many people never heard of it before?
What is the MPRE?
The MPRE is a 2-hr, 60-question, multiple-choice exam, administered three times a year (March, August, and November), designed to test knowledge of the rules related to a lawyer’s professional conduct. There are two important things to note. There is no negative scoring so it doesn’t hurt to guess. And while you answer 60 questions, only 50 questions are graded. The remaining 10 are used for testing purposes and are indistinguishable from the graded questions on the test. In other words, answer every question. As for the material tested, while each state has its own set of ethical standards, the MPRE tests on the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct so only worry about that.
Continue readingThere are numerous roads to law school, and no one-size fits all path to a successful legal career. Follow along with our series highlighting BC Law students and how they got here!
Our first five entries were with Sara Womble, from Winston Salem, NC, Elias Massion, who comes from Nashville, TN and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Samina Gagné from London and Columbia University, Alvin Synarong from Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Princeton, and Ruchita Jain from Edina, Minnesota and Boston University.
Name: Nicole Bauer
Hometown: Sebewaing, Michigan
Educational Background: B.A. Political Science, Minors in History and in Human Rights, Stanford University
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 readingThe coffee was burnt. The décor, forgettable—muted earth tones, a token abstract print on the wall. The air-conditioning droned overhead, numbing the space, while the espresso machine sputtered and sighed into the empty café. But the conversation was life-changing. I was twenty-two, sitting across from an attorney at Bloomberg in Hong Kong, trying to calibrate my enthusiasm, trying not to seem too eager, too green.
He sipped his espresso, glanced at a fancy watch, and then, just as I started doubting my ability to navigate this unfamiliar dynamic, he leaned forward and asked, “So, tell me about yourself?”
Continue readingBC Law Magazine has been writing about what makes our community special for over thirty years. I always look forward to a new issue, and the Winter 2025 edition is full of stories of alumni, faculty, and students doing pretty amazing work that speaks to our mission of delivering justice all over the world.
I found the cover story, “Then Came the Reckoning,” particularly compelling. It was not an easy read, telling the story of alumna Erica Brody fighting for justice for a group of children abused by their foster parents, but the results were truly astonishing–literally changing the way the system works in Massachusetts. One of the most frightening things about the case was not just what happened in those foster homes (one in particular over many years), but how the state agency involved in placements actively worked to cover everything up. And until Erica and her team fought for change, the agency was pretty well protected by state law. Well worth the read, but we should offer a trigger warning for depictions of abuse of children.
Continue reading“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
— John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
When I started my career in journalism, I often heard this maxim about audience building: All news is local. The general idea underlying the concept (if you’re a journalism professor avert your eyes) was that no matter how national the story or the publication, it related to some localized community. The “locality” could be geographical, but equally, it could be about different identities, economic standings, experiences, etc.
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