perspectives

The Struggling Majority

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

This post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.

A few years ago, I was doing research as a law professor at Boston College, and I stumbled across this disturbing fact: more than half of American households do not have enough income every month to pay their basic expenses. We’re not talking about small luxuries like dining out, going to the movies, or streaming services either. Instead, these families do not even have enough money to pay for their bare-bones essentials every month, including food, housing, and clothing. They are constantly juggling bills and robbing Peter to pay Paul. They cannot get ahead.

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A Message to My Students: ‘Fight for Our Democracy’

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This post is an edited version of Professor Kent Greenfield’s final lecture to this spring’s first-year constitutional law class. It was originally published in WBUR’s Cognoscenti.

Today completes my 30th year teaching law. You’ve been wonderful this semester. Thank you.

But It has been a difficult time to teach constitutional law, and it must have been a difficult time to learn it. We are in a dangerous moment.

How do we make sense of the law right now? Of our profession?

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The Vital Lessons I’ve Learned in BC Law’s Clinics

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Last month, as part of BC Law’s Immigration Clinic, my clinic partner and I advocated for our client’s release from detention during a bond hearing in front of an immigration judge, and were denied. Given his circumstances of indefinite long-term incarceration and mental illness, this denial was heartbreaking and unjust in more ways than one. I dreaded making the call to my client to discuss the outcome of the hearing and our next steps. I expected to hear intense sadness and frustration, and I certainly would not have blamed him if he took part of that out on me. But instead – though he was undeniably sad – he told me that my argument was perfect and exactly what he would have wanted to say if he were able to speak during the hearing. He expressed his gratitude for all our hard work and representation, despite the outcome. Of all the responses I imagined, this perhaps shocked me the most.

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‘A Culture of Excellence, Dialogue, and Integrity: Q&A with LLM Student Shrishti

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Get to know Boston College Law School from the perspective of our current student, Shrishti, who is concentrating on Intellectual Property and whose home country is India:

What motivated you to pursue an LLM, and why did you choose this particular program?

I pursued an LLM to expand my global legal perspective and gain a deeper understanding of U.S. legal frameworks. BC Law stood out for its strong academic tradition, commitment to ethical leadership, and its inclusive approach to integrating international students into the fabric of the law school. I wanted a program that was both intellectually rigorous and personally transformative — and BC Law delivered.

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How (Bad) Movies Helped Me Survive Finals

/ Ian Hurley / Leave a comment

“Whoever a werewolf imprints on can’t be harmed. It’s their most absolute law.” ―  Edward Cullen in Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1

The stress of law school finals can humble even the most confident students. It distills months of study, outlining, and class participation into one exam to determine your mastery of the material. It all comes down to a few hours in a classroom. It’s daunting, overwhelming, and, even at times, exhilarating. 

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Seeing What Sticks: Trial and Error in Law School

/ Alex Mostaghimi / Leave a comment

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.

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Confronting Anxiety As A Law Student: An Existential Approach

/ Staniel Brutis / Leave a comment

I. 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.  

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From Financial Restructuring to Transactional Law: Meet Carlos Robles-Cruz

/ Sangeeta Kishore / 5 Comments

There 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

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The Five Best Bookstores You Have to Visit 

/ Samantha Torre / Leave a comment

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. 

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What Exactly is the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam?

/ Sangeeta Kishore / Leave a comment

This 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. 

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