public interest

From Imposter Syndrome to Winning a Jury Trial: My First Semester in the BC Defenders Clinic

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / 1 Comment

This guest post was written by Natalie Reysa, a third-year student at BC Law.

“Oh boy, am I glad to see you!” This reaction was the opposite of what I expected from the first client I met in lockup, on my first duty day in the Dorchester Division of the Boston Municipal Court.

I had imagined this day repeatedly, convinced that my future clients would take one look at me and immediately doubt my abilities to represent them. The potential reasons floated in my head: young female law student, intimidated by public speaking and thinking on my feet, no background in public defense trial work…the list went on.

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A Tool for Accountability and Justice: Meet Leena Alasaad

/ Sangeeta Kishore / Leave a comment

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! 

Previous entries: Sara Womble (Winston Salem, NC); Elias Massion (Nashville, TN); Samina Gagné (London);Alvin Synarong (Murfreesboro, Tennessee); Ruchita Jain (Edina, Minnesota); Nicole Bauer (Michigan);Carlos Robles-Cruz (Puerto Rico); Taha Din (Naperville, IL); Timothy St. Pierre (Brunswick, Maine); Tobias Wilcken Jørgensen LLM ’25 (Denmark).

Leena Alasaad

Name: Leena Alasaad

Hometown: Dracut, Massachusetts

Educational Background: Undergraduate degree in Political Science, with a minor in Philosophy and Law, University of Massachusetts Boston

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An Immersive Experience: Meet LLM Alum Tobias Wilcken Jørgensen ’25

/ Sangeeta Kishore / 1 Comment

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! 

Previous entries: Sara Womble (Winston Salem, NC); Elias Massion (Nashville, TN); Samina Gagné (London); Alvin Synarong (Murfreesboro, Tennessee); Ruchita Jain (Edina, Minnesota); Nicole Bauer (Michigan); Carlos Robles-Cruz (Puerto Rico); Taha Din (Naperville, IL); Timothy St. Pierre (Brunswick, ME).

Name:
Tobias Wilcken Jørgensen

Home Country:
Denmark

Degree:
LLM, Class of 2025

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Building on Advocacy and Compassion: Meet Timothy St. Pierre

/ Sangeeta Kishore / 2 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! 

Previous entries: Sara Womble (Winston Salem, NC); Elias Massion (Nashville, TN); Samina Gagné (London); Alvin Synarong (Murfreesboro, Tennessee); Ruchita Jain (Edina, Minnesota); Nicole Bauer (Michigan); Carlos Robles-Cruz (Puerto Rico); Taha Din (Naperville, IL).

Name: Timothy St. Pierre

Hometown: Brunswick, Maine

Educational Background: Swarthmore College (2021, Political Science, French & Francophone Studies)

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Discovering Advocacy Before the Courtroom: My Journey to Law School

/ Isabella Calise / Leave a comment

One Monday morning in the summer of 2022, I was greeted at work by my boss eagerly telling me today I would be meeting the defendant in the self-defense case I just started working on. After anxiously waiting until lunch, I watched with surprise as a young boy—barely five foot seven and still sporting a baby face—walked through my door and told me he was just seventeen yet was being tried as an adult for second-degree murder. 

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How My Grandmother’s Escape from Persecution Helped Me Discover My Own Path

/ Rebecca Carcieri / Leave a comment

Ilovik, Croatia, is a sparsely developed island with a compact area of just five square miles. With only 60 permanent residents and a modest influx of expatriates each summer, Ilovik’s way of life is characterized by its isolation and limited resources. The idyllic beauty of the island belies the history and complex legal struggles of many of its inhabitants. I have spent most of my childhood summers visiting my Baba, Croatian for grandmother, in Ilovik. During these visits, as I listened to Baba’s poignant recollections of her time on and off the island, I discovered my calling to pursue a career in law.

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A Sit Down Chat with BC Law Legend Professor Bloom

/ Alex Mostaghimi / Leave a comment

Generations of BC Law alumni have found common ground in relating their experiences with the institution’s most revered fixtures, names like Hillinger, Brodin, Blum, and Katz. This week, I had a chat with Professor “Bob” Bloom, an alum himself and a remarkable legal educator whose one-of-a-kind style has left an indelible mark on any student privileged enough to take his courses (BC Law Magazine published a lengthy Q&A with him last spring; read that here).

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Finding Creative Solutions to Human Problems: Meet Taha Din

/ Sangeeta Kishore / 3 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! 

Last year’s entries: Sara Womble (Winston Salem, NC); Elias Massion (Nashville, TN); Samina Gagné (London); Alvin Synarong (Murfreesboro, Tennessee); Ruchita Jain (Edina, Minnesota); Nicole Bauer (Michigan); Carlos Robles-Cruz (Puerto Rico).

Name: Taha Din

Hometown: Naperville, IL

Educational Background: I graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 2021, where I studied History, Classical Civilization, and Arabic Language.

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No Post-Grad Job Offer? No Problem!

/ Haley Cole / Leave a comment

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.

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Four Things to Know for Those Considering Clerking

/ Alex Mostaghimi / Leave a comment

A judicial law clerk assists a judge in their most important duties: preparing to supervise an oral argument, drafting opinions, and preparing jury instructions. With direct contact from the arbiters of the law, the value of a judicial clerkship cannot be matched. Not only will a judicial clerk’s writing, reading, and analytical skills vastly improve, their network among members of the Bar, other clerks, and judges will also expand.

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