On the last day of my 2L internship, my supervising attorneys asked me what I would do with my remaining weeks of summer before classes started. When I said I would stick around town and make my own fun, it seemed like the tame answer to give. I’ve had so many silly adventures around this city, I haven’t felt the need to go anywhere else. My friends are here, and there is plenty for me to do. Here are some highlights from easily the most fun summer I’ve had since 2018.
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So You Want to Be a Bostonian: Weather
Welcome to the greatest place on earth. It’s probably smaller, colder, and meaner than wherever you came from. Still, you couldn’t have picked a better city to spend law school, or perhaps a lifetime.
Boston is many things; welcoming is not one of them. Our winters are cold, our people, even colder, and our insular culture can send you packing before you even hear someone say “wicked”.
Luckily for you, the prima facie case for being accepted as a “Bostonian” is as follows:
Continue readingWhat I Needed to Know Before Starting as a Summer Associate
Before starting as a summer associate, I was so anxious thinking about whether I would know anything that would have to do with my job. Considering I had only learned what transactional work was during 1L spring semester, all I knew was that I was (mostly) free from the Bluebook.
Continue readingWhat You Have to Do the Summer Before Law School
You got into law school! Congratulations!
Now what?
It’s a fair question. After all, law school has a reputation for being, well… law school. So it makes sense to wonder if there’s a book you should read, a skill you should master, or some secret summer assignment everyone else somehow knows about.
Continue readingDoes a “Not Real Job” On a Resume Mean Anything? Yes, and Here’s Why.
The fall feels like the time of year everyone works on their resumes. Along with the changing New England leaves and pumpkin spice lattes, current and prospective law students all partake in a seasonal refresh after a busy summer.
It was before one of these seasonal resume workshops I heard a common talking point.
“Oh I’ve never had a real job.”
“Is it bad that I have no political work on my resume?”
“I was stuck working retail during the pandemic.”
This is an anxiety that many, if not all, law students have encountered at some point. Maybe it was during our application process, or maybe it’s manifesting now. We fear our experiences are not relevant to this field. Our skills from assisting with college orientation to dishwashing are not applicable to being an attorney.
Continue readingOne Genuinely Good Thing: The PILF Auction
If you’ve ever watched The Good Place, you know how hard it is to do a genuinely good thing. And for those of you who haven’t seen the show…it’s hard. Really, really hard. Because the world just doesn’t work that way. Neither does goodness. A genuinely good thing is like the perfect seating chart at a wedding; it doesn’t exist. Or if it does, only in theory, and never in practice.
But…
I have a genuinely good thing for you. A top-to-bottom, high-quality, solid gold good thing. No strings, caveats, codicils, amendments, addendums, or restrictions. Just a good thing; and a good time. A Night Of Jazz. Why? Because A Night Of Jazz is the theme for the 36th annual Public Interest Law Foundation auction in support of PILF’s summer stipends program, and that is a genuinely good thing.
Continue readingThe Duality of 3L
Returning to BC Law after 2L Summer – no matter your internship – takes an adjustment. Over the summer we have been trusted with real legal responsibilities, worked on case teams, represented clients in court, drafted transactional and litigation documents, and previewed the careers waiting for us upon graduation.
There are two emerging approaches to tackling our 3L year. The first is escaping school work and maximizing experiential opportunities, the second is soaking up every moment of student life. I fall in the first category, my friend Taylor MacDonald falls in the latter, and we will do our best to encapsulate these two approaches.
Continue readingThe 1L Summer Internship Search: Four Things to Keep in Mind
When I was a 1L, I thought I would secure my summer internship over winter break. However, I quickly realized that was a bit of a pipe dream as I kept applying to opportunities and getting little response. I wasn’t too concerned until February rolled around, when I started to fear it wouldn’t happen for me. I was a hard-working student! I had good grades! What if I never got an internship?!
If you’re at this point in your 1L summer internship search, be sure to remember the following:
Continue readingThe Most Important Advice I’ve Received about My Summer Job Search
Along with every other 1L, I am applying for a summer job. I’ve been to networking events, workshops, panels, and how-tos. My notebook overflows with well-meaning advice and guidance. The problem is that none of it applies to me. I don’t have a resumé; I’ve never had one.
I’m what people call a “non-traditional” law student. I came late to law school after building a career as a professor. I did have a distinguished undergraduate career, filled with awards, accolades and accomplishments. But I can’t put those things on my resumé. That was twenty some years ago. It would look weird, my notebook says. Out of place (underlined). They were important things. Bright, big things. They mattered then, and they matter now. But it won’t help me land a summer job. Employers don’t want to see that, quotes the notebook. So, /select/highlight/delete, and just like that, parts of my life are cut away. Besides, I need that space so I can focus on my strengths (circled; exclamation point). Because the resumé manuals tell me I have to…wait, where is it…oh, right. Lead with my core competencies (question mark). And above all, circled and twice underlined and given arrows all around it, the number-one-most-important-thing-to-remember-is…just be yourself!
But the problem with being yourself is that it’s hard to know who that is.
Continue readingLawyering and Breathing: Three Lessons from My Summer Experience
Today I am hosting a guest blog from my friend Melody Mathewson, a member of the Class of 2022. -DS
What am I doing this summer? Well, the law, of course. I am drafting agreements and policies, researching admissibility, and reading trial transcripts and state statutes. It’s all very glamorous and novel to you as aspiring or fellow law students, I know.
More importantly, I am learning how to run a marathon. Not literally. Literally, I walk for an hour every day, but I do not run. What I mean is, I am learning how to endure and thrive through the marathon of being a human attorney. I am learning what I wish I had learned two years ago, both before and during the first year of law school.
Here are three lessons from my 2L summer experience.
Summer Experience Lesson No.1: It is perfectly acceptable to demonstrate your strong work ethic and hustling attitude from Monday through Friday, and “breaks” can coexist with “weekdays.”
I have been listening to some really thoughtful and insightful podcasts while going for my long, near-daily walks outside, and on the weekends I lie by the pool and read similar kinds of books (or completely lose myself in a perfectly curated playlist of summer bops). On a daily level, this hour-long walk is my mid-day break. It is my exercise, my fresh air, my break from a computer screen, my break from legal jargon, and most importantly it is time I am not working, not thinking about work, not worrying about work, and not pressuring myself to get back to work.
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