Go Premium for $25 and get
Already a member? Log in here.
It is never too early to start your job search. As soon as you finish your last 2L class, you should be thinking about finding a job. Assuming you took the time in your first and second years of law school to polish your resume, writing sample(s), and
Whether they are excellent or less-than-ideal, your grades don’t define you. You define you. You are worthy of this profession and we need you.
Insurance defense litigator Emily Albrecht digs into a specialty that would mortify other lawyers.
Your career may not be a straight line. But if you know what you’re good at, you’ll get where you’d like to be.
Intensive bar preparation is a “long, strange trip” (apologies to the Grateful Dead). You need your Bar Success GPS—something you don’t want to be frantically pulling together in June and July. Start early. Start now.
Only 314 law school applicants for the 2017-2018 academic year—not even a half a percent— were music majors, according to the Law School Admissions Council. Dana Musial, a 3L at the University of Cincinnati College of Law in Ohio, was one of them.
Q: How do I find a legal recruiter I can hire to help me find a job after I graduate and pass the bar? A: Congratulations on nearing the finish line for law school! And congratulations on thinking ahead about your job search. As you’re already seeing, earning
As law school exam season approaches, the tension in academic hallways thickens like soup. Over the past few weeks, as I’ve met with students in office hours, I’ve seen worries etch into their furrowed brows right before my eyes. Everyone seems to be ahead of me in their outlining. I still don’t
Rachel Gentry, Kennedy LeJeune, and KyMara Guidry join host Ashley Baker for a roundtable discussion of law student mental health issues.
It’s never too early or too late to start thinking about paying off law school loans. In some cases, if you go to the right school, make the right amount of money, and follow confusing steps that may go horribly awry at any point, you
Asking for—and getting—letters of recommendation is not as hard as you think. The law professors and practicing attorneys you’re nervous about won’t be surprised by your request. They know jurisdictions can require bar candidates to submit these letters as part of their bar application. They were in your shoes once too—they all applied for bar admissions, and likely they had to collect similar letters from people they didn’t feel they really knew well.
As a first-generation lawyer, I really didn’t know what to expect from the practice of law. I wasn’t prepared for the pressure and the stress, and I didn’t know how to overcome the need for perfection and validation that I’d inadvertently nurtured through a lifetime focused on academic performance.
August 2018, on a late Thursday afternoon, I received a call asking me if I was available to come up and meet with a chief assistant state attorney. I was an assistant state attorney in Miami-Dade County, Florida, handling mental health cases, so these requests were common. I
“Dear Ms. Leader, Thank you for your application. Unfortunately, at this time, we are not able to offer…" Sound familiar? Some version of this email has started to grace my inbox as frequently as the latest J. Crew discount code or law school lunch talk
If you have ever picked up a free banana smoothie or granola bar from your law school’s wellness week booths, you are not alone. Free food is great, and law schools do seem to care more about wellness than they used to, but I still find myself asking: how
October is Mental Health Awareness Month, and World Mental Health Day is October 10. We observe this month and day to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to increase support for wellness. This day is meant to provide an opportunity for all those affected to talk about
This first year is a whirlwind. Someone who’s just been there has some tips to make it a success, and even fun.
Many law students are motivated by the desire to make a difference, but how can they hone in on opportunities that align with their personal and professional goals? Host Ashley Baker talks to Gaylynn Burroughs about her work at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human
It's not exactly Game of Thrones. But in OCI, you gotta play to win. And we're here to help you slay at your on-campus interview. We've gathered our the top information on everything that goes into OCI, interviewing tips, help with your resume and cover
Soon-to-be law students, this is your summer reading list. Okay, you don’t need to read all these books—with 30+ books, they’re probably too many for one summer anyway! But they are helpful, inspiring, and empowering picks all law students might consider.
Should you handwrite or type the Multistate Performance Tests (MPTs) and Multistate Essay Exams (MEEs) portions of the bar exam? Do the bar examiners grade the handwritten essays differently from typed essays? Maybe I can’t answer that second question for you, since grading can be
I had a conversation earlier this month with a former director of a state bar Lawyers Assistance Program. This person shared that during regular meetings with the LAP, administrators at law schools in the state often complained, “Students today are just so fragile.” But
For law students aspiring to be on a journal, the satisfaction of finishing 1L year is short-lived. Write-on is just around the corner. As soon as you’re about to regain your life and your sanity, the 3L board members hand you a packet and a deadline.
What are you planning on doing this and maybe the next few summers? If you plan it well, three years of law school can provide you with up to four summers’ worth of work experience in law/related fields. From traditional law firm summer associate roles, to courtroom clerkships,
Editor's note: This post has been updated to clarify a passage in the original version (5/16/19, 10:44 a.m. CDT). As the spring semester comes to a close, many 3Ls are investigating their bar study loan options. Borrowing one last loan to pay
Before the Bar is the blog of the ABA Law Student Division. It brings together a diversity of opinions, experiences, and voices from those associated with the law anywhere in the world and is targeted to law students, current, past and future.
Unless stated, the opinions shared by our writers do not reflect the official position of the American Bar Association.
Before the Bar Guidelines
Become a Contributor
