Student Lawyer: The Pandemic Issue
Unlike the popular perception, lawyers have always been willing to help others. The pandemic is just the latest example. This issue of Student Lawyer Magazine looks at the summer of change for all its beauty.
Category: Student Lawyer
Lawyers did good during the pandemic (as usual)
Lawyers do exceptional things every day. For many, that continued, even increased, during the pandemic. Throughout the country, lawyers mobilized to support their communities and, through their efforts, demonstrated their commitment to service and their community. Here are snapshots of how lawyers have changed lives with their volunteer work during the pandemic.
What we did on our summer (lockdown) vacation
COVID-19 has meant that law students have had to be creative. For months, sometimes even for years, they’ve developed networks to achieve the career they wanted. Then the pandemic happened. For some law students, things have worked out. Others, however, are still trying to find their best path.
ABA Leaders to law students: 'We hear you'
The future is uncertain for law students, and ABA Presidents Judy Perry Martinez and Trish Refo are leading the ABA in an effort to make it less so.
Preparing for the bar exam and practice during a pandemic
In any other year, 2020 law school graduates would have taken the July bar exam and would now be working or looking for law jobs while awaiting bar exam results. But this is no ordinary year. The events of this spring and summer have disrupted nearly everything that seemed routine just months ago.
The financial lessons of the pandemic
Even though this new “abnormal” won’t last forever, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be far reaching. Though we’ve all been hit in different ways, there are financial lessons you can take from current events to help protect you against financial insecurity in the future.
How a law student sparked a mass pro bono movement
A tweet during the pandemic resulted in law students and paralegals volunteering more than 2,500 hours of their time for others.
Chaos and your career: Welcome to 2020
From pandemics to protests, 2020 has jumbled personal lives and career paths, and it’s nowhere near over. No one can guarantee an uptick in the number of legal jobs, where those jobs will turn out to be, or even when new hiring might occur. What does that mean for you? Here’s what we know.
Haley Taylor Schlitz: Writing what she knows
In her spare time during law school, Haley Taylor Schlitz and her mother published a book on homeschooling for Black children. The source of their expertise? Their own experience.
U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham: Know the real issue
In your first year of law school, you learn a method of legal writing known as IRAC—issue, rule, analysis, conclusion—as a framework to guide your work. Some schools have slightly different outlines, but their essence is the same. It’s relatively straightforward. Start your essay by
Student Lawyer: The Law Student Evolution Issue
Ever feel like you’re going to forget something important while you’re immersed in law school? No worries. Student Lawyer has rounded up a handy guide of to-dos—things to not forget as you evolve from a law student to a lawyer. There's lots to accomplish from 1L to 2L
Your law school checklist: From 1L to graduation
Ever feel like you’re going to forget something important while you’re immersed in law school? No worries. Here’s a handy guide of to-dos.
2L: Your year of transformation from law student to lawyer
Law school is a transitional time. It’s several years of preparing to cross from being a student to being a professional. In a short period, we go from being a regular human who doesn’t understand jurisdiction to a lawyer who knows the proper Bluebook rule
The chrysalis year: What to do during your time as a 3L
Here we are, another school year winding down. 3Ls are gearing up for the big day they’ve long awaited— graduation—while simultaneously thinking about how fast the bar exam is coming. 2Ls are trying to avoid senioritis as their final year awaits. And 1Ls are breathing sighs of relief
Goodbye, Law Student Division; Hello, Young Lawyers Division
As I sat at my computer, trying to find the words to say, debating all the right ways to say them, I found myself surprisingly speechless. So instead of trying to find the words to say, I started writing. Writing anything that came to
Student loan strategies: Life after law school
Here’s a three-step guide to setting your course for student loan repayment, with a few cautionary tips along the way.
Advocating for justice on an international level with the Clooney Foundation
Here’s how you can join the Clooney Foundation and the ABA to achieve legal equality worldwide.
Student Success 101: Reduce distractions and increase focus
To thrive academically, and pass the bar exam the first time around, you must combat distractions with enormous discipline. You must be on—mind, body, and spirit. To do this, you need to ruthlessly protect your time and put up walls around everything that steals time and focus from your studies.
How to track, then budget, your time
How can you reduce distractions and make more time for bar prep? Begin by identifying what takes your time. Below, approximate how many hours per week you spend on each item. Remember, there are only 168 possible hours in any given week. _____ Work (keep
I Wish I'd Known: Dennis W. Archer
I was a tenured teacher with the Detroit Public Schools teaching learning-disabled students. A teacher I was dating persuaded me to consider law school. I took the LSAT and applied to law school. I taught school during the day and started evening classes at the
The life cycle of a student lawyer
Back in my undergraduate days, I learned about product life cycles. As a communications major, we studied how consumer products moved in a fairly predictable path from introduction to growth to maturity and, ultimately, to decline. Each phase was accompanied by certain pros and cons,
What’s next? Our options are practically endless
For those of you who’ve been on this journey with me for the past three years, congrats on finishing your doctoral degree! This is a huge accomplishment and arguably the biggest hurdle toward starting your dream job. Now all that’s left for those who’ll practice
Student Lawyer: There are many paths to the career you'll love
It can be incredibly isolating to feel like your experience is dramatically different from that of everybody else around you and that few others will understand where you come from. That can feel especially true in law school, where the vast majority of students are young, single, child-free
Later-than-most to law school
Contrary to popular opinion, there are advantages that come with age, and they can help in law school.
Life as a parent in law school
Law school isn’t tailored to students with kids, so create an academic experience that works for your family.