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Want to help build empathy, starting with your own little corner of the world? Pro bono is your best move. You can make a career out of it, develop projects and initiatives to meet every situation, or pave the way for the next generation of lawyers.
A law school student loan debt survey report demonstrates the growing crisis of lawyer debt. Here's how that impacts law students.
Law students have leveraged their legal training to pursue relief for tenants and prisoners confined during the pandemic. While some have worked though their law schools’ clinical programs or local legal aid societies, others have teamed up directly with local attorneys engaged in pro bono
The pandemic has affected people and businesses of all varieties—and pro bono services and legal aid organizations haven’t escaped its devastation. That has exacerbated the justice gap. Eighty-six percent of civil legal problems reported by low-income Americans were handled with inadequate or no legal help,
Remember applying to law school? When are the deadlines? Is it better to apply earlier or later? What’s the LSAT? And what number should I strive for? Remember scouring the internet for guidance? Becca Human, a 2L at Harvard Law School, does.
Pro bono work is work undertaken without charge. It’s shorthand for the longer phrase pro bono publico, which literally means “for the public good.” It’s something the legal profession has always encouraged for many reasons. That’s mostly because it’s the profession’s contribution to the community,
This winter, as 1Ls reflect on their first completed semester, 2Ls—who are halfway done— consider what they want to do in the remaining year and a half, and 3Ls think about finishing up their final semester and passing the bar exam, I encourage all of you to think
Simply put, we need more productive people to provide more help to more people. If living through this pandemic has taught us nothing else, at least we’ve learned how interconnected we truly are. To borrow a line from Disneyland, “It’s a small world after all.”
What does the ABA Diversity and Inclusion Center do? The better question might ask what doesn’t it do. Between awards, scholarships, programs, CLEs, webinars, networking events, and pipeline programs, the center’s entities work to strengthen networks of attorneys and civil rights professionals inside and outside the ABA.
Attorneys hold a unique position in society and have a responsibility to be peacemakers. That starts with practicing with civility. Here’s how to do your part. Learn how to be mindful of others—and be aware of when you're potentially being uncivil—in the latest issue of Student Lawyer magazine.
Imagine being a third-year associate and heading to your first deposition without a more senior lawyer from the firm. You’ve sat second chair countless times, led the deposition for clients with the aid of partners, written and argued dozens of motions, and now gained the self-confidence—as well as
It should have been among the first courses you took. It’s far more important than civil procedure or property. It’s about what was already buried deep within you when you decided to go to law school. As a stranger to the profession and to what
You open the glass doors and enter the law firm for your interview. A quick glance around and you notice the office-facing walls act more as windows. Staff smile as they walk around, giving you bright grins and promising looks. You think you’ve hit the utopia of law
You’d have to have been cut off from all news for the past several years not to have heard the term microaggression. In its simplest terms, it’s an unintentional slight that’s usually based around someone’s identity. For Simon Tam, the term means disrespect. It’s an
There’s no shortage of incivility in the country today. On what seems like a daily basis, we’re witness to more divisiveness, more violence, and more ugly rhetoric than I’ve ever experienced in my lifetime. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we, as lawyers and future lawyers,
For all the lawyer jokes out there, and despite there obviously being some particularly rude law students, legal educators, and practicing attorneys, many more regularly practice politeness, especially in their professional roles. Think, for example, of courtesies extended in courts, where attorneys must address judges
As a law professor, I draw on upon my own encounters to educate students, of all races and creeds, about the importance of treating all people with decency and respect. I stress that people are individuals, and we are to be judged by the content of our character
Many attorneys who want flexibility and freedom have turned to freelancing for meaningful, substantial legal work. Opportunities for freelance legal work have even increased recently as law firms suddenly needed help in both litigation and transactional work—especially as courts opened up after COVID-19-related closures.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic this spring, one clever law student transformed the distressing idea of online law school into a multi-thousand dollar organization. Sadie Hillier’s Zoom Law School merchandise raised more than $46,000,
If you want to do something, don’t wait to be asked. The invitation may never come. I’ve seen lawyers make this mistake again and again. They believe that if they’re highly qualified, someone will come and tap them on the shoulder to offer them business,
Resolutions addressing qualified immunity for law enforcement officials, their use of lethal force, and hate crimes were among those passed by the ABA’s House of Delegates at its Annual Meeting in August.
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.
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.
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.
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.