The Girl's Guide to Law School®
Get In, Get Through, Stay You
During law school, she served as a Legal Clerk with the federal government at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Counsel to the Inspector General in Washington, DC. Currently, she works for a health and business law firm. She enjoys spending down time mentoring students sitting for the bar exam through the American Bar Association Council on Legal Education Opportunity program and taking it easy with her three poodles.
Ms. Sanchez holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stony Brook University, a Master of Public Health from the University of Arizona and Juris Doctor from Hofstra University.
Guest writer Zoila Sanchez is back to talk about deciding between a full-time or part-time law school program.
One of the most exciting aspects of applying to law school is getting down to the specifics such as the kind of program—part-time or full-time studies. There are important things to consider when selecting the right option for you.
Questions to ask yourself may include:
Guest writer Zoila Sanchez is back this week to talk about how to handle things not going in the way you had imagined.
Sometimes your dreams do not happen within the timeline you have in mind or in the manner in which you had imagined. When it comes to pursuing a major career goal of becoming an accomplished attorney, the road will come with its challenges. Sometimes the challenges can feel like life-ending roadblocks leaving you questioning if this is the right path.
This week we welcome back guest writer Zoila Sanchez to discuss surviving grief during law school.
The loss of a loved one can be difficult to process. When loss strikes while you are in the middle of law school, you may want to hit the pause button so that you can properly grieve. Generally, we get a few days to gather ourselves before jumping back into the swing of things, which is a harsh reality as there may be a lot of feelings hitting you all at once.
If you find yourself facing the loss of a loved one as a law student, here are a few tips to help you along the way so that you can feel the comfort and support you need to heal from your loss: [Read more…]
This week we welcome back guest writer Zoila Sanchez to talk about how different people can have an easier or more difficult time getting in to law school and how to handle that.
If you are a prospective law student and in the process of applying to law school — then you know that the path to get into law school is a major commitment and requires several, difficult steps! As a prospective student, you have likely discovered by now that the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) was only the beginning, and that law school can be competitive and takes a lot of hard work to excel.
This week we welcome back guest writer Zoila Sanchez to discuss dealing with mental health issues as a law student.
Late and long nights of reading confusing case law. Preparing for being called on during the dreaded cold calls. Feeling like you are faking it until you make it. Competition to make it onto prestigious journals and into extracurricular activities. Is law school supposed to feel miserable? Is it normal to feel like you are a failure? Do you experience muscle tension, mood swings, feelings of sadness?
These experiences may be shared across law students and are somewhat normalized. After all, we all voluntarily signed up for this difficult endeavor.
How do you know when your mental health needs attention during law school?
This week we welcome back guest writer Zoila Sanchez to talk about navigating the current job market.
The prospects around the legal job market may seem discouraging and even confusing.
On a daily basis, we are hit with ever-changing news about the economy and the job market. Currently, there appears to be uncertainty around a recession. Specifically, we are hearing that the nation is headed toward a recession, and other sources indicating that we are already in a recession.
This understandably leaves concerns for the class of 2023, and for current JD job-seekers as employers are likely faced with limiting their demand to protect their costs in the face of recession discussions, and inflation.
Regardless of job market predictions and prospects, it is always a good idea to make daily progress by:
This week we welcome back guest writer Zoila Sanchez to discuss what she would have done the month before she started law school, if she had known then what she knows now!
Congratulations on committing to a law school program that you will start very soon! It may feel like a crazy time, with many logistics that need to get done before you begin school.
Aside from the to-do list, here are some potential things to consider—which I personally wish I knew—before law school officially begins:
This week we welcome back guest writer Zoila Sanchez to discuss how to keep yourself informed about what’s going on in the legal field.
If you are interested in going to law school, you have likely learned about the various steps you need to take to successfully get there. For example, you must take the Law School Admissions Test (“LSAT”), write a personal statement, and obtain letters of recommendation.
While you are in the pre-law process of exploring the possibility of attending law school and familiarizing yourself with the requirements to be a successful applicant, it can sometimes feel like you are not engaging with the reason why you wanted to attend in the first place. For example, in my own personal experience, I spent so much time carving out hours to study for the LSAT aside from my full-time job and other commitments, that I did not have the time to connect with the social justice issues that inspired me to attend law school. I discovered through an incredible pre-law program that there are easy ways to quickly plug into legal issues in the world today. [Read more…]
This week we welcome guest writer Zoila Sanchez to talk about how to focus on your own law school experience and adapt to what you need to in order to make it through school.
As you may have already realized, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to experiencing law school as we are all different and rarely fall into the “traditional” law student mold. For example, some students are parents and attend school full or part-time. Some students are returning for a second or third degree.
You may have experienced feeling “behind” in some way. For example, you may feel late on securing an internship merely because someone else has already interviewed or secured one.
As a law student, I remember representing a bar prep program and promoting a prescribed schedule to help students stay on track. Specifically, there were dates on when to complete the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). While the recommendation seemed to emphasize starting early to set yourself up for success, I came to realize how so much of the real-life law school experience for many is set to a totally different pace than what was on the schedule. [Read more…]
This week we welcome back guest writer Zoila Sanchez to discuss how you can find your own, unique area of the law.
When I was an undergraduate, it seemed to me that most students fell into either pre-medical school track, psychology, or business. I recall our career center heavily focusing on business opportunity events, however, none of these paths seemed to spark my interests. We did not hear much about other possibilities.
