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Bookkeeping For Law Students

September 28, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Bookkeeping For Law StudentsThis week we welcome back guest writer Hillary Vaillancourt to talk about keeping your expenses in order as a law student.

With the frequent use of online banking, it’s easy these days to put our finances on autopilot. We create automatic payments for our bills. We get billing statements sent to inboxes and probably move them directly to the trash without even opening them. In short, we’re not paying attention to our money or our budget.

That can be a big problem down the road. As a law student (especially if you’re going to law school straight from undergrad), you probably aren’t worried yet about buying a house or perhaps getting a business loan to open your own practice.

There are numerous expenses and financial goals that can be impacted by poor financial habits in law school.

Trust me, I understand how completely time-consuming law school can be. Sometimes I feel like I’m still briefing cases, and it’s been more than ten years since I was in law school! However, your future is waiting for you. It’s important to establish good financial habits now before you start making the big lawyer dollars later.

Here’s how to manage your money now to set yourself up for success later.

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Five Foundational Principles of Good (Legal) Writing

February 16, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Five Foundational Principles of Good (Legal) WritingThis week we welcome back guest writer Tiffany Lo to discuss some important basics in legal writing.

Have you ever gotten a headache from reading a statutory provision that went on for ten lines? Or a sentence in a court opinion featuring too many dependent clauses? Or a legal brief with too much jargon or unnecessary words like herein or thereafter?

As a student of the law, I have always been puzzled by why legislators, attorneys, and judges express ideas in convoluted ways. I am also delighted when a legal brief or court ruling is clean and concise, without compromising on sharp and compelling analysis. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Legal Writing Tagged With: ,

7 Law School Resolutions For The New Year

January 5, 2021 by Leave a Comment

7 Law School Resolutions For The New YearThis week we welcome back guest writer Tiffany Lo to talk about starting fresh in the new year with some resolutions.

Being a law student is not easy. There is always room for improvement—to make things more efficient, to grow your knowledge, to hone your legal skills. This year, consider adopting some of these new year resolutions:

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Filed Under: Time Management Tagged With: , , ,

4 Ways to Seek Feedback in Law School

October 6, 2020 by Leave a Comment

4 Ways to Seek Feedback in Law SchoolThis week we welcome back guest writer and 2L Tiffany Lo to talk about how to get feedback in law school.

In law school, a final exam is often the sole determinant of a grade in a course. For many students, this is an uncomfortable shift from undergraduate classes in which there are multiple assessments, whether as quizzes, group projects, or short papers. I have felt exasperated by not knowing whether I was grasping the materials, whether I was applying concepts correctly, and whether my legal analysis is on point. Unfortunately, the burden falls on us students to take the initiative and seek feedback. Here are four of my ideas for how to do that: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Surviving Law School Tagged With: , ,

Make Applying to Outside Law School Scholarships a Habit

July 21, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Make Applying to Outside Law School Scholarships a HabitThis week we hear from current law student and guest writer Tiffany Gee Ching Lo about how to approach applications to law school scholarships.

It is no secret that attending law school is a massive financial undertaking. While many schools provide need and merit-based scholarships, most students still need to pay a large sum of tuition and living expenses. As a student, I feel this pressure acutely, as do many of my classmates. During the summer before starting law school, I was curious to see whether there were scholarships I could apply for. I started with a simple google search, but quickly ended up with tens and tens of tiny tabs in my browser. I realized that many law firms and legal organizations offer awards ranging anywhere from $100 to $30,000, averaging at $2,000-$2,500. Many scholarships are recurring on an annual or semesterly basis. There were so many opportunities that I created a document to store all the hyperlinks and to organize them. I now call this list my money maker. [Read more…]

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Did your Summer Job Fall Through? Become a Better Writer Anyway

June 2, 2020 by 1 Comment

Did your Summer Job fall through? Become a Better Writer AnywayThis week we welcome back guest writer and tutor Elizabeth Knox to talk about working on your legal writing skills this summer, whether or not you have a legal job.

Some lawyers find that the value of law school isn’t found in the coursework, but rather in the summer work most students do. Summer jobs allow students to practice tailoring their legal writing and then get real feedback from practitioners. There’s nothing like going through a brutal feedback process to help new attorneys become stellar legal writers.

COVID-19 has changed the summer landscape for most law students. Jobs have been canceled or postponed because of stay at home orders, leaving many students in the lurch. This would normally be a red flag for future employers, but because this is happening on an unprecedented scale, you don’t need to worry about that right now

This does not mean you should do nothing this summer. Employers are still going to wonder how you spent the summer, and you’ll want a good answer. If you don’t have to work or care for family, this summer holds a fantastic opportunity to improve your legal writing. It can be daunting to do this without the promise of feedback, but it’s worth doing anyway.

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Filed Under: Legal Writing Tagged With: , , ,

The Dos and Don’ts of a Law School Diversity Statement

January 14, 2020 by Leave a Comment

The Dos and Don’ts of a Law School Diversity StatementWe welcome back guest writer Christen Morgan to talk about working on your law school diversity statement.

Looking for ways to boost your law school admissions packet? I assure you you’re not alone. During the time I was applying to law school, this was something I was frantic about. My LSAT score wasn’t very high, so I became fixated on assembling an admissions packet that would hopefully be sufficient for the reviewer to simply overlook my score or at the very least not give it too much standing. I mean, a girl can dream right? Ultimately, however, I knew I needed to provide documentation that would support my score and somewhat provide an explanation for why it was so low. Thus I completed a LSAT Addendum and Diversity Statement as the emblems of support I would use to supplement my personal statement and boost my overall packet. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Preparing for Law School Tagged With: ,

Legal Writing Mishaps You Should Avoid Like the Plague

December 18, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Legal Writing Mishaps You Should Avoid Like the PlaguePlease welcome back attorney Christen Morgan to to talk about some important reminders about legal writing!

God bless my 1L legal writing professor. Although I am now two years removed from law school and five years removed from my first semester of legal writing, I maintain this statement with the utmost conviction. This professor deserves special blessings as she has had to endure reviewing hundreds of memos and briefs proposed as exemplary writing but fraught with blatant error. She has also spent countless hours in her work day trying to explain to each student (me included) about why their writing is in fact not exemplary. Finally, she has on numerous occasions had to maintain the “patience of Job,” as she did her very best to take charge of the debate each student assumed was necessary to prove that they were in fact writing experts after their first three weeks of law school. [Read more…]

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5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Letters of Recommendation for Clerkship Applications (and Beyond!)

November 13, 2018 by Leave a Comment

5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Letters of Recommendation for Clerkship Applications (and Beyond!)Please welcome guest writer Kelsey Russell, a recent clerk for the Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York, to discuss how to get letters of recommendations, an important aspects of clerkships applications.

If you are considering a judicial clerkship, you are likely well aware that your letters of recommendation are an essential component of your application.

As someone who decided to apply for a clerkship pretty late in the game, getting quality recommendations felt like a tall order. Many of my classmates had already taken advantage of opportunities such as research assistant positions, which led to relationships with professors who, in turn, could write personalized recommendations. By the fall of 3L year, no single professor stood out in my mind as a natural recommender. So I started brainstorming: Should I start with the professor who gave me my highest grade? Or the professor who ran my pro bono project? What about employers prior to law school? Given that I was trying to compile my materials in relatively short order, I was also working against the clock. [Read more…]

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Avoiding The “Slings And Arrows” Of Outrageous Case Briefing Misfortune And Getting To What’s Important

September 18, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Reading/briefing casesThis week we welcome guest writer and 3L, Mark Livingston, to discuss how to get started with case briefing as a new law student.

I remember, not so fondly, the first case I tried to brief in law school. It was Todd v. Danner, 17 Ind. App. 368, 46 N.E. 829 (1897). I remember briefing this case, and because it was from 1897, it involved an incident with an unruly steer, and I had no idea how to brief it. The language used by the court was archaic and convoluted. I had no idea what was important or what I needed to include in my brief.

That first brief was awful. Despite the brevity of the court with its two-and-a-half-page decision, my brief weighed in at a cool six pages! I was way off course, and if all of my case briefs had turned out like that one, I would have been briefing my 1L cases after my retirement. I have since developed a few skills and approaches that have helped me streamline the process and cut through my cases like a champ.

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Filed Under: Legal Writing Tagged With: ,
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