Once again, we have seen another Black life brutally taken by police violence. Once again, we demand justice, beginning with systemic change to stop the centuries of institutionalized, legal oppression of Black communities. And once again, we are forced to remind the world that Black Lives Matter. We four women of color— three Black women and a Brown woman— started FirstGenJD to uplift marginalized voices … Continue reading Black Lives Matter.
After the heart-stopping terror of the email that grades have been posted comes the leaden-stomach anxiety of wondering what those grades mean and where to go from there. What do these grades mean for me? Am I supposed to review my exams? What if I don’t like my grades? As many questions swirl around after taking an exam as had to be answered in the … Continue reading I Just Got My Grades… Now What?
My 1L Orientation was filled with stories of students who spent their first year munching Snickers bars for dinner and gulping Red Bulls between all-nighters. It was all heavily doused with advice we absolutely should not follow their example, of course— that we have to eat and sleep and be functional humans and all— but the message I really heard was that there is an … Continue reading “Sleep is a Distant Memory, and There’s Nothing But Caffeine in My Veins”: Self Care for Law Students
This is the final article in a four-part series on BigLaw jobs. Find the first installment describing BigLaw here, the second installment here on parsing through BigLaw firms, and the third installment on the BigLaw application process here. The final step in the process once you’ve gotten your offers (congrats, BTW!) is to choose your firm. Fortunately– or perhaps, unfortunately–there’s no real science to it … Continue reading 10 Things to Remember When Choosing a BigLaw Firm
This is the third in a four-part series on BigLaw jobs. Find the first installment describing BigLaw here and the second installment here on parsing through BigLaw firms to generate an application list. Okay, so now you know which firms interest you, how do you make them interested in you? What does the application process look like for BigLaw? And what’s the deal with this … Continue reading When “OCI” Stands for “Oh, Crap, Interviews?!?”: Applying to BigLaw
This is the second in a four-part series on BigLaw jobs. Find the first installment describing BigLaw here. The hardest part of the BigLaw application process is getting started. It may seem trite, but it’s true. There are thousands of firms out there, and trying to narrow down the list to a reasonable number to apply to can be overwhelming. Luckily, those of us who … Continue reading Finding Your BigLaw 2L Summer Associateship
BigLaw is often touted as the way law students Make It™. But, the BigLaw search was also one of the times I was most palpably conscious of my First Gen-ness because the entire process is so foreign to anyone outside the legal profession. I had never even heard of “BigLaw” before law school, so I didn’t have a single clue what pompous gibberish people were speaking when they … Continue reading So You Want to Be a BigLaw Attorney…
I raise my hand a lot in class. The unwritten rule of law school is to avoid being called on at all costs— and here I am voluntarily subjecting myself to scrutiny— so it earns me a lot of strange looks. But it’s actually immensely important to me because it’s important to me to take up space— not physical space, but metaphorical space. I will … Continue reading What Does a Lawyer Look Like? Reflections on Representation in the Law
Some days, the law feels like a world of its own, complete with a “No non-lawyers allowed” sign. And on those days, I both feel like I haven’t earned my place in that posh, exclusive “lawyers” club but also feel like I’ve definitively left where I came from behind just to get this far. It’s a strange limbo where I don’t belong wholeheartedly in either … Continue reading From Layman to Lawyer
im·pos·tor syn·drome (noun) — the persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own efforts or skills When I got the email my 1L year that first semester grades were posted, my hands were quite literally shaking, and my pulse was beating so rapidly that I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t decide if I … Continue reading No, They Didn’t Admit You on Accident: Conquering Impostor Syndrome
First Gen JD 