It’s been officially one year since I was sworn in as an attorney here in California! Here are some of my thoughts on the last twelve months 🙂 One thing I was really surprised about is how much responsibility I get as a first year associate! Of course this varies by the job/office but I get to work directly with clients and even go to planning commission and city council meetings for the cities we represent and be the city attorney up on the dais answering legal questions during the meetings. I also got to negotiate a big project for one of our clients this year with some oversight from…

Earthtojul’s guide to environmental law, and all of your questions answered! What exactly IS environmental law? The environmental law field is a collection of laws, regulations, agreements, and policies that govern how we interact with our environment 🙂 You may have heard of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, etc., those are environmental laws! There are tons of attorneys working in this growing field. Some attorneys work to enact the laws, some work to implement them through regulations and policymaking, some attorneys fight against them, and others work to ensure their clients comply with these laws! It’s important to note that there are two main buckets when practicing…

Bar Prep. I used Themis for my bar prep company, after using their free prep course for the MPRE and really liking it. Prepping for the bar exam took ten weeks, from right after graduation in mid-May to right up until the bar exam which was at the end of July. I have a lot of my bar prep experience documented on my Instagram so I would head over to those reels videos to get more of my commentary on how bar prep went and what exactly you do in the course, but overall I felt really good about it! The prep course is a mix of video lectures, practice…

All about my 3L year journey to find employment for after the bar exam. What is the typical timeline for 3Ls finding post-bar employment? The timeline for third year law students to find post-bar exam employment can vary quite a bit. The students who work as summer associates at bigger firms (“big law”) during their 2L summer usually end up getting job offers at the end of the summer and come into their third year of law school with their post-bar employment already lined up. At my law school, that is not a huge portion of students (maybe 25% at most) because we are largely a public interest focused law…

Changes I’m Making to My Daily Habits Now for a Smooth Bar Exam Prep Experience With the California Bar Exam slowly creeping up in July and law school commencement plans already being made, I realized bar prep is right around the corner. For those of you who aren’t familiar with “bar prep” (studying for the bar exam), law students typically study through a bar prep course such as Themis, Barbri, or Kaplan. I’m doing Themis! Bar prep is from the day after graduation until the bar exam, mid-May to the end of July. During that time, you are a bit cut off from the outside world. Studying takes up your…

Networking in law school can be just as important as getting good grades, believe it or not! Many law students often overlook the importance of networking. Understandably, some people hate it and don’t want to talk to complete strangers. I didn’t do too much networking during my first two years of law school, mainly because of the pandemic and the awkwardness of zoom events. In my 3L year, however, I’ve taken advantage of a lot of networking opportunities and cold-emailed attorneys to schedule informational interviews, and it has landed me job opportunities and connections I would have never had otherwise! Sometimes networking can lead to you interviewing for a position…

All the words and phrases you should know before you start law school. LSAT: Law School Admission Test 1L/2L/3L: “L” is how you refer to your year in law school, so for example, if you were in your first year of law school you would say “I’m a 1L.” Outline: Outlines are a condensed and organized version of your notes from all semester for a course. You create the outline yourself and there is no set way to do it, everyone has their own style. They are not required or turned in. Depending on the class and the law school, you may or may not be able to bring your…

All about my time in the Summer Honors Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel! Application Process & Placement The US EPA General Counsel’s Summer Honors Program is their summer internship program. I applied to the Summer Honors Program in August of my 1L summer (2020) through our law school’s career services page where a bunch of legal internship opportunities are posted for us. (For Summer 2022 applicants, the listing can be found on USA Jobs and is open until August 31st!) From what I remember, the application materials were a cover letter, resume, transcript, references, and writing sample (5-10 page memo is a standard writing…

One of the best things I have done for my mental health and overall sanity in law school is unplug from school on weekends. I used to spend hours on Sat/Sun in the library studying and I was so unhappy. I had no days to completely relax and I missed my friends. Once, I started focusing more on my mental health, I began to unplug from law school on the weekends. It definitely requires some serious time management and dedication, but it’s 100% possible! Keep in mind, final exams season is a whole other story. Here are some of my tips: Meal prep is my best friend! I plan out,…

Even before I knew what “informational interviews” were, I was always asking my network connections if they’d like to meet and chat over coffee so I could get to know more about what they do as attorneys. Whenever anyone tells me they are unsure if law school is right for them, my number one piece of advice is to do informational interviews! They are a great way to gain insight into the legal field. And they aren’t limited to just law, informational interviews are great for any field you might be interested in! Here’s a short post all about them! What is an information interview? An informational interview is a…