I seriously don’t know where the spring trimester went…I cannot believe it’s practically mid-March and finals studying starts in a week.

I’m sitting in the library at 6:30am; my days keep getting earlier as more work gets stacked onto my plate. The summer job hunt is in full force; I’ve had four interviews so far, and another one today. I’m also preparing to attend SDSU in the Fall for my first year of the Social Work program. We have an internship for that too.

Speaking of internships (since the ones I’m applying to are mainly pro bono), California Western was named to the 2009 President’’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction.  See the article at this link http://www.cwsl.edu/main/default.asp?nav=news.asp&body=news/presidents_honor_roll_022610.asp

CWSL has numerous outstanding community outreach/volunteer programs, so if you are seeking a career in public interest/nonprofit legal advocacy, this school would be a great fit. There are so many things that I wish I could get involved in right now, but there just isn’t enough time (and I probably don’t have enough energy). I’ll focus on grades this semester, and then jump into my internship with whatever pro bono employer I work for. I’m sure I will be doing plenty of community service with my SW degree too.

Oh, please remember that Earth Hour is coming up soon, on March 27th at 8:30pm local time. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this event, it is a world-wide collaboration for action on climate change; all you have to do is turn off your lights for one hour starting at 8:30pm. This is the third year in a row people have done it, and the movement is growing.  Go here: http://www.earthhour.org/Homepage.aspx for more information.

Have a great week everyone!

We have a four day weekend here for Presidents’ Day; I definitely need it. These past few weeks have been quite brutal stress and deadline-wise. I plan to catch up on sleep and school work. Not quite as exciting as some of my classmates who get to go home and visit families, but the break is not long enough for me to travel all the way back to New York.

So I promised to keep you updated on the CWSL-UCSD collaboration project. On Feb. 2nd, CWSL hosted a student Q&A regarding the plans. I’d say it was a very good turnout; standing room only in our “auditorium” (which seems just like a big classroom…).

There is a committee of CWSL and UCSD faculty/board members who meet regularly to talk about plans and logistics. Professors’ Cox and Weinstein are on the CWSL panel and they answered our questions, along with Dean Smith. They were careful to note that these plans are very preliminary and that there a lots of things not ironed-out yet. But it was a very good opportunity to learn more about the proposal.

They wanted to reassure us that CWSL would stay self-sufficient; we would stay at our present location and keep our faculty & staff. Merging w/UCSD would be beneficial to many; UCSD has made a name for itself and would make CWSL more well-known. Some of the points that were discussed are listed below:

• UCSD would give us more access to research and interdisciplinary fields;
• there would be an increase in interdisciplinary class offerings;
• It will not create a “new” law school so there would not be an increase in lawyers
• There would not be an increase in student admittance, although it could become a more competitive school
• The law school name will probably change (Professor Cox pointed out that other schools who have already gone through this change often changed the names after awhile, or incorporated both schools’ names)
• UCSD is concerned that CWSL will cost them money
• Professor Cox and Weinstein are going to try to get the Committee to have another panel with the UCSD committee members
• To those graduating/graduated: don’t worry, a name change should not affect the validity of your transcripts

For being in its preliminary stages, the panel was quite informative. Either way, things like this tend to take quite awhile, so nothing will change overnight. When I hear more, I will post it in my blog.

Job Searching: To current students, if you’ve missed the Career Services updates, the deadline to apply to the Pro-Bono jobs is Feb. 19th.

This past Thursday was filled with job search networking opportunities. The Pro Bono fair was a great success, at least judging from the turnout of both law firms/organizations and students. The tables took up 2 floors and it was quite packed with students. There was  a vast array of tables and organizations, from employee rights to district attorneys to bankruptcy clinics. It was fun and a great way to get to know what types of Pro Bono areas are out there.

Thursday evening I attended an attorney panel hosted by the Korean American Bar Association of SD and CWSL’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. I’m very glad I attended that panel. The panelists were informative and entertaining; we got a lot of good tips on job/internship hunting in this economy, and in general. It was great to meet so many diverse attorneys, all who work in a variety of fields (Court of Appeal, patent law, Career Services Advisor, etc.).

As a 1L, (after October) you will be BOMBARDED with mixers/panels/CSO sessions/Bar events, etc. Get involved and attend some. But be a little picky; you won’t have time in your schedule to attend them all. I try to attend most of the CSO’s sessions, but they are during my lunch break anyway. Other than that, I mostly choose to attend only the events oriented toward diversity or my area of interest (family/child law). Some of the panels (like the KABA/APALSA panel) are pretty small and intimate. Choose those; you will have a better opportunity to meet & greet  afterwards and find someone who you can connect with. For me, I met a Korean American attorney who did her first summer internship in Seoul, Korea. That is an opportunity I would absolutely love, and I wouldn’t have known it was possible if I hadn’t attended.

Well, it is Friday night and I have four days of semi-freedom ahead of me. I’m going to finish up my work so that I can go home and relax.

P.S. Good luck to all those taking the Bar!

It seems that January is a very difficult month for law students, or at least 1Ls. Two weeks of vacation is not enough to recuperate after the onslaught of your first round of finals. Everyone returns tired and not ready for classes to begin full-force again. It is difficult to concentrate in classes when you have no idea how well you did on your final exams. Grades are not released until the end of January. Professors time and time again comment on how we are all in a pre-grades coma and it is difficult if not impossible to exercise the Socratic Method on any of us. Amidst the tension of grades is the fact that Spring is internship searching time. Career Services offers numerous workshops and info sessions regarding resume and coverletter writing, how to interview, etc. Summer job applications must be made and sent, some which require a significant amount of time and effort.

This past Friday grades were finally released at 4pm. Finally, relief for most of us; we can stop worrying about grades and start getting back into briefing and reading and absorbing information and participating in class. I think this first term of waiting for grades will be the worst of it. Next term at least we will have a semblance of where we might stand in the class. But I know that it was difficult for many of us to make it through a month of classes when we didn’t even know if we passed last semester’s courses.

Back to Career Services and job applications: The Bar Association has a great Diversity Fellowship for 1Ls and 2Ls to participate in during the summer. It was modeled off fellowships in other states, and last year was quite a success. Numerous well-known companies and law firms participate; they take fellows who have made it through the application process and have been assigned via the Diversity Committee.

Luckily, the deadline for this year’s Diversity Fellowship application was extended from Jan. 15 to Jan 29th, so that I was able to get my application materials together. The application requires some work; a personal statement, and a writing sample using a prompt they supply you with (this means submitting your Legal Skills I memo is out of the question). They also required two letters of rec, letter of good standing and a completed application form. It is really worth the effort though.  You get great experience with well known corps/law firms. Great networking possibilities. And it’s one of the few paid internships available to 1Ls.

I find out in late Feb. if I make it to interviews for the Fellowship, so I will keep you posted.

Lastly, everyone at CWSL received emails from the Dean regarding talks of cooperation with UCSD and Cal Western. I don’t know much about this, but there is an information meeting on Tuesday so I’ll blog more about it after that. Everyone I speak to is really excited about this new development, because the UC system is pretty well known, and it would help Cal Western get on a more national scale. I have to get more information before I can make any decisions about whether I am excited about the change or not.

Good luck to all prospective students in the application process! I remember these next few months were quite stressful. My advice is to just get the applications out asap. and then try to relax while you wait for responses (I know that is impossible; as impossible as people telling me to relax after finals b/c I had to wait a month for grades).

Back to the books!

It’s after midnight and I have to be awake by 5:30am, but I feel bad for neglecting my blog. I will post something substantial this weekend: Preview of coming attractions:

- 1L Moot Court Competition summary

- Diversity Fellowship opportunities

- Potential partnership between CWSL & UCSD

My second trimester in law school has begun, full-force. It’s only the end of my second day, and I can tell this semester may be crazier than the first.

Our first day of classes back weren’t like the first day of law school because we didn’t need to do introductions or much intro material…we just raced right into the substantive material. We do have two new courses: Torts and Legal Skills II with two new professors so it made Monday more interesting.

Also, this semester we will be applying and interviewing for our summer internships, which will give us our first taste (well, for many of us who didn’t work in the legal field before law school) of working in the legal profession. Stressful, but exciting.

We also will get our first opportunity to do oral arguments (as part of our Legal Skills II course) and a few of us apparently will be chosen for some kind of moot court competition. I hope my Toastmasters participation alleviates some of that fear!

Did anyone make new year’s resolutions? I guess I did, sort of. I’d like to resolve to work harder in law school, but last semester I nearly burnt out right as it was time to study for finals. So instead, I am going to try to study more efficiently, if that makes sense. Having already had a trimester of law school behind me, I am going to try to learn from my mistakes. Definitely outlining more regularly and earlier. I am also going to try to stay a little bit ahead in all my assignments so that I’m not scrambling around the night before. I will also attend office hours more faithfully. I can not usually think of any questions, but I found that going with a friend or fellow student is a good idea. It’s less nervewracking when you pair up, and you can feed off each other’s questions. Also, I just find sitting there and listening to other people’s questions and answers is very beneficial.

Welcome back to my fellow students, and good luck to those now endeavoring upon the law school application process!

I’m sure by now you all know that Cal Western has tons of amazing clubs and organizations for every background, interest, and activity imaginable. As a first year student, I’d recommend picking one or two at first that you are really interested in. First year is crazy, and I realized a couple weeks ago that the lunch hour in which I was taking a Spanish Conversational class (free, no credit) was time that I desperately needed to be in the library.

The organization I joined (and stuck with) is Toastmaster’s. It’s not actually a Cal Western organization, but they let the group use Cal Western’s space, and it’s great b/c students don’t have to leave campus to attend meetings.

Toastmaster’s is an international renowned organization that helps people overcome their fears of public speaking by meeting once a week to practice both impromptu speaking and longer, prepared speeches. I don’t know about any of you, but I am really afraid to speak in class. It wasn’t a problem in undergrad b/c 1) they didn’t have the socratic method and 2) most upper level classes were small, maybe 10 people, and I’m okay with that.

But in front of 100 some odd classmates and the professor? My heart races so fast I think it’s going to fall out of my chest. I forget everything about the case, right down to who the plaintiff is. Briefs help somewhat, but professor’s have a tendency of asking you questions that aren’t on your briefs. Then the real panic sets in.

So I decided to join Toastmaster’s. Cal Western’s group is called the Loquacious Nooners, and we meet on Fridays at 12:15 – 1: 05 in the Multimedia Room (1st floor in the same hallway as LH2). WE LOVE GUESTS, so please feel free to join us and see if  you think this is something you’d like to do.

My first speech is today, it’s called the “Ice-breaker” speech; it’s supposed to be easy, just tell us about yourself for 4-6 minutes. We’ll see how “easy” it really is. I hope I can concentrate in Civ Pro today, I’m so nervous about doing this speech!

I just got out of a really exciting Study Abroad informational session and I just wanted to write a little bit about it. Cal Western works with other Law Schools to host study abroad programs in Galway, Malta, London, Prague,  and Chile. If you want more information, go to www.cile.edu, or go to www.cwsl.edu –> current students –> study abroad.

I studied abroad in undergrad to Seoul, South Korea for 10 months and it was definitely my best and most memorable experience in undergrad. I am thrilled that there are opportunities to do the same in Law School. The summer programs are much shorter (2-3 week sessions, but you can stay for more than one session), but are packed with opportunities to take international/comparative law courses, travel, and get to know the culture/city/language etc.

I would love to write tons more about studying abroad but finals are creeping up and I have a ton of work to do. But definitely check out that website. I think studying abroad your first summer would be an awesome way to “break up” the humdrum of normal classes…especially after a year of being a 1L.

When you’re a law student, the week simultaneously feels really long and way too short. It may be contradictory, but that is how I feel. I haven’t updated in too long, I feel bad. I promise to get back on track.

So, what I wanted to talk about today was the San Diego Bar Association. Cal Western pays for your membership as a 1L, and they have tons of events and networking activities for both students and lawyers. This past week I attended their Dialogue on Diversity. I was a little hesitant at first, because it took a three hour chunk out of my Tuesday evening, and I have a midterm next week. But it was worth it.

The Bar Association (and Cal Western) have a lot of programs and groups oriented at getting the legal system more diverse and culturally sensitive. When I first joined the Bar Association the first thing I did was sign up for the Korean American Bar Association; to me it was so  exciting that such a thing even existed outside maybe LA and NY. I am from a very small Caucasian-dominated town, so I really love how the places I go are becoming so multicultural.

Anyway, the Dialogue on Diversity was sponsored by many of the cultural bar associations, such as Korean American BA, La Raza, Pan-Asian Lawyers, etc. A judge came and spoke about how our legal system is changing to incorporate all the different cultures that are affected by the court system. We went through a bunch of cases that were influenced by different cultural norms and practices, and how the court shaped their judgments to take those into account. There are a lot of misunderstandings that can come from not being aware of another’s culture or custom, to something as simple as eye contact. Since studying abroad in Korea for a year, I have become very aware of how important it is to understand other peoples’ norms and customs. I am glad that there are organizations like the Bar Association who are really stressing this importance; it’s necessary just in daily life, but especially so when you are representing a client who may share a different background than you.

So, to prospective students, take advantage of the Bar Association no matter where you  are. Networking is not the easiest thing in the world; for me it is intimidating and stressful. But the events make it fun and you really do get  to meet a lot of people who will help you along the way to becoming a lawyer.

Sorry for no new posts, I’ve been out of commission with the flu for the first half of the week and desperately playing catch up the second half of the week. I will post something new soon, hopefully this weekend. I’m getting “ahead” again, which feels good. Three days knocked out with a fever can really mess up a schedule! But I hope I am proof that you can bounce back mostly unscathed. And I just thank goodness that the flu came now rather than during finals!

It’s mid-October already. I don’t know where the days have gone. It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m sitting in the library attacking outlines for all four of my substantive courses.

Advice of the day to prospective students (and maybe to 1Ls too):

You will relentlessly hear about outlining. It is the most popular way to study and organize the material you learn throughout the semester. Everyday you read cases and and extract rules from each of those cases. But each case is like a microscopic piece of the “big picture.” And in order to figure out how all those (probably hundreds by the end of the semester) cases fit together, you need to outline. I hate outlining. I love lectures, I love reading cases, I love briefing cases. But I hate outlining. However, it works for me and I’d say that it is the most efficient way to comprehensively make sense out of the material for about 90% of law students. I do know students who don’t outline and do very well. If you can figure out a better way that works for you then please do it (and maybe tell me!) But for most of us, we are stuck with outlining…because…as  painful as it is, it works.

So do not wait to start outlining. As I opened this post with, it’s already mid-October. I did start outlining early, but I haven’t caught up. I have to outline material from about mid-September to now. There is a TON of info that is thrown at you in one measly month. And that is why I am at the library while it is 75 degrees and sunny outside (which is amazing since I’m from NY and it is currently freezing raining)…

So yeah. It’s much easier to outline as you go. I’m not in the worst situation I could be; I began to attack my outlines a month ago. But with the daily assignments and sleep deprivation, I’ve sort of let the outlining slide. I’m paying for it now. But if I can get up to date on my outlines, it won’t only help me prepare for exams, it’ll help me understand the new material I learn each day forward. And that is my motivational tool for spending my entire weekend in the library.

Have a great weekend!