Law Students

May 6th in Chicago: NAWL's 3rd Annual "Ready to On-Ramp?" program on re-entry

Posted on April 30, 2008
Jenner & Block's Chicago offices host this year's NAWL program specifically designed to help lawyers develop their own personal strategy for re-entering the workforce. Looks like it will be a great program - especially for the bargain price of $30!

Trading SAHM for SWAT?

Posted on April 30, 2008
There's a new article by Sue Shellenbarger in the Wall Street Journal that highlights an interesting trend: The decision among some highly educated women to stay home with children is sparking a countertrend: The rise of the mommy "SWAT team...

Bar Study Challenges for a Studier in a New Community

Posted on April 29, 2008
Study challenges; what doesn?t kill you will make you stronger. I studied for and took the bar exam in a city other than where I went to law school.  The local law school libraries were not all that convenient or close to my house and all three are private schools that I wasn?t familiar with...

Should you supplement CA BarBri with PMBR

Posted on April 29, 2008
So, the first thing I want to point out is that this is not a paid advertisement and I don't have a relationship of any sort with Kaplan PMBR. Congratulations to all graduates.  I think most around the country will graduate some time over the next three weeks or so (sorry, Chicago!)...

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Work-Life Balance, not just a plea from us Ms. JD bloggers

Posted on April 29, 2008
One of my favorite blogs, The Juggle, has a post today about young doctors that are looking for some work-life balance and steering clear of jobs where they would be expected to be on call at all times in the life.  At the end of the post, Sara writes: Despite the downsides, this industry shift toward family-friendly solutions was probably hard to imagine just a few decades ago...

Number 63 and Abandoned: A Rant From the Forgotten Eighty Percent

Posted on April 27, 2008
I?m not in the top twenty of my class. I?m not even in the top twenty percent of my class. In fact, by definition, the majority of my law school class is not in the top twenty percent of my class. Yet, we keep being forgotten by our professors, our deans, and perhaps most noticeably, our career services offices...

Advice on Passing the Bar Exam: Part IV

Posted on April 24, 2008
Hey 3Ls - congrats on graduation!! For advice on what to do with the next three weeks before official bar preparation begins check out the forums. For my advice about what to do once studying begins ... I took the California Bar Exam in July 2007. I took it on a laptop in Los Angeles, CA...

Ms. JD Weekly Round-up: Week Ending April 25, 2008

Posted on April 24, 2008
A Lawyer of One's Own Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi shares her passion for peace with Barnard O'Connor reflects on how law professor helped shape her life read more

Ms. JD Announces its Public Interest Law Scholarships!

Posted on April 22, 2008
Ms. JD is pleased to be offering two $500 scholarships for female law students working in public interest this summer. Unpaid judicial externs also qualify for these scholarships. This year's essay topic asks applicants to discuss myths about being a law student...

Is Tattling On Yourself Admirable or Stupid?

Posted on April 19, 2008
The other day, I made a mistake at work. It was the kind of mistake that my boss may or may not have ever noticed, the kind of mistake that doesn't have far-reaching consequences but is nonetheless wrong. Also important to note is that this was the kind of mistake that was already out there, and there was nothing anyone could do to change it or somehow make it less of an error...

Ms. JD Weekly Round-up: Week Ending April 18, 2008

Posted on April 18, 2008
Ashby Jones Asks Why There are So Few Women Atop the Law-Firm Pyramid The Globe and Mail Reports that Women Lawyers Face Unique Challenges in Sole Practices and Small Firms The Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association Advocate for More Women to be Nominated in Elections With Only 8 Percent of Firm Head Positions Filled by Women, Female Law Firm Leaders Remain Sparse Report on Participation in the Women Rainmakes Roundtable - A Program to Help Successful Women Lawyers Become Successful Business Developers Attorney Anna Barbara "Bobbie" Hantz, a Partner at Nashua-based Gottesman & Hollis, P...

Gen Y and the Blame Game

Posted on April 17, 2008
The New York Times? Lisa Belkin?she who graced us with the oversimplifying phrase ?opt-out??is a good writer, and she frequently touches on subjects that I find personally compelling. This is largely because she?s one of the few mainstream media writers writing about the working life struggles that I face or will face, and which I spend a lot of time thinking about...

Equal Pay Day: Student Scholarship on Advocacy and Equity

Posted on April 16, 2008
Today, Friday, April 18, 2008 is Equal Pay Day. The National Women's Law Center is encouraging bloggers to voice their support for the Fair Pay Restoration Act. Lest you think the wage gap doesn't reach attorneys (after all those law firms have lock-step and hour-based associate salaries and partners are just paid according to their client base, right?) study after study has confirmed that gender pay equity continues to be a goal and not a reality in the legal profession as well...

Symposium on Lawyer Happiness

Posted on April 14, 2008
Syracuse Law Review just published a symposium issue on Perspectives on Lawyer Happiness. Particularly worth noting is Theresa Beiner's Not All Lawyers Are Equal: Difficulties That Plague Women and Women of Color, 58 Syr. L. Rev. 317 (2008). read more

Ms. JD Weekly Round-up: Week Ending April 11, 2008

Posted on April 11, 2008
Kenya's Federation of Women Lawyers Advocate for More Women to be Trained on Court Procedure so that They Can Represent Themselves in Court Susan Levy Becomes the First Woman to Run Jenner & Block - Only 8% of Managing Parnters at the Nation's Top 200 Firms are Now Women Clifford Chance Partner Kathy Honeywood Comments on Her Mission to Increase the Number of Women at the Top of Her Firm Academic Linda Duxbury Concludes that Law Firms are Generally the Worst-Practice Everywhere When it Comes to Work-Life Balance 6 out of 8 of Offshore Firm Appleby's New Partners This Year are Women - New Firm Record Helen A...

Clippings: Chief Judge Kaye Sues New York for a raise

Posted on April 10, 2008
For over 10 years New York State's judges have gone without a raise. Since their salaries are not adjusted for inflation, they've actually experienced a devaluation in their compensation. Today, Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye formally announced her plan to sue the state to change that...

Must Read: ABA Commission of Women - Oral Histories of Women Trailblazers in the Law

Posted on April 09, 2008
The ABA Commission on Women has compiled the testimonials of 17 remarkable women, including Professor Barbara Babcock and Judge Dorothy Nelson - both Ms. JD contributors, and Judge Betty Weinberg Ellerin - one of this year's Honored Guests at Ms. JD's Student Leadership Summit closing banquet...

Demanding Balance by Rejecting the Blackberry?

Posted on April 09, 2008
For 3 years the New York State Bar Association's Special Committee on Balanced Lives in the Law has been holding forums and collecting data on their members' work lives, expectations, and quality of life - essentially their ability to be anywhere but the office on the weekends...

Chat online with the man behind the US News & World Report law school rankings

Posted on April 09, 2008
You may have seen this posted on other blogs, so here's just a quick reminder: this Friday from 3-4pm EST, the ABA Journal is hosting a live chat with the man behind U.S. News & World Report's law school rankings. Think the rankings should do more tracking of diversity (women, men, minorities, parent-students, etc...

My Mommy Still Wants to Be a Lawyer

Posted on April 07, 2008
A little more than a year has passed since I posted my first story with Ms. JD. (see post here: http://ms-jd.org/my-mommy-wants-be-lawyer ) Despite the time lapse, I did not forget about Ms. JD and she was never very far from my thoughts. But I felt that I had contributed all that was worthy at that time and I needed to wait to accomplish something more profound or at least survive my first year of law school before I decided to wax more poetic about law school...

Ms. Stiletto, Meet Ms. Rubber-heel

Posted on April 07, 2008
I understand the stereotypical female shoe fetish. I understand the draw to higher arches, slimmer heels, pointier toes, shinier patent leather. In a profession where office dress is often highly regulated, a woman's shoe is where she expresses both her power and her femininity...

Introducing Ms. JD's National Women Law Students' Organization (NWLSO)

Posted on April 06, 2008
This past weekend, Ms. JD celebrated its first birthday by bringing together over 90 law students from 70 law schools in 33 states to create the Ms. JD National Women Law Students' Organization (NWLSO), a group that will bring together and represent the interests of women law students...

Congratulations to the winners of the Ms. JD & PAR essay contest!

Posted on April 02, 2008
Ms. JD and the Project for Attorney Retention received fifty-four passionate, well-written arguments for better work/life balance in the legal profession. Our organizations co-sponsored the contest to generate dialogue between Baby Boomer partners and Millennials...

A quick update on some Ms. JD projects

Posted on March 31, 2008
Busy week for Ms. JD! This is just a quick update--more later today. We'll be announcing the winners of our work/life balance essay contest this week, so check back. We've also begun interviewing prospective Ms. JD legal interns, so if you are interested, apply ASAP before the position is filled for this summer...

Ms. JD Weekly Round-up: Week Ending March 28, 2008

Posted on March 27, 2008
Chicago Firm Beermann Swerdlove Finds a Unique Approach to Schedules for Working Mothers Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno Addresses the Coastal Bend Women Lawyers Association with a Message that there must be a Balance between Ensuring the Country?s Safety while Keeping Basic Civil Liberties Intact   As Women?s History Month draws to a close, Chronicle Careers Tracks Indicators of What Women Lawyers Really Want for Themselves in the Legal Profession   The Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia Advocates for a Special Court to Deal with the Growing Number of Rape Cases and Other Forms of Violence Against Women   Barbara Moss, an Attorney at Stiles & Harbison, PLLC, is the 2007 Recipient of the Nashville ATHENA Award, an Award that Celebrates the Contributions of Women to the Community   Carrie Frank, an Attorney at the Personal Injury Practice of Beth Klein, P...

Is What Women Lawyers Want a Big Mystery?

Posted on March 26, 2008
Bridget Crawford of Feminist Law Professors writes an interesting post, What Women Lawyers Want Is For You To Stop Asking What We Want (and Do Your Own Laundry). Responding to The Complete Lawyer article, What Do Women Lawyers Really Want?, Crawford contends that what women want isn't a huge mystery: "Women want family leave and flexible schedules...

Girls Being Girls: A Lot Less Steamy Than Boys Being Boys

Posted on March 24, 2008
Julia Baird's article, Girls Will Be Girls. Or Not. Why aren't more powerful public women caught up in sex scandals?, explores an interesting side of the gender power imbalance: why "are so few women in politics embroiled in tabloid tales?" There are few obvious female counterparts to the Eliot Spitzers and Jim McGreeveys (aka "Luv Guvs") of the political world...

Women Blaming Women for Lack of Work/Life Balance

Posted on March 23, 2008
I was shocked to read Monique Doyle Spencer's article in the Boston Globe, Working women, where did we go so wrong? The title should give you an uh-oh feeling, but I was completely unprepared for Doyle's topic sentence: "I think we women ruined the workplace...

Ms. JD Weekly Round-up: Week Ending March 21, 2008

Posted on March 20, 2008
Pioneering Attorney Fell in Love with the Law Pat Butler, the third woman to attend Emory University Law School, is praised by Janet Reno as ?a pioneer among women at the Department of Justice.? UC Davis professor: Working women cry more on job than men Kimberly Elsbach, a UC Davis professor, studies crying at work and discovers that women are more likely than men to shed tears and that "men don't have to spend as much energy working to hide or fight back tears on the job...

Is Long Hair Unprofessional?

Posted on March 19, 2008
I'm not alone in wondering whether chopping your hair off is a prerequisite for a woman's success. From politicians like Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Dole, and Nancy Pelosi to well-known litigators like Jamie Gorelich, Sheila Birnbaum, Amy Schulman, and Maureen Mahoney, short hair is the status quo...

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