Hello! It’s a snow day, which means it’s a good time to snuggle up on the couch and do some writing, since God only knows my cold- and snow-hating dog Molly doesn’t want me to take her outside any more than necessary. Plus, it’s been too long since I posted an update here, so let’s fix that now.
I started my second semester of law school in January with a required one-week, one-credit class on negotiation. I’ve already tried my hand at negotiation in competition format, but it was good to learn techniques and get additional practice in. We had lectures, but also a number of practice negotiations, some on our own and some with a volunteer lawyer coming in to observe and give us feedback, and that was fun. (One of the observers was a retired prosecutor and a delight to work with.) It was nice to try out negotiating different types of (fictional) legal agreements - we worked on a couple of attempts to settle potential lawsuits before they went to court, a couple of contracts, and a plea deal in a criminal case. (My personal favorites were the contracts, even though I ended up assigned to the employer side when negotiating an employer contract!) And since the class was pass-fail, that took a lot of the usual law school pressure off.
My classes for this semester are property, constitutional law, legal practice (focusing on client interviewing, counseling, and oral advocacy), and my one elective, labor law. So far I really like all of them! I’m very lucky to have a great lineup of professors - my labor law professor was also my contracts professor last semester, while the other professors are new to me.
Legal practice has been a fun class since we get to do a lot of exercises, in which we simulate things like meeting with a client or briefing a senior law firm partner on how we’ll approach a case. We play different roles in the simulations - lawyer, client, or observer - and it’s a really neat opportunity to get a feel for what practicing law is like and how we don’t just need to know the law (though that’s very important), we also need to know how to get the info we need from our clients to represent them well and counsel them to make the best decisions for themselves. It was a ton of work (fortunately, with a great teammate) to prepare for the client meeting, but really felt like what I’d do as a lawyer, and when it was my turn to play the client I had some fun acting - middle school summer stock theater experience paying off! Later in the semester we’ll even get to deliver simulated oral arguments like we would in court, which is a little intimidating but I’m also looking forward to it.
I’m also on the hunt for a summer internship. I’ve applied to several places, both law firms that specialize in union/employee-side labor and employment law and to government agencies (both state and federal) that enforce employment laws and hold businesses accountable when they try to do things like discriminate against employees based on race/gender/age/etc. or punish employees trying to unionize or stand up for themselves. I haven’t lined up a summer internship yet, but I’ve had one interview already and a couple more coming up, so fingers crossed!
Fortunately, I have some help in the job hunt. My labor law professor used to work at the National Labor Relations Board before entering academia, and he’s very excited that I want to practice labor law, so I’ve been asking him questions, which he’s been patiently answering while trying to ease my job-search anxiety. He was also kind enough to suggest I reach out to a former student of his now working for a major union-side law firm in Boston, and the student was delightful to talk with and had several suggestions for where to look for internships and how I could best position myself to work in the field. It’s a bit of a niche field within law, and UConn Law’s career services is very helpful but tends to focus most on avenues like law firms that primarily work for bigger corporations or criminal prosecution and defense - which makes sense, because a lot of lawyers work in those areas, but advice for a student looking to go to a major corporate law firm isn’t necessarily going to apply to labor law. (Their emails trying to impart the importance of being prepared for the 2L summer internship applications can also be really anxiety-inducing!) So I’m really glad to have helpful people in my corner who are knowledgeable about the kind of law I really want to be doing.
One thing has been stressful, though. On weekends, I work as a coordinator at a building that rents out salon suites in Glastonbury. It’s generally a good job - I mostly do reception and also clean and restock everything in the common areas at the end of each day. While I’m at the reception desk, I can read or study as needed, as long as all my work gets done, so it’s great for earning money while keeping up with schoolwork. The last few weeks, however, I’ve had to work extra hours during the week, and I will again this week. Their weekday coordinator quit and they haven’t yet found a replacement, so they’ve been asking me to come in evenings to clean and restock, which takes about an hour to an hour and a half and lengthens my commute. I don’t want to endanger the job and I could definitely use the extra money, so I’ve been saying yes about twice a week, but it’s adding to my stress levels since it’s hard to plan around when I get the text in the morning or early afternoon asking me to come in later that day and school/work/extracurriculars already take up a lot of time. Doing my best to hang in there, though, and hopefully they hire a new weekday person soon!
I have some exciting things coming up to ease the stress a little, too. Next Saturday, I’m going to attend the Rebellious Lawyering Conference, which I’ve heard wonderful things about and should be an exciting chance to meet other progressive law students from different schools. The student group organizing the trip, People’s Parity Project, has also done some really interesting research showing that judges from diverse professional backgrounds lead to better outcomes in court for tenants facing eviction proceedings - they even got some press about the study. (I can’t claim any credit - that’s just my friend Grace doing awesome work.) The weekend after that, I’ll be heading to New Orleans to celebrate a bachelor party for a dear friend of mine since high school. I’m pretty psyched for a weekend of bourbon, poker, good friends, and warm weather!
Hope you’re all weathering the storm as best you can and staying cozy. I’ll check back in soon!