This week was orientation week at UConn Law and it was great! It was a lot, but I feel so excited for law school now.
On Tuesday, I attended a pre-orientation event hosted by UConn’s affinity groups (Black Law Students Association, Lambda Law, Latinx Law Students Association, etc.) for students of color and LGBTQ+ students, groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in law. I’m really glad I attended - there was some additional info on study strategies, time management, and getting involved on campus (not just in affinity groups, but in a wide variety of student organization) from current students and faculty as well as opportunities to get to know other students better in a smaller group than the full orientation. On Wednesday and Thursday during breaks, it was really nice to wave hello to fellow students I recognized from Tuesday’s event and have people I recognized to go chat with on breaks.
Wednesday morning, we had greeting speeches from many of the leaders at UConn Law (they all seem great but I really loved hearing from Dean Eboni Nelson, she seems so warm and inviting and committed to both students and a broader pursuit of justice), followed by a faculty panel and a presentation on implicit bias. For lunch, we broke off into groups based on what area of law we think we’d like to practice (of course this can change!). I went to the labor and employment law lunch, and it was really great to hear the professor speak more about that particular area of the law, including potential career paths and what classes at UConn would be most useful to us. The professor is actually my Contracts professor for the fall, so I’ll have to go to his office hours and chat more about the subject! (I was really bad about going to office hours as an undergrad, which likely cost me opportunities to build the kind of relationships with professors that lead to mentorship and letters of recommendation, but I’m hoping I’ll do more of it as a law student. Live and learn, I guess.)
After lunch, we had a sample law school class in smaller groups. I was assigned to one about tax law, which is not something I see myself specializing in or taking classes on, but even so the class was interesting. We learned about the concept of innocent spouse relief on federal taxes and examined a case that had come through UConn’s clinic for low-income taxpayers (with names changed and personally identifying details edited or removed, of course), analyzing together whether or not it met the criteria for innocent spouse relief.
Wednesday afternoon had more presentations on the justice gap and pro-bono law service, the character and fitness requirement for passing the bar, and learning about the various student services offered at UConn and who to go to with different types of questions or issues. They hosted a cookout for dinner on the law campus’s lawn, with a very important guest: Jonathan XIV, UConn’s live mascot! I got to pet him briefly and he was such a good boy, even though Molly may have been a little jealous when I came home smelling like another dog.
Thursday started off with a panel of current students, discussing things like campus involvement, studying techniques, and other tips for life in law school, followed by a presentation on the available IT and library services. For lunch, we again broke off into groups, but this time based on interests outside of law. I went to the lunch my legal writing professor and UConn Law’s mental health counselor hosted on mindfulness and well-being and enjoyed this one as well - we did some mindful breathing exercises together, talked as a group about why we came to law school and what we were both excited and nervous about, and learned about different resources for coping with the stress of law school.
The last few events were a demonstration of how to “brief” a court case, which is the term law students use for breaking down a written court decision (which will make up the majority of my reading for class) and identifying and pulling out its most important components, a career panel of both Career Services staff and UConn Law alumni, and closing remarks from Dean Nelson. (Full disclosure: there was also an optional community service project and lunch today, which would have likely been a good opportunity to get to know more people, but I was pretty exhausted from the prior 3 days and didn’t go!)
Now I have the weekend to rest, do my readings (no such thing as “syllabus week” in law school! I have readings and assignments for my classes already), and work at the dispensary on Sunday (yes, I did land a part-time job outside of law school), and then I start law school for real on Monday!