Thursday, January 13, 2011

Catching Up and New Years Resolutions

Wow. How time as flown! I never even realized that I hadn't posted a blog entry since Halloween until a friend of mine asked where my blog went. The only thing I can blame is law school, but even that excuse is unrealistic since I've been on winter break for the last few weeks.

Finals were definitely a marathon run. Two weeks is a long time - two weeks of exams is even longer. Unless you're in law school, it is hard to understand exactly why law students complain so much about finals time. Final in high school were hardly more than a regular exam. Finals in undergrad were tough, but completely manageable. Finals in law school are just Hell. Typing furiously for 4 straight hours and still not finishing the exam is an experience that is hard to imagine without doing it at least once. But, I appreciate my friends, family and boyfriend for their patience and understanding during those weeks. Looking back, I'm not really sure how I managed to get through it all with as little sleep as I had.

Now, it is just a waiting game. When the tests were first over, I could care less about what my grade was. I mean, of course I was curious, but I was in no rush to think about those finals again anytime soon. Now that I've been home and working in the real world again for a few weeks, I'm antsy to know how all that reading, studying and pain paid off. I did get one grade back - B+ in Criminal Law. Considering I was freaking out about that exam more than any other, I'm pretty darn pleased with myself.

Now, it's a mere 4 days before I head back to Drake to start my second semester of law school, and I've got so much to do. Laundry, more laundry, packing, starting those first assignments - this break went by far too quickly. Of course, it's not really a break when I drive home on Friday, start work full-time on Monday and take a 3 day weekend before heading back to start the next stint. Then again, I love coming to work at Affinity when I'm on my breaks.

Since this is supposed to be a blog about my life in law school, and I've seemed to fail horribly at that since I can never seem to find time to post, I guess I'll throw in a "law school-ish" lesson.

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Legal Lessons Learned


Everyone always harps about the importance of networking and internships. I've had the privilege of working at Affinity Law Group in St. Louis for the last 3 years of school breaks, and it's been fantastic. It was my first summer at Affinity that convinced me I wanted to become a lawyer in the first place, and now each break deepens my knowledge and desire to be successful in this field.

The importance of internships isn't to find the best firm name to put on your resume. Affinity has shown me that it is the type of work that you do for them that is the most important. Even before coming to law school, they've worked with me to draft deeds, taken the time to explain the different kinds of corporate entities that one could form, and given me knowledge of what types of estate plans are better for certain kinds of clients. A lot of it goes over my head the first time. But when I'm sitting in class and a term comes up that I at least recognize, it makes all my hard work for Affinity feel worth it.

Aside from legal work, I even get to use my undergraduate major quite often. Well, one of them anyway. Being a PR major has some perks when applying for an internship or position because it demonstrates an ability to market, and law is all about marketing. With this experience, I am able to take advantage of a creative outlet while doing some great work for the firm. Ordering napkins and organizing catering for open houses, drafting and editing attorney bios, creating a portfolio of news coverage, working with social media like Linkedin and drafting radio advertisements looks fantastic on a resume. It's not the standard "answered phones and filed documents."

All in all, I'd like to thank Affinity Law Group for being so good to me over the years and constantly finding more work for me to do while I'm at home. I look forward to another summer with all the attorneys coming up in just a few short months!

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The title of this post included New Years Resolutions, and while I don't normally make them, I thought I'd try it out this year. So, here's what I came up with:
  1. Work on my relationship with my sister
  2. Run 4 days a week
  3. Post a Ginger Snap at least every other week
  4. Read a book of my choosing, just because I want to
  5. Have lunch with an IP attorney once a month to get more information about working in the field without a science background
Good luck to all of you that have made resolutions this year! I'll take whatever luck I can get as well, because this semester is going to just fly by, I know it!

Until next time!