Welcome back to the Jury of Peers, readers! I hope this blog post finds you happy and well!

Can you believe it?! This is the last entry for the academic year! The spring semester is coming to an end, and summer is just around the corner, which means final exams, last minute studying, and summer jobs! It’s hard to believe that it’s already that time of year again, but 2L really has gone by so so SO FAST!

I am currently in the process of attending my final lectures for the semester and getting prepared for the exams season, which to be honest is and will always be a nerve-racking and stressful time. It’s truly crunch time trying to work on and finish course outlines, finish office hours for my clinic, the Project for the Innocent, and make sure I’m on top of all my readings and assignments for my courses that are still in session.

In addition, I am also in the process of figuring out what I want to do this summer. I am currently working on the transactional tract for the entertainment law concentration and one of its requirements is experiential. So I am currently trying to decide if I want to do an externship/field placement for credit during the summer or if I want to do another form of employment or internship. I am also trying to decide if I want to take classes over the summer so I can clear up some space in my schedule during my last two semesters and take other classes that I am either interested in or think would be fun. That being said it’s a lot to think about, and to be honest, I’ve been putting the thought of it on the backburner because I’ve really been trying to focus on my classes and getting the grades I need to put me in the best position heading into 3L. Am I stressed? You bet I am. Am I worried? A little. But I’m not letting myself get bogged down by those thoughts when there’s still a lot of work to get done this semester! There’s plenty of time to worry about jobs between now and the summer, and I’m hopeful that everything will work out!

On another note, I’m hoping to find some time to relax and spend time with family and friends this summer. It’s my final summer of law school, and I think that calls for some adventures!

So until the next time readers… enjoy your summer and see you in the new year!

One of the things I love most about Loyola is their commitment to helping students network, learn more about various areas of legal practice, and connect them to established lawyers in those fields. I have found so many of the events at Loyola extremely helpful to helping me narrow down which area of law I’m interested in practicing, and helping me to make meaningful connections with lawyers who have experience with that particular area of law.

For me, one of the most helpful things that I have done was signing up for an Alumni Mentor. Prior to law school, I didn’t know a single lawyer. One of the first questions I asked my mentor was what I can do now, as a law student, to prepare myself to be a great lawyer, aside from the obvious things like studying and attending class. My mentor stressed the importance of gaining legal experience while in school, and after several conversations offered me a job at his law firm for this Spring.

As a 1L, much of the what we’re learning can often feel isolated from the “real world.” While it’s easy to relate the subject material of classes like torts or criminal law to common life experiences, it’s much more difficult to relate classes like civil procedure to things that we actually experience in everyday life. This has been one of the most useful advantages of working that I have experienced. Not only have I learned very practical skills like sorting and filing pleadings and other documents, I am also gaining real world experience doing legal research and connecting civil procedure rules to actual on-going cases. The rules of civil procedure have become less of a foreign idea and more of a familiar concept.

I’ve also attended several of the guest speaker lectures during the lunch hour and I’ve found that it’s a great way to be exposed to new and interesting areas of the law and to get perspectives that I might not otherwise be exposed to. Overall, I would strongly recommend taking advantage of as many of the programs as possible. While law school can be difficult, and the job market can be daunting, Loyola is a school that definitely does not take a “sink or swim” approach to things. They help out every step of the way.

Something that is great about law school is that you take a lot of different classes, especially as a 1L. You take the basics: Criminal Law, Torts Law, Property Law, Contract Law, and more. You get a little taste of almost every basic area of the law, and that allows you to get an idea of what really interests you going forward. For me, Criminal Law and Torts Law really stood out. Property and Contracts, not so much. So, I knew the two areas I wanted to explore further.

It is the same way for networking around campus: there is a club representing almost every area of law. They bring practicing attorneys onto campus and have them give lectures, so you start to get an even better idea of what people in that field do. You also get the chance to meet and network with those people, which is even more invaluable. So many people I know have gotten interviews or even mentors in this way or just because of a lecture they attended on campus.