Even though one third of the law school journey still remains ahead, law school has already been one of the most amazing and transformative experience of my life. I came to law school full of anxiety and trepidation. Am I smart enough? Will I succeed? Will I still have a life? And who has not met those members of the bar who absolutely loathe law school and being a lawyer? I came to law school despite of all this because I wanted more than a 9-5 job. I wanted a career that is intellectually challenging, personally meaningful, and financially stable. I knew the dangers of proceeding ahead with law school (though they were greatly exaggerated in my mind) but I also knew the danger of remaining still in life.

When I was looking for a job after college, one of the interviews I went on was for a non-profit marketing position which sounded like a perfect combination of learning real life skills while helping to advance social justice. When I got to their loading-dock type of office, I was told that this interview involved an on-the-job component. The next thing I knew, I was being driven to Harvard Square to solicit donations from people on the street on behalf of a non-profit organization I had never heard of in 15 degree sleeting weather. I remember feeling grim and dejected and an urgency to find a real job. Less than three years later, not only am I learning law from incredibly bright and intellectually curious law students and professors, I have assisted a federal judge in drafting judicial opinions, helped non-profit attorneys in litigating the biggest sexual discrimination lawsuit in history, and gained a world of business law knowledge as a summer associate at one of the best law firms in town. This winter, the coop system will take me even further to the Beijing office of the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative. I will be working with the staff there to promote good governance and increase public interest advocacy in China. And this is just what my law school education has afforded me so far. I could not have imagined better things for myself.

This is my last entry on this blog. I have accepted a post as a teaching assistant to the incoming 1Ls this year and thus will not have adequate time for blogging. It has been a pleasure to share with you my lessons and adventures, victories and defeats. Thank you for reading it. I hope it has provided some insights into the life of a law student at Northeastern University School of Law.

My second to last day as a summer associate went something like this. I took the commuter rail into South Station and got into my office around 8:15 AM. I realized that throughout the countless hours of orientation, training and q&a this summer, no one ever told us our official “working hours.” It is usually the first thing they would tell me at my previous jobs (your hours are 9-5 or we expect to see you 9 in the morning). It dawns on me both the trust and responsibility that have been placed on my shoulders. We are professionals and are treated as such. Instead of official workings hours, attorneys follow established practices within their practice area. Most arrive between 9 and 10 in the morning. I come in a bit earlier than that because the 45 minutes of solitude in the morning is crucial for me to have a good rest of the day. I set out and prioritize tasks to be completed that day, focus my thoughts, and mentally prepare myself for a productive day all while eating a healthy and nutritious bowl of oatmeal.

This day was no different except next to my 11 AM slot the words “final evaluations” stared back at me. I wrote about mid-summer evaluation in my previous entries. The final evaluation is similar to that except this is the time when summers learn whether or not they will receive a permanent offer to come by in the fall as an associate. Even though our small class of 18 was assured in the beginning of the summer that we each had an offer, performance warranting, it’s still a big day. I tried my best to focus on the tasks on hand wrapping up a couple of projects until about 10:55 AM. At about 11:10 AM, after going through the feedback from my supervising attorneys in the second half of the summer, the hiring partner said to me “so it is with great pleasure that we extend an offer to you to come back in the fall of 2009.” That was it. I expressed my gratitude and felt happy, relieved, and excited. I sent a text message to my parents and my boyfriend telling them the good news. I then decided that I should have lunch with my boyfriend to celebrate. My boyfriend actually works in the same building as I but because this summer has been so action and lunch packed; I only had the chance to eat lunch with him once. So today was the perfect opportunity to spend some time with him.

After lunch I finished a couple more tasks before heading out to our farewell party at 4PM. I walk into venue one three, our version of a large auditorium, and could not believe that the white stately room has been transformed into a tropical celebration with delicious food and chocolates of every variety. I talked to the staff and attorneys I worked with, the legal recruiting folks who made sure we had an absolutely amazing summer, and of course my fellow summer associates. It was a bit surreal that it was all coming to an end. I was talking to another summer associate when I heard cheers and squeals from another corner of the room. I went to investigate and found out that a fellow summer associate just accepted her offer and everyone was overjoyed. At that point, accepting the offer that day had not occurred to me not because I had reservations but because I thought it was a pen and paper type of thing where the firm sends me a letter and I sign on the dotted line. So I said to another summer half jokingly that had I known it was such a big deal, I would have accepted on the spot. The truth is it never crossed my mind that I would work anywhere else after graduation (if I received an offer). I truly believe that it is one of the greats when it comes to big firms and the right place for me to start my career. I guess someone heard what I said and mentioned it to the hiring partner. In no time at all, there were cheering, squealing, and hugging all around me. And that’s how I accepted my offer.

It is hard to believe that my time as a summer associate is running out. This is my second to last week at the firm so I am trying to talk to as many attorneys and staff as possible in my remaining time. Many people often ask me what kind of events summer associates go to so I thought I would use this blog to talk about the events I have attended this summer.
In my previous entries, I told you about the Boston Pops dinner and concert and the Red Sox box. We actually kicked off our summer with a volunteering opportunity at a local co-op farm where we planted eggplants. It was so interesting because the farm actually employed local youth in the summer to do their planting and harvesting and at the same time use the work as an opportunity to teach them about sustainable farming and conservation of resources. They then sell the fresh locally grown vegetables to their members and a significant percentage of the proceeds go back to charity. The next major event was the softball tournament at Fenway Park. Enough said. Nothing beats seeing your name displayed on the jumbotron at Fenway Park. We also had smaller events such as bowling, Jazz night, and dinner parties at various partners' homes.
The most talked-about event of the summer is probably the hiking trip. Each year for the past thirteen years, my firm has organized a trip for summers, associates, and partners to camp overnight near the White Mountains and hike Mount Chocorua the next morning. It was wonderful because everyone brought their spouse, children, and dogs and got a real sense of each other, not just as attorneys but as people, and over camp fires and s'mores no less.
I know you must be wondering how we get any work done with all these festivities. Well, we apparently found a way. Our managing partner recently informed us at the monthly associate meeting that the billable hours of the summer associates increased fourteen percent compared to the summer class last year.

I have experienced the ultimate good life this past Monday when my firm treated all the summer associates to its Red Sox box at Fenway Park. Prior to this, I have only seen the beloved Red Sox play from the very last row of bleacher seats, and that was before they won the world series and I could still afford those bleacher seats. To see the red sox from the box was, well, a whole different ball game. First, instead of entering the park with the masses pushing and shoving, there is a special door and escalator for the box guests. The box itself is about the size of a large living room with all the amenities of a five-star resort: leather sofa, flat-screen TV, your own rest room with a smaller version of the flat screen appropriately positioned so that you never miss a moment of the game. Then there is the view. What’s amazing is that you can see both the panoramic view of the park and the players up close in the dugout. If you want to get really close to the action, you can leave the air conditioned room to the porch where you are practically watching the ball game on air. Of course all these great views will likely cause you to cheer or boo more loudly than ever so there are tons of food and drinks to replenish your energy. My favorite part was the ice cream cart that came knocking on our door during the seventh-inning stretch. My only regret is that my favorite, David Ortiz, was injured and couldn’t come out to play. But we won anyway, of course.

I’m back just in time for the celebration of the independence of our nation. The last couple of weeks have been busy and rewarding. It is hard to believe it but my summer program is half way over. I had my mid-summer evaluation this past Tuesday and was pleased to be reassured that I’m doing a decent job as a summer associate. This made me think about the difference between law school and law practice and appreciate the importance of a systematic feedback in law firms. Unlike law school where you are entitled to feedback for all the work you do, law practice is a business and highly time-sensitive. Everyone is trying to squeeze that extra half hour out of the day so as well-intentioned as everyone is, voluntary evaluations are rare. Because I believe that getting feedback is the only way a young attorney can learn the trade and learn it well, I really appreciated the fact the summer associates get evaluated twice during the 12-week summer program – once at the six-week mark and once more at the end. Getting this feedback not only helped me become more in tuned with my strengths and weaknesses but also made me think about which practice areas suit my interests and skills.

In addition to the mid-summer evaluation, we also switched offices. I moved from the 30th floor to the 15th floor and am getting to know an entirely different practice area and group of attorneys. Although we have no formal rotations in terms of our assignments, it is nice to be able to “live” on different floors and get a flavor of different practice areas.

To celebrate our apparent success in the summer program, my firm took all the summer associates and their guests to the Symphony Hall (5-minute walk to the law school) for dinner and a Boston Pops Concert. I had never had the opportunity to visit the historic Symphony Hall or experience the Boston Pops so I was completely blown away by how much fun it was. The theme of the concert was “Take me out to a ball game” so they played a lot of baseball related music and even had a former Red Sox player doing a poetry reading. All in all, it was a great conclusion to the first part of my summer associate experience.

No doubt you have heard the rumors about the cutthroat environment in which law students and lawyers work. You probably also have heard about the adversary system, the money, the greed, and the power struggle etc. I have heard of them, too. In fact, I have also seen them all on Law and Order. As I finish my fourth week as a pretend practicing lawyer, I must confess that I have seen very little cutthroat and, instead, a lot of cooperation.

About three times a day some attorney at the firm will send out a system wide email asking for assistance or expertise on a specific topic and take advantage of the collective knowledge pool of a large law firm. They get responses within seconds from their colleagues on questions that might have taken them hours to research. Perhaps even more frequently, one client matter gets referred to several different attorneys each with their own expertise to provide the client with a comprehensive solution. Even as a summer associate / pretend attorney, I quickly realized how practicing law is all about utilizing and contribution to the power of people.

I was given an assignment to research enforcement actions states’ Attorney General brought under the authority of a certain regulation. Unlike judicial decisions, these enforcement actions are typically not published or readily available. So I had to get creative with my research. After some preliminary research on the internet, I found out that one practicing attorney / internet law professor has published several articles on the topic in question. I found his contact information on his firm’s website and even though I knew it was a long shot, I e-mailed him anyway with my question. Much to my surprise, he called me within thirty minutes offering his insight and expertise for no profit or fame. The same thing happened when I called a state administrator. He answered my email within ten minutes. I was getting a lot of good information from these folks when I suddenly realized that I have a family friend who works in this field and deals with this question on a daily basis. A conversation with her gave me almost all of the information I needed for my project. A while back, I wrote a blog entry on the importance of networking in the law profession. I realized this week that it is important because the law is a people profession. We need each other to best serve our client.

The third week felt a lot more real than the first two to me - real in the sense that I felt like my days looked a lot more like the days of a first associate. I have been working on my first two assignments for the past 1.5 weeks and am nearing the end for both. For the past three years, Bingham has put aside its formal rotations for its summers and instead adopted a more flexible approach where each summer can work on assignments in different practice areas simultaneously. This allows the summer associates more opportunities to follow a case or deal from beginning to the end. So my first two assignments were to write a legal research memo for an employment discrimination litigation and to provide general assistance in a private equity deal. Both projects have been very rewarding experiences to me so far but each with its own challenges.

With respect to the litigation project, I felt pretty comfortable with the assignment because I have written many research memos for school, for a judge, and for an impact-litigation firm and I have taken a course in employment discrimination in law school. The challenge for this project is to correctly judge the scope of the project or to put it more simply--to know when to stop. Unlike first year associates, I was not faced with a strict deadline so with a sincere desire to produce my best work, I probably spent a lot more time than I should on the project. I definitely came away feeling like I need to work on my efficiency. After all, this is a business and nobody wants to pay me for 20 hours worth of work for a simple memo. The corporate assignment, on the other hand, involved a very steep learning curve for me. Law schools, unfortunately, are not very business-orientated. We learn about plaintiffs, defendants, causes of actions, burdens of proof etc and not about memorandum of understanding, stock certificates, and debt-asset ratio. As a result, I felt pretty useless when I first met with the assigning attorney and the partner on the deal. I quickly picked up a couple of text books on mergers and acquisition and am now beginning to understand the general ideas behind an acquisition. Also, Bingham has weekly training for summer associates to help us understand each of the Bingham's key practices areas. After the first corporate practice session, I felt like at least I could begin to see the forest. Even though I have a lot less experience in corporate law, I find the practice area and the idea of business deals fascinating. In a way, it's like taking a law school class in an area you have close to zero knowledge of. It's challenging and completely exhilarating.

I hope everyone enjoyed the long holiday weekend. Although this is my second week as a summer associate at Bingham McCutchen, I along with 600 other people saw our new office space for the first time today. This is because after two decades at 150 Federal Street, Bingham has moved across the street to accommodate the expanding business. It is a truly logistical marvel to pack, move, and set up everything from furniture to files to wall paintings for over 600 employees all during the memorial weekend. What is even more impressive is how functional everyone was today. They just all showed up for work at the new office and conducted business as usual. It made me appreciate that it's not just the lawyers who make this large law firm work - it's also the moving team, the IT people, the support staff, and of course the paralegals and legal secretaries. In fact, every attorney at Bingham is supported by two employees.

So I arrived at my office on the 30th floor of One Federal Street this morning and was immediately taken back by the amazing view of East Boston I had right behind my chair. There was a nice welcome package waiting for me on my desk explaining to me where everything was located complete with a tin of customized M&Ms. The best part has to be the fact my name was imprinted on the glass wall outside of my office. All this work enabled a extremely smooth and functional transition and I was up and running by 9:30AM. I'm looking forward to getting my first two assignments from two different practice areas later today. It's so exciting that we get to put our attorney hats on for 12 weeks and see the world from that perspective.

Sorry I have been MIA. As always, things got really busy during exam week, and I have not gotten a chance to update you since my stress-filled entry from two weeks ago. Well, I have officially survived the second year of law school. I thought it would be fun to share with you one of my favorite rituals in law school - the end-of-the-quarter purge. I finished my last exam on Friday exactly at 1:02 PM. I pass in my exam answer and head straight to the lockers. I take everything out of my locker and make three piles: 1) things that I never need / want to see again and have little resale value (this pile goes to the huge blue recycle bin), 2) things that retain sufficient resale value to pay for my victory lunch with fellow law students (this pile gets sold to the bookstore / half.com), 3) things that I want to have by my bed side when I go to sleep (I’m a code lover so that means the Uniform Commercial Code and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure). As I take my trusty combination lock out and double check for anything left behind, I exhale a huge sigh of relief. It is done. All that stress, all those late nights, and all those pages of outline all lead to this singular moment when I get to clean out my locker. It is one of the best feelings in the world. I go to the bookstore and sell one of my casebooks for almost seventy dollars. Satisfied with my lunch money, I head to Uno’s where my fellow law students have been congregating for a while and I say to myself let the celebration / commiseration begin.

I won’t lie – law school has been very stressful this week. My law school schedule has been extended to 9AM – 10PM and I have been surviving on very unhealthy subs and burritos from various restaurants on Huntington Avenue. The countdown clock in my head keeps ticking while I desperately try to figure out how to best allocate my time. I try very carefully to avoid most social activities because no normal person wants to be around law students during final exam time. My family and boyfriend, unfortunately, do not get that protection. For the record, I have two in-class finals and two take-home exams, which most upper years will tell you is a pretty decent set up compared to all four in-class closed book exams during the first year. But as I am finding out, exam period will always be stressful regardless of format and volume. The more optimistic side of me actually, just for a little bit, enjoys all this pressure because I know it will be such a great relief and accomplishment come May 16th. I think a lot of the horror stories people tell about law school probably arise from this time of the year. So I am here to tell you that yes, law school will get stressful but keep in mind that it is limited to a specific time frame and as they say, if it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger.