I recently read this American Lawyer article about the up and coming generation of law students. According to the article, we are a serious bunch – not only in terms about the work we want to pursue but also the life/work balance we strike to achieve. I tend to agree. That brings me to my next thought – it’s time this generation of law students break down the barriers between public interest and business law.

As many of you may already know, Northeastern is a premier public interest law school. That may be because the professors and students here will push you to analyze issues from different perspectives. Or because we have built very close relationships with judges and government agencies over the years, they love to hire Northeastern students. Or maybe simply because you will never feel alone or “crazy�? if you came to law school to stop global warming, fix the broken criminal “justice�? system, or to achieve world peace for that matter.

But what should all that mean to you? Does that mean you should not come here if you have not chosen to accept some noble mission as your life purpose? Or does that mean if you are contemplating about world peace, you are locked in public interest if you choose Northeastern? I asked myself those same questions when I was applying to law schools. My experience here so far says “no�? to both questions.

Like many law school applicants, my exposure to law prior to law school was very much focused on public interest. This is at least partially because the opportunity to volunteer at a legal aid clinic is much more readily available to college students than say a Fortune 100 law firm. Whatever the reason, because of that exposure, I know for a fact that public interest law will always be part of my life/work balance. However, it’s absolutely archaic to insist that you are either a “public interest lawyer�? or a “business lawyer�? and that you have to choose by the time you enter law school. I came to law school because I believe lawyers are change agents – whether they change their client’s situation by helping her seek political asylum or by restructuring business deals to minimize tax exposure. Knowing I have the knowledge and skills to change any situation for the better is what I hope to achieve in obtaining a legal education. The designation of “public interest�? or “business law�? is merely what a lawyer chooses professionally not who she/he is personally. Of course, I’m not denying the huge lifestyle differences between someone who professionally chooses the 80 hr work week and someone who chooses the 40 hr week for half of the pay. That’s a personal decision. In my book, every lawyer, possessed with the tools for change, should be a public interest lawyer – whether they choose to do it as their day job or as a passion in life. So I hope the article is right. I hope the new generation of law students realizes that they are more than what their business cards say about them.

It’s a new quarter, and I will be bringing you my updates from San Francisco where I will be co-oping for the next three months! I arrived in everyone’s favorite city last night around 8 PM after seven long hours on the plane (thanks to “strong headwind�?- side story: I also extended my journey west by another good five hours because I volunteered to give up my seat and took a later flight in exchange for 500 bucks. When you’re on law student budget, you learn to be flexible). I couldn’t see much when I got to SF because it gets dark so early these days. So first thing this morning, I put on my best walking shoes and got ready for my first look at San Francisco.

First stop – Powell Street for the San Francisco Visitor Information Center, a logical place to start my adventure. Heeding to sound advice, I purchased my December “fast pass�? ($45) – SF’s version of a T pass that’s good on practically all public transit within the city. That means buses, trains, street cars, and even the world-famous cable cars. For those of you who do not know me, I can be a bit over the top sometimes. So naturally, I spent the next 45 minutes browsing through every brochure in the info center (there were about 150), afraid I might miss the time of my life contained in the next brochure.

Finally, after taking way too many maps and brochures, I left for Fisherman’s Wharf via cable car. These ancient things travel at exactly 9.5 MPH on some of the steepest hills in the city. A lover of all things historic, I enjoyed the ride as well as my walk around the wharf.

Third stop – work! I wanted to check out the place before I show up on Monday so I know exactly where it is and have a plan of attack ready. I took the F line street car to Market and Van Ness, which is about a 5 minute walk from my work. Now these street cars are my favorite means of transportation so far. They are each named after a city honoring the old trolley system there (I rode the “Kansas City�? but saw “Boston�? going the opposite direction).

By the time I checked out the office building where I will be working, it was already 3 PM Pacific Time, which is about dinner time in Boston. Before this narrative goes any further, you should all know that when I left Boston for SF, the biggest concern on the minds of those who know and love me is that I will starve to death out there. While I consider myself pretty self-sufficient otherwise, my housing arrangement in Boston did not exactly allow my culinary skills shine. Okay, here’s the shameful truth – in Boston, I come home to hot meals on the table every evening and usually have lunch packed for me by the time I leave for school in the morning. And people wonder why I live at home with my parents. So basically, I’m living on my own for the first time since college but this time – no dinning halls or meal plans. Well, I am happy to report that I have survived dinner tonight. I went to a nearby supermarket called “Lucky�? and purchased almost 50 dollars worth of food. What’s for dinner, you ask – spicy chicken wings with baby carrots and apple juice on the side. I even got my breakfast planned – honey bunches of oats, yogurt, and a pear. Please, people – I survived first year law school. I can do dinners.

It is day 5, and my fabulous adventure in SF is underway. Even though it’s only my third day at work, I already feel integrated into the team. This is partly due to the get-down-to-work attitude of the law firm but also because since my arrival, my co-op employer has welcomed me non-stop with lunch and potluck. How did they know yummy food is the fastest way to my heart? Allow me to recap –

Monday and Tuesday, I spent 2 full days training with the law fellow at the firm. I must say this was a pleasant surprise to me because in my experience, many non-profits often can’t spare the manpower to adequately train their new hires, which often causes issues down the road. After a thorough orientation, I was told that my duties at ERA (my co-op) will be threefold – responding to the sex discrimination hotline, legal research for summary judgment on a pending Title IX (discrimination in school settings), and community outreach and education. This week, I will be working exclusively on the hotline because we received many calls over the holiday break.

So basically, by the end of my training on Tuesday, they were ready to throw me into the deep end of the pool and have me contact the clients who left messages for us on the hotline. Although I have had intake and client management experience in the past, I felt a bit nervous and frazzled during my first call. But by the third call, I was hooked. I had just taken employment discrimination and labor law classes last quarter so it was incredibly meaningful for me to apply what I learned to the situations the callers were describing – the paradigmatic example of the applied learning of the co-op program at work. Today, I set up shop at the hotline desk and spent the entire day responding to the calls to our hotline. It is a lot more difficult than I realized – translating these personal narratives into legal elements and prima facie cases of discrimination or harassment, but I suppose that’s why the legal profession exists and we all (hope to) have a job. It is also emotionally difficult at times to hear tale after tale of potential claims of discrimination even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed more than 40 years ago. The most difficult and frustrating aspect of the job for me is that due to limited resources, the hotline is only able to provide information and basic advice to people who may have experienced discrimination. We can’t represent any of the callers or go into great depth into their cases. I have to keep reminding myself that the hotline’s mission is to empower our callers so they know their rights under the law.

By 6pm pacific time, I’m exhausted from talking on the phone non-stop but also feel surprisingly content. I get on a bus to go home but decide to make a stop at the yoga studio so I can get my yoga pass. The studio is in the haight-ashbury neighborhood, which is about 15 minutes walk to my apartment. After walking along the main street for a couple of minutes, I think I understand why San Francisco is such a darling in the eyes of so many seasoned travelers. Take this neighborhood for example – it is completely beyond description. The best I can do is say that it is like an explosion of all things green, hippie, alternative, goth, flower power, which is completely weird, wonderful, and above all unique all in about 10 city blocks. No Starbucks, no CVS, and no Baby Gap. Now that’s a sight worth seeing!

It is a brand new year! I hope everyone enjoyed some time off from work and / or school to rest and spend time with family. Conversations during the first couple days of the new year have always involved resolutions. I always thought of a New Year's resolution as the perfect affirmation that we’re all more alike than different. Getting in shape and losing weight is always on everyone’s list. So is quitting some undesirable habit. Among my peer groups, law students and twenty-something’s, figuring out “the future�? and managing personal finance are also common goals. On my way to work this morning, my pod cast informed me that as we become a nation of debt in both the micro and macro sense, youth debt has skyrocketed 50% in the past ten years. In addition to the ever mounting college loans, the average college student has more than $2000 in credit card loans. So for my first entry of the new year, I thought I would write about how you can survive law school without compromising your (relative) financial freedom.

It will not come as a surprise to those of you applying to law school that you will be taking on a substantial debt to finance your juris doctor diploma. This may be in addition to your existing college loan. Though these pesky loans may sit in their abstract form with all those zeros while you’re in school, trust me, they become very much real as graduation lurks in your horizon and you start to think about what kind of jobs will allow you to pay off those zeros. It would be a pity to forego your dream job after you earn your law degree just because it does not pay enough to cover your minimal loan repayment.

The only way to stay above all that is to think about the ways to minimize the debt you take on during law school. Just because a law school offers you a large amount in loans in your financial aid package does not mean you should take all the money out for a spin. Remember, for every penny you take out now, you have to pay two back. Only the scholarship and grant portion of your aid package is money that won’t come back to haunt you later. So seriously consider living at home, getting a smaller apartment, eating out less – you will have more time to study torts and you won’t be broke for the next fifteen years. For future Northeastern Law students, you will have the opportunity to earn a living and subsidize the cost of your education with four co-ops. Also make sure to take advantage of the endowed scholarships generously donated by alums who love us. So resolve to take on the little sacrifices now – you can live out your dreams of a rich and fabulous life when you actually become a big time attorney.

Networking is very big among lawyers. You will see what I’m talking about when you start law school. It’s everywhere and apparently the answer to everything: you want to know what class to take? Network with the 2Ls and 3Ls; you need a job? Build a network of helpful contacts; you need advice on life? Reach out to your network. So we know networking is important, but what is it?

To network is to create and maintain a web of human relationships with people who share a similar occupation, interests or goals – think of it as making friends, for professional reasons. But how does one network? Well, 1Ls at Northeastern generally have a plethora of networking opportunities with either alumni or prospective employers. The school hosts this annual alumni networking event called “Connection�? where we meet literally hundreds of alumni from every kind of legal / non-legal job imaginable who show up just to network with the students. Then, there are the smaller events where the school invites alumni from a specific field (i.e. international law) to come back to the law school to talk to the students.

While the opportunity and benefits of networking are bountiful, it’s not always the easiest task. It sometimes requires you to go up to an imposing-looking senior attorney and introduce yourself as if you can possibly justify taking up his precious time. Other times, you have to put yourself out there and send an email to an attorney whose work you admire and ask for 30 minutes of her time. Once you’ve built these contacts, your work has just begun because you must diligently maintain these contacts so that you will always have plenty of resources when you need a lifeline. At times, all this will seem a lot to take on for a first year law student who is just trying to keep up with the readings in classes. But from my and many other people’s experience, it is one skill that will help you go far in your career. Think of it as planting seeds to your future success.

Speaking of networking, the entire ERA office went to the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area Luncheon today in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. There is nothing that says networking better than 600 lawyers having lunch together in one big room. It was interesting for me to see that networking does not stop after law school. Lawyers are constantly networking to share knowledge, opportunities, and clients.

NUSL alums have a way of showing up at unexpected corners. NUSL does not mass produce attorneys (in fact we admit a pretty small class each year compared to other law schools) nor have we been around forever. So I never expected NUSL alums to play much of role in my life. Interestingly enough, while I’m out here in the wild west on coop, I’ve already met two and heard about many more alums. During one of my first few days at ERA, I learned that one of the senior staff attorneys there graduated from NUSL. Whenever I go to lawyerly social events and I introduce myself as a student at NUSL, people always tell me they have a best friend / niece / sibling who went to NUSL and loved it. Most impressively, when a recent alum heard that I was going to be doing a coop in San Francisco and didn’t know a soul in the city, she called me and took me out to dinner. We had a fantastic time and found that we were both involved in APALSA and competed in the Thomas Tang Moot Court Competition.

Statistically speaking, I should not be randomly bumping into alums as much I have been. But of course, NUSL was never about the statistics. I’ve discovered that our alums will often gather at public interest events regardless of whether they are public interest attorneys. If you travel in the public interest law circle, you will feel like they are everywhere! So even though NUSL may not have the largest alum network, it feels like a pretty good one when alums take time out of their day to help me out.

Lastly, I hope everyone exercised their right to vote today and happy lunar new year to those of you who celebrate it.

I see discrimination unfold on a daily basis through the advice and counseling hotline and the ongoing litigations at my current co-op. While it can be overwhelming at times, I have learned to cope with its existence and accept my small role in the fight against it at ERA. Yet, I know there are many people who would whole-heartedly question the very existence of such “backwards” notions of sexism and racism in today’s world. And why shouldn’t they? Things seem fair enough. Women are no longer disenfranchised. People of color are no longer forced to sit at the back of the bus. Anti-discrimination statements appear at the end of every job posting. However, if sexism is merely a vestige left over from the last century, I wonder why ERA’s hotline is flooded with shocking stories of inequality every time I pick up the phone. The truth is while antidiscrimination legislations outlawed the most visible forms of discrimination, it did not eliminate our prejudices and biases. And these biases, in their less overt manifestation, constantly challenge the existing antidiscrimination legal framework.

Case in point - last Friday, I went to a conference sponsored by UC Hastings’ Center for Work Life Law on the emerging legal claim coined as “Family Responsibility Discrimination”. A few pioneering cases and state statutes have recognized that discrimination based on an employee’s family responsibility (such as giving care to children, elderly or disabled parents or relatives) is unlawful. One of the highlights of the conference for me was the scientific hard data on what the researchers called “motherhood penalty”. Research shows that a mother’s earning is reduced by 5% per each child she has. Over a lifetime, the motherhood penalty for a college-educated woman is approximately $1,000,000. Furthermore, a 2007 study by researchers at Cornell University confirmed the biases against mothers by submitting over one thousand identical resumes to real-life employers. While about 6% of women received call backs from these real-life employers, only 3% of mothers (those resumes that contained subtle hints of family responsibilities such as “member of the PTA”) were called back. That roughly translates into this: if you are a woman and have children, your chance of being hired for a job is reduced by a half compared to a childless woman. And these findings came, not from a lab, but the world we live in today.

I cannot believe this is my last week in San Francisco. It really feels like last week when I wrote about checking out my new work place in anticipation of my first day of work. These past three months in SF have been a meaningful experience to me both professionally and personally. I have no hope of capturing my experiences with words as I am still processing most of them, but I thought I’d follow Laurinda’s example and give you my top five lists for working at ERA and living in SF, in no particularly order.

ERA
1. seeing the inner works of the biggest sexual discrimination case in U.S. history
2. writing a portion of a brief opposing summary judgment
3. attending a key witness deposition in a Title IX case
4. being part of an organization that has been at every seminal discrimination case from Geduldig v. Aiello (1974) to Meritor Savings Bank (1986) to Harris v. Forklift Systems (1993) to Burlington Northern v. White (2006)
5. getting to know amazing attorneys who actually do what law school applicants aspire to do – change the world!

SF
1. painted ladies
2. classic cars
3. dim sum to-go
4. san franciscans, and their cultish and yet admirable obsession for recycling
5. sunny, blue sky, skirt-wearing, 50 degrees winter weather that makes me smile each morning

I will miss you, San Francisco.

I finally made it home. I had naively hoped to write that it felt all warm and fuzzy to be back in my beloved city, see its skyline for the first time from afar, drive home on the river roads with city lights reflected in the water, and remember thousands of bits of memories that make this ridiculously cold yet character-building city my home. But alas, the truth is it was way too frigid to feel anything at all. After more than nine hours of flying, landing, delaying and waiting for luggage, I was transported from sunny and 70s to single digit temperature and wintry mix. It turns out this February happens to be the coldest and snowiest February on record. One thing about true Bostonians – it doesn’t matter how many of these bone-chilling winters we have lived through, we will never, ever, stop complaining about it. Nor will we flee to somewhere warmer (not permanently anyway). Our modus operandi - grumble about it, suffer it, and then brag about it.

So with that, this Bostonian is home and getting ready for a brand new quarter of classes. In a way, this time of transition is my favorite part of the quarter because I get to do everything anew. I have a clean slate, from books and school supplies to study habits to exam strategies. For my second quarter of my second year in law school, I pre-registered online for (1) Secured Transaction, (2) Professional Responsibility (the only required upper-level course), (3) International Business Regulation, and (4) Administrative Law. Once classes start on Monday, I will have time to check out these and other classes before I make my final selections during the add/drop period. It’s great that the school gives me a chance to change my mind, but I have a really good feeling about these courses.

It has been a very busy week so far. First, I had to make sure I want to stay in all the classes I pre-registered for. Typically that decision depends on the material on the syllabus, teaching method of the professor, whether it will be an in-class or take-home final, who else is taking that class etc. I liked all four classes I went to so I didn’t have to “shop” for classes. Once I made that decision, I bought the required books for the classes. I bought almost all of my books online this year so the totally cost come out to a modest $300. Then, I had to catch up on all the things I missed in the past three months. The hallways are filled with excited conversation about people’s coops. It never fails to amaze me when I hear about where coops take Northeastern law students.

Lastly, there is the MPRE on Saturday. It stands for Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. I think of it as the first step to pass the Bar – the final obstacle course before I can call myself a lawyer. It is a is a sixty question, two-hour and five minute, multiple-choice exam that tests students on their knowledge of the professional and ethical rules that govern our profession. In Massachusetts, a law student cannot sit for the bar until s/he has passed the MPRE. And nearly all states require law students to achieve a passing score on the MPRE before practicing law. As for preparation for the test, many will go to a review lecture offered by Bar/Bri, a company that prepares students for the Bar and take practice exams; others will study on their own; still others will “wing” it. I do not recommend the last method. In my an opinion, there is no reason to waste $65 to take a test that you could have easily passed had you invested a little time to prepare for it. Though many people see the MPRE as a chore, I actually have learned some pretty interesting rules. For example, did you know that a lawyer may be disbarred if s/he said “Good morning. How are you?” to a juror in an elevator at the courthouse? It turns out we have some pretty strict rules preventing advocates from exerting improper influence on jurors. I don’t know about others but I’m glad I learned that one.

It’s already two weeks into the spring quarter so I thought I’d write more substantively about my classes. As you know, I took the MPRE (Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination) last Saturday. It is definitely do-able for those who came prepared and mostly painless compared to most law school exams. NUSL requires upper levels to take the professional responsibility course before graduation. It’s probably preferable to take the MPRE after completing the course, but I decided that I wanted it to get past this barrier and focus on passing the bar exam my third year. So consequently, I took the MPRE with only one week of professional responsibility class under my belt. On the other hand, this is definitely the type of material you can learn on your own.

With respect to the class, it is a lot more stimulating than I thought. I think the mere fact it is required puts off many NUSL students. But rest assured, pondering about ethical dilemmas other lawyers faced is not only thought-provoking (and I must admit occasionally entertaining) but will also help us become more ethical lawyers and stay out trouble in the future. So to give you a taste, consider this scenario that Professor Hall posited to us on the first day of class.

You are a young criminal defense attorney. You just won your first big case and got your client acquitted of murder. You did such a fabulous job representing your client that he took you out to dinner, during which he told to you that you’ve really worked a miracle considering that he actually did commit that murder. What would you do upon learning this, if anything? What if since the acquittal another personal has been charged with that murder? Would your answer be different? What if that person faces the death penalty? You should know that ABA rules generally prohibit attorneys from disclosing information learned from representing a client. Would your answer be different if your client died of heart failure soon after the acquittal and the other person still faces death penalty if convicted of the murder your client committed?

Something amazing happened to me this weekend. I finally mastered s-turns. S-turn is so elementary to snowboarding that it’s something they teach you right after you learn how to stand up on your snowboard. It consists of a heel-side turn and a toe-side turn. So it is pretty embarrassing that I have just fully mastered this technique during my fifth snowboarding season. Like many kids in my generation, I grew up skiing. Unlike snowboarding, I learned the basics of skiing (“pizza” and “French fries”) in all of one day. Then when I was in college, snowboarding became the cooler snow sport so of course I had to try it. So for the past four years, I have persisted in making my way to the slopes at least once a year to snowboard even though it’s painfully clear to everyone that I cannot do a s-turn if my life depended on it. Then this past weekend, instead of using the board that I’ve been using, I borrowed my friend Liz’s board and headed west to the slopes at the Berkshires. Though I will never believe the whole “the equipment can make you a better athlete” business, I must admit that a smaller and more flexible snowboard did help me master the s-turns that have eluded me for so long. In fact, I was on the verge of finally giving up on snowboarding when we were driving to the Berkshires. I even told my boyfriend that this is going to be my last snowboarding season and that come next winter, I’m going to be a skier again. But skiing was the last thing on my mind when I finished my last run on the snowboard. The s-turns that had seemed so impossible one season again were now coming to me completely effortlessly. As we drove home, I could only think about how I can get one more trip in before it gets too warm to snowboard.

You may wonder what snowboarding has to do with law school. It relates to law school in two ways. First, you should know that if you come to law school in Boston, there are lots of good mountains within a 3-hour drive. But more importantly, it just so happens that learning how to snowboard is just like learning civil procedure during your 1L year. The learning curve is very steep. You will feel lost and hopeless for most of the semester. And then toward the end, someone explains a rule to you in a different way or you read your rule book at a slightly different angle or whatever the triggering event may be, the glorious moment of clarity finally dawns on you and everything that the professor talked about all semester long clicks into the right places and the world is a happy place again. As many of you make your final decisions about law school this spring and start your legal education as 1Ls next fall, I hope you’ll remember that persistence pays off in law school and most other things as well.

I think I have already said this once but I will say it again – as soon as you start law school, family, friends, and random people who acquire the knowledge that you are in law school will begin to think that they can get some competent (and free) legal advice out of you. Their level of trust in your opinion will not vary whether you started law school two weeks or two years ago. Furthermore, their questions will span from criminal law (can I really say no to a police officer who wants to search my car) to landlord-tenant (can I withhold rent if my landlord didn’t fix my bathroom sink) regardless of whether you have had any class in that particular area of law. Once you embark on the legal path, you become their law go-to person. As you will learn in your professional responsibility class (side point – I learned yesterday that I passed the MPRE I told you all about couple weeks ago. I can’t tell you how happy I am that I have passed the first hurdle in becoming a lawyer!), it is not a good idea for lawyers to give legal advice on areas of law they are not familiar with or have not done research on. If you’re not careful and give bad legal advice, you may be disciplined and/or sued for legal malpractice. Some people you can simply say “no” to when they ask you about a legal question that you’re not familiar with. But others, like my parents, there is simply no escaping. This past weekend, I helped my parents review documents related to a refinancing of our home – all 80 some odd pages! Even though they were represented by an attorney, they wanted me, their law go-to person, to review the documents anyway. At first I thought that I would just give the documents a quick glance since what do I know about real estate and financing law. But as I was reading the documents, I realized that a lot of terms and concepts were actually familiar to me because of my secured transaction class. For example, we learned in class that when home buyers purchase a home, they typically sign two barebones documents – a promissory note (which says something like I, homebuyer, promise to pay you, the lender, back all the money I borrowed to buy this home) and a security agreement or a mortgage document (which says something like if I, homebuyer, don’t pay, I understand you, the lender, have the right to take away my home). So actually, it was really neat to see those two documents that we talked so much about in class in real life and in action. After a careful review, I was able to find some minor errors and handed the documents back to my parents. I think they were pleased that my legal education is finally getting put to their use.

One of the most amazing ancillary benefits of attending NUSL that I hope you will come to utilize is the free admission to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. Not only will you be within one block of one of the most recognized art museum in the country, you also receive the privilege of getting free admission to the museum anytime just by flashing your NU id. For most of us negative net worth law students (but with huge earning potentials I comfort myself), it is one of the few places where we can get the VIP treatment. In any case, I went to the MFA today for their annual “Art in Bloom” exhibition. It is one of my favorite exhibitions at the Museum. Objects selected from the Museum’s collections are interpreted in fresh spring flowers by sixty-three New England garden clubs. It was absolutely awe-inspiring, for example, to see vibrant vitality of fresh flowers exhibited side by side with the stillness of a four thousand year old Egyptian statute. The exhibit was displayed throughout the Museum in accordance with the time period and origin of the art pieces. So I saw flower interpretation of Egyptian, American, European, and Asian art objects. In addition to the exhibit, the Museum is also hosting seminars and workshops on floral arrangement and home decoration as well as a Sunday brunch and an elegant tea party with music. I can’t tell you about those events because they were price prohibitive to me but the exhibit itself was absolutely breath-taking and miraculously, free!