What a crazy conglomeration of events we’ve got scheduled next week, all catering to the legal eagles out there.  I’m out of breath just listing them all.  Here’s the rundown:

*Just added*
Vermont Law School Admissions Visit
Tuesday, 11/15, at noon
E23 Machmer

Vermont Law School boasts the most respected environmental law program in the country.  Come meet with a VLS Admissions counselor to learn more about the school.

Color of Justice panel
sponsored by the National Association of Women Judges
Wednesday, 11/16, 3:00 – 5:30 pm
Western New England University School of Law (Springfield, Mass.)

A truly unparalleled opportunity to meet and hear from over a dozen female judges and attorneys about their career paths and experiences.  Click through the title for the list of jurists at all levels of our state judiciary — from the Supreme Judicial Court on down to several local trial courts. (I’m so excited about this one, I’ll be heading down to Western New England myself!)

* Just added *
CMASS Law Night
Thursday, 11/17, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Wilder Hall 201

Hear the success stories of ALANA students  from UConn Law and Western New England Law, and get your questions answered by the admissions directors from both schools (as well as your faithful pre-law advisor). Brought to you in part by the Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success (CMASS).

Lawyer-Alum career talk: Carrie Pollak, Esq.
Friday, 11/18 at noon
W13 Machmer

You’ll definitely want to hear UMass alum Carrie Pollak (Legal Studies and English ’04, Cornell Law ’08) talk about her experiences in both a very large law firm in Boston, and her current mid-size firm in Ithaca, New York.  Attorney Pollak, a former Army National Guard soldier, practices in the areas of environmental law and land use regulation.

UMass Mock Trial: Second Annual Thanksgiving Classic Invitational Tournament
Friday 11/18 – Sunday 11/20
Isenberg School of Management

Come see a dazzling display of legal skills from over two dozen teams, as they battle it out in a criminal trial.  Come for one round, or come for all four.  Rounds start Friday at 6:30 pm, Saturday at 9 am and 2 pm, and Sunday at 9 am.  This is for anybody who has ever thought about trying out for Mock Trial, or who just wants to watch some excellent trial skills in action.

Monday, September 26th, 2:00pm
E23 Machmer

Interested in immigration and/or family law?  Come meet with UMass alumni-lawyer Sean Chen (Communication ’03, Suffolk Law School) in an informal talk about legal careers, immigration and family law, and more.  Light refreshments will be served.

Congratulations to the UMass alumnae who were named 2011 Top Women of Law by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly:

• Marsha Kazarosian (English, Suffolk Law), Partner, Kazarosian Law Offices, Haverhill
• Stacy Malone (Political Science, Boston University Law), Executive Director, Victim Rights Law Center, Boston
• Mary Thomas Sullivan (Psychology, Northeastern Law), Segal Roitman, LLP, Boston

What an impressive and accomplished group of alums!

Wednesday, April 13, 6:00 pm — 8:00 pm
Location: Cape Cod Lounge, Student Union

This don’t-miss event features several successful alumni attorneys sharing their stories in a comfortable and fun small group “speed networking” format. Confirmed participants (so far — more to come!) include

• Sean Chen (Communication ‘03, Suffolk Law) — Attorney in small practice specializing in immigration and family law
• Maura Murphy-Osbourne  (Political Science ‘94, Cornell Law) — Assistant Attorney General, Hartford, CT
• Colin Keefe (Political Science ‘91, Western New England College Law) — Criminal defense attorney in private practice
• Chris Mahoney (Political Science ‘95, UMaine Law) — Attorney in private practice, specializing in family law, estate planning, and criminal defense
• Timothy Jones (MPA ‘01) — Hearing Officer at Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Appeals and Dispute Resolution
• John Smolak (BDIC ‘85, Boston College Law) — Partner, Smolak & Vaughn, specializing in land use, environmental and real estate development
• Maura McLaughlin (English and French ’91, Boston College Law), Deputy Counsel, State Senate, Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Refreshments will be served.

Seating is limited. Please register by April 11 (email events@sbs.umass.edu)

Sponsored by SBS, Commonwealth Honors College and Pre-law Advising.

Seamus Brennan graduated from UMass Amherst in 2007 with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in History. He received his law degree from Rutgers-Newark this past May, and now works in the international tax law division of a prominent financial services firm.  Seamus recently contacted the Pre-Law Advising Office, offering to be of assistance to undergrads and alums who are considering law school.  He kindly answered a few questions about his experiences for publication on the blog.

Why did you choose Rutgers-Newark?
I am from northern NJ and I wanted to attend a law school in the metro New York area. Rutgers enabled me to do this while keeping my law school debt low due to the scholarship they gave me and the low in-state tuition.

Which parts of law school surprised you?
The amount of work required the first year exceeded my expectations. Everyone I talked to who graduated from law school told me the first year was the hardest. They weren’t kidding.

What did you enjoy/dislike about law school?
Generally, the one thing I really disliked about law school was that one three or four hour exam determined your entire grade. Hours of reading and studying are distilled to one exam at the end of the semester, and that one exam is the only metric used to determine how well you did in that class.

The experience I enjoyed the most at Rutgers was participating in the federal tax clinic. The tax clinic allowed me to use what I learned in the classroom and apply it in a practical environment. As a member of the tax clinic, I represented low income tax payers before the IRS and I argued motions before the U.S. Tax Court.

What did you do during your summer internships, and how did you get those jobs?
The summer after 1L, I worked at a small law firm (25-50 attorneys) in NJ. I got this job through networking.

The summer after 2L, I split my time between the law firm where I worked the previous summer and the N.J. Tax Court. I got the job at the N.J. Tax Court by sending my resume to every N.J. Tax Court judge and calling every judge’s chambers until I got an interview.

Was it difficult to get a job?
It was very difficult to get a job. Two weeks into the on-campus interview process Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. This made a tough process even harder. I had over 30 on-campus interviews while I was at Rutgers, with almost every type of employer: big NYC law firms, big NJ law firms, federal government agencies, state government agencies, smaller NY/NJ law firms, accounting firms, consulting firms, banks, etc.

In the end, I was able to get a great job with a prominent financial services firm doing international tax work in New York City. I believe this was possible because I showed a demonstrated interest in the field: I had great grades in all of my tax classes, I worked in the Rutgers federal tax clinic and at the NJ tax court, and I was the research assistant for a well known tax professor.

What do you enjoy/dislike about your job? How many hours a week are you working?  What kind of work are you doing?
I really enjoy my job because every day I learn something new.  I work anywhere from 50-70 hours a week, depending on what our clients are doing. I work on the tax issues that arise from cross-border M&A [mergers and acquisitions], foreign companies investing in the U.S., U.S. companies investing in other countries, and the tax treatment of different financial instruments.

Is there anything you would have done differently, or anything you’re particularly glad you did do?
I am very glad I found an area of law that interested me while I was in my first year of law school. Because of this, I knew what I wanted to do when I graduated and I could work towards this end the remaining two years.

Sally Clouse, UMass Amherst alum (’10, Political Science and Psychology), checks in again with her experiences as a first-year law student at George Washington University Law School.  Sally’s first post, describing her exhilarating first week, is here. Things have, um, changed a little bit, now that she’s heading toward finals….

Finals are almost here and I can tell you now, law school is not for the weak.  Law school requires a firm resolve and self discipline as well as a strong sense of personal identity. The entire 1L first semester so far has been a struggle to maintain self-identity in a sea of outside pressures telling you what you should be studying, how you should be studying, what jobs you should be thinking about, how you should prepare for the class, how many hours you should spend reading…the list goes on and on.

From the outset of the semester, you are constantly seeing what other people do and questioning if you are doing law school the right way.  Person X writes out full briefs for every case, Person Y uses 7 different color highlighters in an elaborate system to make notes in their case book, Person Z wakes up at 5am everyday and starts their studying.  These people exist, and they are crazy and you have to just remind yourself that your study methods are not inferior to theirs, just different.  There is no right or wrong way to study, you just need to find a way that works for you.  Don’t waste your time thinking that since you only underline your casebook in pencil you won’t do well.

This environment makes it way too easy to get swept up in the insanity and constant comparison to your classmates.  A huge part of the problem is that basically your entire grade is based on a final, so no one even knows if how they are studying will improve their potential for higher grades on exams and it’s frustrating.

Finals week in undergrad lasts for a week, you study hard, take exams and its done.  Law school finals preparation starts by Halloween.  Yet another thing to use to compare your own progress to that of your classmates.   The way that everyone studies is to make these crazy outlines that basically lay out everything you have learned in the last three months so that you can use it on the exam.  There is always someone out there who has finished outlining before you even started and owns like 3 study aid books for every class and you think that clearly you must be doing something wrong.  There is a constant need to step back and remember to think about yourself and not be concerned with what others are doing and its really, really hard.

People are also concerning themselves with jobs for the summer and that’s a whole other world of pressure.  The underlying feeling that you should want to work in a big law firm when you graduate is pretty prevalent.  It’s not imposed upon you officially by any means but it really seems that firm jobs are what everyone else wants and is what you should want too.  Even if you don’t think you want a big firm job I guarantee you will think you do at some point.

So basically, your entire first semester of law school will be based on working your butt of and never thinking you are good enough.  Just remember that there will always be someone doing more than you and you need to remind yourself that it’s okay.  Everyone functions differently and everyone has their own path to law school success.  It’s really important to take that step back and not get swept up in the frenzy that is the 1L year.  Stay true to yourself, you obviously did well enough in school up to this point to get to law school so just keep doing what you’re doing (at least that’s what I keep telling myself).

Mass. Lawyers Weekly has named Attorney Christine Savage a “Top Woman of Law” for 2010.

As chair of Choate’s well-recognized healthcare practice, Ms. Savage guides a team of corporate, regulatory, and life sciences attorneys representing healthcare providers and private equity firms, technology and science companies, and investors on critical and cutting-edge legal issues. Ms. Savage also maintains an active practice representing hospitals, hospices, and alternative service providers in handling complex compliance and regulatory matters. She has significant white collar defense experience in government healthcare investigations, including cases brought under the False Claims Act and Federal anti-kickback laws. Ms. Savage also is a member of Choate’s Executive Committee.

Attorney Savage, a 1992 UMass grad and 1995 Harvard Law grad, will be honored at a reception in Boston on December 3rd.

This just in from the SBS Dean’s Office — it’s not exactly law-focused, but I know that many of you are interested in the financial services industry as well as law:

UMass Amherst alumnus, Benjamin Happ ’98 (Psychology) is coming to campus on Thursday, October 14th. He is currently the Head of Capital Services Asia Pacific, Credit Suisse, in Hong Kong. A profile of Benjamin can be found here (please note that this was written while Benjamin was in a previous position in Hong Kong)
There will be several opportunities to interact with Benjamin while he is on campus. Please contact the appropriate person if you are interested in taking part in this event.

12:30 – Lunch in Worcester DC – contact Jackie Brousseau-Pereira

1:30 pm – Info session about Credit Suisse/working in the financial industry (Draper Hall Conference room – second floor) – contact Jackie Brousseau-Pereira

2:45 – 3:45 pm – Mock Interviews (Goodell, Career Services Office). GPA of 3.2+

2:45, 3, 3:15 and 3:30 (4 slots available) for teams of 2 students in each time slot with Benjamin Happ. Students must be professionally dressed and bring a resume.

Sign-ups with Candice Serafino. Sign up for these is on a first-come first-served basis.

Sally Clouse, UMass Amherst alum (’10, Political Science and Psychology), just started at George Washington School of Law.  She will pop in here occasionally to share her experiences in law school.

It’s official, I survived my first week of class here at GW Law.   It wasn’t nearly as painful as I was expecting, though they may have been going easy on us for week one.  Instead of the painful torture I had been warned about, class was actually fun at times. The work load is large but seems manageable at this point, maybe I am being optimistic because my writing class hasn’t started yet.  Though, from what I hear from 2 and 3Ls the reading gets easier as you get used to it.   My Torts professor is hysterically funny which helps a lot and I don’t get the impression the profs are out to get us or make us look stupid which is comforting.  Contracts is a little dry but my prof showed us a clip from the Little Mermaid so we could analyze Ariel’s contract with Ursula to become human.  Didn’t quite live up to my expectations set by The Paper Chase or Legally Blonde but I think that’s a good sign that I made the right choice in coming here.

Last week some of us participated in a pre-orientation program for students looking to pursue a career in public interest law.  We all got to go to the DC Superior Court and sit in on proceedings in various courtrooms and speak with judges, to give us a chance to see law in practice.  This city and this school have so many opportunities for students to take advantage if you are willing to seek them out.

Though the work has been tough, I still have time to go explore the city. Some of us 1Ls took a night off of studying to go explore the monuments at night which was so much fun.   Being in an all law school all the time mode is just not worth it when you live in such an exciting city.  Though there are a few people at school studying till the wee hours of the morning and already checking out hornbooks and commercial outlines, for the most part people are pretty relaxed about the whole experience.  I’m trying to avoid getting caught up in the pressure-cooker that some people put themselves in.  There is plenty of time for law school and for a normal life.

When you are looking at schools, think about what kind of atmosphere you want to spend the next 3 years living in and think about what kind of opportunities will be available to you there.  I couldn’t be happier to be in DC and here at GW!

Our occasional series of guest posts continues with Sam Litton, a 2008 UMass alum. Sam kindly took the time to answer some common questions students have for alumni in law school. Have more questions for Sam?  Please feel free to post them in the comments, and I’ll pass them along.

Q: What’s your name, major, year of graduation from UMass, and law school you’re attending?

A: I graduated in 2008, and majored in Political Science, Philosophy, and Legal Studies, which sounds slightly more impressive than it actually is.  They share a lot of Gen Eds.  I’m currently a 1L at NYU School of Law.

Q: Where else did you get in?  What made you choose NYU?

A: I also got into UC Berkeley, Columbia, Georgetown, Duke, and a few others. Harvard wait-listed me. Yale sent me the nicest rejection I’ve ever received.

I chose NYU for several reasons. First, the loan repayment assistance program at NYU is fairly generous. Second, it has a strong public service emphasis. Third, I wanted to stay in the Northeast. Finally, their deadline to accept my financial aid package snuck up on me.

Q: Have you been happy with your choice? Why or why not?

A: I’m pretty happy at NYU. I really like the culture here; it’s not the cut-throat atmosphere people often attribute to law school. There’s a pretty strong sense of camaraderie. For example, I’ve missed class before and people have given me their notes.

I also like the emphasis on public service at NYU. Most of NYU Law’s graduates will go on to work in the Big Law Firms; however, the school has a huge number of resources available for those who don’t. Just as important, the public service office has a fairly substantial presence.

Finally, NYU is really strong in international law, which is one of the areas I’m interested in.
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