Top 10 things I wish I knew as a 1L: #10

Top 10 things I wish I knew as a 1L:

#10. Buy & sell Textbooks Online - After an entire of year of purchasing my books at the law school bookstore I realized buying online can be way cheaper and more convenient. I bought my books last semester online and saved at least $150. I will definitely stick to buying online from here on out. At first I was reluctant to sell my books back after the semester ended (I wasn't sure if I'd need the books in the future for studying for the bar or actually practicing law). However, I spoke with a professor and several law school graduates who all said the same thing.. sell them! Personally I do not recommend selling the books back to bookstore, they try and offer you like $20 for a $100 + book. In that cases it probably worth it to just save the book. But I do highly recommend selling them online and earning yourself some extra cash. Please note I never sell back my E&E's or Emanuels outlines because I feel that I may actually use these in studying for the bar but will probably never resort to picking up my case book, looking up the case, reading it, and extracting the rule. I already did that in preparing my outlines for finals, plus if I need a quick reference I still have my commercial outlines. Anyway, I wish I knew this before I could have saved myself a lot of money!

Study Break - Video 1

One of my all time favorite videos on Youtube! Make sure volume is on it makes it all the better... enjoy :)

Public Defenders Interview

For starters, I wish I hadn't stayed up until 4am brainstorming future topics for this blog and wish I had spent the time refreshing my knowledge of criminal procedure! That interview was by far the hardest interview I have had thus far. Luckily, as of now I have two standing offers: one at the attorney general's office and another at the DA's office. I really hate to admit it but I don't think that interview went too well - it was very unconventional in my opinion.

First, they set me up in a room all alone, they gave me a #2 pencil, a notepad, a timer and a HYPO!!! Needless to say I was definitely not expecting that. After my time was up I was brought back to a room and introduced to a nice, friendly older man (a professor type - very educated). He conducted the entire first 15 minutes of my interview in spanish. I was definitely caught off guard, my parents speak Spanish and I lived abroad in Spain for 6 months but I haven't spoken a word of Spanish in over 2 years. After the Spanish session concluded he proceeded to drill me with case holding, asking what I thought of Mapp v. Ohio and asking me to fill in the blanks on "famous" phrases from criminal procedure case holding. Again, fail. I've only had 2 weeks of criminal procedure and my lack of knoweldge definitely showed. After I attempted to charm my way out of obviously being oblivious to criminal procedure he proceeded to quiz me on criminal law. He asked me for the penal code definition of burglary. I tried my hardest to remember back to last fall and criminal law but we were allowed to use our notes and the model penal code on our final so I never memorized anything. Fail #3. Although, I will admit my attempt at the definition of burglary was pretty darn close. Interestingly, they did not allow me to interview with my former professor. Looks like I will more than likely be interning at the DA's office this summer.

On that note, I don't know whether its better or worse to intern at the DA's office. I want to be a criminal defense lawyer in the future (although that may change). I'm weary that once you work for one side it will be hard to transition to the other. Oh well, I guess only time will tell. I will update tonight as promised my tips on interview etiquette and attire. I also plan to update tomorrow a list of 10 things I wish I knew as a 1L. Lastly, if we're lucky I'll share a ridiculous picture of a classmate that will be sure to invoke a few laughs, shock and second hand embarrassment. Stay tuned.

Welcome to my blog! Life as a law student can be overwhelming at times and I have decided to start a blog in an attempt to document my experience balancing life in a big city, partying, networking, fashion and of course school work. I am a 2L attending a Tier 1 law school in the north east. I hope you enjoy my blog, relate to it, learn from it and hopefully get a few laughs once in awhile. I will try to update it frequently! Tonight's welcome post will be short and sweet as it is already 2am and I have an interview with the public defenders office in the AM. Obviously, instead of prepping for the interview I got distracted reading other "blawgs" and decided to start my very own. I'm currently debating what bag to bring - a burberry school bag, my Louie speedy, or something less pretentious (perhaps my black patent leather steve madden bag)? First impressions are everything but luckily my call back interview is with a professor I had last semester. I think she loved me but I guess we will find out!

I'll update tomorrow with how the interview went, interview etiquette (according to moi), and places to shop for fashionable, sophisticated yet appropriate interview attire.

Please feel free to leave comments, questions or any feedback!

ps: don't judge my grammar too harshly. For some reason I'm amazing at spelling and have a great vocabulary however my grammar pretty much sucks (I wish they had a grammar check, rather then spell check function!!!). Disclaimer: I have been told I do not know how to properly use commas, you have been warned ;)