Browsing Tag

Law School

LLM / memories / Work

Graduation

Georgetown University Law Center

There was a scene on a recent episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race where one of the contestants (Kameron Michaels) does extremely well in the challenge, but still prepares for the elimination lip sync just in case she is in the bottom 2 that week.

The other contestants scold Kameron for not enjoying her success, but Kameron says that she’s not the type to prematurely celebrate achievements.

I’ve had the same mindset for the past year.

While the people around me celebrated finishing tests and reaching milestones, I preoccupied myself with contingency plans.

Even when I did accomplish goals, I still ran through worst-case scenarios and planned for what would come next. Passed the bar – What if I failed the MPRE? Got a job offer – What if it’s rescinded? Finished finals – What if I failed Partnership Taxation?

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legal humor / LLM

Thanks, but no thanks, Oklahoma Law

Working on a legal article at Starbucks

I am entering the last month of my LL.M. program at Georgetown — polishing final term papers, prepping for exams, and even starting part-time at my post-graduation job.

I arrived at school early today to record a podcast with the Georgetown’s career center about our awesome externship program. After the podcast recording session I went to the library to prep for tonight’s class, but decided to check my email before studying.

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LLM / memories / Work

The Offer

Washington DC at night from the SHAW Neighborhood.

Every year, Georgetown and NYU’s LL.M. programs jointly host the “Tax Interview Program” (TIP) — a massive speed-interviewing event where law and accounting firms interview pre-selected candidates.

The bulk of my TIP interview invitations were from Dallas and Houston, so I had a strong feeling that I would be returning to the Texas heat in May.

But then the week before TIP, I unexpectedly received not one, but two (!!) offers in Washington D.C. — and I took one.

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LLM / on the record

I forgot this part

February 27, 2018

Georgetown University Law Center at night.

I went to law school immediately after graduating college, so I did not have to make the same jarring adjustments as many of my older peers. Sure, law school is much different than undergrad, but I was used to being a student.

After going back for my LL.M., I’ve experienced many of the strange adjustments that my older law school classmates complained about, like unusual class times, the lack of a real paycheck, and becoming a hermit for finals.

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LLM / Museums and Monuments

Launching into the semester

January 17, 2018

The interior courtyard of the National Building Museum in Washington D.C.

The second (and last) semester of my Georgetown tax LL.M. program is already underway.

After slogging my way through winter break, starting the semester feels like reaching the end of one of those airport moving walkways before you’re ready.

My classmates and I are beginning the semester in a distracted state — most of us are already in first-and-second round interviews for after-graduation jobs. While this is a wonderful position for us to be in, it is very time-consuming to prep for interviews (and fret about callbacks.)

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Law School / LLM / Productivity

Why Microsoft OneNote is my favorite note-taking app

January 3, 2018

Georgetown Finals

I have used Microsoft OneNote ever since the program came pre-installed on my crappy law school laptop 10 years ago.

OneNote is easily my favorite note-taking app and I assumed that all law students of a certain age used it. So it was to my horror this past semester when very few of my Georgetown LL.M. classmates even knew what OneNote was!

Here’s a very brief look at OneNote and why every law student and writer needs it.

The Basics

OneNote is a free note-taking application from Microsoft. You can download OneNote to run as a desktop application or access it at OneNote.com.

This program is great for note-taking and long-term projects involving multiple documents. I also use OneNote to draft blogs. However, for print-ready essays, I still port everything over to Microsoft Word.

Why OneNote is Amazing

OneNote differs from Microsoft Word in several ways:

The auto-save feature means that your notes are immediately backed-up online and never lost (even if you kill your laptop during finals.)
You can easily see multiple documents as “tabs” in your notebook, which makes it easy to quickly organize your content.
Pages can run horizontally so are not constrained with how many columns you can have in a single document.
Copying and pasting from the Internet automatically includes the source URL at the bottom. This means that pasting a case’s headnote onto a page generates a link back to the full case on WestLaw.

How to Use OneNote for Law School

Here’s how you can get the most out of OneNote in law school (or any academic program.)

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LLM / Washington DC

The Winter Funk

December 26, 2017

The George Gordon Meade Memorial at the National Mall in Washington D.C.

My winter break from school has not gone as expected.

Finals ended about two weeks ago. I wish that I could report that my post-finals life has been full of vigorous exercise, rejuvenating relaxation, and quiet progress on my tax articles – but that is not how things have worked out so far.

My life is highly structured during the semester: Between classes, research obligations and my externship, my schedule is packed from 6:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. most weekdays. Weekends are for long dog walks, brunch, and sightseeing in Washington D.C. (Oh, and more studying.)

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Law / LLM

Officially licensed

December 8, 2017

Washington Capitol Building

Ten years ago I was in Miami, applying to the University of Minnesota Law School. I would have had a hard time believing that a decade later, I would be getting sworn in as a Texas attorney in Washington D.C.

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Books

Discovering The Rooster Bar

November 21, 2017

One of the most surreal parts of my move to Washington D.C. a few months ago was listening to an audiobook of John Grisham’s Gray Mountain while driving through the Appalachians, where the story takes place.

It felt strange to inhabit the same space as fictional characters – particularly because I was traveling through an unfamiliar place in the middle of the night.

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LLM / Texas

I passed the Texas bar exam!

November 2, 2017

This summer was rough. In addition to working full time, I was also prepping for the Texas bar exam.

I was scared to tell many people that I was even taking the exam — I had been out of law school for six years and taking the exam in a different state. I wasn’t confident that my bar review course would power me through Texas oil and gas law. I was also worried that working 50 hours a week was cutting too much into my prep time.

I did well on the practice tests — but were they like the exam? I heard so many horror stories of people failing the bar one, two, three times even while studying full time. Was I doing enough? Was starting bar prep in April too early? Too late?

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LLM / Washington DC

You’ll get the job

September 10, 2017

The outside of Union Station in Washington D.C.

I’m at Union Station and incredibly sweaty.

I have made this mistake several times already — I try to take the metro while wearing a suit and end up grossly sweaty by the time I make it near campus.

Every time I promise myself that I will just take an Uber next time I wear a suit. And every time I foolishly try to take the train again — “It’s not that warm,” I tell myself. Wrongly.

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Law School Rankings

Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C.

The recent release of the 2018 U.S. News tax rankings reminded me that it has been about a decade since I first started applying to law schools. (I’m old!)

The most dramatic change in the last 10 years is that law schools started reporting much more accurate employment statistics.

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Daily

Predatory schools, status queens, Lizzo

December 6, 2016

Office Building

Here’s what I’m talking about this morning.

1. Education fraud: Bloomberg has an interesting article about how Silicon Valley coding bootcamps attract students using false / misleading employment and salary statistics, and fail to prepare students for the job market.

Sounds a lot like law school…

Although many of my former classmates are still practicing law, a huge chunk also fell off the face of the earth after graduation (presumably because they didn’t get jobs.)

These students are conveniently never mentioned on school websites or forums, and are forgotten by everyone except for the student loan companies.

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Law

Catch & Release Policing

Dallas Gay Civil Rights March

The Supreme Court issued an extremely disappointing opinion on Monday.

The case is Utah v. Strieff, and the opinion caused all of my former law school friends to collectively lose their damn minds.

My Facebook feed was littered with horrified posts about the court “declaring open season on illegal searches and seizures.”

I read a few articles on the opinion, which seemed so outlandishly wrong that I had to listen to the oral argument and read the opinion myself to verify that this wasn’t being spun.

And sadly, everyone is right – the court basically gave the police an incentive to stop whomever they want, for whatever reason that they want.

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Life / Thomson Reuters

Grad schools bearing gifts

considering grad schools

One day something interesting popped into my inbox.

Among the newsletters and freelance cattle calls was an email from NYU Law School’s Tax LLM program.

It contained a fee voucher.

I was shocked and flattered – tax law was my passion during law school, and NYU’s LLM program is consistently ranked #1 in the country.

A Master of Laws (LLM) degree is a post-law school master’s degree. Tax is one of the few LLM specialties not considered an utter waste of time.

I immediately filled out the LSAC application and strategized how to get recommendation letters from law professors who have long forgotten who I am.

After my initial wave of enthusiasm, I remembered the fraudulent employment stats and starting salaries published by law schools. I also remembered how angry everyone was 2L year when we realized that our school lied to us about our prospects.
After some research into the value of tax LLM programs, I realized that there’s simply not enough reliable information available for me to make an informed decision regarding the purported benefits of an LLM.

What I’m fretting over:

What if I can’t find tax law employment after getting a NYU LLM? Would I just return to Thomson Reuters with $80,000 more in student loans?
What if law firms ignore the LLM degree due to my University of Minnesota degree? An outstanding LLM isn’t going to cut it for a firm looking for an Ivy League Law Review alum.
Even if I get a job at a top Manhattan law firm, would my (supposedly) higher salary overcome the significant opportunity cost of giving up my current corporate career?

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2013 Summer / Life / memories / Thomson Reuters

The Long Hard Road Out of Minneapolis

August 21, 2013

St. Paul Minnesota

The maids came this afternoon to clean my old place.

I left the keys with my neighbors and I’m officially a St. Paul boy now.

It was a full-circle type of moment.

As a kid, I was really into John Grisham. I wanted to be the power-lawyers in his books – working long hours in big cities.

The law degree happened (at a decent school), and so did the long hours (albeit in advertising.) And so did the yuppie lifestyle…

It’s nice to be here, but I decided tonight that this is just another step (rather than an end-point.)

My friend Tyler came over and we rehashed my crazy apartments and exes. We both decided that I’ve come a long way, but I still got some work left to do.

What I didn’t expect is that this ambition thing comes with a permanent sense of unrest. I can barely enjoy achieving goals because I’m already working on the next big thing.

Minneapolis was fun, but I’m too busy in St. Paul to reminiscence properly. These are my first world problems.

2012 Winter / Life / Thomson Reuters

Academic flirtations

January 3, 2013

Book and notebook

About once a year I get this nagging feeling that I should apply for a PhD program.

I ultimately do nothing more than re-read New Kid on the Hallway’s teaching horror stories, and then creep around the Little Professor’s blog for a while.

Getting a doctorate definitely isn’t about money because associate professors at the local public university make roughly what I make now. Tenure also seems like a dying thing, and really, a MBA is the way to go if I was solely interested in money.

Pursuing a PhD would be about the intellectual challenge and being back in a university setting.

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2012 Summer / Law School – 3L / Life / pictures / Tader / Thomson Reuters / unsolicited advice

My 25th Year: Failure, Mess, and Growth

Walking up the stairs

Twenty-five was a very difficult year.

I’m turning 26 in about a month and I’m ending the year on a rather unexpected note. This past year was marked by transitioning from law school life, a failed relationship, my burgeoning corporate career, and being fabulous.

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2011 Winter / Just Sayin / Law School / Marketing / Thomson Reuters

The interview

January 12, 2012

Man in office by Bethany Legg via Unsplash

Part of the reason why I am employed at my company is because I had the dumb luck of being recruited from twitter during my first year of law school.

That random break and the great people I’ve met along the way have allowed me to create a career for myself. That is why I try to recommend my qualified friends for open positions as strongly as I can without being obnoxious.

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blog theory / Law School / Thomson Reuters

The fledgling blogger

December 19, 2011

Apartment with laptop

I just met a student from my old law school at Dunn Brothers. I managed to calm the 1L about her upcoming final. I also gave her some leads about clinics and jobs.

Those who succeeded in law school were either the manic-workhorses or those with solid mentors (or, more likely, a combination of both.) The quick advice from an older student is invaluable and something I found in the form of blogs.

The conversation made me realize that there is a subset of people who view blog authors as ersatz mentors and role models. I was one of these people and definitely relied on bloggers (like her and her and them) for advice and support.

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