November 2012
Cover Story
Getting a Grip on Your Student Debt: Practical Advice for StudentsPart One of Four in a Series by Heather Jarvis With this article, Student Lawyer magazine begins a series of articles by lawyer and student debt expert, Heather Jarvis. The series begins with a look at the fundamentals of student loan borrowing. Future articles will address student loans and taxes (January 2013), a post-graduation timeline and how to make decisions related to loans (March 2013), and how various employment statuses influence which student loan repayment decisions are most beneficial (May 2013).
Featured Articles
Is It Time for a Tutor?
Everyone struggles in something. What if your struggle is unraveling the concept of foreseeability in torts? Or the intricacies of personal jurisdiction in civil procedure? You are not alone—and help is available. Here we discuss when to turn to a professor for one-on-one guidance and when signing on with a tutor would be more beneficial. We also offer tips on recognizing a study roadblock early enough to make a difference in your grade, locating the right tutor, and what to expect to pay for that extra assistance.
Bar Exam Directory
Student Lawyer collected the information in these listings from each state’s bar exam administration office. Note that dates for Arizona, Iowa, and Minnesota have been updated since the printing of this directory.
JOBS
Does your résumé effectively and expertly direct a reader’s focus? Do you make editorial decisions to adjust content and formatting based on who’s receiving the document? Have you made strategic decisions to remove or limit older entries? If you’re answering, “um, no,” you’re likely undercutting your own job search. Your résumé is a key marketing tool and no part of it should be taken for granted. Résumés need to be intentional and relevant.
LEGAL WRITING
Among the least bearable aspects of law school is the relentless bombardment of your intelligence by debased, inept, inert, shapeless, dreary prose. It’s like slow-drip water torture. You subject yourself to cruel and unusual reading in hopes that you’ll sip from the golden J.D. chalice at the end of your ordeal, and perhaps because you’ve assumed (wrongly) you should soon be producing the very same sort of prose yourself. The prose that once so repelled you might then take on a kind of siren-song appeal. It’s an age-old process that repeats itself every three years with each new cohort of fledgling law students.
ADVICE FROM THE INSIDE
This generation of law students includes many kinesthetic-tactile learners. In the simplest of terms, kinesthetic means movement, and tactile means touch. Kinesthetic-tactile students will differ from one another because of the strength and combinations of these two attributes for each individual.
In Session
Law Student Finds Adventure on the Road
CHARIS ORZECHOWSKI took an interesting road to law school, literally. Before attending Rutgers School of Law in Newark, New Jersey, Orzechowski, now a 3L, drove a tractor-trailer for nearly nine years.
I Wish I'd Known
As you increase your legal knowledge and prepare to begin your career, it's important not to lose sight of the fundamentals. And what could be more fundamental than the ABCs? Here are some ABCs I've learned along the way that help guide me. I hope they can be helpful to you as well.
In Brief
Law, review, handwritten notes, and moot court jitters.
SECRET LAWYER
After graduating from George Washington University Law School in 1986, Kyle Zimmer practiced energy law and later served as a legislative advocate. “I love law,” she says. “Legal institutions—if not in reality, then in theory—are wonderfully designed for elevating civilization. I didn’t leave law because I didn’t like it.”
Division Dialogue
Officially Speaking
Officially Speaking
There are few certainties in life; an old saying refers to death and taxes being the only two, but it turns out there are others as well. More on that in a bit.
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