From the Blawgernacle – August 12, 2009
Natalie B. from By Common Consent had a short but interesting post up this week on how young couples going to school will frequently say, “We are going to law school,” even though only one of them is actually going to school. Obviously, this doesn’t just apply to law school, but I’ve heard it a lot from law students and their spouses. The post provoked plenty of responses in the comment thread. Some people thought this was absurd, but others thought it made sense since grad school is often a common enterprise requiring sacrifice and often relocation from both spouses. My opinions tend to favor the latter position, although it probably would be simpler to say, “We’re here for law school.”
Hot on the heels of Natalie’s post, Karen H. of BCC mentioned that when she was younger she wanted to live in Northern Virginia and be married to an attorney that practiced international law. Instead, she ended up doing all that herself, living in Northern Virginia and working in international criminal law. Karen’s post deals in part with the expectations and goals of young women in the Church, but her story will likely ring true for many attorneys. Many of us never anticipated working in our current practice areas, or in the legal profession in general. I actually view this as one of the strengths of a legal practice: law degrees are relatively portable, and you can always transition to another area.
This last one isn’t exactly from the Bloggernacle, much less the Blawgernacle, but the LDS Church News had an interesting article on BYU Law School’s international internship programs. I was surprised to learn that a whopping 47 first year students from BYU Law did international externships this summer—that’s almost a third of the 1L class. It makes sense in some ways, since most BYU Law students are former Mormon missionaries with experience living abroad and a high degree of foreign language fluency.
