Pearls & Politics

Jessica Fabiszak

May 2011

Congrats! Hopefully at this stage of the game you are on your way to finalizing your summer plans. Whether it be taking classes trying to score extra credits, studying abroad to broaden your perspective of the law, or working that “dream job”, try not to forget that wherever you venture to this summer, you are still representing Valparaiso Law School. With that being said, your representation includes the two “A’s”:  your Actions and your Appearance.

                Dean Adams instills upon all of us how important it is to remember that you, as a law student of Valparaiso University, shall carry yourself in a reputable manner. Whether you are 21 or 81 years old, it is not appropriate to go out on a weekend guzzling down shots or beer reaching  a state where you cannot even remember your first name. Have fun, but in a moderation that both your peers, professors, current and future employers would find reasonable. The way you act this summer can deeply impact your future. News spreads like wild fire and a simple call or text can harm your sitting for the bar. Instead of studying for the exam, you are faced with having to explain yourself in front of a panel about your character and fitness. After putting in thousands of hours studying and either finishing your first year or your third year, one opportunity of a blackout party is not worth the repercussions that may occur afterwards. When faced with a difficulty this summer, use the SMART analysis: Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time bound. By examining the situation you are faced with, any or all of these factors may lead you to realize whether what you are about to do at that moment is either worth the results or not.

                The ABA Journal recently released an article entitled, “BigLaw Email Bans Short Skirts and Stiletto Heels, Asks Women to Please Brush Their Hair”. No matter how hard to try to fish around the issue, appearance is EVERYTHING! Men, I am talking to you as well. While stilettos and miniskirts may be appropriate for a night dancing downtown and sweatpants and backwards baseball caps appropriate for the law library, none of these articles of clothing should think about entering an office of an employer. When digging deep into the article, the author Martha Neil discusses that when picking out your clothing for a job interview or a day at the office, all it takes is a bit of common sense. Further she says employers want their client’s to remember exactly what their employee is telling them, NOT to remember how they dressed. Do not lose your sense of individuality when you dress in the morning but do be considerate of the environment you are entering. This includes job interviews, days at the office, to cocktail parties and drinks with boss after work. Once someone takes you under their wing, paying or not paying you this summer, you become a marketable representation of that employer.

                So as you head out this summer to do a bit of shopping for that new employer that luckily hired you, take the time to differentiate between clothing appropriate for spending time with your friends and clothing appropriate for an employer. Actions and appearance go hand in hand. You may be the best dressed employee, but four whiskey shots later may completely disregard that effort and vice-versa. The resources are endless on where to get tips about what is and is not appropriate both on how to act and appear. Have a great summer but remember that just because you may not be studying everyday at Valparaiso’s Law School does NOT mean that Valparaiso’s Law School is not still with you. The school’s reputation is attached with you so treat it well this summer!

Pearls and Politics: April 2011—Jessica Fabiszak

One year ago around this time, I was a bit of a mess. I knew I wanted to go to law school, but for some reason school applications were out of my control. Now a year later as a 1L, I still struggle with lack of control on my applications. The question I am constantly wrapping my mind around is what should I do this summer? As summer quickly approaches, whispers surround the law school regarding internships, externships, paid jobs, unpaid jobs, pro-bono hour requirements, study abroad, summer school, and the list continues for miles. So what should we do as law students? There are two routes that I see we can take.

                The first is the “law school and future employers’ expectation” route. This entails planning your summer around what future employers will find striking about your resume versus the hundreds of others that may end up in their inbox or on their desk. To get on this track, it is all about seeking the summer plan that will gain you the most “legal experience and legal knowledge” that you can soak up in the three months you have off this summer. Whether it be trying to compete for that summer job at the corporate firm or working with your county’s courthouse, you seek experience to develop your research, writing, and social skills. Personally, I HATE this route because it seems like even the employers that I have interviewed with can see right through the phony interview answers for why one is applying for their position.

                The second is the “ditch the resume and seek something where your passions lay” route. After years of our parents, teachers, and mentors telling us that we need to find the place in this world that will make us happiest, we sometimes forget that piece of advice. A leadership study I did in college taught me that “95% of our emotions are determined by how you interpret events to yourself.”  Think about it, if you plan your summer by keeping a positive attitude, you will succeed in finding something that can qualify as both resume building in being beneficial to your legal education and your well being. Now some of the jobs listed above may fall in this route for you, if it does, congrats! The goal here is to find the area that allows you to experiment with the qualifications you can bring to an employer while doing something that interests you. This route results in leaving you sane and happy this summer which in turn impacts how your employer evaluates you as a colleague they would look forward to again working with.

                The lesson to remember is that old quote regarding how “if you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing then success will be yours for the taking”.  For alumni reading, please remember when interviewing us that we are just getting into the profession. When you ask us questions “why do you want to work here?”—what do you expect to get in response? We are going to tell you what you want to hear because it is the expectation. On the other hand, if you ask us personally “what we feel we could benefit or add to your workplace?”, the statistics are in your favor of getting a more genuine answer. So here is to summer plans for everyone; best of luck to your upcoming interviews and applications. Try not to forget that life is too short to put all your eggs in the basket that will be ‘best for your resume’.  Seek out opportunities where your passion lies because when you love what you are doing, you are going to take full pleasure in committing yourself entirely to that line of work.

And so it began. A restless night of me tossing and turning in bed. It was the very indication that a new semester of law school was quickly approaching. My mind wandered with what was to come in this new year of 2011. All I could think of was a single word. . . “Serendipitous”. Yes, I realize serendipitous is not a real word. But who cares?!? I’ll bring it up with Mr. Webster another day.

                My new adjective signals more than a false sense of surprise—it signals opportunity. Opportunity to recognize what is happening right now in your own life and how you are reacting because of it. The very nature of your reaction will decipher how 2011 will play out for you this year.

                Serendipity, according to Mr. Webster, is “an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident”.  To me, the act of being “serendipitous” is to freely accept the opportunities in your life that come by way of those accidents. Accept them without questioning why or for what reason they are present. Rather, seize the moment and chance that was brought to you. For instance, yes, the big semester grades were recently released. Knowing that you worked hard should trump any, if not all, of the anxiety of grades maybe not turning out exactly how you wanted. Will anyone really care what your grades are in 10 years? I doubt it! So, in another sense, carpe diem! Seize the day for what it is worth to you and be happy that you made it through finals.

 With the stroke of midnight of 2010, here commences a new year. Last year, my resolution was to “be present”. Life experiences that I never thought possible came into my hands, including attending Valparaiso School of Law. If I had not been frustrated with law school applications, I may have never checked my old emails to have found one from Valparaiso.  Applying to Valparaiso for me was a ‘desirable discovery by accident’. An accident in which I could not be more thrilled for it to have happened.

Now comes that crazy question. Can we relieve some of the control that surrounds our lives and let fate, destiny, or even spontaneity run our decisions? My new year’s goal of 2011 is just that. This year, I’m all about 2011 being the year to “take chances”. Our lives are filled with risks and challenges waiting to be discovered. Our own little angel on our right shoulder and little devil on the other are our constant reminders of the pros and cons of decisions we face every day. Forget about those little guys once in a while! Begin to write a bucket list for the new year and start checking things off it. Go learn a new talent, study for that extra hour, work out a little harder—whatever it may be that are your personal aspirations. Most of all let those accidental discoveries pave the way for a new you as you achieve them.  My challenge to you: be serendipitous! Let fate exert control over what is to happen next for you. Be a victim of life’s spontaneous occurrences. Rather than fear challenge. . be ready to accept it! Best of luck!

A fellow 1L submitted this article to me to give in response to an “interview” from December. They wanted to know if you would place it in the paper? Thanks! PLEASE DO NOT use my name as the author since I am not the one who wrote it. The author wants to remain nameless.

Like Aretha Said: Just a Little Respect

Did it happen that fast?  Did we all forget that first week here?  Orientation: it seems like yesterday, and yet it seems so many of us have forgotten the principles that we learned in that first week.  I myself have to admit, I thought Dean Adams was crazy, and I remember thinking that if he mentioned professionalism one more time I might be compelled to knock him upside the head.  But as with many things law school; the logic of why we do what we do, did not reveal itself until much later.  I can now see why Dean Adams chose to drive that point home…over….and over…and over again.

Because it’s important, because it matters, and probably because he knew we’d forget.

That first week in school we talked about professionalism and how important it is to carry yourself in a way that you would want people to remember you.  We talked about how important it is to treat your fellow classmates with respect because not only are these the people that you will have to spend the next three years of your life with but these are the people who you will meet over and over again in the work place.  These are the people who you are going to work with, work for, work around.  As a group of intelligent twenty-somethings we all shook our heads and said, “yeah, that makes sense, we get it.”  And then we talked about it some more, and some more, and some more, ad nauseam.  And yet somehow it has happened that we have forgotten these principles in a matter of only four months.  To me, that is disappointing.  I’m disappointed in myself, and I’m disappointed in my fellow 1L classmates.

I’m not so naïve as to think that as an entire 1 L class we should be one great big happy family.  I realize that with people from all over the country, all over the world actually, we all hold different values, different beliefs, and different opinions.  Of course, at times those beliefs and opinions are going to clash but I do think that what we can ALWAYS do is respect one another’s ideas, beliefs, and opinions.  The way we hold ourselves is not only a reflection of our individual self but also a representation of our class as a whole.  Recently one of our 1L classmates was interviewed for a student profile in the newspaper and upon reading the interview with some classmates we were all shocked and embarrassed.  Shocked, that it was printed and embarrassed that one of our fellow classmates didn’t pause for a moment to think how making offensive jokes about Helen Keller (arguably one of the greatest examples of what it means to triumph over adversity) and using profanity that degrades women would make our entire class look.  No one is going to stop anyone from holding whatever beliefs they may but I think as a class we need to be more careful about how we broadcast ourselves.  As Dean Adam’s  pointed out, these three years are like one long interview, because these people aren’t just what you’re up against, they’re what you have to work with too.

Let’s not be the 1L class who cannot and will not broaden their minds enough to focus on the issues that really matter but instead sits idly in the atrium tearing one another down.  Let’s focus on being the 1L class that builds one another up, or at the very least respects one another’s ideas and belief systems.  As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”  Enough with the hurtful gossip 1Ls, let’s be better than that, let’s not be the class of 1Ls that some of us are beginning to be ashamed to be a part of.  Let’s be the 1L class of great minds.   I believe we have the potential, it’s a new year, let’s get back to professionalism, like Aretha said, “just a little respect.”