The Career Closet offers gently used professional attire for the students on the Sacramento campus. It gives our students the opportunity to better prepare for the transition into their chosen profession. Whether it be for an interview or your first day on the job, stop by to assemble the perfect outfit that you can keep!

The Career Closet welcomes any professional attire donations in good condition. Questions? Contact Maya Alexandria (malexandria@pacific.edu).

Law students have many opportunities to meet practicing attorneys, judges, and law clerks through various programs and events held throughout the year. It’s a great chance to grow your network and talk to people with years of experience in the field you’re interested in, to find out what it’s really like to practice law outside of a textbook. When planning your career after law school, one of the best things you can do is connect with people who have been doing it for years.

One such event, the ABA’s 23rd annual Judicial Clerkship Program (JCP), was recently held in New Orleans, LA, on February 2-4. The JCP connects law students from diverse backgrounds to judges and law clerks, educating students on the benefits of a judicial clerkship and gives students of color a better chance of being considered for judicial clerkships due to their new-found connections and exposure to judges.

Elena Lucero (’24)

The experience provided more than professional skills but it gave me the opportunity to hear how current federal, state, and administrative judges improved their confidence through clerking. I would encourage every law student to challenge their legal dreams and invest their time in pursuing a judicial clerkship.”

Elena Lucero (’24)

Four McGeorge students – Kristale Chaney (’24), Yuri Khadka (’24), Elena Lucero (’24), and Jules Jallab (’23) – attended this year’s program, learning as much about what it means to be a judicial clerk as they did about themselves and their career goals. Perceived fraudulence, or imposter syndrome, runs rampant in many industries and the legal field is no exception. Many law students feel that they are not qualified to even apply for certain jobs, scholarships, fellowships, or even attendance at certain events. However, as they would learn at every professional workshop or networking opportunity such as the JCP, your career goals are often furthered more by the connections you’ve developed and happenstance than by academic rankings (academic achievement certainly helps, but it is far from the only qualification considered by employers).

Yuri Khadka (’24)

Two of the main takeaways from [the Judicial Clerkship Program] are: 1) You cannot be something you cannot see, and 2) Stop self-selecting yourself out of opportunities.

Yuri Khadka after attending the JCP.

If an opportunity presents itself and you believe there’s even a chance that it can benefit you, don’t be afraid to try! Whether it’s applying for a job or simply tuning into a webinar, take advantage of every opportunity if you’re able.

There are a lot of steps law students must complete on their journey towards bar admission, and it can be a daunting task to try managing everything by yourself. Everyone needs some kind of support system – whether it’s a dedicated study group, a bar-prep course, or just a friend or family member to help keep you motivated.

If you’re looking for answers about how to handle the MPRE, what the Uniform Bar Exam consists of, what exactly you need to do to complete your licensure, or what others experienced during their bar exam, you won’t want to miss AccessLex Institute’s upcoming webinars. There are a variety of info and Q&A sessions in the next few months, so be sure to register for any that appeal to your interests and set yourself up for success! Details for each session are below:

The Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE)
For many students, taking the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) is one of the first steps towards bar admission. Learn about the subject matter eligible for testing on the MPRE, along with important logistical information — when to sit for the exam, how to register, and more. Plus, tips for studying and making your MPRE exam day a success.

Wednesday, January 18 at 3:00 pm ET
Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00 pm ET
Friday, February 24 at 12:00 pm ET

Wednesday, March 1 at 8:00 pm ET
Tuesday, March 7 at 3:00 pm ET
Wednesday, March 22 at 12:00 pm ET

What You Need to Know About the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE)
The overwhelming majority of jurisdictions have adopted the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). This session will cover each component of the UBE, including the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), the Multistate Essay Exam (MEE), and the Multistate Performance Test (MPT).

Wednesday, February 8 at 1:00 pm ET
Monday, March 6 at 12:00 pm ET
Wednesday, April 19 at 12:00 pm ET

The Road to Licensure
Becoming a licensed attorney goes beyond graduating with your J.D. This session will walk you through the steps to licensure and help you find the information you’ll need to meet all of the requirements for your specific jurisdiction.

Tuesday, January 24 at 3:00 pm ET
Thursday, February 9 at 8:00 pm ET
Thursday, February 23 at 1:00 pm ET

Tuesday, March 21 at 8:00 pm ET
Wednesday, April 12 at 12:00 pm ET

5 Tips for Bar Exam Success
Stressed about your upcoming bar exam? Have questions about what the bar exam experience will be like? Join our team of licensed attorneys as they share some of their best tips, answer your questions, and help set you up for success.

Thursday, March 2 at 8:00 pm ET
Tuesday, April 4 at 3:00 pm ET
Wednesday, April 26 at 5:00 pm ET

With the fall semester behind us and spring semester kicking off this week, it’s a good time to reflect on your experience so far and focus on how to make this semester a successful one. Here are three easy tips to make the most of your spring:

  • What worked well?

Looking back at the previous semester, you’ve likely been through some great high points – maybe you aced an exam, paper, or oral argument you’d been anxious about. How did you achieve that success? Was it due to extensive preparation, last-minute cramming, or some combination of the two? Did you take advantage of study groups or drop-in hours with your professor? Think about the things that helped you succeed and work on further developing those strategies.

  • What didn’t work well?

While you may want to move on and forget about the hard times, there are valuable lessons to be learned from those experiences. Sometimes the study methods that worked in college are no longer effective in law school, or maybe you spent weeks writing a paper and the results were less than ideal. Law school is difficult, and everyone will face issues, but the fact that you are here means you’re capable of overcoming the obstacles it puts in front of you. Analyze what didn’t go according to plan and think about how you can change things this semester.

  • What are your goals for spring and summer?

If you hadn’t spent some time during the winter break coming up with a few goals for spring semester, now is the time to do so. It can be something definite and measurable (“earn an A on a Criminal Law exam”; “finish the year with a B+ average”; etc.) or something simpler like joining a study group. Anything that will aid you in your law school journey is a worthwhile goal. You should also start planning your summer – are you going to intern somewhere? Apply for a summer fellowship? Maybe you want to join the Trial Ad team next year and need to start preparing for that; or just take some time to decompress and re-assess some of the choices you made in law school and how to address any issues. There’s no right or wrong answer, but keep in mind that whatever you choose to do (or not) will have an affect on the remainder of your time in law school.

With a little self-reflection, you can make this spring semester work for you and your career goals.

Prisoner protest

As countries around the world continue to grapple with inadequate prison conditions, law students in the U.S. have become fierce advocates for incarcerated individuals. Fighting systemic injustices, these students have fought to improve living conditions, provide medical treatment, and reduce practices such as solitary confinement in prisons, among many other issues facing some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens. If you are interested in working with an organization to defend prisoner civil rights, there are many opportunities for the coming 2023 summer.

UCLA School of Law recently compiled a list of summer opportunities for current law students, both paid and unpaid. With positions available across the country, opportunities abound wherever you will be spending the summer. Make sure you apply early as these roles are sure to be filled quickly, and schedule an appointment with a CSO advisor to review your application materials!

2023 Peggy Browning Fund  header

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a radical shift in the expectations held by workers regarding the offerings from their employers. Where employees were once resigned to following orders blindly and accepting that what the employer wants is set in stone, there is now a sense that workers can enact change to create a workplace that serves the needs of both the employee and the employer. This shift has not always ended amenably, however – look no further than the current situation at Twitter.

Despite the growing empowerment of the working class, there is still a dire need for others who can stand up for them when an employer refuses to consider change.

If you’re a 1L or 2L and are interested in being an advocate for workers’ rights and workplace justice, we strongly encourage you to apply for the 2023 Peggy Browning Fund Summer Fellowship Program. This is a great opportunity to learn the ins and outs of workers’ rights under the mentorship of practicing labor law attorneys.

Applications are due no later than Friday, January 13, 2023 and offers will start to be made on a rolling basis on Saturday, December 10, so be sure to get your application submitted ASAP! You can read more about the specific fellowship opportunities and application requirements on PBF’s website.

The McGeorge Alternative Summer Advantage Program (“McGeorge ASAP”) is a self-directed volunteer summer legal research project created by alum Lexi Purich Howard and former Asst. Dean of Career Development Molly Stafford in response to COVID-19.  Today, the program provides students with a means of fine-tuning their research and writing skills while discussing a subject they are passionate about. This week’s ASAP paper was authored by Matt Carlson (3L, 2024) under the mentorship of Bianca Samuel (’11), Deputy Attorney General III, Employment & Administrative Mandate Section, Investigations Group.

“In an attempt to screen police candidates and prevent unfit candidates from service, Assemblymembers Jacqui Irwin and Luz Rivas co-sponsored California Assembly Bill 2229, which reenacts the bias requirement training in Government Code Section 1031 related to peace officer minimum standards. The following article provides a background to essential peace officer minimum standards, the history of targeted racial bias reform, failed attempts at overhauling minimum standards, and an overhaul of bias evaluation requirements.”

Read the full paper here.

In an effort to address the need for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession, the Sacramento Legal Employers Diversity Collective and McGeorge School of Law have partnered to build a more inclusive pathway to law school. This partnership utilizes a four-pronged approach to tackle the lack of diversity in legal employment:

  • Pathways Program – bringing middle and high school students to McGeorge’s campus and sending attorneys to local schools to talk about the legal profession.
  • Mentoring – pairing diverse attorneys with mentors at a different employer and from similar backgrounds.
  • Recruitment & Retention – giving employers constructive space to share information on what is and is not working to recruit and retain diverse employees. Ongoing events and trainings will be held with employers, as well.
  • DEI Skills Identification – surveying employers for DEI skills they want to see in new hires. Using the results, McGeorge will retool its curriculum to ensure students graduate with the desired skills.

To further the impact of these efforts, the Diversity Collective has researched various DEI resources and compiled them for employers to reference as they review their own policies and procedures.

In the first of a series of summaries and recommendations drafted by the Diversity Collective and scheduled for release over the next several months, legal employers are encouraged to conduct an in-depth review of the National Association for Law Placement’s (NALP) Diversity Best Practices Guide.

For future summary recommendations and news from the Diversity Collective and McGeorge’s partnership, keep an eye on McGeorge @ Work.

Robert Rodriguez, class of 2024

The McGeorge Alternative Summer Advantage Program (“McGeorge ASAP”) is a self-directed volunteer summer legal research project created by alum Lexi Purich Howard and former Asst. Dean of Career Development Molly Stafford in response to COVID-19.  Today, the program provides students with a means of fine-tuning their research and writing skills while discussing a subject they are passionate about. This week’s ASAP paper was authored by Robert Rodriguez (2L, 2024) under the mentorship of Carmen-Nicole Cox (’11), Chief Counsel of Public Policy and Advocacy at United Way California Capital Region and an adjunct professor of Race, Mass Incarceration, & Criminal Justice Reform at McGeorge.

“Likely frustrated with a lack of accountability in criminal court, 66% of Americans believe that citizens need to have the power to sue police officers for using excessive force. Contrary to this sentiment, instances of police brutality have not increased significantly. However, the availability of phones with recording capability has increased significantly, exposing the misconduct by law enforcement to a world audience with the tap of a screen. With confidence in law enforcement to act in the public’s best interest on the decline among American citizens, civil suits are a citizen’s last line of defense. Under federal law, a person has the power to bring a civil suit against the law enforcement officer that deprived that citizen’s constitutional rights with a section 1983 civil action. In California, residents have the choice of a Tom Bane Act civil action, as well as the § 1983 civil action. Both actions can be used to compensate a victim in the form of compensatory damages, punitive damages, and/or an injunction to attempt to ensure similar future incidents of constitutional deprivations do not occur.”

Read the full article here.

Robert Bell, class of 2024

The McGeorge Alternative Summer Advantage Program (“McGeorge ASAP”) is a self-directed volunteer summer legal research project created by alum Lexi Purich Howard and former Asst. Dean of Career Development Molly Stafford in response to COVID-19.  Today, the program provides students with a means of fine-tuning their research and writing skills while discussing a subject they are passionate about. This week’s ASAP paper was authored by Robert Bell (2L, 2024) under the mentorship of Colin Hendricks (’12), Senior Attorney at California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

“California is in dire need of an upheaval of the water management systems that have been in use since the 1800’s. However, is building a new reservoir something that the state should be putting forward at this moment? With record low water levels, what is the point in having another site of dry lakebed with no water in it? How do we handle the drought right now and future droughts that will affect California for year to come? The answer is not quite so simple and of course comes with many projects working in tandem, one of which could be the Sites Reservoir.”

Read the full article here.