Laws and Found

One harsh reality that every law student learns very quickly usually the hard way is that  running out of time is a constant hazard . When exam week approaches and the syllabus looks like an impossible mountain of jurisprudence, time seems to shift into fast-forward. Knowing how to triage your workload under pressure can easily make or break your chances of surviving the semester. Full disclosure: I wasn’t a consistent honor student all throughout my years in law school (except for a brief, highly motivated "trying to impress myself" phase during freshman year). Take these tips with a realistic, battle-tested grain of salt from someone who has pulled enough all-nighters to know what actually works. The Emergency Law Exam Cramming Strategy When your back is against the wall and the exam is just days away, linear reading goes out the window. Here is the strict triage method I used to make every minute count: 1. Prioritize Law Codals (The Non-Negotiables) When time is scarce,...

Golden Lady, Bruges Belgium by Emmanuel Huybrechts from Laval, Canada  [ CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons ] Contemplating on what you can do after graduating from law or after passing the bar exams? Here is a list of possible career options you might wanna look into to further your expertise and get integrated into the legal profession. Law Firm For any lawyer worth his salt, most of the people I know who passed the bar or waiting for bar results are already working in a law firms or join private law firms as a junior associate. It is the most common route for new bar passers.  The work is cut out for you as you become part of the legal team of the firm. It is a career path that requires long hours and lots of room for building your craft as a lawyer.  If you seek this career option, brace yourself but at the end of it - meaning after years of hard work you could look forward to that plum senior partner post. Corporate lawyer Many lawyers join the c...

Coz you gotta look good while studying :P Hola! So, it is bar exams months once again.  Hurray for those taking the bar this year 2016! I salute you guys. As for me, no, I'm not one of the barristers yet.  I just hurdled a beauty pageant, thank you. Kidding aside, the bar exams is a baptism of hellfire, and I am not ready to take it this year.  I would often tell myself that I would need to have a million in my bank account first before I take the bar. Why? Seriously, taking the bar is no laughing matter.  It requires preparedness in mind, heart, soul and body altogether.  Anything less will just not do.  For me, I need serious breaks, my goodness what will happen if you breakdown due to too much stress.  I have a high level of stress tolerance mind-wise but my physical state might betray me. I am talking about falling hair, major skin breakouts,  patchy skin, delayed periods and all kinds of unimaginable physically-damaging horrors t...

 If you are keen on surviving law school but still undecided on what to make of your nightlife, here are a few tips from Laws and Found Blog to make that decision for you less painful. First things first,  I guarantee you an abundance of (over)night kind of life for the next four or five years, and a you get to spend with books! 1.   Find a middle ground If you cannot give up the 'partying 'til the sun comes up' kind of life, you may opt to reduce the frequency to say once a month or once every two months.  Don't worry dear,  the receptionist at your favorite club, or bar won't forget you despite the absence.  See,  now you will have a different level of nightlife, one spend in complete silence as you pore over them codals, cases and voluminous books. 2.   Seriously,  you will benefit from not spending a night out.   It's a win-win situation.  Your weekends well be less stress-inducing, you get to have a good night's sleep to...

Taking summer classes in law school is no joke.  Indeed for some, there is not much of a choice. Here are few survival tips, culled from my very exciting, first-hand experience way back when I was in the same predicament. 1.   Forget social media. In general, if you are a law student, you are not supposed to waste time on social media.  I did try (and still try)  to deactivate my FB a few dozen times but notifications from the class and school-related assignments are via FB groups, so ugh.  Just minimize time you spend on social media to at least 5 minutes per day,  not per hour okay? 2.   Forget your significant other (SO). Just take a leave from your relationship, it will only be for a month by the way.  Your significant other (SO) will not miss you, promise.  I am sure the SO will enjoy this much needed break from you.  No more pleading and negotiating for a date night for over a month, what a relief! 3.  Forget house...

Haunting coffee shops As a law student, you quickly realize you are bound to read an astronomical number of cases. Some are deeply fascinating, some are utterly bizarre, and quite a few are genuinely horrifying (trust me, grueling criminal law cases can give anyone nightmares). During my earlier years in law school, I used to dread the classes and the particularly ruthless professors who would assign anywhere from  20 to 30 cases per session . On a heavy semester multiplied across multiple subjects, that easily translates to nearly 100 cases a day! If you're drowning in case assignments right now, here is how I shifted my mindset, ditched tedious written digests, and survived law school with my sanity intact. 1. Shift Your Perspective: Treat Cases Like "Legal Chismis" At some point, I realized that looking at case reading as a form of psychological torture was making it worse. I forcefully convinced myself to look forward to it. How? By treating court decisions the exa...

All by ma self! #gym Originally published: April 2014 | Last updated: October 13, 2026 Hey, it's summer in the Philippines! This is the time of the year when I ought to be spending my days in a hammock by some perfect beach. But WAIT! I haven't blogged for year, or was it, errr, weeks? That can only mean one thing: my life has been so exciting that I didn't find time to sit down and write something. Well, let's just leave it at that, ahem. Let me just update you on some harmless happenings from the past weeks. Oftentimes, I forget I am a blogger. Law School & Late Nights What have I been busy with? School, what else is new? I took the partying part up a higher notch and even went out on some weekdays - so much for being a good law student, eh? I know, right? As I always say, life is short, baby, so let's make each and every moment count. The rule before was that I had to do schoolwork on weekdays then party two nights on weekends. I am quite sure that this...

Pre-exam week night out with my best party buddy (Photo credits: Prive Luxury Club, BGC) Hey fellas, it is exams week in law school again and the best way I deal with it?  Of course, I party on the pre-week!  Well, you cannot cram half a semester's worth of readings a week before your exams right? Just kidding. In reality,  the best way to deal with exams is to study and read every single day.  That way, come pre-exams week, all you need to do is just go over your outline, read the law,  visit your digests and voila, you are all set.  So yes, I do party sometimes but I have not been remiss in my reading responsibilities.  Always finish the dirty before partying, of course! I know this seems easier said than done, especially if you skip a lot of daily readings.  The trick is, you should never, ever skip your daily reading quota.  Even when there are days I don't get to attend some of my classes due to some emergency, I still a...

From a distance, this is how my blogging future looks like I am currently sitting in my room contemplating (and wasting time) on whether I should spend another sleepless night reading for my weekend class or instead come up with a decent blogpost today.   Believe me,  I have more than enough drafts to update this blog for two (2) weeks.  However, I am also at a loss as to what is next for my blogging projects. As you may well see,  I have always tried to limit my posts to law school, case digests, simple forms and similarly related stuff.  Lately however,  I spawned interests which may not be appropriate to post in this blog.  Anyways, these and a lot of other issues have to be thresh out on days that I have ample time to dilly dally. Did you know that I have over 10 other blogs apart from this one?  I dare not link them here because most of them have not been updated for months.  Since the start of the school year, I have been inac...

I've been lost (but not confused) these past weeks.  Lost under the weight of my readings and case backlogs, that is. Lost and sleepless.   Hey,  it has been 2 months of fabulous school time when my routine is basically school-house-and-school-house interrupted by a night out during the weekend. Well, I have to have that last one, otherwise I would have succumbed to burnout out so easily. Many times I forget what is a definition of a 'bed'.  Is that a new contraption that I haven't heard about? What does it do?  You have to remind me how good it feels to sleep in a regular bed, not in my car, not slumped down in my study chair or tryin' to steal a few winks while I am waiting for something or someone. Being lost is bad  You have be lost in something whether it be your studies,  your work, your life, or even with love cause that's how you know you are still alive.   That's how you know,  you are on the right track.  Whatever I do, ...

Hello second sem!  I had an awesome week! School is open and of course I love going back to my books. I love the smell of new books, too bad the prices have double too! Oh well, one day I can see myself publishing my own law book,  watch out for that! On another note, I can feel a struggle going on.  Since I have to be on track on my fitness regimen (Fit Mob blog), some days I find it difficult to do things when I have not done my workout for the day! I would often sleep early and wake up early because I find it really easier to read when the world is sound asleep (in my location at least). Then at around the 3am or 4am I start doing my fitness routine before everyone else wakes up or before the sun rises.  There is something primal and addicting about these hours and though it may seem weird  (but I like weird),  I love it! So that seemed to work for the past week and I hope to keep it up with a few modifications to accommodate be school comm...

Studying in a law school of your own choosing is often not a choice given to many law students.  I took 4 exams in 4 different law schools.  The first one was with my undergrad university but unfortunately I did not make the cut.  Then I took the exam at a sectarian university,  I made the cut and was allowed to enroll bypassing the interview but I did not push through with my enrollment there. The third is another sectarian law school which honestly was not my own choice but my boyfriend's. It is where I spent a considerable amount of time before I got to my current school which brings me to this discussion The school that I am currently in is one that I am truly proud of for these apparent and unusual reasons: 1.  I choose it. Yes, that is definitely one major important dealbreaker for me.  I chose my school and nobody did manhandle me to enrol there.   In my past life, I have been a very obedient and agreeable person and I often do not hav...