Dear NLD,
It was so wonderful to see many of you in person at the NLD/SDCBA Summer Social last month! What a great way to kick off the rest of our in-person events coming up in 2021, including our outdoor Oktoberfest BBQ that will take place next month. Be sure to look out for details on the Oktoberfest BBQ as well as an in-person networking event coming up later this year.
NLD’s annual Court Practice Series is already off to a successful start, with a well-attended virtual seminar on appellate law that took place last month. In case you missed the event, you can read our NLD Event Recap in the current For the Record edition. You can also register now for our October 20 Court Practice Series free seminar on bankruptcy law.
Before you leave this page, please take a moment to complete our survey on in-office versus remote work, so that we can report on the new lawyer experience in an upcoming edition of For the Record. And for a student perspective on returning for in-person classes this fall, check out USD law student Kelsie Russell’s article in the current edition.
This month’s NLD Member Spotlight features Abril Perez, whose Latina roots fuel her passion for providing pro bono immigration law services as a special project staff attorney with Casa Cornelia Law Center. You can also learn about the newly formed San Diego Latino Judges Association in an article written by Rafael Hurtado, past-president of the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association.
And lastly, a message to the NLD community about self-acceptance and longevity in the ever-demanding legal profession. Even with our workplaces seemingly returning closer to “normal,” our profession continues to have a fast pace, high demands, and a way of bringing our innate perfectionism out of us, not always in the healthiest of ways. Our innate drive to succeed is what got us to where we are today, as law students and lawyers who are in the privileged position of being able to further justice utilizing the law. For that, we have everything to thank. But among the many ingredients necessary to being a good lawyer, endurance cannot be understated, and this can require us to temper the high expectations we set for ourselves with self-acceptance, self-forgiveness, and a look at the bigger picture. (Even when writing this passage, I found myself needing to keep in check the pressure I was putting on myself to articulate these thoughts “perfectly.”)
We can all benefit from a reminder that constructive feedback from a professor or supervisor does not mean that we “failed”; that one email, brief, or even trial does not define our careers; that for whatever tasks were not completed today, there are more hours in the day tomorrow; that mistakes happen even when we’ve done the best we could; and that lack of experience is all part of being new to the profession. We can also take comfort in belonging to the NLD community of new lawyers and law students who are all going through this shared experience together.
Be sure to stay connected with the NLD through LinkedIn and Facebook, and know that you can always use us as a resource (our contact information can be found here). We look forward to seeing you at our future events!
Sincerely,
Sara Gold,
Editor-in-Chief