1L Summer Week 9: One Way That Diversity Matters

I have a pretty good example this week of why you should do what you want to do in college, instead of doing what you think will make you a better candidate for law school. First, because doing what you want to do will make you a better candidate for law school. But we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to talk about video editing.

This week marked the 20th anniversary of the IRS’s Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC). To celebrate, they threw an absolute rager. There were keg stands, lines for the bathroom, lines in the bathroom, half of Cirque du Soleil showed up drunk and in a mood to show off, and Tobey Maguire kept challenging people to play poker until he was mauled by Zazie Beetz who came in full-on Domino formation and wasn’t taking prisoners.

Well, I mean, sort of. 

I mean, I guess if I’m being perfectly honest, not all of that happened.

But one thing undeniably did; the IRS asked firms across the country that have participated in their LITC to send in short videos to commemorate the anniversary. My firm sent one in.

Initially, my supervising attorney was just going to have the receptionist walk around behind her with her phone, I think. I suggested that I might be able to help.

And I’m not, like, awesome at videography, but I have done quite a whole lot of editing, and that helped me think through some ways to do the shooting so that the editing afterward would be easier, and so I shot and edited the video.

It turned out pretty nice! (For, uh, a video commemorating the 20th anniversary of the IRS’s Low Income Taxpayer Clinic. I’m not saying Ryan Coogler has anything to worry about from me).

And the point is that it was a nicer video than it would have been otherwise, because I brought that little bit of skill that nobody else at the firm had. 

And you’ve got something like that, too. You’ve got some thing that you’re good at, or at least better at than most attorneys. And if you nourish that skill and think about how it might play into your firm life (like, it’s very probable that whatever you’re good at won’t come so directly into play at the firm. Probably the partner in your section won’t need to rappel down the side of the building, so your climbing skills might not be a head-on bonus. But! Maybe you’ve thought about how some cam buckles are better than others for a climber, and maybe the advantage that the better buckles have is kind of like the advantage that your client’s product has over their main competition, and maybe you can help your firm protect that competitive advantage in some way), then you may be able to bring your skill to bear, impress your bosses, make everybody’s life better, and save the world.

Well, I mean, sort of.

Next week I’ll wrap up my summer job experience, kind of like my wrap-up of my 1L year. I’ll list the work I’ve done and share any parting thoughts.

See you then.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Post them below, or shoot me an email.

Be good to one another, for we need it now more than ever,

d

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