Author: cdtalaw

California Baby Bar Results Are Here

California Baby Bar Results Are On The Way

The State Bar of California released the results of the California First-Year Law Examination, more commonly known as the Baby Bar, on August 6th. If you are a law student at The California Desert Trial Academy, College of Law (CDTA), you most likely celebrated a passing score on this date. CDTA provides a complimentary, comprehensive Baby Bar Review Course from the Master of the Baby Bar, Jeff Fleming. Fleming’s Fundamentals of Law partners with CDTA to provide an intensive review course and boot camp to fully prepare you for the exam.  CDTA also provides the AdaptiBar Multi-State review, included with your...

Continue reading

Doing Pro Bono Work As A New Attorney

As an attorney, doing pro bono work may be exceedingly rewarding. Helping those in dire need of legal services who otherwise might not have solved their problems or reversed their misfortunes without your assistance, may provide you with the most precious memories of your legal practice many years from now. In addition to helping those who are less fortunate, pro bono work allows attorneys, especially younger attorneys, an excellent opportunity to develop new skills. These skills include the hard skills – learning the substantive law - and the soft skills, those interpersonal skills that allow you to work effectively within the...

Continue reading

Supreme Court Amends Rule Of Professional Conduct Related To Competence

Supreme Court Amends Rule Of Professional Conduct Related To Competence

The California Supreme Court approved the amendment of Rule 1.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct. The new version of the Rule went into effect on March 22, 2021. The new version of the Rule contains a new Comment providing that a lawyer’s duty of competence encompasses a duty to keep abreast of the changes in the law and law practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology. The Rule reads as follows: Rule 1.1 Competence (a) A lawyer shall not intentionally, recklessly, with gross negligence, or repeatedly fail to perform legal services with competence. (b) For purposes of this...

Continue reading

Top Five Legal Internships

Top Five Legal Internships

Legal internships provide law students with the opportunity to broaden many facets of their “legal personalities.” Internships help students increase their knowledge of the substantive areas of the law while participating in the environment of a real law practice. Interns also make valuable contacts that may provide useful later in practice. While some internships compensate participants, many do not. Nonetheless, many internship programs allow students to earn school credit. Many of the larger law firms base internship hiring decisions on superior academic performance and skills related to research and writing, thus, law review experience is typically very helpful. Here is a...

Continue reading

Some Information Related To The California Bar

Some Information Related To The California Bar

The July California Bar The next California Bar Exam takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 27–28, 2021. Applicants can begin the exam once the first session password is released, but no later than 8:30 a.m. on each day. The exam is scheduled to conclude on Tuesday at approximately 6:30 p.m. and on Wednesday at approximately 5:00 p.m. The instructions for exam day will be posted in advance in a YouTube link on a California State Bar webpage. Applicants may watch these instructions at any time before the exam begins. It is recommended that applicants review the schedule of password delivery as well as the...

Continue reading

Summer Law Jobs 101

Summer Law Jobs 101

For law students, it is hard enough to get a good summer law job, whether at a private firm or public agency. Once this is achieved, the elation is immediately tempered with a stark fear of failure. You experience the realization that you will soon be making the transition from student to lawyer, albeit in a limited sense. Once you have a summer job at a firm, how can you ensure that the people who hired you will be satisfied with your performance and, more importantly, remember you as a worthy candidate for an associate’s job in the future? *Always exercise...

Continue reading

Things Every Law Student Should Do Over The Summer

Things Every Law Student Should Do Over The Summer

For law students, “summer vacation” typically means only one thing - work. Law students shift their focus from studying and school to working and employment. This job may be in the form of an internship or clerkship. A summer legal job provides an excellent, if not the best, opportunity for a law student to apply basic lawyering skills and gain real, practical experience. However, work should never consume any law student’s summer. These hot months also provide a chance to recharge for the following school year. The following are some things every law student should do during the summer. Focus Most law students work...

Continue reading

Maintaining Your Focus as A Law Student: Finding A Routine

Maintaining Your Focus as A Law Student: Finding A Routine

Law school is a grind. Make no mistake. Law school is a marathon rather than a sprint. All cliches aside, law school requires law students to maintain an intense focus for the duration of their academic lives. Whether it is a three-year or four-year program, law school is a protracted undertaking into a vast, complex area of study. Maintaining your focus as a law student is therefore of the utmost importance. One good way to maintain focus is to create a routine and observe it each day. Doing so may be crucial to enjoying any success in law school. Establishing a...

Continue reading

The Humble Lawyer

The Humble Lawyer

Humility is sometimes defined as freedom from pride or arrogance. Studies show that humble people handle stress more effectively and report higher levels of physical and mental well-being. Unfortunately, it can be challenging for mere humans to express humility. Typically, this is attributed to our misinterpretation that actively demonstrating humility is a sign of weakness. In truth, humility is a sign of inner strength. Unfortunately, lawyers are often portrayed as anything but humble. The words “egotistical,” “arrogant,” and “pompous” are some of the words often used to characterize attorneys. Many of the descriptive words used to describe lawyers have the prefix “self”...

Continue reading

List Of Resources For Lawyers With Substance Abuse Problems

List Of Resources For Lawyers With Substance Abuse Problems

Attorneys greatly differ in how they deal with stress. Some can deal with the serious responsibilities involved in representing clients while others instead turn to alcohol and drugs to cope with maintaining a law practice. Attorneys can never have enough resources to help them deal with problems related to substance abuse. In recognition of this area of great concern, California requires that attorneys must include substance abuse education in the twenty-five hours of continuing legal education required by the State Bar every three years. California’s Alternative Discipline Program (ADP) also assists attorneys with substance abuse or mental health problems. However, the result may be the...

Continue reading
Font Resize