“The world doesn’t need more lawyers, the world needs more good attorneys.” – Joshua Brinen

For those of you who don’t know (and let’s be honest, that would be about 99.9 percent of you), I’ve recently undertaken the lengthy process for getting admitted to law school — well, attempting, rather.

While I manned the front desk a few days ago, I went through my checklist for what seemed like the thousandth time. Register for the LSAT, check. Take the LSAT, check. Promptly set my LSAT prep books on fire, not checked, but a girl can dream, right? Then there’s requesting transcripts, acquiring letters of recommendation, providing evidence* that I paid off the parking ticket my freshman year when I had three minutes to turn in my term paper and the only spot open was less than 20 feet away from a fire hydrant and contacting that one professor I hope remembers just how many hours of valuable Food Network time I sacrificed to do well in his class; all of which must be done before I could press the shiny “Apply” button that sends away my entire academic history along with my hopes, dreams, and a little piece of my soul. 

My journey to law school could easily be translated into my experience at Brinen & Associates, but not in the way one might think. Bear with me.

Law school applications are tedious, tiresome and arguably exhaustive. I told the Admissions Departments about the time I sold apartments and about the time I sold appetizers. I studied for weeks for a single test that became a single score that became a single, yet important, part of a single report. I pulled information from every aspect of my life and packaged it to show them that I have what it takes to make an excellent attorney.

In one day here at Brinen & Associates I prepare documents for the IRS, engage in securities research, and assist with the construction of a mediation binder. Some days my stress level directly correlates with the amount of coffee in my system (read: high levels all of the time) but at the end of the day, it’s one of the many things I love about working at a small firm. I receive cross-training and experience from different fields of law that will one day, help me prove not that I can be an excellent attorney, but that I am one.

I know the processes that go into transactions, I can find my way around an Offer in Compromise, I know how to read a Court Docket and I can refill four paper trays, with three different types of paper, in 30 seconds flat.

Though my journey has just begun, I feel confident that the training I’m receiving from each and every one of the associates here is not only valuable, but priceless.

*Note: law schools do not accept pinky promises as evidence.