Author: Marlen (Marci)

Mom, Wife, and Law Student

During my law school career, one of the questions I get asked the most is “how do you do it?”. I am a 3L enrolled in the regular division program, married for 10 years with two babies ages 5 and 4. (They are technically not babies, but they are in my eyes.)

My response: I have a village behind me- literally! My parents, siblings, and soon-to-be sister-in-law take turns picking up my babies from school. They take them to the park and spend time with them. My parents will often bring dinner over, especially when they know I have late classes. My husband works to support our household and helps with household chores. (Yes, he is a saint!) They all work together to support me and my law school adventure.

My greatest fear when I started law school was that my babies would get upset at me for not spending as much time with them. So, I would explain to them that mommy had to go to school just like them. I even brought them out to see the campus- so they knew where mommy was when she wasn’t home. Like always, my children surprised me. They understood! When they wanted to do something, they would first ask if I had to go to school.

Their support means the world to me. I knew they were all going out of their way to help me and for this reason, I had to give it my all. I set myself a schedule and stuck to it. It was hard, especially because I couldn’t spend as much time as I wanted with my babies. But being a mom gave me the motivation and determination I needed to succeed. I didn’t have the luxury of slacking off because I had to be home by a certain time to take care of my babies.

Being a mom, wife, and law student is hard! But not impossible. With the right support, motivation, determination, and time management everything is possible.

Immigration Moot Court Competition

Have you ever signed up for something and during the process thought “never doing this again”? That was me for the past 2 months during our moot court competition. However, when everything came together at oral argument this past Friday (Feb. 12th) I enjoyed every second of it. Now that it’s over, I am so glad I put myself through that experience. This competition was 100% the most difficult I had ever been involved in, but also the most rewarding.

A little background.
Moot Court is an honor society to which you can “grade on” or “write on”. Once in the organization, you sign-up for a competition. I chose immigration because my ultimate goal is to become an immigration attorney. The excitement begins when your problem “drops”. My partner and I received our problem on December 18th. Our brief was due January 31st and, you guessed it, we researched and wrote up until the last second. But wait there is more. Then came oral argument preparation. We had 1 day to prepare our argument outlines because we began “mooting” the following day. Our coach had several moots lined up for us. We had no time to lose because oral argument was in less than 2 weeks. Even though we are currently completely virtual, our professors and Widener staff were more than willing to help us moot. We were even allowed to do our oral argument on campus. Having the technology and court-like atmosphere helped mentally prepare us for what was coming. We had 3 oral arguments and it was absolutely amazing because I was able to demonstrate that I knew the law and that we, as respondent, had the better argument.- Obviously!

Final thoughts.
This competition absorbed so much of my time, but all the time and work I put into the competition allowed me to enjoy oral arguments because I knew I was prepared. I am in my final semester of my 2L year and this competition has been one of the best experiences. There were many times during this competition that I questioned myself- did I find all the relevant cases, am I missing something, how should I answer that question, how do I organize what I want to say, etc. I am so proud of myself for getting through my fears and this competition. I’m so thankful to be a part of the Widener community. The support we received from all the professors, staff, alumni, and administration was unbelievable.

Definitely give Moot Court a try, you might regret it during the process, but I assure you – it will be one of the best things you do in your law school career.