16 episodes

The Doreen Benyamin podcast is a podcast dedicated to providing insight into law as a career path.

dbenyamin26@gmail.com

Also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvsztc_EmrCz7P0iTcf8hg Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doreenbenyamin/support

Doreen Benyamin Doreen Benyamin

    • Education
    • 4.7 • 25 Ratings

The Doreen Benyamin podcast is a podcast dedicated to providing insight into law as a career path.

dbenyamin26@gmail.com

Also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvsztc_EmrCz7P0iTcf8hg Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doreenbenyamin/support

    From High School Dropout to Harvard Law: Founding a Multimillion Dollar Legal Tech Startup

    From High School Dropout to Harvard Law: Founding a Multimillion Dollar Legal Tech Startup

    At the age of 14, Jake Sussman dropped out of high school with no clear plan for his future. By the age of 20, Jake was already taking his first class at Harvard Law School. While at Harvard, Jake received job offers from two of the top 3 consulting firms, a top 10 law firm, and a venture-backed legal tech startup. In this interview, Jake talks about his unique path getting to where is now as the founder of one of the top legal tech companies, Evisort.

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    About Evisort:

    Amine Anoun, Jerry Ting, and Jake Sussman built Evisort to use AI to automate contract reviews for lawyers. Evisort is backed by tech luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos through the venture capital fund of Village Global and the San Francisco-based Amity Ventures.


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    Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doreenbenyamin/support

    • 31 min
    From Post Uni to UCLA Law: T14 Full Scholarship Negotiation & BigLaw with Unremarkable Grades

    From Post Uni to UCLA Law: T14 Full Scholarship Negotiation & BigLaw with Unremarkable Grades

    Interview featuring UCLA Law alumna, Jason Ingber. Jason shares how he negotiated his way to a full scholarship at UCLA, why he applied to 30 law schools, and how he used "chutzpah" to land a position in BigLaw despite unremarkable grades.




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    Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doreenbenyamin/support

    • 35 min
    From Prelaw to Second Year Columbia Law Student: Expectations vs. Reality

    From Prelaw to Second Year Columbia Law Student: Expectations vs. Reality

    IG: @BeforeYouTaketheLSAT

    My former student Liza is a first generation college student, professional and American. English is her second language. Liza, who served as a Fulbright in Taiwan, is trilingual, speaking both Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. She received her B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Wellesley College, where she focused primarily on counterinsurgency tactics and U.S. military strategy during the Iraq war.

    In this follow-up interview, Liza provides updates on her journey since being admitted to Columbia Law School. She shares her experiences as a second-year law student, detailing how she secured her spot on the prestigious Columbia Law Review, her involvement in a specialized moot court, and the process behind deciding where she wants to work upon graduating


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    • 43 min
    Before You Take the Bar: Lessons Learned from Failing the California Bar Exam

    Before You Take the Bar: Lessons Learned from Failing the California Bar Exam

    Today's guest Brian Hahn is the Founder of "Make This Your Last Time" (MTYLT). Brian describes his website as "a candid, no-BS look at bar exam preparation." He has helped 1,000s of students pass the bar. Having experienced failure in his initial bar exam attempt, Brian developed effective techniques and strategies that enabled him to pass on his next try. He now shares his expertise and insights with others to help them achieve success on their bar exams. In this episode, Brian provides valuable resources and guidance to bar takers, sharing what to focus on as you're studying for the bar and how to spend your time.

    https://www.makethisyourlasttime.com/


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    Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doreenbenyamin/support

    • 48 min
    From Wellesley College to Columbia Law: My Former LSAT Student Shares What She Wishes She Knew

    From Wellesley College to Columbia Law: My Former LSAT Student Shares What She Wishes She Knew

    IG: @BeforeYouTaketheLSAT

    How do I study for the LSAT while working full time?

    Does mindset really matter when I'm studying for the LSAT?

    Is being first generation an advantage?

    My former student Liza is a first generation college student, professional and American. English is her second language. Liza, who served as a Fulbright in Taiwan, is trilingual, speaking both Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. She received her B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Wellesley College, where she focused primarily on counterinsurgency tactics and U.S. military strategy during the Iraq war.

    In this episode, Liza shares how she overcame obstacles to increase her score. She conquered a plateau and ultimately fulfilled her dream of attending Columbia Law School.

    Episode time stamps:

    2:00 Role of luck vs hard work (Talking about Liza's family history)

    4:45 Perspective on being first generation (Is being ESL a strength?)

    7:37 Liza's outlook & mindset

    8:27 Turning dream of attending Columbia Law into a reality (how to tackle large, overwhelming goals)

    9:35 Methodical approach to applying to law school

    11:17 What was the skillset that you wanted to improve and develop? How did you know you want to pursue a legal career?

    14:15 Coming from an immigrant family, did your parents have strong opinions about which career path they wanted you to pursue?

    14:45 Figuring out your own career path ("Why do you work so hard?")

    16:00 Liza's response to those who doubted her abilities (How "Dreams from My Father" by Barack Obama inspired Liza)

    19:18 Liza's LSAT journey

    20:45 How was Liza able to balance working full time and studying? (Liza talks about how many hours she studied per day, how she scheduled her day, and how she ultimately decided to take one day off per week to avoid burnout)

    22:05 How long did Liza study? (Liza shares how she would have approached the LSAT differently knowing what she knows now.)

    22:40 How did Liza decide she wanted to do tutoring?

    23:43 Why did Liza decide to work with Doreen? (The role of ambition in achieving your goals.)

    25:15 What are some of the tools Liza learned in tutoring that allowed her to overcome stagnation and see an improvement in her score? highly recommend listening to this portion

    27:22 Audience question: Any tips for first generation applicants feeling demoralized about the application process? (Keeping sight of your why, not just for the process and also for the application)

    29:07 Motivation is a myth. ("I'm not just doing this for myself, but for my community at large")

    29:57 Audience question: Liza's diagnostic score

    30:05 Audience question: How long did it take for you to see progress?

    30:22 Liza shares an hour by hour breakdown of her day in the life when she was studying for the LSAT and working full time!

    31:58 The mindset required to do well on the LSAT and on Liza's legal journey so far. ("Mindset is everything")

    33:29 How you talk about the LSAT matters. ("I've never said anything bad about the LSAT, ever.)

    34:02 Studying during covid.

    35:07 Applying to Columbia; why Columbia?

    38:40 Liza's LSAT tutoring testimonial

    39:50 Where to study

    41:11 What do you wish you knew before you took the LSAT?

    42:18 Navigating not having prelaw experiences on application

    43-50 Audience Q&A (activities that helped Liza on her application; Fulbright; 46:00 approaching professors about LOR, Letters of Recommendation; 47:53 practice area; 48:24 how many years out of undergrad; 48:57 does age matter when applying to law school?)

    50:15 Well-rounded applicant vs well-rounded class

    50:55 How Liza approached her personal statement

    52:52 Any resources or practical tips for prelaw students?

    55:05 How would you have approached the LSAT differently knowing what you know now? Law school application?

    56:15 What advice would you share with someone who's earlier on in their journey? (including book recommendations)








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    • 1 hr
    From Quitting BigLaw to Building Her Dream: How Cindy Zuniga-Sanchez Paid Off 215K of Debt in 4 years

    From Quitting BigLaw to Building Her Dream: How Cindy Zuniga-Sanchez Paid Off 215K of Debt in 4 years

    Are you curious about how to rise to the top 10% of your class and become a member of the law review? Or how law school exams differ from undergrad? How to become debt-free as a recent law school graduate? How about how to avoid debt before you even get into law school?

    Today's guest covers it all. Cindy Zuniga-Sanchez grew up the daughter of immigrants living in a one bedroom apartment in the Bronx with her parents and sisters. She attended undergrad on a full scholarship (including room and board), but by the time she graduated law school — with a partial scholarship, at the top 10% of her class, and as a member of the law review — she had accumulated over $215,000 debt. In our conversation, Cindy shares how she went from over $200,000 in debt to debt-free in 4 years, why she left a $300,000+ salary, along with the prestige and security of a BigLaw associate position, to bet on herself by expanding her own personal finance business. She wrote the book on financial freedom and generational wealth, literally, but started her journey with a simple google search: "how can I get out of debt?". Cindy shares insights from a path spanning from premed to interning for Hilary Clinton and Senator Chuck Schumer to creating her brand, ZeroBasedBudget, which has over 65,000 followers on Instagram and has been featured in national publications including Forbes, Business Insider, and Bloomberg Opinion. She has also been featured in national and local television including Good Morning America, The Rachael Ray Show, and Telemundo.

    She is incredibly humble and insightful. Whether you're prelaw, a recent law school graduate, or a seasoned attorney, this is not an interview you want to miss.

    Time stamps:

    + 1:24 How can we avoid going into debt as a law school student?

    + 5:30 Writing a personal finance book from the perspective of a daughter of immigrants, Latina, originally from a low income community in the Bronx

    + 7:30 How coming from a family of immigrants can be an advantage

    + 11:00 Cindy's perspective on BigLaw

    + 12:15 Overview of Cindy's path to law school (from premed with a full scholarship at Stony Brook University to Hilary Clinton's intern to dreaming of becoming the first US Latina Senator)

    + 13:30 How did Cindy graduate at the top 10% of her class? What was it like doing a part time program at Cardozo Law?

    + 15:00 The biggest thing that changed Cindy's life; How to take a law school exam

    + 17:00 Law school exams are important, but it doesn't stop there

    + 17:50 Outlining law school courses + utilizing office hours

    + 19:00 how to set and achieve goals (effectively) - in law school and budgeting; systems and habits; Atomic Habits (James Clear)

    + 22:10 The value of buffers; balancing the reading in law school; trying to cram outlines; identifying your triggers; curbing your anxiety

    + 24:45 What did you learn about BigLaw being in BigLaw as a commercial litigation attorney and what do you wish you knew before working in BigLaw? How does the OCI process work? What is a mock interview?

    + 29:10 How Cindy chose which BigLaw offer to accept and how she chose her practice area within law

    + 31:45 Mindset; low income community, 1 br apartment in the Bronx, first generation Latina; leaving a well-paying secure job; believing in yourself; not knowing any lawyers before law school; imposter syndrome; the American Dream

    + 34:23 How do you make the calculation to leave a 300k+ salary to become a full time entrepreneur? Sabbatical funds, emergency funds, her exact revenue, her online course (100K+ revenue), having a runway, 4x revenue

    + 39:54 What are the first steps for law school graduates who are in debt?

    + 45:18 Budgeting is just a plan for your finances

    + 45:54 3 Actionable Tips for the Listeners

    + 46:04 Start with Why

    + 48:17 The 30 Day Spending Challenge (date, amount, am I happy with how I spend my money?)

    + 51:15 Building the Habit

    + 53:23 The Book, "Overcoming Debt, Achieving Financial Freedom"; "What's yo

    • 56 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
25 Ratings

25 Ratings

bbi26 ,

My favorite legal podcast!

One of the best resources for future and current lawyers. Doreen asks her guests really thoughtful questions and digs deep into their path. Highly recommend to anyone looking for more insight into the legal career path.

Don_Pvblo ,

I listen to this podcast every day

This is really well made! The questions are always relevant and it’s easy to listen. Some very good conversations that IMO are worth listening if you’re preparing or taking the LSAT.

I couldn’t find a way to send feedback but could you start asking the guests at what time they took they’re LSAT? Ex. At the beginning of their junior year of undergrad or the summer after graduating.

Keep up the good work!

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