Today we’d like to introduce you to Neena Speer.
When Author and Visionary Neena Speer posted her new book release Dear Future Lawyer: An Intimate Survival Guide for the Female Minority Law Student it was met with amazing heartfelt support and purchases. It was commonly referred to as “a book they wished they had when they were in law school”.
Neena created this book for not only women of color, but it was created to be a safe space for women of color pushing through the difficult challenges of law school. This is for your youth who sometimes have felt alone and needed a safe place to express themselves. This is a book and a journal that acts as a companion to law school. When Neena wrote this book, she was a 1L struggling to stay above water at The University of Alabama School of Law. All she knew at the time is that she needed to write something to motivate herself. After passing the bar on her second attempt, Neena published this amazing guide and journal.
From an early age, Speer’s mother and father encouraged her that she was going to be a CEO. Neena has since served as a YMCA summer camp counselor for over nine years and served as the 2018 YMCA Birmingham’s Give Campaign Face. Neena is a newly licensed attorney, a four-time published author for her Howard University honor’s thesis and two University of Alabama School of Law papers, with one being published in the Harvard Journal on African American Public Policy and now her newest publication entitled Dear Future Lawyer: An Intimate Survival Guide For The Minority Female Law Student. Neena is a proud African American and Indian mentor, speaker, and a giver. Neena always tells her message with truth and authenticity.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I wrote Dear Future Lawyer when I was at my lowest point. I’m talking about waterworks, “I’m about to quit law school,” “I’m so tired of this” low. I had a rough time adjusting to the pace, the readings, and even breaking down basic IRAC format to be understood. We all struggle, but I learned after banging my head on the wall due to sheer frustration that my struggle was not because I wasn’t good enough to be in law school. I had a professor or two who told me the exact opposite. They explained to me that I was struggling to get the formula for success down and understanding the many challenges that new ways of writing bring. I had to learn to write to what the professor wanted from me, and that was very difficult for me at first. When I started my book, it was simply “Dear Future 1L.” I sent it to a few colleagues and mentors who told me that this was a one of a kind reading experience for them. I sent it to so many rising 1Ls who said: “thank you for writing this.” After the success with chapter one, I decided to chronicle each year with a chapter.
I’ve always operated with the idea that there is going to be somebody coming behind me, and I don’t want to make someone else’s life as hard as mine was. I want them to hit my milestones and surpass me. The best way I knew how to do that is to try and prepare a young girl like me who I know feels like she can conquer the world. Then, one day she gets to law school and falls flat on her face. She has not known a place where hard work and determination could not create the success she wanted. However, this time the wheels do not click right away, the law does not make sense, and her professors might be speaking a different language from her perspective. That little girl needs to know that it is normal to freak out and experience a myriad of emotions. Most importantly, I wanted to create a guide and journal that gave my readers information they need to be able to maneuver some of the difficulties while doing some deep soul searching before they encounter them instead of just writing off how someone felt after failing another test or not making a journal.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Dear Future Lawyer is available on my website (https://www.neenathelastbrand.com/books). I am Lawyer who serves as the Managing Attorney for my firm Neena R. Speer Law Firm. I am the Author of Dear Future Lawyer am a public speaker! Dear Future Lawyer is an intimate survival guide for the female minority law student. It is was more than that though. How many times do you get somebody telling you from their perspective about how what, and who to expect when you’re in law school? Not only that, the readers get a spot within each chapter to air out whatever they are experiencing along the way in their unique law school journey. A lot of the times we go to people for advice, but I operate behind the mantra that most time we have the words that we need to hear. Her book aims to help you as a reader to begin talking through some of the obstacles that you may encounter.
You may never actually get a real take on why you feel that a B is not enough when you try your best. You may never understand why putting together the job interview packet is so difficult because it requires a lot more steps than maybe you’re even used to. However, she hopes with her book that she would share even a little bit of the experiences that she felt and went through like you so that you don’t feel like you have to do it alone. Most importantly, Neena wanted to create a guide and journal that gave her readers information they needed to be able to maneuver some of the difficulties while doing some deep soul searching before you encountered them instead of just writing off how you felt after you failed that test or did not make a journal.
I specialize in talks on empowerment, business formation, diversity, mentorship, and vulnerable leadership.
What sets me apart is that one night as I was thinking up some great ideas, I was moved to write this down: The L.A.S.T. Brand. The “L” stands for a lawyer. The “A” stands for an author. The “S” stands for speaker. The “T” stands for truth. The acronym was birthed out of thinking about what it felt like when I was at the bottom of my class. I felt like I was always going to be last. Last in the classroom, last to pass the bar, and I was just really down on myself about that feeling of being in the last place after a successful academic career at Howard University. Being in law school, the desire to be the one that booked or aced the class strongly outweighs being last. There is a culture of assumptions in law school that makes you feel that if you are not the top student, then you will not be successful. I always disagreed with that frame of mind.
Therefore, I decided to turn my worries about being LAST into something positive. If you are the last to finish a test in class, did you still finish? Yes, you did, and that is what matters. That message is what I hope readers begin to take away because it is acceptable to struggle to understand something. There is nothing wrong with you for feeling as if law school is unbearable at times. However, do not let the fear of being last to upset you to the point where you don’t believe in your dreams anymore. I took the word that used to haunt me and made it into something to empowers me. I want my readers to take that same approach with words of defeat that haunt them. Think about your talents and what your purpose is in life and apply positivity to the words that may have hindered you before.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I wasn’t just a kid who played with legos and dolls. I was the kid coming up with youth development strategies, asking executive directors to let me host bake sales, and demanding more responsibility. The way I saw it, I was young and powerful and there were so many tasks I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to be not only successful but someone who was turned to when people needed help. As I grew older, I developed that part of my personality more and began serving youth as a volunteer and later a summer camp counselor. I felt true joy from helping and guiding youth and never forgot my burning 8th grade desire to be a lawyer and come back to the community I was raised in to make difference as a criminal defense lawyer.
Pricing:
- 26.95 Dear Future Lawyer: An Intimate Survival Guide for the Femalr Minority Law Student Book
- 50.00 45 minute consulting session
Contact Info:
- Email: neenathelastbrand@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/neena_rani?igshid=11n9h8hinbgkg
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dearfuturelawyer/
- Other: Www.neenathelastbrand.com
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