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President's Letter |
It’s not always easy being a lawyer. A recent search on Google returned 1,590,000 hits for the term “lawyer jokes.” But getting into law school, passing the bar exam and starting practice is no joke. According to the Law School Admission Council, which administers the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), “The newness of the first year of law school is exciting for many and anxiety-provoking for almost all.” Dani Ryskamp (AS’01) will vouch for that. Ryskamp has experienced the emotional highs and lows that come with being a first-year law student at the University of Michigan. “This is the most frightening, and in a lot of ways, the most miserable experience I’ve ever had. It’s also by far the best experience I’ve ever had,” says Ryskamp. “I came home from my first day of law school in tears. I come out of every exam feeling that way, and yet I wouldn’t trade this for the world.” Ryskamp didn’t begin her undergraduate career knowing she wanted to be a lawyer. After earning her B.A. in English Literature at Ferris, she knew she wanted to earn an advanced degree, but was unsure what area would provide her the most rigorous intellectual challenge. When she finally considered law school, “something clicked.” Such popular culture depictions of law school as the film (and later television series) The Paper Chase, portray law school as ruthlessly competitive. Yet one of the reasons Ryskamp chose the U of M was for its collegial atmosphere. “For being a top-tier law school, there’s not a lot of competition,” says Ryskamp. “They don’t rank us until after we graduate, so there’s never a fight over who’s at the top of the class. We all have theories about who’s doing better than we are, but nobody knows.” Currently Ryskamp is leaning toward a career as a public defender. “I started thinking this is something I could really do,” says Ryskamp. “The more I’m in there, the more I feel it’s where I belong.” This past summer Ryskamp interned with the Washtenaw County Public Defenders Office. Michigan law allows first-year law students to handle misdemeanor cases the only state in the union to do so giving Ryskamp some important real-world experience outside of the U of M’s terrifying and exhilarating classrooms. Like Ryskamp, Shawna Orcutt (AS’05) didn’t start out at Ferris with the goal of being a lawyer. She thought a degree in Psychology would keep plenty of possibilities open for her. “I didn’t decide I was going to go to law school, finally, until my junior year. I figured that having a Psychology major left both possibilities open,” she says. Apparently, it was a good decision. The Bloomingdale, Ill., native wanted to return to the Chicago area to study and was accepted at DePaul, whose law school is just a couple of blocks from the Art Institute of Chicago. While Orcutt “loves” being in the city and looks forward to the many networking opportunities the area’s universities and law firms present, she (again like Ryskamp) says that law school is a great challenge. “It’s an unbelievable amount of work. If you’re going into law school for the wrong reasons if you personally don’t have the desire, or if you’re going because a family member wants you to I can see how you wouldn’t make it through.” We like to think of high-power attorneys combining, in more or less equal portions, an intellectual’s mental acuity with an athlete’s determination to win. For Orcutt, it was indeed her soccer career at Ferris that helped prepare her for the rigors of studying to eventually take the bar exam and begin practice. “Being a student-athlete having to deal with travel and practices required constant time management, just like in law school.” And as for life beyond law school, this past summer Orcutt was chosen to be in a special program at DePaul to prepare for that. Fifteen students in the family law program, Orcutt’s area of interest, received mentoring and were placed in a paid summer job, “Which is pretty much unheard of for first-year students,” says Orcutt. Her experience with Rinella and Rinella, Ltd. - the oldest family law firm in Illinois - should help give her a (well-trained) leg up on her goal of practicing law in Chicago. Newly minted lawyer Carrie Ziegler (B’01) was an admissions counselor for two years between her graduation from Ferris and enrolling at Marquette University. Her own advice while a counselor to prospective students helped her decide where to study law. “Being from an admissions background, I would tell students that a lot of times you just know when you set foot on campus. I visited Marquette and Milwaukee, and it all seemed right. It’s been a great fit for me,” says Ziegler. Like Ryskamp and Orcutt, Ziegler didn’t at first know that she would pursue a career in law. “At Ferris, I majored in Public Relations. I didn’t think as an undergraduate I’d pursue a law degree.” Ziegler says. “I guess my impression of lawyers was what you see on TV mostly the criminal, courtroom kind of stuff.” Ziegler says that it wasn’t until she started exploring law school that she learned there are many more facets to being a lawyer than what you see on Law & Order. Part of that realization came from talking with fellow graduate and Romanian native Mircea (Miquel) Dobre who was also an Honors Program and Gold Club member. “He’s gone through a lot to become a permanent resident here,” says Ziegler. “You don’t think about lawyers doing immigration, too. That’s what got me interested.” In fact, a major paper Ziegler wrote dealt with refugee law and whether the U.S. approach needs to be revised a particularly relevant topic as this election year heats up. Upon Ziegler’s graduation last May, she was immediately eligible to practice law in Wisconsin, thanks to the state’s “diploma privilege.” Graduates from either Marquette or the University of Wisconsin-Madison the state’s two law schools don’t have to take the bar exam to practice in Wisconsin. Ziegler recently joined the firm of Affiliated Attorneys. LLC, in West Allis, Wis. Ziegler may not have had to take the bar to practice law, but Kristen Campbell (AS’98) did and it left an impression. “Even five years later, when that time of year comes around, I still get stressed,” says Campbell, laughing. “Now, though, it’s a professional badge of honor to have passed it.” Campbell is an associate with the Grand Rapids-based Smith Haughey Rice and Roegge. The firm also has offices in Lansing, Ann Arbor and Traverse City, which is where Campbell practices. Like her fellow Ferris grads, Campbell didn’t start as an undergraduate with a career in law in mind. She was one of the first students in the Public Administration program, and it drew her to her chosen profession. “Public Administration really piqued my interest and has served me well especially in the area of public sector law,” says Campbell. “Working with professor [Richard] Griffin and professor [Don] Roy focused my interest in law. By the end I was pretty decided.” While law school may be more intense than undergraduate study, one thing will be familiar to anyone who’s ever been in a classroom what you study and what you find yourself using in your working life are often different. “Things I really did not enjoy in law school I now find most rewarding and vice-versa,” muses Campbell. “Taking contracts in law school I thought was the pits of despair, but in practice it’s an area I really enjoy. Being in a larger firm, I’ve had the opportunity to see a range of areas and have the resources to experience them and align my interests with the needs of the firm.” Living and working in Traverse City has brought many elements of Campbell’s life together. She’s just a few miles from her hometown of Luther; while her husband, Jeff Pulk (O’01), (whom she met at Ferris) is in solo optometry practice with Old Town Optical, a shop downtown at Eighth and Union. Meanwhile, the former Bulldog women’s tennis team captain who was first in singles and doubles at Ferris, and who once tested the pro circuit as an amateur, has been coaxed back on the tennis court. “By the time I put in four years of college tennis, I’d had enough and took about five years off,” Campbell says. “When I got here, I met a group of really competitive adults competitive on the court, but just a lot of fun off the court. Now I’m hooked again.” So in court, out of court or on the court, there’s no arguing that Campbell’s career choice has served her well. “It was just a great overall experience to combine athletics with academics it got me here. And there’s no place else I’d rather be.” |
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