-: I think for the person that wants
to be in the legal field and be a lawyer,
you need to look at your personality
and what do you feel is your challenge
and your calling for your particular practice?
Some people are excellent writers,
they can do research and they can write briefs,
and that's their strength.
And so they're gonna, for those people,
they should find a position
where they're working on appellate cases
and they're using their strengths.
Some people love contracts and finding
the particular legal issues to protect the clients.
And so that's where they find that avenue
is their best way to proceed.
I think the candidate as much needs
to decide, what do I really want to do?
I've seen people come out of law school
and they don't even work in a law career
because the law encompasses so many different areas.
They can go and be an administrator dealing
with contracts, or they could go
and they can work with a Board of Education.
Or all these other things that you might
not traditionally think as needing a lawyer,
but the key about law school is at the end
of the day, they teach you to reason
and to analyze like a lawyer,
and then to take a position based
on what you're asked to come up with.
And so it's really that skill
that you learn in law school.
You don't learn particular laws
because a law school has students
from all over the country, perhaps
all over the world.
When you get out, that's when you gotta find
out what the laws are from where you're practicing.
Because the town that my practice
is in is one town away
from Western Connecticut State University.
I could draw on all those networks
that I had developed through my college career,
my high school career, being involved
in the community in civic organizations,
and volunteerism, so, those are all things
I think that are important to make you marketable
for the people so that they come
and they seek you out for your legal advice.