Pre-Law Preview

Story and photos by Maria Iacobo

With the exception of alumni or current students, pre-law advisors are on the front lines of discussions with undergraduates on where they may want to attend law school. With an interest in distinguishing their schools from each other, three of the top-tier law schools in Southern California hosted prelaw advisors from 30 select colleges and universities over a two-day period this week.

USC Gould joined with UCLA Law and UC Irvine Law to sponsor the two-day event.  It didn’t hurt that the weather in the Midwest and East Coast – from where the bulk of advisors had come – was experiencing an extreme wave of frigid temperatures.

“This is a terrific opportunity for us to distinguish ourselves from UCLA in the eyes of influential outsiders who only know that one of us is private and the other is public,” said Chloe Reid, USC Gould’s Dean of Admissions.

Julie Bauman '14 and Jeff Watkins '14

Two current students shared their experiences with the advisors in a discussion moderated by Priya Sridharan, USC Gould’s Dean of Students. Both said the Trojan Network had been very helpful to them. Julie Bauman ’14 explained that she was given a list of alums who had clerked for the same judge for whom she had applied to clerk.

“That was amazing for me,” Bauman said. “I really leaned heavily on the alumni network when I was looking at clerkships.”

Jeff Watkins ’14, who earned his undergraduate degree at USC Thornton, said he had thought the much-ballyhooed Trojan Network “sounded fake. But, it’s really not,” he told the assembled group amid some chuckling.

Watkins told them he had called a variety of alumni to chat with them about their career choices and experiences. In one instance, he invited an alum in San Francisco for coffee, only to have the alum take him to lunch and spend nearly three hours with him. The alum explained that he himself had experienced the same thoughtfulness when he was exploring careers and felt compelled to do the same with current students who ask for advice.

Among the features that set USC Gould apart from other top tier schools, Sridharan identified the school’s commitment to diversity.

“It’s not by happenstance; it’s by design,” Sridharan said. “We believe it makes for a more meaningful experience for our students.”

USC Gould’s Class of 2016 has one of the highest ethnic identifications among the top-20 ranked law schools at 44%.  Add to that the nearly 30 social, political, religious, cultural and ethnic student organizations generating social and academic events throughout the school year and students are never lacking in a variety of activities on or off campus.

Dean Robert K. Rasmussen welcomed the group to the law school to start the day. Also addressing the group were: Prof. Tom Lyon, whose research interests in child witnesses and child maltreatment have led to two multi-million National Institutes of Health research grants; Prof. Michael Chasalow, director of the USC Small Business Clinic, where students receive hands-on experience handling transactional legal problems for small businesses and non-profit organizations; Suzanne Levy, ’01 and Interim Assistant Dean of Career Services; and two recent alumni, Kimberley Church, ’12 and Suzetty Shen, ’12.

Finally, the group dined at the Davidson Conference Center, where Jeremy Lawrence, ’09 and an associate at Munger Tolles Olson talked about his decision to join the Trojan Family after graduating Harvard University.

Among the schools represented were Amherst College, Brandeis University, Wellesley College, Barnard College, New York University, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, Emory University and Stanford University.