At 31, Jesse King ’19 has served in the U.S. Army, earned an undergraduate degree in genetics and worked in a laboratory. When he decided to pursue a JD at UConn School of Law, he knew he wanted to be a lawyer but had no idea what path he wanted to pursue in practice.
That is until he attended the UConn Law School Alumni Association Practice Area Dinner on Nov. 2, 2016, and met Cindy Johnson ’11, an attorney with the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center.
“I wasn’t even aware some of these things existed,” King said of the varied directions he can pursue in his legal career. He now likes the idea of representing veterans. “Unless you come to something like this, you would not even know all the applications.”
That is the point of the annual dinner, said Professor Joseph MacDougald, a 1996 graduate of the law school. He has been arranging similar events for the past several years for his students who were interested in environmental law, and got an enthusiastic response. He suggested an expanded version to the alumni association, which teamed up with the Career Planning Center to produce this year’s dinner.
“The benefit of a conversational event is so important because students ask the questions they wouldn’t otherwise ask,” MacDougald said. “You think that just because they are in law school, they know what they want to do.”
The event brought 72 law students into the Reading Room in William F. Starr Hall with 25 practicing lawyers in a speed dating kind of format. Students spent 20 minutes at each table, where they learned about different practice areas, ranging from criminal law to insurance law. The dinner was filled to its capacity.
“I love doing what I’m doing,” Johnson told the law students at her table. “I got my start here through an internship, and I want to be involved.”
The lawyers who attended the dinner were eager to be mentors in their areas of interest, first during round-table discussions and then over dinner.
“I love being a lawyer. I think you guys made the right choice,” said Matthew Dallas Gordon, a litigator and 1987 graduate of the school. “If you are going to get up and go to work every day, it has to be something you like.”
Keynote speaker Joseph C. Steffan ’94, executive director of global compliance for Morgan Stanley & Co., said law firms have been “hiring tons of compliance people” and encouraged students to look into that field.
“Compliance functions exist in any regulated entity,” he said. “When I started 15 years ago, [companies] didn’t hire people right out of law school. Now they do.”
Jeffrey Kestenband ‘97, a criminal defense attorney and past president of the alumni association, said the dinner “gives students a great opportunity to learn what practicing law if like and to work on their networking skills as they enter the job market.”
He told the students that he likes traveling to different courts, where he has defended people on charges ranging from breach of peace to murder.
Kestenband told the students that trials are exhilarating, but they also take a lot of time to prepare. “It’s stressful because you realize you have someone’s freedom at stake.”
For Sunny Chung ‘19, hearing about what lawyers do in their various disciplines was an important supplement to what she is learning in the classroom.
“I think it’s nice to not only hear everyone’s individual stories but also get an insight into what they do on a day-to-day basis,” Chung said.
Even if law students do not walk away from the dinner with a clear idea of what discipline they would like to pursue, the experience of networking with practicing lawyers is invaluable.
Christine Jean-Louis ’08, an assistant attorney general who is president-elect of the alumni association, said making connections helped her land a job.
“Go to the bar association events,” she said. “Then when your resume comes on the table, and it’s yours versus 100 others, they will recognize you.”
