Nearly a decade ago, Richard Kirby \u201922 JD tickled the ivories at Torrington Christian Academy as a piano accompanist with its choir.<\/p>\n
A few years later, he passed on his musical knowledge as a piano teacher and used his gift as a music director at the Valley Community Baptist Church in Simsbury.<\/p>\n
And even though his eventual career path took a right turn into the UConn School of Law, Kirby, a Maryland native, still is making music, including an April gig at The Half Door in Hartford, and hopes to one day use his law degree to advocate for artists.<\/p>\n
Why did you choose UConn?<\/strong> What are your plans after graduation?<\/strong> What activities were you involved with as a student?<\/strong> What\u2019s one thing that surprised you about UConn?<\/strong> Any advice for incoming first-year students?<\/strong> What\u2019s one thing every student should do during their time at UConn?<\/strong> Who was your favorite professor and why?<\/strong> Richard Kirby reflects on his time at UConn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":184525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-184524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-quote"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 11:30:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184526,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184524\/revisions\/184526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/184525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184524"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=184524"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=184524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nUConn was my first and only choice \u2014 I was drawn to UConn because of the strong reputation of its evening program (I had originally planned to work full-time while in law school).<\/p>\n
\nI will be starting at a medical malpractice firm here in Hartford.<\/p>\n
\nI was involved with Connecticut Journal of International Law, Diversity Alliance, and Leadership Fellows while at UConn Law.<\/p>\n
\nI was surprised at how deep the UConn alumni network is in Connecticut.<\/p>\n
\nTry to maintain a healthy balance and maintain perspective. Some of the most meaningful things you will do in life will not appear on your resume.<\/p>\n
\nGo to a UConn game against a Big East rival.<\/p>\n
\nMy favorite professor is probably Professor MacDougald. He taught Con Law with such enthusiasm and command of the material \u2014 it was so easy to engage in his class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"