Elon Law alumni who are excelling as attorneys in law and consulting firms, corporations and government agencies recently reflected on valuable aspects of their legal education, including small class sizes, students’ close working relationships with faculty, the breadth of professional networking opportunities offered at Elon and the law school’s emphasis on trial advocacy and communication skills development.
Leslie Lasher ’06, L’09, an associate attorney with Teague, Campbell, Dennis & Gorham in Raleigh, North Carolina, has an active practice representing government entities, employers and health care providers before North Carolina’s state, appellate and federal courts. She also defends workers’ compensation occupational disease cases before the North Carolina Industrial Commission. She says the trial advocacy program at Elon has helped her to excel in her career.
In addition, Lasher says she valued the Preceptor Program for the exposure it provided her to various dimensions of the legal profession.
“The Preceptor Program was really neat for me because my preceptor immediately exposed me to organizations in the community that I was not aware of: different local bar associations, meetings where I could go to meet other lawyers and figure out what kind of practices really are out there,” Lasher said. “I did not know these things when I began in law school, but being paired with someone in the community that was actively practicing, I felt as though I could ask all of the questions I needed to ask, not feel inferior to anyone and they were really exposing me to all of the different opportunities for what I wanted my practice to be and really got me thinking as to what I wanted to do with my career.”
“The emphasis that Elon puts on communicating in a variety of ways has been the thing that I think has enabled me to be so successful so early on right out of school,” Gilman says. “Writing is critical right now. A lot of students are graduating from college, from law school, with the theoretical knowledge that they can write, but in practice it is just not effective writing. The ability that Elon has had to have those smaller class sizes and really have professors critically look at our writing and give us productive feedback has been the guide for me to become a better writer and has enabled me to make more of an effective impact in the workplace.”
“Working in a large firm, I am always in groups. Actually, it is very rare that I work alone,” Morrow says. “At Elon, we spent a lot of time doing group projects, so I was prepared to deal with that type of dynamic. Looking back, beyond the ability to work in groups and to work with different types of people, I think that the leadership skills emphasized at Elon are starting to prove really beneficial.”
Morrow was recently named an American Bar Association Business Law Fellow.
“The most important thing, I think, is the networking opportunities that Elon provides their students with,” Burton says. “I was able to build a lot of relationships during my time in law school that I have been able to take advantage of now as a practicing attorney. It is very nice to be able to step into the legal world and know who people are and be more than a name on a piece of paper, and Elon really provides that opportunity.”
Burton also valued the mentoring he received through Elon Law’s Preceptor Program.
“Being paired up with somebody from day one in the practicing legal community helps you, as a student, bridge the gap between the black letter law that you learn in law school and the application of that law in the practice of law,” Burton said. “So it was nice to be able to call on my preceptor and say ‘tell me how this relates to what I am going to be doing in the future,’ and they were able to do that and it was really a beneficial experience for me.”
“Elon Law taught me not only how to be a lawyer, but how to expand my leadership skills, as well as skills such as public speaking, networking and negotiating my own future,” Shelton said. “Elon made clear that I could chart my own path and that a legal career did not have to be boilerplate in one area of law or another.”
Annie Nastasi ’07, L’10, Compliance Manager in the Office of the Chief Compliance Officer at American Express in New York, NY, assists a global financial institution in responding to requests for information and documentation from external agencies and regulatory bodies, as well as managing compliance for state-by-state money transmitter license requirements. Nastasi says that the focus on experiential learning at Elon Law prepared her to excel in an alternative legal career.
Nicole Patterson L’10 is a labor and employee relations specialist at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Rockville, Maryland. Her office manages, maintains and ensures compliance with collective bargaining agreements involving grievances and arbitrations with bargaining-unit employees. In addition, her office advises managers and employees on their rights and responsibilities regarding performance, conduct, leave and attendance in addition to serving as agency representatives. Patterson says she has relied on skills developed in trial advocacy programs at Elon Law for every position she has held since law school, including positions within the U.S. government as a Presidential Management Fellow.
Watch the videos featuring insights from these Elon Law alumni here.
Additional alumni profiles are available here and ongoing news reports about Elon Law alumni achievements are available here.