Krista Contino Saumby and Alicia Mills have joined the Office of Career & Student Development to assist law students with career guidance and mentoring, resume and cover letter reviews, and mock interviews.
Two attorneys motivated to help law students achieve their professional goals are the newest additions to Elon University School of Law’s Office of Career & Student Development.
Krista Contino Saumby and Alicia Mills started their roles in June as associate director of career development and assistant director of career development, respectively. Together, the pair will work with Elon Law students to prepare for success in the legal profession through mentoring, resume and cover letter reviews, and mock interviews, among other activities.
Krista Contino Saumby
Associate Director of Career Development Krista Contino Saumby has been an advocate and educator committed to simplifying the path to success for first generation law students. Contino Saumby’s 15-year legal career focused on patent law with work for law firms of various sizes, including a solo practice. She was the first judicial clerk for the Hon. Jimmie V. Reyna with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Contino Saumby leveraged her electrical and computer engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University to counsel Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Apple, Adobe, Yamaha, and Boeing. She is also a deputy regional president for the Hispanic National Bar Association.
“The best part of Career Services is getting to work with law students, whether in a group or one-on-one,” Contino Saumby said. “The legal field has so many options that helping each student discover their path is a unique puzzle every time. Career Services isn’t about finding a student a job, it’s about helping them find the right place for them in the profession.”
Contino Saumby was recently featured on an episode of You Are A Lawyer, a podcast for attorneys to share the way in which their law degrees have shaped their own lives.
Alicia Mills
Assistant Director of Career Development Alicia Mills is a North Carolina native and a first-generation college graduate. At North Carolina Central University School of Law, Mills was active on the Trial Advocacy Board and worked as a student aid in the Office and Career and Professional Development where she developed an interest in helping students achieve their paraprofessional and post-graduate career goals.
Mills practiced as an assistant trial attorney in Albuquerque, New Mexico, appearing before juries and judges for the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office before her return to North Carolina. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Criminology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
“As a law student, the first people I felt comfortable trusting were staff in Career Services, who helped me fight the pressures of ‘being first,’ succeeding, and finding my place in a daunting profession where minorities are still vastly underrepresented,” Mills said. “The relationships I cultivated afforded me the opportunity and confidence to grow. I’m ecstatic about stepping into this role and working with Elon Law students as they forge an even better, brighter future for the legal profession.”
About Elon Law
Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the preeminent school for engaged and experiential learning in law. With a focus on learning by doing and among the top quartile of American law schools for low levels of student loan debt at graduation, it integrates traditional classroom instruction with course-connected, full-time residencies-in-practice in a logically sequenced program of transformational professional preparation. Elon Law’s groundbreaking approach is accomplished in 2.5 years, which provides distinctive value by lowering tuition and permitting graduates early entry into their legal careers.