Last week on June 19th, the Utah Center for Legal Inclusion held its fifth Pre Law Fellowship Seminar, graciously hosted by Strong and Hanni in Salt Lake City. For this seminar we focused on law school applications, specifically focusing on resumes, letters of recommendation, and other statements, allowing the UCLI Fellows to have a better understanding of what makes an application to law school stand out.
We started the day out with guest speaker, Sir Williams, a consultant from Spivey Consulting who flew out from Chicago. Sir engaged the UCLI Fellows, Ambassadors, and intern, with a presentation on law school applications. The presentation was information dense, but filled to the brim with important content that any prospective law student needs to know. Sir summarized what your application should look like in three simple words: “Clear, Concise, Compelling”. As Sir gave detailed specifics such as font size and page margin guidelines, he also reiterated throughout his presentation that one thing that should never be on a law school application is anything from high school; “Your resume should start in college, and go till now”.
Following Sir’s presentation, we held a panel discussion with some members of Strong and Hanni. Camila Lenker, a 3L BYU law student summering on the civil litigation team; Eli Leggett, an insurance defense team member as well as aviation and construction lawyer; and Jesse Davis, a commercial litigator with experience in business and real estate law. This panel was moderated by UCLI Summer Intern, Sam Hill, who asked the panelists several questions ranging from how to manage work-life balance, to why each of them got into the law. One of the first questions asked was “what motivated you to choose a career in law”, and Eli answered with blunt honesty; “I was a bartender and thought ‘I want an in-ground pool and maybe [law] was the answer’”. Conversely, Camila answered that she got into it from doing mock trial and loving the feeling of being in a courtroom. The panel ended with the question “What is the biggest tip you can give students going into law school?” Camila gave the advice of “keep trying, take the LSAT at least twice”. Eli provided his insight “It’ll buff”, and advised participants to take a deep breath and pause in challenging moments. Jesse made it simple, sharing that the importance of discipline and reinforcing how valuable LSAT prep courses are.
After the panel discussion concluded, we were joined by a former UCLI Fellow (from the very first cohort in 2024), Bubba Walker, who just wrapped up his 1L year at the University of Oregon School of Law. Bubba provided the Fellows with modern and grounded advice, which alleviated some of the pressure. Bubba talked about what it’s like going to your first class, and how his classmates were in suits and ties while he was dressed casually, and how despite appearances or knowledge, it wasn’t long till everyone was on the same page, concluding, “Everyone is in the same boat”.
We wrapped up the seminar with a workshop for students to work with their attorney mentors on their resumes and personal statements, implementing the suggestions from Sir’s presentation in real time.
Overall the seminar was a success, informing students what to look out for on their law school applications, providing a first hand experience in a big law firm like Strong and Hanni, and getting students excited about their careers in law school. UCLI is grateful to Strong and Hanni for hosting us, and for the lawyers that agreed to speak to the fellows and ambassadors, as well as for Spivey Consulting and Sir Williams for making time to give our students the boost they may need. We also thank all of the mentors and attorneys for creating an informative seminar.
UCLI Fellows and Ambassadors on the balcony of Strong and Hanni overlooking Salt Lake City.
UCLI Associate Director, Sabrina Ruiz-Monroy and UCLI Fellows and Ambassadors engaging in discussion over what makes a good application to law school.
Sir Williams from Spivey Consulting engaging with UCLI Fellows and Ambassadors on resumes, letters of recommendation, and other addenda.
Strong and Hanni panelists, Jesse Davis, Camila Lenker, and Eli Leggett (left to right),answering panel questions about what their career pathway looked like.
