A Day in the Life

What to Do With Your Law Degree: A Panel of Professional Women in Law

This past Friday, January 11th, the Law Women's Caucus and the Women's Mentoring Program co-sponsored a great panel of lawyers to discuss the wealth of options available to our graduates as well as their experiences as women in particular legal career paths.  Allison Handy ('09) gives us this recap of the event:

"The Law Women's Caucus and Women's Mentoring Program joined forces to create a panel event with women from all walks of legal life.  Our panel, "What to Do With Your Law Degree: A Panel of Professional Women in Law," was a great success.  We were able to bring Liisa Thomas ('96), a partner at the Chicago office of Winston & Strawn LLP; Alison LaCroix, Assistant Professor here at the Law School; Joan Laser (AM '70, JD '79), an Assistant United State's Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Katharine Wolanyk ('96), President and Co-Founder of Soverain, a e-commerce software and services company here in Chicago; and Miriam Hallbauer ('95), senior lawyer for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago to the Law School for an hour-long panel discussion followed by a special Wine Mess where all the panelist stuck around to talk with students.

Many students (even a few mean, I was happy to see!) attended the event to hear about the career paths of these very different women.  The panelists talked about the ways they chose their careers and how those decisions led them to their current positions.  While their choices have been different -- Ms. Wolanyk's decision to launch a career in business from her background in engineering and mergers and acquisitions, Ms. Hallbauer's embrace of public interest work in lieu of a more lucrative law firm career -- all the panelists emphasized that students should pick a career about which they can be passionate."

Thanks to Allison for the great description and to all the panelists for taking time from busy schedules to participate!

The University of Chicago Law School Connection

Law School alums go on to careers in many different areas -- law (of course!), politics, business, academia, and public interest -- all across the country and around the world.  Despite the myriad of directions our students take after graduation it is not unusual for them to cross paths again and again as they advance through their legal careers.  The appeal of convicted former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit is just one of the latest such examples.  Oral arguments in Nacchio's appeal, held on December 11th, brought together not one, not even two, but four Law School alums who are involved in the case.  Former Law School professor Judge Michael McConnell ('79) (and past Hinton Moot Court judge) sat on the three judge panel who heard arguments from Nacchio's appellate attorney Maureen Mahoney ('78) (Mahoney, whose track record as an appellate attorney is formidable, also successfully represented the University of Michigan Law School in the landmark case on race in admissions, Grutter v. Bollinger,  before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003).  A key issue in Nacchio's appeal was the lower trial court's ruling excluding the expert witness testimony of Law School professor Daniel Fischel ('77).  Rounding out the quartet was U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Troy Eid ('91).