Three Michigan Supreme Court Justices gave professional advice and insight to students in a packed lecture hall last week in the MSU law school building.
Associate dean for Library and Technology Services and law professor Charles J. Ten Brink introduced Justice Mary Beth Kelly, Justice Brian K. Zahra, and Justice Bridget Mary McCormack.
Kelly and Zahra spoke with students for an hour, though McCormack left early.
“Law is more than litigation,” Zahra said. “It has to be something you were born to do.”
The justices also warned that the legal market has become more competitive since they began their careers.
“Thank God I’m old,” Zahra said, before advising the students to find an emerging field of law.
President of the MSU Pre-Law Society Megan Callahan, a junior finance major with a minor in philosophy in law, wanted students to learn from experienced legal professionals such as Zahra and his colleagues.
“We want to expose all the undergraduates to as many different speakers as we can,” Callahan said.
She said she wanted to show there are many ways to become successful in the legal field.
“What’s unique about these three individuals is they all have very different backstories and they all ended up at the same place in the end,” Callahan said.
Although most members go on to law school, some realize that they are no longer interested in law.
Callahan said she is happy for them because they are able to make an “informed decision before investing in a three-year education.”
Zahra explained that finding a narrow niche is important because “we are old and set in our ways” so if students can find a new field of law, such as health law, “no one will have a leg up on you” because “experience won’t matter.”
In addition to advising students on how to prepare and select a law school, Zahra and Kelly told students about their professional pressures and workload.
Zahra, Kelly, and McCormack all serve on the nonpartisan Supreme Court together. However, Michigan’s constitution mandates they must be elected to those positions.
“I think it is absurd that we have to go to (political) parties to get nominations and then run nonpartisan,” Zahra said.
Kelly said the press frequently refers to them as a political entity and considers their votes to be along party lines. Both Kelly and Zahra said although they sometimes disagree ideologically, they do not vote politically.
“When we think of a law, we don’t think of it as right or good,” Zahra said. “For us, it’s just the law.”
Callahan said she hopes events such as the discussion with the justices encourages students to join the MSU Pre-Law Society . She said next semester she plans to bring faculty from various law schools and admission boards to meet with students. She hopes that will bring more awareness to the group and help it grow.
Callahan said there were around 40 MSU Pre-Law Society members and just as many non-members at the event. Callahan said she felt this proved the event was a great success.
MSU Pre-law Society plans to travel to a Chicago-based law school next semester and hopes to invite law school faculty members to speak to students interested in applying to law schools.
