As I consider my impending final year of law school, I’m flooded by a distinct sense of déjà vu. I’ve been here before, on the cusp of an ending. The nostalgia, the trepidation, and the excitement all feel incredibly familiar. The difference, of course, is that this isn’t my final year of high school or college. This is my final year of law school. It’s an ending that feels very much like the beginning of the rest of my life.

Some would say that the purpose of an undergraduate education is exploration. If I had to give a similar one-word definition to the purpose and essence of law school, I would say that it is preparation. I left my undergraduate institution with a very firm sense of who I am as a person and of what I wanted in life. I will leave law school with a honed understanding of how to practice the law knowledgeably, precisely, and ethically. Every class, every club, and every externship has been aimed at preparing me for this career.

To speak more specifically, my summer internship with the in-house legal department at Niagara Bottling has confirmed my suspicion since entering law school– I want to be a part of a business. Some students don’t know what they’re getting into when they land an internship with an in-house legal department. From the outside, one could perceive it as a mini law firm within a company. What I’ve learned while working at Niagara is that the legal department can and should be an actual business unit designed to mesh with every other department, from supply chain to R&D to HR to IT, to form a cohesive organization that is much more than the sum of its parts. To have a group of engineers, executives, accountants, and lawyers all working toward a unified goal is what makes a career in house so exciting to me.

As a 3L, I have experience working for a judge, a solo practitioner, a public company, and now a private company. This breadth of involvement has prepared me to choose my own path within the legal field carefully. Chapman Law, not to mention the devoted staff of the Career Services Office, has prepared me to not only practice law, but to build my own career deliberately with an eye on the goals I have defined for myself over the last two years.

So, in a way, it’s not really an ending, but a transition; and the entirety of law school has been the setup and preparation for this transition. There is another big difference between these “end-of-an-era” feelings and those I felt in high school and college: that little three day exam at the end of law school seems to do a pretty good job at preventing senioritis.

Brandon Howard (2L)

Brandon Howard (3L)

About the Author:
Brandon Howard received his BA in Math and Theatre from USC and is currently involved in the Business & Investment Law Society and the Student Bar Association at Chapman Law. He is pursuing the business emphasis and is excited to start his legal career after the July 2014 bar as Associate Corporate Counsel in the in-house legal department at Niagara Bottling.

The views expressed in the student blogs are those of the author and not the law school.