For the first time in its history, Concordia has an official Pre-Law Society to complement the highly successful academic program. The student organization, whose constitution was written up by seniors Liam Nuhring and Ian Lane, had its first meeting on Sept. 28 of this year.
“Our hope for the club is to foster a community for pre-law students on campus to gather together to talk about ideas and to have some more opportunities as far as hands-on learning goes with job shadowing opportunities,” Nuhring said.
According to Director of Alumni Relations Eric Johnson, this new student organization is an opportunity to provide pre-law students with more law school preparation than ever before.
“We did a good job with the admissions-counseling sort of part of it, but what I thought we could do more of is sort of the mentoring, coaching about what kind of lawyer do you want to be? Do you want to be a lawyer at all? Let me expand your mind about the kinds there are because you might think there’s only one kind of lawyer but there are a hundred kinds and a hundred different ways to express your vocation in law,” Johnson said.
According to the Chair of the Political Science Department and Pre-Law Advisor Dr. Michael Bath, part of helping to prepare these students for law school includes giving students the chance to connect with Cobber alumni who have law degrees.
“One of the things that we’re doing that I think could be really cool and beneficial for the students is we’re partnering with the career center and alumni relations to offer some shadowing opportunities for students,” Bath said. “We’re reaching out to a lot of alumni who have law degrees and use their law degrees to develop some opportunities for students to see them at work and kind of get a sense of how the law works and how their law degree could work if they choose to take that route.”
With 30 out of 31 seniors being accepted into law school in the last five years, Concordia’s pre-law program has a stunning track record. With this new society, Nuhring, Johnson and Bath all hope to bring more awareness to the program and maybe attract students who aren’t aware of the possibilities that a law degree has to offer.
“We want to continue what we do well and also broaden our offerings for students who have an interest in the law,” Bath said.
