Networking

Loyola provides a multitudes of networking opportunities. I would like to start with the most obvious, the alumni mentor program. The school will try to pair up participating students with alumni mentors who graduated from Loyola. The pairings are often made through considerations on background and areas of interest. My mentor is amazing, often touching base with me regarding school life and classwork. He even gave me a tour of his office. Although he does not work in the area that I am primarily interested in, it really gave me a new perspective on keeping an open mind towards various practices of law (he originally was interested in criminal law like me but ultimately works in health law now).

There are also numerous panels and lunches on various subjects such as judicial externships, immigration law, etc. These panels often include Loyola Alumni, but also includes lawyers from other schools. The primary aspect of these panels are to provide insight on the areas of discussion for the day, which really allows me to have a better grasp on the day to day life of a lawyer or how the particular area of law is typically practiced. These are extremely helpful for a clueless student like me who never knew how anything worked before attending law school. Regarding the alumni, they genuinely care about giving back to the school and guiding the path for future students. There is one Bankruptcy Judge who has appeared in numerous events, including spring orientation, a clerkship panel, and the government fair. Her willingness to help students, giving her email out to every single student at orientation, was quite touching. When it comes to networking in general and the school’s own alumni network, Loyola is simply fantastic.