The Real Law School Experience with Sarah Atkinson

Episode Notes

Transcript

[Music]

Intro: Welcome to the official ABA Law Student Podcast, where we talk about issues that affect law students and recent grads, from finals and graduation, to the bar exam and finding a job. This show is your trusted resource for the next big step. You’re listening to the Legal Talk Network.

DeMario Thornton: Hello everyone and welcome to the ABA’s Law Student Podcast, oh my God, we have a riveting thought provoking compelling interview for you today. She is a best-selling author, revered legal scholar and I hear she’s been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Sarah Atkinson: Oh, this is the first I’m hearing of this, that’s exciting, thank you.

DeMario Thornton: Oh I’m so sorry, they have mixed my paperwork, oh no —

Sarah Atkinson: Oh no.

DeMario Thornton: Ladies and gentlemen we have Sarah Atkinson, if you don’t know her, you will know her one day, she is a 3L at the University of Alabama School of Law and one of my dearest friends. I had the opportunity of meeting Sarah when I summered — did I sound so pump  when I said summered, in the Hamptons. When I summered my first year of law school and she was just an amazing being. So, welcome Sarah.

Sarah Atkinson: Thank you DeMario. I’m so excited to be here.

DeMario Thornton: I know. So today is going to be an easy breezy beautiful. But I’m going to start out with the first question. So, let’s talk about the adversary system and the necessity for confidentiality. Is it proper? Do you believe in a geopolitical — I’m lying —

Sarah Atkinson: I cannot stand you. Let me bring out my case, real quick.

DeMario Thornton: Okay —

Sarah Atkinson: You’re wrong for that.

DeMario Thornton: That would’ve been a great way to like really get you —

Sarah Atkinson: I would’ve had network problems, we would’ve been —

DeMario Thornton: If not networking, what’s going to work —

Sarah Atkinson: Oh we’re breaking up.

DeMario Thornton: So Sarah, I truly connected with you because when I got to my summer internship, I thought everybody was going to be like just super smart and I found that —

Sarah Atkinson: That’s where you’re saying you’re not.

DeMario Thornton: No seriously like I truly believe that I wouldn’t be the only person to have personality and I’m not kidding like not in a narcissistic type of way, I just thought I was a rarity and like I was just smart by myself and I was the only person that had like personality and I was so shocked when I met other people that were as smart as me and had personality and didn’t want to talk about like descents and opinions, they want to talk about The Real Housewives and Big Brother —

Sarah Atkinson: Yes of course.

DeMario Thornton: So like what made you want to go to law school?

Sarah Atkinson: Yeah, okay first let me say, you are social and you are unique just because other people have personality, does not make you any less, okay? And I agree I feel like meeting you was such a light to my summer that made it so much better. So okay, let’s go back, let’s rewind. So I took a gap year between undergrad and law school and I’ll do the short version but basically, my senior year I was majoring in communications at Auburn University or Eagle so yeah, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my major and I thought about doing PR like public relations, and I had an internship in New York and it was so great and so fun and so glamorous just like, okay, this isn’t personal enough, I feel like very disconnected from my clients. Like I kind of want to — I want to find something else within the realm of communications. And so then I thought okay maybe I’ll do therapy because as you know, I love to have like deep conversations like get to know people and help people.

DeMario Thornton: Yes.

Sarah Atkinson: But then that felt way too personal and I knew that I would be like one-on-one helping people back sending them back into situations and back into systems whatever that was going to put them back where they were and it would help them individually. But I think I would have gotten frustrated with the fact that there was like a ceiling to my helpfulness. And so, I had a conversation with a judge in my hometown from Andalusia, Alabama.

DeMario Thornton: Shout out to Andalusia.

Sarah Atkinson: Shout out Andalusia, it is the smallest town in the whole entire world and it is wonderful, but I was lucky enough one of my dad’s friend is a judge here and I was telling him, every time I get home and go get lunch and so I was like hey I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life which was a very typical conversation, and he is like you should consider law school and that was December of my senior year of college so didn’t have time to like study LSAT or do anything like that. So I started talking to people and getting to know more attorneys and lawyers and asking them questions and figuring out what exactly they did and the more I learn, the more I kind of I’ve realized that it was as — that the law was a good intersection of my skills and passions.

(00:05:06)

And so I was like this is a cool way for me to be able to help people. Like I want to do but also where I can read and write and I enjoyed the advocating side of the wall like I want to be an advocate for people and I want to change systems. So this is a cool way. And whether I do that at first or whether I do that eventually there’s going to be no ceiling to the type of help that I can have. So took a gap year. And then was looking at schools wanted to be in the Southeast, because I know I want to live close to home because I love my family so much. So I was looking really in Alabama and Georgia and then landed on the University of Alabama which is wonderful that I went to Auburn for undergrad. So, you know, the big rivalry it’s been interesting, but it’s been great. But that’s a long story. I said I was going to do the short version but there was it is.

DeMario Thornton: That was short, that was pretty short, that was short. I think it was short. Let’s talk about you get to law school because like I feel like we have like personalities and you get to law school and if I can say who you were, I would say you are a mix of Lindsay Lohan and the Gothic Girl from Mean Girls.

Sarah Atkinson: Oh my gosh, Janis?

DeMario Thornton: Yeah, Janis. But just in a way like you’re the cool outsider that everyone wants inside. So like did you have when you got to Alabama, was it culture shock? Or was it cool for you — Alabama Law School, was it culture shock or you were like cool, it’s whatever.

Sarah Atkinson: Well, I didn’t know anyone starting law school. Like I looked through they send out like a list of all the people who are going to be in my class. And I did not recognize a single name which was really overwhelming. I thought surely, I would know someone from Auburn because, you know, it’s like a lot of people who go to Auburn go to Alabama, but it was kind of, it was kind of a shock, and there were a lot of people knew each other from undergrad or just like various things in law school in my class and so — and it was Zoom like I don’t know, it was in the middle of COVID, I started —

DeMario Thornton: Yes, I forgot, we’re COVID babies.

Sarah Atkinson: So we were in like we had masks on and we had to sit six feet apart and several of our classes were on Zoom. So it’s really hard to meet people and get to know people which as you know, that’s hard for my type of personality, like, I would’ve get to know everyone and I want to talk and chat and let’s get to know each other and why are you here like what do you want to do with this. But yeah, it was really hard at first, but I think it was hard for everyone and so I was kind of glad that I didn’t know anyone and didn’t have anybody to like lean on. It was just kind of on my — as Taylor Swift says, you’re on your own kid. And you’ve always been on your — I don’t know what she said it’s something like that. But anyway, it was a little overwhelming at first but I think my saving grace ended up being the older students, like the 20’s and 30’s and just reaching out to random ones of them and getting their advice on things. But it was great. It worked out. I’ve had a great time.

DeMario Thornton: Of course, you have. Okay. So let’s talk about — so that first year, I don’t know 1L to just like crazy breakdown like, how was that first year for you mentally?

Sarah Atkinson: It was bad. I would say it was past five closer to crazy breakdown. It wasn’t in the like did mental health of the school. I was definitely, I remember it my mom was so worried about me when I was in my first year of law school and because I mean, I feel like we have bubbly personalities and any time we’re probably struggling with something, we don’t want to let people in on that like — like it’s kind of like oh I can put a mask on, I can the positive in this like this is a challenge for me, but I know how to do that.

DeMario Thornton: Yep.

Sarah Atkinson: And it was really hard, especially during COVID and when I was just reading all the time and still felt like I was behind all the time and actually after my first year, I put my like I had an Instagram post of the like of a recap of the year and I like my caption was went all the series of highs and lows and it was like a fun picture and then a picture of me crying and then a fun picture and a picture of me crying. Yeah, it was really hard and I think it’s a universal experience and the beauty of law school is everyone who’s there is also struggling and having a terrible time. And so, you can kind of commiserate when you make friends and get to know people in your class. But yeah, I would say definitely closer to the full mental breakdown.

DeMario Thornton: So Sarah, you’ve gotten through your gap year, you start law school. At what point do you find out okay, now I have to find a job for the rest of my life during this first year of law school.

Sarah Atkinson: Yes. Add to the stress of not knowing what’s going on. Now you need to find a job that’s going to be where you work for the rest of your life.

(00:10:00)

So that was the one things like I mentioned before having older students like 20s and 30s as kind of my mentors, they told me that I can think about it until Christmas break they kind stress, like the importance of grades, your first semester, so they said focus on that, study, study, study, and then every Christmas break we can talk about it. So it’s probably this time my 1L in a year like around, December, January.

DeMario Thornton: Me too.

Sarah Atkinson: And I was freaking out because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t know what type of law I wanted to practice and as you know a lot of people in law school, it’s been their dream forever and ever and so they kind of have an idea of what they want to do because of my unique path to law school I certainly had no idea. So I got overwhelmed with the possibilities because you know, the law touches every aspect of life so you can really practice it wherever you want. So yeah, it was probably this time when I started freaking out and trying to figure out where to work and want to do.

DeMario Thornton: So our listeners, they’re listening. So you’ll you will hear this episode in March but around this time it is a few days after Christmas. So when you’re listening to this, if you’re just now joining us, you probably should have start looking for —

Sarah Atkinson: Hopefully you’ve already at least started looking, maybe you have something one.

DeMario Thornton: You have offers or something coming up because —

Sarah Atkinson: And if you don’t, look through, we’ll work.

DeMario Thornton: Listen, it’s okay, I promise because you will find what you need to if you just start. So get through the process or whatever like that, and I don’t want to toot our own horn, but I feel like we will be working at a pretty good firm. Like, did you know this was the firm that you were trying to get it or you’re just like I’ll just throw my head in?

Sarah Atkinson: So Alabama has or Alabama Law School I guess I should clarify, has a really great career services office like CSO. And so they kind of have this portal where we could log in and they have on campus interviews from a lot of firms which is I don’t know if that’s like a universal thing for law schools but that was such a blessing to me because I had no — I didn’t even know my options and so that logging on to that portal was really the first time I got to see the names of firms, and you could kind of do it by geographic region and so I narrowed it to Alabama, Georgia. I mean, that was when I started looking and I could see the names of the firms, but I didn’t know anything about them. So I’ve spent so many hours Googling firms and trying to figure out what they did and if I knew anybody who worked there and talking to the older students and figuring out where they worked, if they had opinions on different firms. But yeah, I didn’t really have any preference of where I worked. I just knew there were some older students who worked at the firm that we’re working at and I really like them and respected them and knew what they were doing until I kind of talking to them and hearing about their experience only through my desire to want to work there.

DeMario Thornton: So you get to your summer — you’ve completed your first year of law school. You’re still living. You get to your clerkship through summer at the firm that you’ll be. Is it overwhelming? Are you prepared from 1L year? Do you have imposter syndrome? What are you feeling at this point?

Sarah Atkinson: Here’s some imposter syndrome, it was really fun to be in Birmingham because a lot of my friends were from Auburn, from undergrad were there so that was a little bit comforting, it was completely just like super overwhelming, but working at a firm and doing actual legal work was really scary and I felt like such an imposter —

DeMario Thornton: That is news to me because I started my summer position a week before Sarah came in and there were probably seven of us and we were off from like different schools. So we were able to like, can I get to know each other on a like a less intense level and then the next week, all of the Alabama students came in, they were like 13 or 14 and I was so intimidated even though I knew the lay of the land, I was so intimidated because they all stayed like in a circle talking to each other but now looking back I didn’t know that you all just you might not have known each other but you’ve just felt more comfortable because you all knew we came from the same place and we have that like commonality. So like on the outside looking in, I did not know that but it looks like you all were like super comfortable.

Sarah Atkinson: Well, and I think that that’s the danger of law school and of doing anything within the legal profession is, people can fake it till they make it. And I like again, like I can put on a show like I will — I’m not going to let anybody know that I’m feeling uncomfortable.

(00:15:00)

DeMario Thornton: I can second that.

Sarah Atkinson: Well, I mean, I think that’s the beauty of friendships in law school and community and finding people like they were people from Alabama who were working at the firm that we were at and I didn’t know them, like the older students, I knew probably two of them. And so I kind of saw that as an opportunity to get to know them and then realize very quickly that it was — we were clicking up and I hate that as my pet peeve. And so I — anyway, I tried to make a conscious effort to like go out of my way and like, get to know other people because I’ve been this like, starting law school at Alabama, didn’t know anyone and I was so intimidated by groups of people who are only grouping together because they were in like — and there was like, oh we have a commonality we can sit and talk about Alabama or like we can sit and talk about undergrad. I don’t know, that’s just intimidating, it’s unfair. So I was like okay I’m going to go — and so there’s so many people here who I want to get to know just as much as the people who I go to school with. So why would I limit myself to just talking to people who are going to school with and then that’s how I met you and oh what a treat.

DeMario Thornton: Yes, we went to lunch, they like paired us together for lunch and we were just talking and talking and talking and by the end, Sarah would have a note, was your note say like don’t talk to me because I have no self-control all the time.

Sarah Atkinson: I was like, please don’t talk to me, I have no self-control, I’m trying to get work done, don’t speak to me, I’ll talk for you in three hours.

DeMario Thornton: And the second year, Sarah would have a sign-in sheet like if you’re going to talk to me, write it down the time that you came in, the time that you came out because like I have to memorialize when I’m talking to people and when I’m not working.

Sarah Atkinson: Right, I was like these people, they’re not going to hire me because I’m not getting any work done. I need to show them that I’m doing something.

DeMario Thornton: So we will be right back after these messages.

[Music]

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DeMario Thornton: Okay, so we are going to go into the second year of law school. You’ve been through your summer associate ship, you’ve spent an amazing summer, you’ve been taken out, you’ve been wined and dined, you’ve meant all the great people. I want to know, did you have the same feeling as me? I had the feeling like someone gave me a taste of a lifestyle that like literally crumbs of a lifestyle and if I did not get the grades, it was almost worse if I did not live up to what I needed it’s like, did you have that feeling going back to your second year?

Sarah Atkinson: Yeah, well and that was the scary thing is you made the grades, you’ve done whatever you need to do to get there but then it’s like, oh well now I have to maintain it. Well, I think again everyone in law school has some type of pressure whether it’s internal or external and luckily (00:18:47) was not for my parents, it was all internal pressure and I didn’t even know what I wanted to do. So it was weird like I didn’t have the pressure until after the first summer. And I was like, oh this is — I love working at this place. I love working at this firm. These people are wonderful, they’re so nice. They have families. There’s a little bit of work life balance like this is great. Like I want to be here, but it could be taken for me and like, I have that irrational —

DeMario Thornton: Oh no, it’s rational, it’s rational, I feel like it’s rational.

Sarah Atkinson: Well, and it was scary because I had gone from putting my like, this is getting deep and whatever, but like, I’ve gone from putting my identity just like being an attorney to like being an attorney at x firm.

DeMario Thornton: Yes.

Sarah Atkinson: And so then it goes to, I had shifted my priorities, my like sense of self-worth into I can — I will only be successful if I work here. When six months ago, I didn’t even know that place existed.

DeMario Thornton: You know, that is so crazy because I was so attached to like, yes, being an attorney at this particular firm because the experience that I had but luckily I took a class called Law Office Practice during my first semester in my second year.

00:20:00

And it at least gave me the confidence to believe regardless, if I get here or not, I can do this on my own, like I have all the tools to do this on my own. So it did give me a little bit of security to know like that’s not the end all be all while it’s an amazing place, I love it, I love the people and everything. I still have to know that things change and like you still have to be comfortable with, you know, all the tools and all the knowledge that you have.

Sarah Atkinson: Right, well, I think like a big thing for me throughout law school, especially after the first year when all I did was study and think about law school to the second year where it was like a big focus making grades but I think I kind of learned how to shift my perspective a little bit. Like you were saying it’s all going to work it out. Like I’m going to have a legal degree, like I’m going to be a lawyer. I’m going to have these tools, these experiences, these skills to be successful no matter what I do, and yes, I have this goal of working at this firm but every time I talk to an attorney, they’re saying like oh that’s a great firm and that’s all they said like they know the prestige of this place, they don’t work there and they’re fine. And so it’s like, oh, I think I need to shift how I’m seeing the situation and how I’m seeing putting the pressure on myself because yeah, I want to work there and it would be an incredible opportunity but at the end of the day it’s really not the end of the world if it doesn’t work out which is not something that I ever came to terms with because I was determined to not let that happen. It’s easier said than done.

DeMario Thornton: Yeah, so it’s like that first year is more so like you’re just fighting in the dark not knowing but that second year you see something that you want and you’ve obtained a piece of it and you want to try to like I truly feel like our friendship is like when someone freezes their eggs, it’s like during the school year.

Sarah Atkinson: What a weird analogy.

DeMario Thornton: It’s like during the school year, we might not talk or text all the time because we’re like so focused on school, but like when we see each other it’s like —

Sarah Atkinson: It’s game right there.

DeMario Thornton: We come back our second year and we are the big kids on campus. We come back that seconds and we are mentoring one else, we are —

Sarah Atkinson: We are offering unsolicited advice left and right.

DeMario Thornton: Like you should do — I like to do my memos like this.

Sarah Atkinson: Here are the people you need to talk.

DeMario Thornton: No, it’s serious because like we literally the first year we’re like kind of like scared and we’re just kind of like close the door, scared but that second year we had like the confidence of whatever.

Sarah Atkinson: It was wonderful.

DeMario Thornton: But we still were scared to see if we were going to get that offer.

Sarah Atkinson: So scary, so scary.

DeMario Thornton: And we would talk through every bit of why we would not get it.

Sarah Atkinson: Well and then I think midway through we had to shift our perspective, change our way of thinking, and say, okay, what have we done why are we qualified for this job. And that was really helpful to me, when we would sit in an office and shut the door and be like, okay, here’s the thing I’m about to start crying.

DeMario Thornton: And we with even boost our sales up to like we are the future, we are the future, we have so much personality, we attract, I mean, I won’t say we were delusional.

Sarah Atkinson: Maybe.

DeMario Thornton: Yeah, just it hits me like they need us, they’d be so lucky like what, you know?

Sarah Atkinson: Right. And I think that’s — again the beauty of community and the beauty of having friends and having people who are going through the same experiences, to be able to have this like completely unhinged conversation because the hallway of a law firm. Be like, okay, I’m about to start crying so can you gas me up to an unhealthy —

DeMario Thornton: No, if you’re listening to this seriously while having a summer associate position is so much fun or whatever, you do have bouts of insanity where you’re like I’m not going to get it because I mean ultimately you’re always thinking about the job, you’re there because you think you know, you want to get a job offer so for someone else to validate your feelings and like no you’re not crazy. I think the first year, your more so internalizing being scared, you don’t know, everybody’s having a — because nobody wants to play, show their cards but the second year it’s more so like, oh my God, can we get this, like it’s more of a team effort of insanity, you know?

Sarah Atkinson: Right. Right.

DeMario Thornton: We are okay telling each other we’re crazy.

Sarah Atkinson: And I think another key going into that and like, you talk about our personality and like we’re fun and we’re so great. But like I think that’s the beauty of law school and the beauty of having a summer associate ship if that’s the term.

DeMario Thornton: That’s the term.

Sarah Atkinson: Like knowing your strengths and knowing what you bring to the table I think is so important because there were so many people who were also summers who were so much smarter than me and like it’s like it’s easy to play the comparison game.

(00:25:07)

Until like oh, they are so much better at talking to the partners than I am or they have so many more connections than I do or like the list goes on, they have better work clothes than me like their shoes are always amazing, like their hair is always perfect.

DeMario Thornton: People get selected to do certain things, you get to go different places like I went to pottery, Sarah went to a concert and I’m like, I’m out, I’m done.

Sarah Atkinson: Right, right.

DeMario Thornton: And you have to — you do have to have a bit of like something to bounce it off with like no, I’m overthinking it and someone else to say to you, like I’m overthinking it, it’s okay.

Sarah Atkinson: Yeah, and well, you know, the old saying like comparison is the thief of joy.

DeMario Thornton: I was going to say that but I couldn’t remember that.

Sarah Atkinson: That is so true. And especially in summer and in the law school in general. But you have to know yourself, you have to know who you are and do a little of those self-reflection of this is who I am like I am going to be an incredible attorney and if they recognize that, great, and if they don’t, that’s fine.

DeMario Thornton: Yeah exactly.

Sarah Atkinson: But I’m going to me, I’m not going to try to be someone else because then they’re going to hire me thinking of someone else and then I had to keep up this façade for the entirety of my career.

DeMario Thornton: And if you are 1L prepared for a summer associate ship, we’re just going to with through, we’re going to with the term, deal all those emotions, and be authentically yourself.

Sarah Atkinson: Find your people, find the confidant like find someone to talk to that you can trust and it’s like a mutually like we’re both sharing our struggles situation because there were some people who I would like vent to and then they wouldn’t vent back and that made me feel worse.

DeMario Thornton: That is scary.

Sarah Atkinson: It is like, oh so you are perfect. And DeMario is like, I’m going to lose this job, and I’m all my clothes — like I’m so fat and I’m so ugly and I’m so dumb, and it’s like you’re none of those things, but thank you for sharing.

DeMario Thornton: Thank you for sharing. It’s hilarious when you think about it. So spoiler alert guys, we got the job, yay, we get the job. We’ve done two years of interviews. We’ve been on countless everything. So we got the job and now I believe I’m going to put you on a cliffhanger and we’ll take a quick break.

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DeMario Thornton: Alright, so we’ve gotten the jobs and they basically are like yeah just graduate, passed the bar.

Sarah Atkinson: Just as simple as that.

DeMario Thornton: Going to go into the wild. It’s time for 3L year. So we are 3Ls now. How are you feeling? What are you feeling? What’s going on?

Sarah Atkinson: Well so okay, you know the thing that’s like 1L they’ll scare you to death. 2L they’ll work you to death. 3L they’ll bore you to death. We also say 3LOL, like in your third year you should be LOL-ing and having fun. And I’m fully leaning into that. So I’m having so much fun. I’m taking classes that I took family law, last semester because it’s on the bar. And then I took sales because I’ll be working in like financial things so I figured I need to know a little UCC. But anyway, I’m excited about 3L year and the fall was wonderful, had a great time. And in the spring, I think it’s going to be kind of a bittersweet time like I’m ready to be done and ready to start working but law school has been great for what it was and the people that I’ve met are wonderful. So it’s going to be a little Melancholy, a little bittersweet.

DeMario Thornton: Yeah, I just feel like as much as I want to just completely just relax I can’t, I don’t know what it is. I can’t just stop.

Sarah Atkinson: Yeah, I would say I still want to make good grades, and so it’s such a tease, it’s s such a tease because when finals came around, all of a sudden, I was like wait, I still had to take these exams and I still want to do well, so I need to actually sit in the library and study.

DeMario Thornton: Made a B, I had straight As and a B, I was almost in the closet just crying. Yeah, I know and it makes — and I know. And I think it’s just that internal, just that we have.

(00:30:06)

Sarah Atkinson: Right, and this unrealistic expectation that you’ve set on yourself, don’t like, oh I’m going to make straight As every single semester. That’s never been the case for me.

DeMario Thornton: Me either.

Sarah Atkinson: And like again shifting your perspective and seeing that oh my gosh, a flat B it’s not the end of the world, it’s really not, you’re going to be fine.

DeMario Thornton: Yeah, it’s not. And so we have been through three years of law school. When you’re hearing this, we are about to gear up for commencement. We are about to graduate from law school. What are your plans for your bar summer, your bar trip, anything, any plans like what do you have planned?

Sarah Atkinson: After graduation I think, I can’t decide if I’m going to move working in Birmingham, after I graduate. So can’t decide if I’m going to move to Birmingham to study for the bar, or if I’m going to just continue living in Tuscaloosa and study where I’ve been setting for the past three years.

DeMario Thornton: Okay, so let me interrupt you —

Sarah Atkinson: Please do, because I know you had advised.

DeMario Thornton: Stay where you are. Don’t come to Birmingham because I’m going to be there and we have to pass —

Sarah Atkinson: If we were together, we will having too much fun.

DeMario Thornton: Listen, stay where you are and do your thing wherever you are because I’ll be in Birmingham and I cannot —

Sarah Atkinson: No, here’s the thing, maybe we could like plan little brunch dinner, sponsoring for the bar. I’ll stay in Tuscaloosa. Or even if I’m in Birmingham I won’t tell you.

DeMario Thornton: Okay.

Sarah Atkinson: Let me know. But yeah, I don’t know what I’m going to do for my bar trip. I would love to go to Australia, because I know it sounds bizarre, I’ve always wanted to go, it’s always been number one on my bucket list and I think the reason I want to do it now is we’re never going to have this much time for a vacation.

DeMario Thornton: Not unless another lockdown comes but nope.

Sarah Atkinson: And even then we couldn’t travel.

DeMario Thornton: Nope, we couldn’t.

Sarah Atkinson: So we’ll see. That’s just a long flight and it would be a whole thing. So I’ve been talking to my mother about it and she has a million questions so you know, what about you, what are you doing?

DeMario Thornton: So I think I am going to move right before commencement. I’m going to — because I’m in Louisiana right now. I am going to study in Birmingham over the summer and I’m thinking Thailand, Europe or Australia for a trip. I don’t know —

Sarah Atkinson: I’m sorry, did you say Australia?

DeMario Thornton: Yeah.

Sarah Atkinson: I’m sorry, should we get together?

DeMario Thornton: Yeah, you know I might hop on a flight and just yeah.

Sarah Atkinson: Okay maybe we should just bar trip, do our whole bar trip together.

DeMario Thornton: Well, I’m going to multiple places.

Sarah Atkinson: Well, I’m going to multiple places.

DeMario Thornton: Okay. Yeah, sure.

Sarah Atkinson: But you don’t sound too —

DeMario Thornton: I do know — I’m going somewhere. I’m going somewhere. Yeah, so I’m excited —

Sarah Atkinson: Well that’s very exciting.

DeMario Thornton: Yeah, I’m excited about it. But this has been our time, and this has been a thought provoking, compelling, riveting conversation. Where can people find you if they are looking for random people?

Sarah Atkinson: Well, they can find me on LinkedIn, I love the LinkedIn. I’m on all the social medias as well. I feel like if you search my name Sarah Atkinson it’s going to pop up. But yeah, I’m happy to answer any questions or talk to anyone about anything. I think that’s the reason that I’ve made it through is because of the help of other people and so I think it’s the best way to do is pay it forward.

DeMario Thornton: Let me say this, if you are thinking about law school or if you are 1L or if you just like interested, I’m so serious, Sarah is probably one of the most non-judgmental people I know, I still have these cards that she put on my desk during the summer —

Sarah Atkinson: Oh my God that’s so sweet.

DeMario Thornton: It was like aforementioned of how the good person I am. Sarah thank you so much for spending time with me today, this was an amazing conversation, I’m so excited for everyone to hear about it, once again, thank you everyone and thank you for joining us. We’ll see you next month on the ABA Law Student Podcast.

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