This week in the Law School Insider I am bringing you Angela Tormey who is a 2nd year law student at Cooley Law School. Angela took some time to talk to me today about her own journey into law school as well as the transition that she went through from being active duty in the military into becoming a law student.
Angela Tormey spent a number of the years as an active duty military member, and when her time was up, she was looking for the next step in her journey in life. While part of this was to become a mother, the other was to take the LSAT and then make the decision to jump into law school.
You might guess that the transition from being in a military environment to law school might be a scary one to go through and you would be correct. Angela Tormey mentioned that when you leave military life "you go from an environment where everything is prescribed to one that is much more open and you are given a ton of autonomy." Law school was an environment that brought this routine back into her life. As she reflected, "Law school takes discipline and you have to set up routines to be successful".
Luckily for Angela Tormy she had set up routines as a part of her Bachelors degree while being in the military and being a young mom. Because of this previous experience, her transition to law school was not as difficult as it was for other students. The hardest part she found was just not having someone over you like you have in the military making sure that you are staying in line or completing tasks, instead it is all on you.
As you are thinking about law school Angela Tormey said there are a number of things that she wished that she had done differently, but the biggest one was to make sure you are listening and trusting your professors. She said that this was something that she wished she had done more of sooner. "Professors teach you from the beginning to question everything, they are not there to trick you or make you feel stupid." Instead, Angela Tormey stated that professors "want to know that you are learning from them and your classmates.
In regards to the professors that Angela Tormey has had she found that she was surprised by a few things including that:
- law school professors are human
- law school professors have gone through law schools just like we have
- law school professors feel things just like we feel things
- law school professors have questioned everything
- law school professors have experienced almost every type of situation that you will encounter in law school
In the end Angela Tormey stated that law school comes down to not - are you smart enough to go to law school but rather:
- Are you able to do the work?
- Are you determined enough to do the work?
- Are you willing to do the work?
If you want to learn more about Angela Tormey, you can in a recent article about her: Military Feature Angela Tormey: Just a small town country girl looking to make her mark on the world
Did you like this interview? Leave a comment below to let me know!
Are you a practicing lawyer? A law student? Would you like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of the Law School Insider? Send me an email at lawschoolinsider@cooley.edu