Meet Erin. She’s a third-year law student at IU McKinney, and she’s been helping the Johnson Jensen team and clients as a summer associate. She was born in the same hospital as Travis (just a few decades away) in Lafayette, and in her spare time, she enjoys yoga and tennis.
Today, Erin shares her advice for pursuing a career in law and tells us what it’s really like to work with Bob and Travis.
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What led you to pursue a law career?
I majored in anthropology and minored in biology and Spanish while I was at Indiana University in Bloomington. Then I spent two summer fellowships at the Mayo Clinic doing biomedical research. I was close with my boss there, and she told me I should look into law school as a way of incorporating my analytical, scientific background with my interest in law. I spoke with my pre-law advisor at IU, took the LSAT, and now I can’t imagine doing anything else.
What interests you about studying law?
I love studying how the laws affect people and society and how people and society affect the law. There are a lot of constants in law, but it’s also constantly evolving. It’s interesting to see the human dynamic of it and to understand how society functions within a legal context.
What’s a typical day at Johnson Jensen like for you?
I do the typical associate tasks like legal research and memo writing. I also accompany Bob and Travis to meetings with clients, depositions, mediations, settlement conferences, etc. Bob recently argued before the Indiana Supreme Court, and it was an amazing opportunity to watch my boss in action in the highest state court.
I’m also helping with other things such as jury research. Jury research is a new project for the firm, and it’s becoming an increasingly useful tool for firms across the country, so it’s interesting as young attorney to see how that works.
What are Bob and Travis like as attorneys?
Bob is very well-spoken and clearly knows what he’s talking about. He’s a compelling advocate for his clients. Travis is great at analyzing legal issues and crafting the right questions to get to the bottom of an issue. Each of them have their clients’ best interest at heart, and you can see that by the way they interact with clients and how they fight for their clients.
They also treat their staff well. That’s incredibly important because the paralegals and legal assistants play such a significant role within a law office, and I don’t think this firm would be such a great place to work if Bob and Travis didn’t treat everyone with respect. When everyone is working hard and harmoniously, the clients receive great legal representation.
What are the most important lessons you’ve learned from observing them?
Work hard and be prepared. Be firm in your convictions and sure of yourself. Always keep a good head on your shoulders. Know when to push forward and when to say stop. Be a good advocate; don’t be greedy or lazy. But also enjoy life and the people around you.