In Their Own Words: Alumni in Law

Hillary Cheng '11

I'm currently preparing for the NH and MA bar exams (2014), and I'm planning on moving to Portland OR in September. I've decided to pursue a career in immigration removal defense to protect low-income individuals from deportation because I see this area as one of great need with very little attention being paid to it.

Reyna Ramirez '10

I am the development coordinator for the New England Innocence Project. We work with wrongfully convicted inmates trying to get them out of prison. It's very hard, but fulfilling work, and my experience as a sociology major definitely inspired me to help those wronged by the justice system that we, as members of society, should all be more aware of. I plan to go to law school and get my joint J.D./MSW degree so I can have a positive impact on the many ills that infect the system (JD), while being able to provide the individualized client support that is often missing from attorney client interaction (MSW).

Vanea Morrell '08

I graduated from Michigan State University College of Law in May of 2012, passed the Maryland July bar examination, and was subsequently admitted to the Maryland Bar.  I recently left my position as a judicial law clerk for the District Court of Maryland in Baltimore City to become an assistant state's attorney in Baltimore City.  

While in law school at Michigan State, I received a certificate in child and family advocacy and participated in the the Chance at Childhood Legal Clinic. While involved in the clinic, I conducted custody and guardianship reviews and researched issues concerning children and families.

Victoria Lee '05

Following my graduation from Dartmouth, I embarked on a Fulbright Fellowship in Indonesia, and obtained a masters in sociology at Yale and a law degree at Berkeley. Since then, I've utilized my sociology training in my work with the Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS initiative in Indonesia. More recently, I've combined my sociology and legal training in the field of international criminal justice while working with the United Nations Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Since 2011, I've been working as an attorney in the litigation department at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering Hale and Dorr in NYC. This fall (2014), I will begin a clerkship in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. I utilize my sociology training every day on the job. At some point, I would to return to my work at the intersection of sociology and the law.

Leah Threatte Bojnowski '01

People often assume that, as an attorney, I majored in Government. But I only took one course in that department during undergrad- I actually was sitting in a Sociology class when I decided to take the LSAT! As a litigator, I rely on my Sociology degree to help me take a large pool of data, be it numbers or a pile of documents or the transcripts of several depositions, and turn it into a narrative to make an argument.

Randy Choiniere '01

I am currently an attorney at the union SAG-AFTRA.  I am responsible for negotiating and administering union contracts for members who work in broadcasting. My work in the labor movement is directly related to a desire to combat the inequality that I studied so frequently in my sociology classes at Dartmouth. I also frequently think back to my sociology studies when grappling with the many challenges that are associated with working for such a large organization with so many overlapping layers of authority and responsibility. My work is also not divorced from the larger economic and political forces that drive our economy and the laws that govern the workplace. I am constantly thinking about power and trying to determine how to maximize our union's power to achieve its goals while operating in a rapidly changing political and economic system with many competing actors. My sociology training has helped me make sure that my everday legal work is always informed by a broader understanding of how that work is impacted at the macro level. 

Jennifer DeTrani '94

I graduated from Dartmouth as a major in sociology (modified with psychology) and philosophy.  Those were the areas of study that interested me most but I could never accurately explain why I had chosen such a major. The truth is, I didn't really choose it, it chose me.  

Years later, after receiving my law degree and practicing law in various areas - as a criminal prosecutor, a family law attorney, a mediator, a corporate attorney - it finally made sense. I now think that I majored in Human Nature. I find people fascinating; I enjoy learning how they think, what drives them, and ultimately, this has helped me succeed as an attorney in all different areas of practice. Understanding what drives a 70-year old woman to agree to act as a drug mule is just as interesting as learning why a cuckolded spouse may refuse to accept an attractive settlement offer during the dissolution process. From a business perspective, being able to relate to those you are negotiating with and finding commonalities that engender trust will ultimately benefit the transaction. From a global perspective, being able to see people for who they are - a product of their upbringings and environment - is a humanizing ability and a skill that creates compassion and empathy, which is good for the world.