Jordan Carter, L’15
3L savors practical opportunities in welcoming environment
As an undergraduate, Jordan Carter studied problems. The third-year law student majored in women and gender studies and psychology, becoming well-versed in social injustices. After graduation, she wanted to explore the other side of that coin.
“It taught me how to read and read and read and write a lot,” Carter said of her liberal arts background. “But we never really talked about solutions and how to make an impact. Law school has been a fun change. We focus a lot more on solutions and remedies to those problems.”
Carter admits that choosing a law school was a stressful process, but visiting her top choices helped her find the best fit. “I was looking for a place where I felt comfortable with the people – where I was inspired by them but could see myself being friends with them too,” she said.
Courses at most law schools are similar, so what sets them apart are the people and the opportunities for practical experience, Carter said. She found both at KU, plus a price tag that wouldn’t leave her a quarter of a million dollars in debt like other schools she considered.
“At other places, I could just feel the stress of law school and the underlying competition,” she said. “It seemed like their worlds revolved around grades and classes and rankings. To a certain extent you can’t avoid that, but in Lawrence people had more of a balance in their lives and that was something I wanted in my own law school experience.”
Hands-on learning opportunities also set KU apart. Carter participated in the Judicial Clinic and the Project for Innocence and interned twice with the Kansas City law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon.
“You want to be in a place that welcomes you and wants you to succeed.”
“You’re thrown into real work,” Carter said of her internship experience. In just a few summer months she drafted memos, worked on demonstratives for personal injury trials and wrote state surveys for clients wanting to learn about regulations. “People told me before law school that it was nothing like practicing, but my experiences have carried over. The things I was writing in my Lawyering class are very similar to what they expect here. It’s been comforting and exciting to see that we are actually being prepared for working at a big firm.”
Carter encourages anyone struggling with their law school decision to come to Lawrence. “Visit, and you will immediately feel the community that exists,” she said. “You want to be in a place that welcomes you and wants you to succeed, not like you’re another tuition payment. I did not think I would be at a school where almost every professor knows my name and wants to know how I’m doing. If you’re going to invest three years and a lot of money, you want a place you like, where they like you.”