In this special episode of Legally Bond, we get a chance to hear from Bond's newest associates and associate trainees. David Burgio, Christopher Corona, Christopher Cruz Sierra, Connor Ingerson, Connor Johnson, Ryan Marquette, Victoria Okraszewski, Camisha Parkins, Katherine Ramos and Paige Roseman share what advice they'd impart on their 1L selves and why they are excited to be a part of the Bond team.
In this special episode of Legally Bond, we get a chance to hear from Bond's newest associates and associate trainees. David Burgio, Christopher Corona, Christopher Cruz Sierra, Connor Ingerson, Connor Johnson, Ryan Marquette, Victoria Okraszewski, Camisha Parkins, Katherine Ramos and Paige Roseman share what advice they'd impart on their 1L selves and why they are excited to be a part of the Bond team.
Hello and welcome to Legally Bond, a podcast presented by the law firm Bond, shennik and King. I'm your host, kim Wolf Price. Each fall, larger law firms like Bond from across the United States welcome their new class of associates. These are recent law graduates who have just taken the bar exam and are beginning their legal careers. The new class of associates, many of whom are associate trainees awaiting bar exam results, started with Bond last week. This is always an exciting time at the firm as we get to know them and help them acclimate to life as a lawyer. In this very special episode of Legally Bond, you will be hearing from many of them with their thoughts as they begin the practice of law. We thank those who participated and we thank you for listening as we welcome this wonderful group of new graduates to the firm.
Speaker 2:My name is David Bergio. I went to the University at Buffalo School of Law and I'll be working in Buffalo office. I think the most intriguing thing about Bond was the mentorship. You know there's a great collaborative environment and I think that Bond as a firm definitely avoids a lot of the stereotypes of big law, you know, with a sink or swim type of firm, so there's a lot of great people to work with and doors are always open for your concern. It's definitely very good to see, you know, older attorneys, more experienced, giving their knowledge to us.
Speaker 3:Hi, my name is Chris Corona. I'm from Syracuse area. I graduated from Boston College Law. In 2023. I will also be in the Syracuse office area. I think one of the things that I would say to my 1L self would be to get involved in the community. Definitely join as many clubs as you possibly can, talk to as many different people, and I would really stress to myself the importance of that first year. I really think that that first year is a unique opportunity where you get to meet so many different people and you know friendships start to get formed very early on and it's way easier in the beginning to make kind of all sorts of friends where, if you wait a little bit too long, those friendships get a little bit more established.
Speaker 4:So my name is Christopher Cruz. I graduated from the Florida State University's College of Law and I'll be working out of the Garden City office. So right now the area that interests me the most is education law, particularly because before law school I was a teacher. So I got my bachelor's in mathematics education and yeah, that's why I went to law school to kind of shape policy, hopefully in the future. But right now I just want to get my feet wet in the education law field.
Speaker 5:Hello, my name is Connor Ingerson, I am in the Syracuse office for Bond and I am a Syracuse University College of Law 2023 graduate. The advice that I would give to my 1L self would be becoming being a first-generation law student was to be more confident and more outgoing, because, as far as my law school experience went, the more outgoing I was, the more people I connected with, the more friends that I made and the more lessons that I learned. And, as far as confidence goes, everyone is in the same boat. I remember dreading my first cold call and actually it going relatively well for a 1L, but really just being more confident and being more sure of myself and really looking to grow both as an individual and as a lawyer.
Speaker 6:Yeah, my name is Connor Johnson. I went to the university at Buffalo, graduated there this past May and I will be working at the Rochester office. Yeah, so I'm most excited about getting back into like that teamwork environment. Before law school I coached college football for five years and have been kind of searching for that like combination of like the due diligence in the work while collaborating with other people and like that team-oriented scope, and, based off my previous experience with Bond, that seems like that's a perfect fit.
Speaker 7:So Hello, my name is Ryan Marquette. I am a Syracuse College of Law 2022 grad and I am pleased to be placed in the Syracuse office here at Bond. I love Bond's outreach in the community. My wife and I have been settled here in Syracuse since 2018 and our involvement in the community means a lot to us. So definitely attracted to the outreach and different events and how involved Bond is in the community, I would say on top of that, I'm really interested in the focus on professional development that Bond has. It was the first law firm in my research as a 1L, rising 2L that focused on professional development and I absolutely love the concept of rotating amongst our five major departments here in Syracuse. It's an opportunity to develop and grow and just learn from each area, from each practice area of law and, in addition, really get to know each other in each department and what capability everybody brings to the table so that we can really emphasize that one firm approach here at Bond.
Speaker 8:Hi, I'm Victoria Okrzewski. I went to New York Law School and I will be in the Buffalo office. So one thing about Bond since I interviewed was it was a very collaborative environment. I felt warmed and welcome, which is something that I was definitely looking for, especially starting this career, and I just so happened to land a role in a practice area that I was interested in, so the Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Practice Area, and I'm really excited because this area is just still really emerging and, just speaking to Jessica and Amber and Shannon, it just it seems going to be like it's a great experience. I'm going to get the client facing role. Early on, I was told and, yeah, during my 1L I was so hyper focused on what everyone else was doing because it is a very competitive environment but one thing that the only thing you can control is yourself what you're doing to prepare for your final exams, making sure you participate, you're prepared. So control the controllable. That's my biggest takeaway and what I would give to anyone else.
Speaker 9:My name is Camisha Parkins. I went to Syracuse University College of Law and I'll be working out of Bond's New York City office. What I would say to my 1L self is to give yourself grace, because 1L year is quite intense and you know, I started my law school journey during COVID and so I was alone a lot of the time. The stresses that I endured was experienced alone, and I was really really worried a lot about how well I was doing on assignments. I was studying enough, and so you know, now that I'm here studying my law career with Bond, everything worked out, and so I would just say to give yourself grace and be patient.
Speaker 10:Hello, my name is Kathy Ramos and I went to Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, florida, and the Bond office I will be working at is the Naples office. What most excites me about starting my liberal career at Bond is the mentorship and being part of a bigger team. Great. The advice that I would give to my 1L self would be to make time for myself, to take breaks and to not panic. It is okay not to know the answer, because most likely none of your other peers in your 1L class know the answer either.
Speaker 11:I'm Paige Roseman. I went to the UB School of Law and completed my JD MBA there, and I will be working out of the Buffalo office. I am most excited about working with people I've been working with. I was here over the summer and had the privilege of working during the semester, and I chose Bond based on the interview process during the OCI's. I love the people, I gravitated towards them and I'm excited most about continuing to work with them here. I pre-law school was a human resources major, so Labor and Employment has been calling my name since undergrad and I will be joining the Labor and Employment practice.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning into this episode of Legally Bond. If you're listening and have any questions for me, want to hear from someone at the firm or have suggestions for a future topic, please email us at LegallyBond at bskcom. Also, don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to Legally Bond wherever podcasts are downloaded. Until our next talk, be well.
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