Legally Bond
Legally Bond
An Interview with Bond's Newest Associate Trainees
In this special episode of Legally Bond, we get a chance to hear from Bond's newest class of associate trainees. Alex Casper, Leah Dawit, Ariyana DeWitz, Madison Einhorn, Josiah Elsaghir, Gavin Gretsky, Selin Ince, Jillian Jin, Jéla Paul, Colin Smith, Kymberley Walcott-Aggrey and Jackie Zahn share what advice they'd impart on their 1L selves, why they are excited to be a part of the Bond team and more.
Hello and welcome to Legally Bond, a podcast presented by the law firm Bond Cheneck King. I'm your host, kim Wolf-Price. This is our first episode back from our summer break and we wanted to let you know that the podcast will be making the move to every other week for dropping episodes for the remainder of the year. And we get to start with a fun one. Every fall, law firms and legal employers across the country welcome their new class of law school graduates into the firm At Bond. This is one of our favorite times of year. We're excited for these new professionals eagerly awaiting their bar exam results as they join us and make the transition from law school to practice. This special episode of Legally Bond will bring you their voices, the voices from the latest class of associate trainees at Bond. We look forward to them being admitted to practice and to returning to the podcast in the future to speak with us about legal issues. Now let's hear from the class of 2024.
Speaker 2:My name is Alex Casper, I'm here in the Syracuse office and I went to Albany Law. The piece of advice I would give is first, stay organized. Second, get some rest and third, just be consistent. The first couple of weeks of law school are really tricky and everybody's trying to figure it out. So if you stick to your plan and stay consistent, it'll work out for you at the end of the semester. Some well-being activities that I like to participate in as a stress relief away from law school and bar prep golfing, playing basketball, really anything outside. I took the bar in July so it was great I could really get outside and use the sunlight. You know light out till nine o'clock so we could go outside, try to golf last minute, play tennis, anything like that, just breathing in some fresh air and trying to separate yourself from your studies.
Speaker 3:Hi, I'm Leah Dawit. I went to Syracuse University College of Law and I'm going to be working in the Syracuse office. One piece of advice that I'd give to someone starting off in law school is to make sure that you don't lose the friendships that you had before you started. It's very easy to get into the nitty gritty of law school and just focus all of your energy on that, and it's really important to keep those connections that you had before law school because those are the people who are going to be there for you and know, pull you down from, like all that high stress that is in law school. For the well-being activities, I love to go to the farmer's market on saturday morning, wake up at 6am and that's a great stress reliever because you get to find good produce, focus on healthy eating and that just helps take away the stress and just bring you back down to earth and be like happy.
Speaker 4:Hello, my name is Ariana DeWitts. I graduated from the University at Buffalo School of Law and I will be entering as a fall associate for the Rochester office. Be entering as a fall associate for the Rochester office. The piece of advice I would give for starting off in law school is to prioritize your mental health. You don't want to pour from an empty cup. It's important to get the work done, but just make sure your mental health is all right and you're doing activities to fulfill yourself, to help you do the best of your abilities at school yourself. To help you do the best of your abilities at school. The well-being activities that I participated in as stress relief from law school was I did soccer during the summers when I was working, and then other activities was just reading and making sure I hung out with my family and friends adequately. The practice area that interests me today is school law. I really focused on that my second summer and I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 5:Hi, my name is Madison Einhorn. I just graduated from Hofstra Law School in Long Island, new York, and I will be joining the Garden City office. The thing I'm most looking forward to is I feel like a lot of times the law school environment is very competitive and people are sort of going against each other, whereas I'm excited to join Bond and be a team and work collaboratively with all the other employees there and associates and members, as of today, I'm really interested in working in the labor and employment group.
Speaker 6:My name is Josiah El-Sagir. I graduated from the University of Florida Levin College of Law and I'll be in the Naples Bond office. What I'm looking most forward to about being part of Team Bond is learning from the managing members and other members in the Naples office. I remember, specifically during my interview with Bond, that they conveyed a calmness and a seriousness about them that really showed me that this firm was special and different. I really just want to learn how they reach that point of competence in their career and try to integrate it into my own learning. Quite simply, I want to learn from them how to be a good lawyer, and fortunately, the practice area that interests me most is business and transactions, which is also the department that the deputy managing member, bill Owens, is in. So I feel very blessed to be where I am.
Speaker 7:My name is Gavin Gretzky. I went to Syracuse Law and just graduated this May, and I am working in the Syracuse office for Bond. So a piece of advice that I would give to anybody that's starting law school is to be consistent in whatever you do. Everybody's different. Everybody has what works for them and so it's tough to give, I think, one cure-all, golden ticket piece of advice. But find what works for you and be consistent with it, and that will help from the first day of law school all the way, I feel like, to the last day of bar prep. It's just consistently asking questions, consistently doing the work and just making sure you're accountable to yourself in that, and I think that will take you a long way through law school. It certainly helped me get to where I am, so outside of law school and bar prep to help reduce stress.
Speaker 7:I grew up very active, playing sports, being outside and so being able to continue that it just gave me an outlet where I could focus for an hour or so on something completely different.
Speaker 7:I play a lot of ice hockey and so when you're on the ice I'm a goalie.
Speaker 7:So when you're on the ice and there's shots coming at you at 80, 90 miles an hour, you can't really be thinking about the torts question that's been bugging you all day, and so just being active, doing something physical to take your mind out of whatever might be stressful that day, is something that really helped me get through law school and bar prep. As of today, the practice areas that interest me are definitely labor, litigation labor, maybe a bit on the immigration side. In my previous jobs I did some immigration casework for the House of Representatives, and so getting a taste of that work on the government side was certainly interesting, and when I was summering here last year I did some of that work as well our side of that world and so maybe continuing that. And then with litigation, my last year of law school, I was able to get some valuable experiential classroom work in the litigation world, and so that's something I'm definitely interested in exploring further as of today litigation world and so that's something I'm definitely interested in exploring further as of today.
Speaker 8:Hi, my name is Selene Ince. I went to Syracuse University College of Law and I'll be working in the Rochester, new York office. One piece of advice I would give for anyone starting off their law school career is that there's no one way to do things. Everyone will tell you when you start the right way to do things Like, for example, I was told to make flow charts and that was the best way to study, and I remember trying to make that and I was spinning my wheels and it just didn't work for me, and then I realized that's not the only way to do things, and so people will be very firm in their beliefs. However, just because somebody else is doing it doesn't mean it's the right way and that's not to be taken as Bible. And so that first semester is always going to be figuring out what works best for you and a lot of trial and error, and by your second semester you should be in the groove of things and know what works best for you.
Speaker 8:I've worked at Bond for my two summers of law school so after my 1L year and my 2L year and I've loved being a part of the Rochester office. The environment is so collegial, everyone is very friendly, everyone is very willing to help. There's a lot of social events so you can bond with your team outside of the office, which I think is super important. And just getting started with my legal career and such a great environment with people that I know are willing to mentor me and actually see me learn is something that's extremely important to me.
Speaker 9:So my name is Jillian, I graduated from Notre Dame Law School and I'm going to be in the New York City office.
Speaker 9:What I'm looking forward to the most is just working with the people in the New York City office.
Speaker 9:What I'm looking forward to the most is just working with the people in the New York City office.
Speaker 9:When I was interviewing for different offices and different firms during the summer, I really wanted to find a place that I could be long term and envision myself staying there for a very long time, and so obviously, the culture of the firm, the people that are there, play a big role in that, and luckily I was able to have my first interview in person and so just meeting everyone and realizing that you know, these people actually took the time to read my resume, they're asking personalized questions.
Speaker 9:It felt different from every other interview I had done prior to that. So the people that were there stood out to me, and then when I did my summer associate term with them, it was apparent that that culture was throughout the whole entire firm. So I think this September I'm just looking forward to seeing everyone and having the opportunity to be around such a great group of people. The practice areas I'm most interested in are definitely labor and employment and education law. I'm definitely leaning towards litigation. It's always been something that I've wanted to learn more about, so that could also be in the cards.
Speaker 10:My name is Jayla Paul. I graduated from the University at Buffalo School of Law, and I'll be working in the Rochester office. A piece of advice that I would give someone who is starting off in their law school career is to do what works best for them. Everyone learns differently and has different study methods, so just do what works best for you and once you find a method that works best for you, stick with it. Well-being activities that I participate in outside of law school include cooking, traveling, trying new restaurants and mentoring students who are interested in law school or who are currently in law school. As of today, and for the majority of my law school career, I've been interested in intellectual property, mainly trademark and copyright law.
Speaker 11:I'm Colin Smith. I went to Albany Law School and I will be in the Rochester office. Yeah, the first thing I would say is your first year really is important, especially for your future employment prospects and everything. But at the same time, don't let that pressure get to you.
Speaker 11:I would say what I did in law school that I found helped a lot was taking each day, day by day. Don't let what your peers are doing affect you and stress you out, because you know I'm there the first few weeks of school and some people will be reading two weeks ahead and I was getting stressed out. I'm thinking you know, should I be in the same place? But no, just trust yourself, trust your abilities and it'll all be fine. So pretty much, just trust yourself and take it day by day is the best advice I can give. So the best well-being activities I found in law school was honestly getting outside. If it's just putting in your headphones, going on a walk or anything active, really playing basketball During bar prep I spent some time playing tennis with my girlfriend or walking my dog Just anything active or outside I feel like just unplugging from your legal studies really helps a lot.
Speaker 12:Hello, so I'm Kim Walcott-Aggaray. I graduated from St John's Law School in Queens and I will be at the White Plains office in Westchester. A piece of advice I'd give someone starting law school is that they should strive to build a really close relationship with their professors. Obviously, the grades in law school are anonymous, so your professor doesn't necessarily know whose assignments they're grading, but there's an advantage in knowing what the professor is looking for in terms like when you write an essay or when you do an assignment, so and they can also guide you in how to just approach law school and different assignments and classes.
Speaker 12:I was inspired to pursue law because I'm a first generation law student, college student, law student all of that. There are no attorneys in my family and I really love advocating for people and I feel like working as a paralegal. It showed me that in learning to advocate for other people, you're also learning to advocate for yourself and it's also giving yourself a voice. So I think it really helped me to develop a voice for myself and also be able to represent and be a voice for others also be able to represent and be a voice for others.
Speaker 13:My name is Jackie Zahn. I graduated from the Syracuse University College of Law and I will be sitting in the Syracuse office. A piece of advice I would give an incoming 1L is to take your first year very seriously, but not too seriously. I know when I was coming in as a first year I wanted to be absolutely perfect and I think at some point you have to trust yourself that if you're doing your readings you're holding yourself accountable, that at the end of the day you will get the grade that you deserve. If you take it too seriously, then you might end up actually backfiring and overstressing yourself. As of today, the practice area that I'm leaning towards would be the litigation department, but I'm really looking forward to rotation schedule that we'll have for the next six months, where I'll be able to test out all the different areas and really gauge what I'm most interested in. But as of now, I am leaning towards litigation.
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 a suggestion 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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