Name: Kirsten Skokos
Year: Candidate for juris doctorate 3L (third year law student)
Hometown: Tampa, FL
Relationship Status: Taken
Photo By: Lauren Alsina
Her Campus (HC): I know you are currently a full time student at the College of Law, but what was it that inspired you to pursue this type of education?
Kirsten Skokos (KS): Well my dad was actually an attorney and that began to spark my interest because I liked what he did. I was, also, always good at reading and writing in school, which is basically law school. And, specifically, I’m doing business law which is more transactional work, I won’t go to trial or anything like that. But I always thought it was interesting when people would work as in-house councils for certain companies. I thought that would be really interesting work, so I think that is what helped me push into the business law side of it.
HC: What did you consider to be the benefits of a law degree?
KS: I thought this would be something interesting and something I could do a lot with. I could work for a company, I could work for a firm, I could work in a variety of different areas and I wasn’t boxed into one thing. Sometimes when you choose a specific major you are kind of like, “what am I going to do with that now?” and I feel like with a law degree it’s just open-ended. You can pretty much do anything that you want to do with that. It’s just really flexible and I like not being boxed in to one thing.
HC: Can you tell me a little bit of background information on the company that you’re interning at now and what you do with them?
KS: Domi Station is a company termed an incubator, which means that startup companies or entrepreneurs, or just anyone that wants advice or any kind of mentorship can come to us, and my job specifically is to help them with the legal questions and issues that they have. So if they want to create an app or do something through the school I would look at their contracts and help them with any other legal issues.
HC: How have you been able to manage a job, an internship and being a full-time student?
KS: During the week is a lot of work, a lot of reading; it’s very boring and very time consuming. Weekends you’ve got to let loose because you’re pent-up inside the entire week so I definitely put my books aside for the most part and go out or do fun things. Like every weekend that there was a game day, I celebrated it like it was a holiday. A lot of students won’t participate in the social aspect of law school which I think is a big mistake because a lot of times with jobs and future employment it’s all about who you know besides getting good grades and having a good resume. It’s about making these connections. If you don’t have a social life you’ll be driven crazy and be way too stressed out and not as productive as you can be. You just have to make time for it.
HC: What advice would you give aspiring law students/lawyers?
KS: I would definitely say find someone you know, that you’re close with or someone who has been through it and sit down and have a talk with them; tell them where you want to live and what you want to do. My dad went through it and told me about how it goes, honestly, how it’s really tough, how the real world works. He gave me advice. I have friends that are older than me and friends that are still in law school so I asked them about how to apply, what looks really good, what schools are the best and what classes to take once I got accepted. I would definitely say find a connection that you can use and decide whether you see that as your future or not.