{"id":66018,"date":"2021-04-20T03:50:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T07:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=66018"},"modified":"2021-04-28T10:44:09","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T14:44:09","slug":"law-graduate-ready-to-make-a-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/04_20_2021\/law-graduate-ready-to-make-a-difference","title":{"rendered":"Law Graduate Ready to Make a Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cShoot for the moon, and you\u2019ll land in the stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sage advice \u2014 and throughout her life, Emilie Easton embraced it.<\/p>\n

Willing to stray out of her comfort zone, Easton tutored resettled Syrian and Congolese families in English, worked with children living in Bolivian prisons and eventually went to law school at The University of Toledo.<\/p>\n

\"Graduation<\/a>

CELEBRATING SUCCESS:<\/strong> UToledo recognizes the Class of 2021 with a series of stories featuring students receiving their degrees at spring commencement<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Easton will graduate with her J.D. in May and has accepted a position with the Army JAG Corps. She was selected as an alternate for the 2021-22 Fulbright Fellowship.<\/p>\n

Rob Salem, clinical professor of law and Easton\u2019s supervising attorney at the UToledo Civil Advocacy Clinic, said Easton is a true public servant.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe understands the role of the lawyer in society \u2014 to help people who are often experiencing trauma or other kinds of stress and to battle the systemic problems in society that perpetuate injustices,\u201d he said. \u201cShe is a model for what a lawyer should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Easton started law school in 2018, she was not sure she was going to \u201cland in those stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have lawyers in the family,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t speak like they do. I didn\u2019t dress like they do. I didn\u2019t know court decorum. To be honest, I didn\u2019t think I would fit in.\u201d
\nBefore her first day of classes, she Googled, \u201cDo law students wear backpacks? Do law students wear blazers to class? Or bring their lunch to school?\u201d<\/p>\n

She soon learned she could be her authentic self, work hard and succeed. UToledo faculty helped her gain that confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe professors here are incredibly accessible and open-minded,\u201d she said. \u201cDean Barros taught my property law class. I asked loads of questions \u2014 and I mean loads. Dean Barros was always receptive to my constant curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Easton said professors Rob Salem and Eric Chaffee also stood out as role models.<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessor Salem is a legal practitioner who truly cares about his students and his work. His passion is contagious,\u201d she said. \u201cProfessor Chaffee was the perfect mix of professionalism and good humor. His jokes, pop culture references and suit-and-tie attire made difficult legal topics palatable and memorable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Emilie<\/a>

Easton<\/p><\/div>\n

Professor Ben Davis, Easton\u2019s advisor, encouraged her to apply for jobs to expand her legal horizons. Following her first year of law school, she interned at the Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review in Detroit.<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessor Davis was a catalyst for me,\u201d Easton said. \u201cHe told me to be bold and own my brilliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

His admonition mirrored another bit of advice Easton tries to follow: \u201cDo one thing that scares you every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate studying criminology and international affairs at Florida State University, Easton spent a summer in Bolivia volunteering as an English teacher and daycare staff. When she returned, she taught English to resettled Syrian and Congolese families, which made her realize the best way to advocate for them was to become a lawyer.<\/p>\n

Now she\u2019s involved in the UToledo International Law Society, serving as president, and works at UToledo\u2019s Civil Advocacy Clinic where she helped a client become an American citizen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis experience reminded me of why I came to law school in the first place \u2014 to make a difference \u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Last summer, Easton was one of three Toledo Law students accepted into the Army JAG internship program. Just 75 second-year law students from across the country are selected. It\u2019s rare to have three chosen from one school.<\/p>\n

At Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas, Easton worked in a variety of legal areas, including immigration. She found a new passion when she shadowed a Special Victims\u2019 Counsel, an attorney who provides legal guidance to victims of sex crimes.<\/p>\n

The JAG Corps turned out to be her perfect fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter everything I\u2019d been through, I wanted a practice in which I could give back, see the world, challenge myself, never stop learning, practice in a variety of areas and protect people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Easton is unlike any student Salem has ever had, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is passionate, smart, hard-working, extremely pleasant to work with, has a great sense of humor, and her clients adore her,\u201d he said. \u201cHer energy level is off the charts, but her temperament is always calm, collected and empathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moon and the stars are well within her reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Emilie<\/a>

Emilie Easton, who will graduate with her J.D. in May and has accepted a position with the Army JAG Corps, credits faculty in the UToledo College of Law for helping her gain confidence to successfully advocate for her clients. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":837,"featured_media":66023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,50,69,30,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/837"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66018"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66021,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66018\/revisions\/66021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}