Throughout their first year at High Point Law, students attend the usual doctrinal courses, as they would at any law school, but they also attend small cohort (10 students or less) Legal Research & Writing classes—and, once a week in the fall, attend Professional Pathways, taught by former NC Supreme Court Chief Justice and Founding Dean Mark Martin.
In Professional Pathways, students have a low-stress, pass/fail opportunity to examine a variety of possible career paths open to them once they have graduated and passed the bar exam. They hear from speakers from a full spectrum of legal fields, including family law, criminal justice, business law, civil litigation, mediation/arbitration, trial, appellate, and federal courts, administrative law, non-profit and government work, as well as even more specialized fields like education or media law. Just this year, in professional pathways and orientation, students received key insights into practical skills and professionalism from speakers that included Chief Judge Albert Diaz, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; Chief Justice Paul Newby, North Carolina Supreme Court; Chief Judge Chris Dillon, North Carolina Court of Appeals; Rod Rosenstein, former Senior Attorney General of the United States; and William H. (“Bill”) Neukom, inaugural General Counsel at Microsoft Corporation.
Caleb Knox was enthusiastic about the impact of the course: “Professional Pathways showed me how my law degree extends beyond the classroom. I entered law school with a vague idea of what I wanted to do. Professional Pathways refined this vision. Every class and every speaker grew my excitement about the law.”
Fellow 1L Joy Epperson shared this enthusiasm: “Professional Pathways was a required 1-L course on legal careers. But it was so much more than that. This course not only gave me unique insight into every legal career I could imagine, but it gave me a deeper sense of passion, understanding, and appreciation for the legal world. Dean Martin brought in leading experts in family law, business law, appellate advocacy, and more. By the end of the course, I felt excited to go into any legal career that I may enter, rather than just the few, narrow occupations I had pictured prior to law school.”
In addition to hearing about possible legal careers, students also learn about the how and why of practicing law, particularly the ethical structures that appertain to different career paths. This is one of the ways that High Point Law fulfills its mission to “equip students with the legal knowledge, skills, and values necessary to become lawyer-leaders who serve their clients and communities with civility and grace.”
Asked about the course, 1L student John Taylor said the speakers “gave us valuable opportunities to learn about and hopefully emulate some of the greatest legal minds of history. It takes more than rote memorization to become a great lawyer. As we see the lives of our venerated forebears, we have the chance to grasp after the je ne sais quoi that made them who they were.”
Perhaps because of student interactions with a variety of bench and bar leaders in the professional pathways course, 30 judicial internships are now confirmed for first-year students at High Point Law.
Reflecting on the immense value of the professional pathways course to first-year law students, Dean Martin stated:
“This is the ethical formation and professionalism course I needed during my first year of law school and did not have. Legal educators expect a lot of first-year law students, but we have not always given them a low-stress opportunity to dream big about their futures and learn why their law degrees will turn out to be invaluable. These aspirational intangibles are precisely what students can expect to receive in the professional pathways course.”