On Thursday, Feb. 22, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., the Pre-Law Society will be coordinating with the Career Center to host an event showcasing careers in law and justice on the third floor of the Memorial Union. There are over 20 confirmed guest speakers, including representatives from both the FBI and Homeland Security. There will also be Maine State Police, local law enforcement including University of Maine Police and Old Town police departments, as well as representatives from local law firms and even out-of-state law schools.
The event will be open to all students and will kick off with an hour of tabling. After the tabling there will be dinner served, free for students and guests.
“After dinner, there is going to be a panelist portion, so once they have explored all of the tables, they can choose a room that will be themed in the legal or law enforcement field. They can have have time to chat, ask critical questions, and start gauging on what they want to do after college,” Pre-Law Society president, Thilee Yost, said.
While the event is open to all students, Yost believes that going to the event is important for anyone interested in the fields of law or justice.
“We have a very diverse group of representatives coming, and they’re all there to talk about their occupation, their day-to-day activities within that job. It’s not just pre-law. It’s not just lawyers. It’s not just people who want to be attorneys or judges. It’s really a wider range of law and justice,” Yost said.
As with most professional events, Yost encourages people to dress business casual or semi-formal.
“We welcome all students and we encourage them to come, but this is definitely an opportunity to network. Because we’re doing this with the Career Center, it is a potential place to be connecting with future employers, that’s always really important,” Yost said.
For those planning on networking, Yost said, “If you’re there to network and look at potential new employers for the future, then I would definitely come with some critical questions that you want to ask about.”
Yost encourages interested parties to arrive at 4 p.m., as the evening has different parts and students will reap the most rewards if they can come to all the parts.
“Of course, we will welcome anyone at any time of these events…” Yost said.
Although the event is in February, the planning started in October with invitations being sent out. “That’s when we started really thinking of what we wanted the event to look like and then near November and December, that’s when we started thinking about fundraisers, how we were going to approach funding through resources such as student government, RHA, those kind of things,” Yost said.
For anyone looking to support or join the Pre-Law Society, they accept new members year-round and will host various fundraisers throughout the semester.