My name is Clayton Kramer i’m an attorney here at Deaconcini McDonald yet within Lacey in Tucson I graduated from the U of A with a degree in Spanish in 2013 and from law school at the u of a in 2016. my current position i work as a litigator a civil litigator as well as I practice in the areas of government and school law you know we can handle anything from advising you know school clients on employment matters all the way up to disputes between other parties that end up in court during my undergrad i took a course in translation and interpretation. That was focused primarily on the legal field and i became interested just kind of in the judicial process and how that works and found you know just from talking to friends and family that attorneys are you know at the core a lot of the times problem solvers and i think that that’s what attracted me to the legal field you know in terms of what type of individuals do well I would say that two big skills jump out uh one being an effective communicator and the other you know being able to to solve problems so i don’t particularly use my Spanish degree a whole lot you know there’s some skills that i learned in that degree that i think are helpful you know primarily the ability to pay attention to detail and you know choose the right words for the right moment you know are important skills that i learned in the Spanish degree but since I went to law school i have not used it a lot i guess my law degree i obviously use on a pretty regular basis the U of A prepared me very well for the activities that i have to do on a daily basis in my field i guess most people when they think of lawyers think of the you know courtroom dramas and all that type of stuff there is certainly some of that that goes into being an attorney it’s an amazing experience to stand up in front of a jury and present your client’s case the public perspective maybe doesn’t capture is the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes the amount of time that’s spent reviewing documents looking at exhibits advising clients of the risks and rewards for a particular strategy in a given case so there is a lot of behind the scenes work that’s not quite as glamorous uh you know several hours of my day if not the majority of them are spent behind a computer screen you know writing and reading. I’d say a good place to start is just if you know anybody who’s a you know a friend or family or somebody you can contact through. The alumni connections at the u of a to just shadow what an attorney does on a daily basis that’s a good opportunity to learn what all goes into being a practicing attorney another you know piece of advice would be you can go down to your local courthouse and you know covet has made this a bit more difficult but court proceedings are open to the public and you can just go sit and watch what a docket date looks like you know what the judges and attorneys are doing when they’re in court on a daily basis some of those proceedings are even available online now which is helpful. U of A was great particularly in law school with having adjunct professors that were out you know members of the legal community here in Tucson which is very small in comparison to some other areas you know you get to know members of the legal community that are accomplished and kind of hear about their career paths and then as well as through internships and externships and clinical experience at the u of a law school i was able to meet a lot of members of the legal community and and get an idea of what types of jobs were out there what type of law i would like to practice what it takes to be a successful practitioner in in the areas of practice that i was interested in um and you know you see as time goes on as a professional you you learn that you run into the same individuals over and over and over again uh you know it’s just a small world and so having those relationships going into trying to you know find your first job or you know make a career move is incredibly valuable um i know that my first job i wanted to work for an agency out of state and i didn’t know anybody that worked there and so I talked to somebody at the law school and said hey do we have any alumni that are that are working at that agency and they they set me up with somebody I got the opportunity to sit down with him and just chat and say you know hey what was your interview process like what’s the hiring timeline look like and he was able to answer all those questions as well as you know what does it take to be a successful practitioner in that area.
