Personal-Statement
What they asked for:
UMT
The personal statement should provide information about yourself that you consider significant to our evaluation of your file. We are interested in learning about the qualities that you would bring to the legal profession, the law school classroom, and the community. You may wish to describe a significant experience in your life or to discuss your interest in or motivation for attending law school. A typical personal statement is 2-3 pages. It will be evaluated for writing ability as well as content. Do not treat your personal statement as a narrative of your resume.
UNH
We want to hear from you. Your personal statement of two pages (double-spaced) is required and must be submitted electronically. We’d like you to tell us why you are applying to law school and why UNH Law specifically. What motivates you to become a lawyer? This is your opportunity to share what makes you unique. Share your abilities, your character and your experiences. We consider this statement seriously in our decision-making and expect it to be concise and well-written.
What I'm providing:
It all started with an innocent little sticker. Sitting at a coffee shop in downtown Missoula, I noticed a small penguin sticker on a laptop, which stood out from the typical ski resort and national park stickers seen around the city. The sticker was Tux, the mascot of the Linux operating system. I used the sticker as an ice breaker to talk with the individual and found out how he was using Linux. He was a lawyer running his entire law firm on the Linux operating system based computers. We followed up this chance meeting with lunch the following week and a job offer the week after.
During my time working at the law firm, I was able to help develop software to reference documents in the courtroom, with a custom search functionality to quickly locate specific documents. Working at the law firm exposed me to the idea of open source software. Open source software is any software which is licensed to not only allow but promote the sharing of source code and expanding on the code by other developers. Linux is just one example of open source software.
After my time at the law office, I felt awakened and ready to embrace open source software. By sharing the source code for the projects, not only have I been able to pass on the knowledge gained, but other people have also been able to take my work and extend it for their own use cases.
I have continued to be a supporter and advocate for the use of open source software. Each new client I work with presents a new opportunity to potentially introduce them to open source software and how it can benefit their business. Showing them the cost benfits often times is enough to sway them to use open source software. The harder sell is working to educate them on the benefits and process to release their software as open source. The selection of the right open source license is daunting, with dozens of choices and hundreds of derivative licenses. Why I'm looking to pivot from a role as a software developer to enter law school is to feel more comfortable answering their questions, and helping them make the best choice for their code.