Career counselors have varied backgrounds, but Patricia White is the first career services professional in our experience who has been an Army officer. Immediately after law school, she did three years in JAG and raves about the experience. "It is absolutely true that you get court experience almost immediately in JAG," Patricia told us. "I had just graduated from the Georgetown Law Center and before I knew it I was preparing criminal appeals and appearing in court. What I did not expect was the collegial and nurturing environment which JAG traditionally offers. Later, I worked for a litigation boutique in Washington D.C. and the environment was collegial, but not nearly as supportive." We asked how she transitioned out of JAG, the law and back into an academic environment. She told us she worked for awhile with a recruiter in Atlanta, Georgia, eventually going out on her own. She liked the work a lot, she said. She especially enjoyed working with candidates, but after ten years of this, she felt a strong desire to return to academic life. "I think the tug I felt was hereditary," she said. "My father and grandfather were both academics at Emory. It can be a wonderful and unhurried type of life, reflective and filled with bright people, good conversation and interesting ideas. I did miss it. So I guess this makes me not only a third-generation academic, but a third-generation academic at Emory. My undergraduate degree was from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where my dad was teaching at the time. "I eventually got my present job through an acquaintance who was an actor in a play we were both doing for amateur theatre here in the Atlanta area. I had been telling my friends of my intentions for a long while, so it was just a matter of time before I connected somewhere. This actor friend gave me the name of a contact in Emory's administration. This person told me there were no jobs for someone of my background, but that she would keep my file and let me know if something turned up. Eventually, the job I'm in now opened up and here I am. I'm so happy the connection was with Emory and that the work allowed me to use both my recruiting and law experience in the same job. That I did not plan on." We asked how the job at Emory was going. "Great," she said. "We've been one of the highest ranked southern law schools for a long time, and we have an excellent national reputation, as well; but we'd like to be included in a handful of the very best law schools in the country, and to get there, we must focus not just on placing our 2nd years in summer internships at wonderful firms in Atlanta, where we have traditionally been strong, but also in New York City, Washington D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and other major law centers. "To this end, what we've done is take the career counseling function and focus it on areas designed to achieve our objective. These functions include public interest law, alternative careers and judicial clerkships. We only have about three students each year who opt for public interest work, but a lot of students ask for it and, to properly answer questions, we on staff need to know what money is available to offset the low salaries typical of such work, to include grants, forgiving of law school debt and other intangibles. We'd like to see Emory make a significant contribution in this area. "As for alternative careers, that's sort of a sleeper. Students don't typically ask for a lot of information about this, but when we do anything in this area, there seems to be a lot of interest. And as for the clerkships, we've noticed that, at all of the top-tier schools, upwards of 20% and more of third-years end up doing clerkships and this naturally has its corollary with law-school quality and is perceived that way. To beef up this area, we have a faculty committee specifically assigned to this initiative, plus we tap a promising 2nd year student every year to work with the Committee getting the grunt work done. Obviously, we are poised for a big jump in an already-excellent reputation. "Like everybody else doing my job, I could always use a bigger staff. I haven't even mentioned the job fair, putting on clinics regarding networking, resumes, cover letters and other aspects of the job search. We do all of that as well. So, you see, we've got a full plate here at Emory. I wouldn't have it any other way."

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