Career Paths: Jenna Lorence ’17L
Jenna Lorence ’17LJenna Lorence grew up in Fairfax, Virginia and received her B.A. in Government from Patrick Henry College. She is the Chair of the Moot Court Board, a Lead Online Editor on the Law Review, and a member of the Federalist Society. She will join K&L Gates after graduation.
When I came to law school, I wasn’t planning on working for a law firm. I imagined that I would likely go into non-profit work. However, I also knew that I wanted to stay in the Washington, D.C. area where I grew up, so when OCS (Office of Career Strategy) started sending us information about law firms who were hiring in the D.C. area, I decided to apply. My search was limited to the DC area only, so I interviewed with six firms and went on three call back interviews. My mentors encouraged me to use that time to interview the firms and figure out if they would be a good fit for me.
I realized as I visited the different firms that I had been too focused on subject area of the law, but instead needed to look for the type of job where I could excel. I found that as a summer associate at K&L Gates. Each day involved putting together legal puzzles, interacting and working with smart people, and a hands on, mentorship approach to training law students and young lawyers.
I was grateful that I had taken some of the basic business law classes at W&L, but I was even more grateful for the intense writing training W&L professors had given me. When asked to put together memos and documents for partners, I had the tools I needed to produce quality work.
W&L’s alumni network also was an amazing tool for me as I worked at K&L. The other W&L alumni at the firm quickly took me under their wing and were always willing to offer advice or help. After my summer at K&L Gates, I was happy to accept an offer to work in its D.C. office starting this September. During the summer I did projects in the public policy and government enforcement practice groups, and I will find out what practice area I’ll be in sometime this summer.
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