Big Opportunities Outside the Big Apple - Albany Law School’s Alumni Perspective Blog

Photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash

This post was originally written for Albany Law School’s Alumni Perspective Blog in July 2020 and may be found here.

When I was in my 2L year at Albany Law School in 2004-2005, I assumed the best place for me to start my legal career was either in Albany or New York City. Many of you may be thinking the same thing. I had grown up in rural Fulton County and attended college in Boston, not even exploring much of New York State as a child or adult. But 14 years after landing in Rochester, I can confirm that taking a chance on an area unknown to me and not one of the “big” cities was one of the smartest decisions I made. During this time of uncertainty and change, I encourage you to think more broadly about where to start your legal career.

For my 2L summer, I worked at the NYC Law Department, in the Juvenile Delinquency Prosecution Unit of the Family Court Division in the Bronx. Although I missed having a car, I enjoyed the work and the city, and I was lucky to be extended an offer of employment after graduation. Since the job would be held for me if I pursued a judicial clerkship, I decided that was the path I would follow.

I applied to a lot of clerkship positions, but the only second interview I received was for a law assistant position at the Appellate Division, Fourth Department. I had never been to Rochester before, but I thought the opportunity was worth the three-and-a-half-hour trip. When I was interviewing with the late Honorable Elizabeth Pine, I told her I was not familiar with the area. We then spent awhile talking about what Rochester had to offer, including a great music and arts scene, starting one block from the court at Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theatre.

When I told my brother about the Appellate Division offer back in 2006, he told me I wouldn’t like Rochester, based off his experience at SUNY Brockport in the 1980s. I thoroughly enjoy telling him how wrong he is when he visits now. 

I was offered a permanent position in the Decision Area at the Appellate Division at the end of my first year and told the NYC Law Department that I was giving up my spot. I was enjoying the short drive to work, the convenience of nearby shopping (which made running all errands in a pre-Amazon Prime era quick and easy), wine tasting with new friends in the Finger Lakes, and Rochester Red Wings Minor League baseball games. The cost of living was reasonable. A few years later, I purchased a two-family home in the City of Rochester, using my tenant’s rent to bring the cost of my mortgage down and cutting my commute to the court in downtown Rochester to 5 minutes. I left the court after six years for the Monroe County DA’s Office, extending my commute to about 8 minutes. This time I had to pay for parking, but even with a walk from the car, my door to door time was about 15 minutes.

About a year after we got married, my husband and I moved to a suburb bordering the City of Rochester with just the right combination of hustle and bustle and a small town feel. We are 10 minutes to downtown Rochester and the NYS Thruway. The school system is excellent, and now that I have a child with special education needs, I am so glad I ended up where I did. We have season tickets to the regional theater and enjoy the ever-changing Rochester restaurant scene for both date nights and with our kids. I rarely spend more than 20 minutes in the car, unless we are headed out to the Finger Lakes area in the summer. 

I encourage you to consider applying for jobs in geographic areas with which you may be unfamiliar. The Rochester area has so much to offer folks who want an urban feel, a rural feel, or just in between. The same can be said of places like Buffalo, Syracuse, and the Southern Tier.

If you enjoy participating in student government or groups while attending law school, you will find that smaller legal communities offer lots of opportunities to participate in bar associations and nonprofit organizations. I’ve served on the board of the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys twice in the past decade and that experience has helped me take on roles for other nonprofit boards and my town’s Historic Preservation Commission. Also, the path to becoming a judge or local elected official may be more manageable in a smaller community. It’s been exciting to see my local colleagues and alums elected to office.

I wish you the best of luck in starting your legal career, wherever it may take you. And don’t forget to connect with local alums when you get there!