I was delighted to receive a scholarship from the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium and am posting my essay since many of my students find it helpful to look at successful application essays. The prompt asked for 700 words on my interest in legal operations and how I hope to contribute to the field.
Dear Scholarship Committee:
I am drawn to Legal Operations for the same reason I am drawn to the law: I am fundamentally interested in how people organize society. I am curious about how people access and organize information in furtherance of their ambitions, both organizational and personal. This lifelong interest led me to my first career as a librarian. While I enjoyed supporting library customers, I discovered I could have a greater impact by helping libraries improve their operations. I recognize the intrinsic value of operational work, and I wish to apply my technical management skills to help law firms and courts better serve their constituents.
Legal organizations are most interesting to me because they support the legal structure that allows our society to operate. As a resident of Cook County, Illinois, where the Clerk of Court’s office has been plagued by operational and cultural struggles, I have seen firsthand how the absence of effective systems can harm the most vulnerable residents of our society. My customer service orientation, paired with my strong technical skills and creativity, has prepared me to improve these organizations.
Although my primary interest is now in the law, I have six years of progressively responsible experience supporting information management systems in the government and private sector. At [federal agency], I led the agency’s transition to cloud computing. In this role, I implemented electronic records systems and modernized agency workflows to build an information management framework that collected programmatic data, incorporating at the same time federal privacy and data retention requirements. Through this experience, I came to see records management and business process management as two sides of the same coin, and I developed an interest in project management as well My growing curiosity about solving complex business problems led me to an internal records management role at [corporation], where I [redacted].
This exposure to other business functions sparked my interest in law. The most interesting projects I supported at [corporation] involved [redacted]. As I achieved mastery in the fields of project and records management, tasks like this one helped me realize that a law degree would open the door for me to deliver even more cutting-edge services to clients. I decided to pursue a JD at Northwestern University, a recognized leader in legal-services delivery technologies.
An operations role will allow me to have the greatest impact on the legal profession. My training as a librarian has given me a holistic perspective of information as a stand-alone entity, and I have endeavored to develop the technical skills to harness knowledge within organizations. I also have a strong background in IT procurement, facilities management, contract management, and direct customer service. My strong service ethic drives my desire to increase value for clients, and ultimately, downstream consumers.
I anticipate contributing to the Legal Operations field through active membership in the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium. Since beginning graduate school in 2013, I have volunteered for leadership roles in [various professional associations]. In these roles, I helped to grow membership through innovative programs and outreach.
I was interested to learn from CLOC’s most recent member survey that practitioners see a need for information and resources addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion. These are long-standing personal and professional interests. I have worked on DEI initiatives and programming within several professional associations (including as a law school representative to Northwestern’s university-wide equity department). My own LSAT business has brought me into contact with diversity professionals at law schools and firms around the country, and my growing understanding of the environmental, social, and governance reporting landscape has given me familiarity with trends and procedures in related areas.
These experiences have positioned me to succeed as a legal operations professional and member of the CLOC community. Thank you for considering my application for your scholarship program.