Director of Professional Development and Partner in 650-Lawyer Firm

Name: Bryn Vaaler

Major: French

Law School: University of Minnesota

Description of your job: Director of Professional Development and Partner, Corporate Group, of Dorsey & Whitney LLP. As Director of Professional Development, I oversee Dorsey U, the training and professional development service of this 650‑lawyer firm.

Do you have any advice for students who are considering going to the same law school you did? University of Minnesota Law School is an excellent school.

Is there anything in particular that you did during your undergrad that benefited you more than anything else in getting through law school and/or transitioning into the legal profession? A liberal arts background is great for law school, especially one focused on writing and language skills. To supplement this, I took two quarters of accounting. That was also helpful.

If you had a chance to go through law school all over again, is there anything you would do differently? Worked more efficiently my first year. I worked like a dog my first year and did well, but not fabulously. In my second and third years, I was deeply involved in Law Review and had less time to do class work. Result: I was more efficient and my grades soared!

Is being a lawyer what you expected it would be? Why or why not? Being a lawyer has really been quite a good thing for me. I became a successful partner in a major U.S. firm; then, became a law professor for 11 years; then, came back to be, essentially, a law professor within a major firm. I have really enjoyed much of my career, and the money is decent.

What is it like transitioning from being a law student to being a lawyer? That's very, very hard. When I did it, we were all so serious. We worked so very hard to try to succeed and do a good job for clients. Burn out is a real risk.

Is there anything students should know about the legal profession before they decide to commit their life to it? Far too many people go into it. If you don't have a passion for it, it can really burn you out. The money can be decent, but do you really want to do something you completely dislike for a full career? You must find some piece of this profession that turns you on. I like the intellectual challenge, I love teaching the law, I love doing legal reform work at the legislative and bar committee level and I love providing superior service to clients.