Campbell Law School hosts largest Career Night in school history

RALEIGH — More than 300 law students and employers participated in Campbell Law School’s Career and Professional Development Center annual Career Night on Nov. 6, 2024, making it the law school’s largest annual Career Night in the school’s history.

Held for the first time in downtown Raleigh’s Union Station, Career Night is a large-scale networking event designed to introduce first-year law students to attorneys from multiple practice settings and areas in the broader legal community, explained Assistant Dean of Career and Professional Development Mallory Underwood.

More than 200 students, including some second- and third-year law students, had the opportunity to meet more than 90 attorneys representing 56 employers in the broader legal community for an evening of networking and relationship building. The event was generously sponsored by Lawyers Mutual Inc.

“A law degree opens hundreds of doors,” Dean J. Rich Leonard said in his welcome remarks. “It’s our job to help find that door for you.”

Keynote speaker Destiney Parker-Thompson ‘20, now an associate with Baker Donelson in Raleigh, shared with students things she said she wished she had known when she was in law school. Parker-Thompson most recently served as the inaugural law clerk to the Honorable Tamika Montgomery-Reeves of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. 

“I decided once I got to law school, I would become the best lawyer I could be, people told me what I couldn’t do, I wasn’t on law review, I wasn’t in the Top 10 percent of my class, but I started talking to people and that’s what I want you all to do today,” she said. “Every opportunity Dean Leonard listed on my resume of accomplishments I am very proud of. I capitalized on those opportunities but they came because someone dropped my name in a room I was not in. What I want you all to do today … I want you to talk to people, get to know them, connect with them, get to know them.

“There are so many employers here today … this room is so ripe with opportunity.”

Parker-Thompson continued, “If you want to work in big law, you can do that. If you want to work at a boutique law firm, you can do that. If you want to do public service work, you can do that. And being at Campbell Law, you have all the resources you need to do that.

“I know many of you may or may not be nervous, but you deserve to be here, you are qualified to be here,” she added. “Now the work is building your personal identity. How do you want to be remembered? How do you want to be recognized?”

“It is truly extraordinary to have this kind of support from the legal community, from our alumni and beyond and we are really grateful for your time and for the ways you are supporting our students as they are beginning their legal careers and thinking about what they want to be on the other side of the rigors of law school,” said Assistant Dean of Career and Professional Development Mallory Underwood, who thanked her team for making the event possible. “And finally, thank you to our fantastic sponsor Lawyers Mutual, who also are a huge part of us being able to provide this exceptional experience for all of you.”