This past spring, Professor Tracy Reilly circulated a brochure for the summer 2008 Legal Studies Institute to the ILs in her class. Kevin Lacey applied, was accepted, received a scholarship, and now he’s back at UDSL with renewed purpose and is acting as an ambassador for the D.C.-based program.

Lacey says the 10-week program, sponsored by the Fund for American Studies, was an excellent value; with the help of a scholarship and the chance to save on housing by living at home in Virginia, he ended up paying only $400 for his internship experience and two credits of Constitutional law. “It’s tricky for 1Ls to get experience; this is something that provides it,” he said. 

One of about 20 students in the program, Lacey was a legal intern at the firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, LLP, where he worked on discovery for an administrative proceeding and did some research and writing on lobbying regulations.

“It was good to be socialized in an office environment and have the chance to work on a team,” said Lacey, who graduated from the College of William and Mary last year.

In addition to the work experience, Lacey took a one-week, two-credit seminar in Constitutional law where he says he was exposed to both sides of the original intent vs. living Constitution debate and heard from speakers who apply the debate to different areas of the law, including environmental regulation and health care litigation.

Lacey helped to persuade one of those speakers, Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute, to come to UDSL this fall as a guest speaker for a Federalist Society event. Lacey became vice president of the reactivated student organization this year after he happened to run into UDSL 3L Perry Reynolds at a national Federalist Society event in D.C. over the summer.

“I was on the fence [about returning to law school] after the first year,” Lacey admitted. “It’s almost like being immersed in a new language and it took a little longer for me to pick up on a lot of things, but the experience in D.C. helped solidify the decision to finish my law degree.”

Lacey says he chose to attend UDSL because of the track program in IP and tech law and the state-of-the-art building. Now in his second year, he says “classes are more interesting; I have the swing of things.”