Get to Know Nikki Mitchell
I went to law school wanting to practice more in the legal aid/non-profit areas. I’ll admit a lot my path stemmed from knowing what I didn’t want to do. But I knew I wanted to get a lot of client contact and not be in court all the time. To that end, I started interning for a medical-legal partnership early on in law school. After law school, I worked for Legal Aid. Any legal services organization lives and dies by funding. It just so happens that during the time I worked in both of these places, funding for practice areas that encompass what I now know make up elder law and special needs planning was most available. So when I moved to Missouri in 2015 I knew I wanted to stay in this practice area.
When I talk to current law students or people considering law school, I tell them this practice area is incredibly fulfilling, but also requires some “soft skills” that law school doesn’t really teach you. So I encourage people to shadow or intern for someone in this practice area to see if it’s a good fit. There are just some things you can’t learn in a classroom and need to see in action to really know if it is something that will work for you.
Well, if we are talking about work-related passions then I am probably most passionate about the general idea of being a good advocate for my clients. And I would interpret “advocate” to mean various things in this practice area. Outside of work, I am passionate about travel, good food, and family. When those three things combine, I truly could not be happier.
I feel like I’m not that surprising! I guess if I had to pick, one of the things that gets a reaction from people when they learn it is that I had 2 children when I started law school, and then had my 3rd daughter two weeks before third year started. If you want to stand out among your peers in law school, try carrying around a breast pump all day and sometimes having an infant on your lap while studying. It’ll certainly get people talking.
Spending time with my family. We are all so busy during the week that a calm Saturday where we just sit around and catch up, maybe go for a hike, or cook a good meal is perfect. We used to be running around to soccer games, birthday parties, and a thousand other kid things so having my kids older now where we can actually be very boring on a Saturday feels like a gift.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. Excellent book if you are looking for your next read!