The former Student Government president heeded the counsel of mentors and seized her opportunities, graduating law school and passing the bar exam in 2016.
Two professors – Kathy Uradnik in political science and Bassey Eyo in communication studies – guided Ivey through her bachelor’s degree programs.
“Kathy Uradnik is an incredible woman, professor and lawyer. I took nearly all of her classes and went to her for all of my pre-law advice,” Ivey said. “She gave me no illusion that law school was easy or anything to mess around with. It was just as hard as she said it would be. Without her warnings, I would never have made it out of law school.”
Eyo introduced Ivey to her Husky doppelgänger, Brian Schoenborn ’92.
Like Ivey, Schoenborn double-majored in political science and communication studies, served as Student Government president, was mentored by Eyo and became an attorney.
“We hired Sam, and she became an invaluable member of our team as she prepared to go to law school,” said Schoenborn, managing partner at the St. Cloud office of Stinson Leonard Street.
“She helped us, and we helped her. As the old rule of education states, when you hear something, you forget it, when you see something, you remember it, and when you experience something, you understand it,” Schoenborn said.
In a crowded job market, where by some estimates there is one attorney for every 300 Americans, Ivey is expanding her skill set and building her brand.
An internship at Thompson Reuters in Eagan improved her grasp of Boolean search and the indispensable Westlaw online research tool. Her public speaking and communications consultancy, Ivey League Speaking, is yielding professional contacts. As a project attorney at Robins Kaplan in Minneapolis, her e-discovery work is helping Ivey refine that critical litigation skill: document organization.
A dream discovered at Rogers High School is coming into focus.
“I took a speech and debate class my final semester and absolutely loved the class,” Ivey said. “At the end of the semester the teacher, Susan Romane, took me aside and said ‘If you don’t become a criminal defense attorney, my time spent on you will be wasted.’”
“Sorry, Mrs. Romane,” said Ivey, telling the story eight years later. “I prefer civil litigation.”
