“I never wanted to be an attorney, but I got to senior year of college, and I figured I should do something. So I started to study for the LSAT, and then I knew I wanted to go into law after scoring well,” said 2019 graduate, Grace O’Malley. 

She now has a little over a year left until graduating from the University of St. Thomas and becoming an official criminal defense attorney. 

Her favorite part of her chosen career is “listening to people’s stories and framing it for others,” she said. 

The first year of law school was categorized as tiring and awful. 

O’Malley said, “It depends what year you’re in; the first year is awful and a lot of work. I wasn’t able to do much because I had to wake up and do homework the whole day.”

“But the second year is so much easier. You still have a decent amount of homework and studying to do, but you know more,” she said. 

Since she is halfway through her law school experience she has had numerous opportunities to listen to others’ stories no matter how bad or how good they are. 

“I’ve interviewed a lot of clients at this point, and it is my favorite part of the job, but it is challenging sometimes,” she said. 

“I have had one client that was especially tough, and that was because I had to go to visit him in jail. I had to talk to  him through the glass and a phone,” said the alum. 

O’Malley has a passion to help people and to help their stories be heard. 

“I work at Maciolek Law Firm, and it is in town here. I have worked in person and remote with them,” she said. 

O’Malley also said, “My dream is to own my own firm one day.”

Even though she wasn’t interested in law at first, she eventually found her passion. 

“You have to find your why,” she emphasized.