Duke Law Life: Meet Brady Ellis
Brady Ellis
CLASS OF 2027
Prior Education: The Ohio State University
Hometown: Dublin, Ohio
Professional Interest: Corporate transactional law
Previous Work Experience: Finance at a startup and investor at an international impact investing fund
My Duke Law Life
- Duke Bar Association
- Tricky Dick
- Duke Law Run Club
- Transactional Law Society
- LEAD Fellow
- Duke Law Soccer
- Duke Law Music Association
- The Chicago Club
- Guardian Ad Litem
- JD/LLM-LE program
I chose to go to law school while living abroad in Kenya for work. I hadn’t visited any law schools in person and only had the chance to learn about schools by attending conversations on Zoom. I joined a panel late one night in Nairobi that was about how students get involved at Duke and was immediately struck by how much the students genuinely enjoyed spending time together and by how much they cared about each other. Learning about Duke’s business law faculty and course opportunities, seeing how well all Duke Law grads do after law school, and knowing that I could camp out to get season basketball tickets were additional pluses for sure!
I worked alongside and across the table from different lawyers during my time working. I realized that my favorite part of my job was working on the complex transactions that my company was going through and recognized that as a lawyer I could work on those all day, every day. Since coming to law school, however, my interest in the law has only widened as I’ve learned about how Delaware Chancery Court rulings impact corporate law across the nation, been challenged to think about how economics interacts with tort law and been given the chance to do research on international business law alongside Prof. Aguirre and other students.
My most rewarding experience in law school has been working with Guardian Ad Litem. I get to spend time with a child who is navigating the foster care system. Being involved with GAL is challenging and emotionally difficult at times, but it gets me the chance to hopefully make a real difference in the life of a child in the Durham community and gives me the chance to be in a different context than the usual law schoolwork we do.
3 great things about living in Durham
- There is so much good food and the drink scene here is great. The traditional NC BBQ at Picnic, churros at Cocoa-Cinnamon, cocktails at Kingfisher, red curry at Thaiangle, and donuts at Monuts are some of my favorites.
- You can do outside stuff here for nearly all the school year. Running outside on American Tobacco Trail is comfortable even in January, and you can hike in the Eno River State Park year-round.
- There are a ton of fun things to do in Durham that can get you away from campus. The Durham Bulls baseball team is super fun to watch, and so many great shows come to the Durham Performing Arts Center.
How to survive and thrive in law school
- Do something uncomfortable each semester: a class on something you know nothing about with a professor who is awesome or singing and dancing during the Tricky Dick spring show would both work great.
- Try to take a full day away from your law school work once a week. If you build the habit early it’s easier to keep.
- Only go to events that matter to you, and you think will be interesting. Sometimes it’s better to pass up the free food in favor of taking a break.
My advice if you are thinking about law school
Think about what type of community you want to have while you’re in law school, and go to the law school that provides that! Duke Law students spend a lot of time with each other inside and outside of class doing school things as well as non-school things like the softball tournament, Bar review, and so many different clubs. If you have the chance to choose among the different schools, take a beat to think about what practical things about that school make it unique and special.
I’d highly recommend getting a few years of work experience under your belt before going to law school if you can. I agree that it’s tough to take a break and work for a bit when you finish undergrad, but you get a chance to learn so much about supporting customers and coworkers, dealing with difficult situations, and seeing what work life really looks like before diving into law school and the world of the law after. My work experience has made law school easier for me by helping me feel like the pressure is off to ace everything and has given me more stuff to talk about as a recruit for jobs after law school.
Very few people lived in Durham before Duke Law, so every 1L starts fresh with making friends and building a community for law school, and many people have a lot of their community in Duke Law and amongst the other graduate schools. Duke Law is a great place to go if you want to have a lot of support and be around students that want to spend a lot of time together.
Meet more of our JD students who make this a great community. They offer great advice if you're thinking about law school.
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