Danielle Easton
Danielle Easton ’17 is in her third year at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She works part time as a law clerk at Mansour Gavin LPA, which is a law firm in downtown Cleveland. After she graduates and passes the bar, she expects to continue working at her current firm as a Litigation Associate full time.
She went right into law school after graduating from the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio University with a B.A. in Political Science-PreLaw and Sociology-Criminology with a Certificate in Law, Justice and Culture.
Law School
At Cleveland-Marshall, she has been involved with the Student Bar Association for all three years. She made it into the top 5% of her class and joined the Cleveland State Law Review. After participating in Mock Trial last year, she is participating in Moot Court this year.
Easton re-activated the Meck Chapter of the Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity at Cleveland-Marshall, which she was inspired to do from her time in PAD at Ohio University. She clerked at the 8th District Court of Appeals and externed at the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office during her second year.
She has enjoyed learning so much since her first year in law school, especially how much her thought process have changed during this time.
“Once you begin learning about the way the law works on this level, you start to see it in your everyday life,” Easton says. “You begin to realize how it affects all of us every day, this goes from contacts with the police, disability accommodations on tests, disagreements with your landlord–the law regulates all of those things. I think that it is very interesting to know all of little caveats surrounding those things.”
It takes a lot of hard work and perseverance, but it is all worth it in the end when you get to see the results.
“For example, I now have a job as an associate that I will begin right after I take the bar,” she explains, “I would not have that job if I did not work very hard to get where I am now. Law school is tough, and it requires many 12 hours days, but to see that you got an A in a class and that you really understand the material makes it all worth it.”
She has enjoyed meeting a lot of different people and describes Cleveland as a tight-knit legal community.
“I am happy that I went to a law school that is in the center of it all.”
Her OHIO Experience
Easton describes several aspects of her undergraduate experience at Ohio University that have helped her along the way.
She found Dr. Ursula Castellano‘s Sociology of the Courts helpful in confirming her interest. But it was her internships that mattered the most. An internship at the Public Defender’s office in Athens led to another one at the City Prosecutor’s office. Through these she saw what lawyers actually do every day, which helped her determine that she would actually like to be one.
She prepared for her internship interview by utilizing the services of the Career and Leadership Development Center in Baker Center.
Easton highlights the value of joining the pre-law fraternity as an undergraduate. Phi Alpha Delta set up visits to different law schools and had deans from law schools come talk with club members.
The Center for Law, Justice & Culture sponsored Pre-Law Days, when attorneys/judges, who were also alumni, came to talk to students. It was the Center’s Pre-Law adviser, Larry Hayman, who gave her a lot of help throughout the law school admission process.
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