Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. Addresses MC Law Students

Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller, Jr.

LaToyia Slay turned on the speed as captain of the track team and soccer player at Sewanee – the University of the South.

Now the 22-year-old from Greenville is determined to leap over any hurdles in her path as a new student at the Mississippi College School of Law.

“I’m anxious to get started,” Slay said Wednesday as more than 200 first-year law students participated in orientation sessions dealing with topics like ethics and professionalism. They learned about complex issues facing the legal profession from some of state’s outstanding judges and lawyers.

Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller, Jr. served as keynote speaker during the event on the Clinton campus.

“Ethics and civility are core values of the legal profession,” Waller said. “It’s our duty as members of the Mississippi Bar to emphasize the importance of professionalism at the start of these students’ legal training.”

Ethics is a very important topic for new law students to ponder, Slay said. “You do know what is right and wrong,” she said. It’s a matter of lawyers doing what’s right, and continuing that legacy, the MC Law student added.

After completing her education at the downtown Jackson law school in three years, Slay will consider a career in family law or serving as an attorney at a hospital or nursing home.

MC was an appealing choice for law school because it’s a Christian university, she said. Slay is involved in Bible study at her church in the Delta. Her faith, she said, “is a big part of my life.”

The Mississippi College School of Law is a family tradition for Jay Shandy, 23, of McComb. His mother, Dee Shandy, and brother Tyler Shandy, are both MC Law graduates.

A University of Mississippi graduate and alumnus of Parkland Academy in McComb, Shandy plans to return to his hometown to practice law in a few years.

Others taking part in orientation and lunch at MC’s Anderson Hall included Taylor Bartlett, 23, of Knoxville, Tennessee. The MC law school was the right choice, he said, because of “its friendly atmosphere. MC let me know they really wanted me to be here.”

A May 2010 graduate of Auburn University, whose team was crowned the national champion this past season, Bartlett will shift his focus from Tigers football games to hard work in MC Law classrooms starting in late August.

Bartlett hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps. His dad, Beecher Bartlett, works at a Knoxville firm that specializes in labor issues.

MC Law Dean Jim Rosenblatt, Associate Dean Phillip McIntosh and Mississippi Bar President Hugh D. Keating were among the other speakers addressing the students.

The James O. Dukes Law School Professionalism Program is sponsored by the Mississippi Bar as part of orientation for students entering Mississippi’s two law schools. Waller will be keynote speaker at a similar program at the Ole Miss law school in Oxford August 18.

Rosenblatt says the new class of 210 students at MC’s School of Law come from 27 states, including Oregon, Maine, Texas, Washington, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Ohio. They also come from countries as far away as China. It represents the largest entering class in the history of the law school that enrolls 550 students.

“We are very pleased with our entering class,” Rosenblatt said. They are a diverse group in terms of geography, and life and work experiences, he said.

Rosenblatt also expressed his thanks to the members of the state’s legal community who participated in the orientation sessions on the MC campus in Clinton.