Colin Pochie likes to keep busy. In his 3L year alone he competed in a national moot court competition, volunteered at the Louisiana Civil Justice Center in New Orleans, and coordinated two live symposia for the Chicago-Kent Law Review while serving as Managing Editor.
Learn more about what drew him to law school and the opportunities he’s found at Chicago-Kent below:
- Class year: 2018
- Division: Full-time day
- Hometown: Morgan Park – Chicago, IL
- Academic Background: BA in Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago
- Find him online:
What drew you to the legal profession?
My family is largely made of government employees—police officers, firefighters, and state administrative staff. So growing up, much of my perception of work was oriented to the public interest.
Then in undergrad, I realized through my political science coursework that a career in law could facilitate my desire for public service and academic pursuit. My undergrad Constitutional Law professor, Kevin Lyles, sealed the deal in subjecting me to the Socratic process of law school classes.
At Chicago-Kent
In his time at Chicago-Kent, Colin worked with a broad range of programs as he found ways to match his interests to specific opportunities:
- Lexis Associate, LexisNexis
- Oyez Scholar, Oyez
- PILI Intern – Chicago Bar Foundation Named Intern, Legal Assistance Foundation (LAF), Immigrants’ and Workers’ Rights practice group
- Law Student Research Assistant, National Consumer Law Center
- 711 Law Clerk, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Labor & Employment unit
- Legal Intern, C-K Law Group, Civil Litigation clinic
- Teaching Assistant for Dean Stephen Sowle’s Criminal Law class
- Judicial Extern for the Honorable Bertina Lampkin, Illinois Appellate Court, First District
- Law Clerk, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Alternative Prosecution & Sentencing unit
I realized midway through law school that I had a real passion for Plaintiff’s-side employment work. So much of my 2L year was devoted to employment law—I took Employment Discrimination, interned with the C-K Law Group’s Civil Litigation clinic, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office’s Labor & Employment Unit, LAF’s Immigrants’ & Workers’ Rights practice group, and wrote my Law Review Note in part on a Title VII issue.
I’m also a member of the Public Interest certificate because of my goal of government or legal services work. And I’m a member of the Praxis certificate because I wanted to make sure that I got experience applying what I learned in class.
The Judicial Externship program was one of my biggest delights in coming to Chicago-Kent. Before law school, I didn’t understand how the business of a judge’s chambers was carried out. That I could not only learn about but also contribute to that process by externing in Justice Lampkin’s chambers has been one of my favorite experiences in law school.
This externship has been invaluable in interviews—it’s the line on my resume I get asked about the most. This, in turn, led to an offer to work as a judicial law clerk for the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review in the Attorney General’s Honors Program after graduation.
Student Leadership
In my 1L year, I wanted to get on Law Review more than anything. Academic work—from research and writing to editing the work of other scholars—has appealed to me for the longest time. From there, I realized that I could turn my zeal for research and writing into guidance for 1Ls and 2Ls.
By my third year, I found that I’d worked my way into junior and senior positions on several research- and editing-heavy organizations, including Managing Editor of the Chicago-Kent Law Review and Executive Articles Editor of the Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property. This past year has been deeply rewarding both for my own academic interests as well as my mentorship interests:
- Chicago-Kent Law Review, Managing Editor 2017–2018; Junior Associate 2016–2017
- “Sick and Tired of Hearing about the Damn Bathrooms,” 93 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 281 (2018)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf3dJmdnKeq/
- Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property, Executive Articles Editor 2017–2018
- Chicago-Kent Moot Court Honor Society, Member 2017–2018
- 2017 Ilana Diamond Rovner Appellate Advocacy Competition, Octofinalist, Best Brief Runner-Up
- 2018 Frank A. Schreck Gaming Law Moot Court Competition, Semifinalist
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgAXKV5Hlw4/
- Student Humanitarian Network, Member 2017–2018
- Annual New Orleans service trip; volunteered at Louisiana Civil Justice Center
https://www.instagram.com/p/Be3IH-WAeli
I think the vibrancy of a school’s student life is best represented by the public-facing work of its student organizations. Much of the work I’ve put in as a student leader has been to advocate for institutional memory among student organizations so that each new year has a better platform to work on. I’ve advocated too for our organizations’ public outreach through social media so Chicago-Kent better represents itself to potential and current students, alumni, and other schools.
Mentorship interests me too, and I’ve spent a lot of my time this past year looking for ways I can help new classes integrate into law school and excel in their studies.
Recent Activities
Colin recently helped new advocates during practice and oral arguments in the Charles Evans Hughes Competition for the Chicago-Kent Moot Court Honor Society:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhpjxe4niVz/
This year, Colin was recognized for all of his contributions when he was inducted into the Bar & Gavel Society:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhxiQvFnbg9/
Beyond the Law
What are some skills or interests people might not guess about you?
I play guitar and bass. And when I have the time, I put together custom tracks for guitar learning software. I’m also an avid concert-goer.
What neighborhood do you live in? What do you like about it?
I moved to Lincoln Square at the beginning of law school. It’s a comfortable area, with access to a strip of boutique stores and the Brown Line right around the corner. It isn’t busy in the way that areas like River North can get, and it’s a bit more spacious—like my childhood home on the South Side, the area starts to give way to sprawl more than areas closer to the Loop.
