Every so often you meet a law student and you know, within a week or two, that this profession is in good hands. That is how it has felt having Taylor Teeple with us this summer. She is spending the summer working alongside our team, and I want to tell you a little about her, because I think you are going to hear the name again.
Taylor is a J.D. candidate at Stetson University College of Law, and this fall she steps into two roles that tell you exactly where she is headed. She was selected as a Teaching Assistant for Trial Advocacy, one of her favorite classes at Stetson, working under Attorney Eva Vergos. And she earned a spot in Stetson’s Public Defender Clinic, where she will do the real work of an assistant public defender, including representing clients in jury and non-jury trials.
You can read Taylor’s announcement, and my two cents on it, on LinkedIn.
The Right Way Into a Courtroom
If that path sounds familiar, it should. I came up as a public defender in Tampa before I opened this firm, and I still believe there is no faster or better way to become a trial lawyer than to stand up in a courtroom, on your feet, responsible for a real person and a real case. Taylor is about to do exactly that, and she is ready for it.
What She Brought to the Firm
A few weeks in, it was already clear she has it. She asks the right questions, and her instinct for catching what most people skim right past has had me raising an eyebrow more than once. In this work the case often turns on the one detail everyone else missed, and Taylor has an eye for it. Give it a couple of years and she is going to be a nightmare for opposing counsel, and I mean that as the highest compliment one trial lawyer can pay another.
She came into this summer off one of the harder stretches of her law school career: a heavy course load, a mock trial competition, and a good deal more that had nothing to do with school. If any of it was weighing on her, she never let it show in the work. That kind of steadiness under pressure is rare, and it tells you exactly what kind of lawyer she is going to be.
Thank You, Taylor
So this is a simple thank you. Taylor, you have been a real help to this firm this summer, and it is a privilege to have you here. To the law students reading this who are drawn to trial work, watch what she does next.
Remember the name.
