Sara Dankowski
By Jacob Sabolo, DePaul Magazine: Fall 2018
During her second year of law school, Sara Dankowski (JD ’17) clerked at Rathbun, Cservenyak and Kozol. Thanks to 3YP, Dankowski was able to do her externship with the firm.
“I figured if I could continue working there with the end goal of being hired on as an attorney, it would be perfect,” she recollects.
Dankowski was sworn into the Illinois Bar Association on a Thursday. She was ready to go to court the following Monday.
Although Dankowski now works for the Will County (Ill.) Public Defender’s Office, the preparation and skills she received from her 3YP externship still apply to the work she does today.
Assistant Public Defender at Will County Public Defender’s Office
JD Law 2017
“I was able to do a lot of brief writing. I wrote a lot of pleadings. I was able to go with my supervising attorney to court and observe. I had a lot of client interaction and learned how to do intake interviews of clients and meet with them as their case progressed,” Dankowski says.
“I took practical courses like legal research and writing courses or simulation courses, but it was learning in a vacuum. 3YP is the real world. It’s real clients, real people, real cases.”
While she found it challenging to balance working, commuting and taking classes, she says the experience geared her up for the actual practice of law. Dankowski strongly believes she wouldn’t have been as ready if she hadn’t enrolled in 3YP.
“A lot of law school is teaching you how to study, understand and interpret the law, but I don’t think it teaches you the day-to-day operations of a law firm, even simple things like filing documents,” Dankowski says. “I took practical courses like legal research and writing courses or simulation courses, but it was learning in a vacuum. 3YP is the real world. It’s real clients, real people, real cases.”
