Allen Woodward grew up in Long Island, but lost his way during college and found himself with no prospect for a meaningful career. Dreaming of becoming an attorney specializing in representing the less advantaged, Allen went back to school and turned his academic record around, ultimately achieving his dream of attending law school and becoming a lawyer.  After three years participation in an award winning trial advocacy program and an internship with the Essex County District Attorney’s office, Allen hopes to become a role model for other young African Americans, proving to all that with hard work and determination barriers to success cease to exist.

Educational Video from The Massachusetts School of Law.

Below is a very rough transcript of The Massachusetts School of Law’ s Educational Forum’s Law School- Overcoming the Odds to Becoming a Lawyer.

This transcript was downloaded via YouTube’s Machine transcription.

is the government prepared to proceed with closing argument
yes your honor we are prepared
at this time please do so counsel
thank you
ladies and gentlemen as we
told you in our opening statement
this
is a story a vengeance
and violence on
valentine’s day the
evidence has shown
that this
is a story of stalking
of abuse
of obsession
and it ended with the death of a woman
and that woman
was veronica jacobs
the people have presented indisputable evidence
to show that the victim
veronica jacobs was stabbed again
and again
and again
and again
for a total of
eight times
until the very life
ran from her
and she was left to die
behind a quickmart
on valentines day night
he grew up in long island new york
in his neighborhood the only two respectable
professions were medical and legal he chose
the latter hoping to make a difference for
those who are wrongly accused
growing up
two
respected professions were being a doctor
or being a lawyer
and I felt as though
being a lawyer was more towards what I
would want to do in life so
I felt like if I was going to have a career
it had to be something I could be happy doing i felt like
being away lawyer was something that would be rewarding
and I could be happy doing it
now what is the ultimate dream job
in the legal profession for you
ultimately i’d like to be able to try cases
but be able to defend indigent people from
disadvantaged social economic communities
growing up there was a young man who i had the
fortune of knowing who
served ten years in prison
and it was a wrongful
accusation
and i’d like to be a able to be in a position
to help something prevent something like that
from ever happening again
so what have you done while in law school
to try and
gather the
the ability the skill to to be able to try
cases and help people when you leave
law school
well since the first time I came for my interview
speaking with professor filippetti
I saw that there was a child advocacy program
I knew that if I could be a part of that that
that would really help me attain my goals
so since attending the massachusetts school of law
i’ve done everything possible to
with the trial advocacy program
how does specifically does the trial advocacy
program work
with the trial advocacy program we have a trial
where
students
preferably second years and up who’ve had evidence
try out for the % mock trial team
there’s
mock fact pattern that
schools from across the country able to participate
in
and
the Dean of our schools selects a group of
students
we come together and we commit ourselves for
the next three to four months
in achieving the goal of being the best that
we can knowing everything about the case
%uh knowing the federal rules of evidence
as well as the rules of criminal procedure
and applying them appropriately
and it’s
it’s real life practice
and it gives us the confidence that when we
go out to the world that we know that we know
how to try a case
and I was able to take that confidence with me into
the essex county district attorney’s office
where I interned last year
and now you’ve had a great deal of success
in these trial advocacy competitions since
you’ve
been involved you actually got involved during
the first year right
yes in my first year I had the fortune of
being the
north east regional runner-up
%uh and last year %uh massachusetts school of law
won the northeast region
and I have the fortune of being able to go to
%uh
the national competition and finished third
in the nation and that’s a testament to the
the great work is being done here at the massachusetts
school of law
do those types of
of mock trials those types of skills do they
carry over did you to find that they carried over
when you
went to the essex county district attorney’s
office did that really sort of
help you
no that geez I really think I’ve got a a
good shot at
achieving my dream
absolutely
the mock trial
program at MSL I think is unique because
it allows us to know that we’re as good as anyone
in the country
we go out we compete against those who regarded
as the best and we always come out on top
so when I went to
the district attorney’s office
I was there for about five minutes and of course
its intimidating the first time being in the
professional setting but
after about five minutes of seeing that it’s
really all the same thing the law is the law
and I know how to apply and I’ve been trained
for two years in how to apply the law
I felt confident that I was as good
if not better than
anyone was there
now you know anyone pursuing a dream theres
always setbacks along the way
here you’re actually not the the typical age
of the entering law student your
close to the end of your twenties at this point
how do you
push through the the setbacks and the
you know the times when you you say geez maybe
I’m just not going to be able to to to do
what I
what I really hope in my heart i’d like to do
and
now that your so close to it how do you get
past some of those
setbacks that occur to anyone along
the journey to a dream
well its definitely difficult
and I had to realize it was self imposed my
barriers to achieving my dreams
I had every opportunity to go to college
I had opportunities to go financially I also
had opportunities to go athletically
and I didn’t take advantage of all my opportunities
in college I went to college and it
wasn’t as challenging as it could have been and as a
result of that
I wasn’t successful in
my goals of attending law school but
I never gave up
i decided to go back to college I went and got
a masters degree and I worked as hard as I could
the adversity in the perseverance made me
stronger so I realize that if I ever got
the chance
to pursue my dream or my goal of being
a law student
that I wouldn’t let anything stop me
what drives you today to to try and achieve
that goal
the determination to be successful
I want to be able to
take care of my family to be able to support
my family and to be able to be
a member of my community
who everybody else can look up to
when I see that there aren’t too many young African-American
members of the community back where I’m from
who have graduated gone to college
graduated from college and pursuing a
professional degree in fact
of all the friends I grew up with particularly
males I think
I may be
one of only two or three
who’ve actually finished college and are working
I want to make sure that I let everybody
else know from where I’m from that you can do
it and
that didn’t really become a reality for me until
after I finished college and went home for a little
while
and saw what everyone else was doing
I want everybody to know that
you can go to school and if there’s a raod block if
theres a barrier to success
push through it you can still achieve your goals
what do you think are the most important lessons
you’ve learned along
your journeys to
to try and achieve your dream of being
a lawyer
never give up
some people feel that the goals that I have
for myself
or set for myself are unrealistic
however
I say that is is more unrealistic for me to be sitting
here right now at
the Massachusetts school of law as a third-year
law student
about to graduate with a job
in hand
already
I mean I’m already defying the odds
and if I can do it once I can do it again
so I I have absolutely no doubt
as to my abilities but my abilities have come
through my adversity
and through others telling me that I could not
do it
who dreams with you
your parents your friends
the kids on the corner that
that you no longer hang around with who else
dreams these big dreams with you
definitely my parents my father’s
been an incredibly big support and my mother and
father have
but I would say that my mom she worked thirty
nine years in new York city public schools
she didn’t retire til three years ago
from working she’s always worked hard
to provide
a stable home for us to let us know that we
have every opportunity
that she may not have had or
one that she wanted for us
and I acknowledge that
and i would say that my father through my bond with
him when I was playing basketball
when I was younger
%uh he’s always supported me in fact he’s got a
joke that whenever I graduate from school he’s
taking my degrees
there are degrees that I have that i’ve never even seen
I think perhaps he’s been my biggest supporter
i love both my parents for that
definitely my parents my father
what advice would you give to others that
might see that their a little
further away from from realizing their dream
what advice would you give them as to how
what they should do in order to achieve their
dreams
simplest thing I would say you have to make
lemonade
out of lemons
and that scared money doesn’t make money
and when I say that if you’re not
willing to take the chance and invest in your
future then why should somebody else
so if you’re going to let somebody tell you that
you’re not good enough your not qualified there’s
someone better than you
well what you’re reaching for is impossible
if you let that stop you
then why should someone else believe in you
but if you believe in yourself
then no one can ever stop you
I’m
clearly not the smartest person I have ever
met
I might not be the brightest i might not be
the most handsome
but I will not give up
I will not give up on my goals
and I’m happy that I had to learn that lesson
through life but it’s less that I now can
pass on
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