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Prepared by their Lafayette experiences, Joseph Lanzot ’07 of Hoboken, N.J.; Anny Lopez ’10 of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Washcarina Martinez ’11 of New York, N.Y., have excelled at Rutgers School of Law, Newark, N.J.
Lanzot was selected to serve on the staff of Rutgers Law Review and was an editor in 2009-10. A government and law graduate, he says that an externship at Schrader, Byrd & Companion, PLLC, in Wheeling, W.V., “cemented his path” to law school. “While I was always interested in a career in the law, I was not certain until externing there during my junior year at Lafayette,” he says.
Relying on time management skills he developed balancing football and course work at the College, Lanzot found success at Rutgers. He graduated in 2010 and passed both the New Jersey and New York bars a few weeks later. After clerking for the Hon. Joseph Isabella, J.S.C., of New Jersey Superior Court, Lanzot is assistant prosecutor at Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, Jersey City, N.J. He serves in the Domestic Violence Division of the Special Victims Unit.
At Lafayette, Lopez participated in Modes of Expression, a program that engages at-risk children in Easton with the performing arts. Seeing the children’s passion for making a better life for themselves, Lopez was reminded of her own childhood goal of attending law school.
Later, this experience enhanced her summer externship with the Hon. Alberto Rivas, J.S.C, in Middlesex Vicinage Superior Court in New Jersey.
“My role as a mentor for Modes of Expression showed me the importance a family has on the development of a child,” she says. “While externing at the family courthouse, I was able to see how legal issues related to the family play out in the courtroom.”
At Rutgers, Lopez relied on analytical and reasoning skills she honed as a B.S. psychology honors graduate. After her expected May 2013 graduation, she hopes to focus on criminal or immigration law.
An international affairs graduate, Martinez was drawn to her future career through her participation in two Engineers Without Borders (EWB) experiences in Honduras.
“In EWB, my passion for social justice flourished. I learned to see the world with a more critical lens,” she says. “The experience fostered my interest in law and helped me appreciate the disparities around me.”
Like Lanzot and Lopez, Martinez was attracted by Rutgers’ diverse student body and its reputation for social and political activism. A Posse Foundation Scholar, Martinez was prepared in public high school for enrollment at Lafayette and then supported by the relationships she developed. “In Rutgers’ Minority Student Program, I found a comfort system similar to that of Posse,” she says.
After her expected graduation in May 2014, Martinez would like to focus on public interest law.