Kennedi’s Winning Essay
Losing my father and other family members into the criminal justice system brought my attention to the law. Many of them were on their “third strike” and had public defenders who seemed to be on their tenth case of the day.
The odds were against their favor since birth; their environment and education were poor.
Observing minority and low-income communities like mine not being able to advance inspired me to choose a career centered around service to these affected communities. I want to help members of these impoverished communities to protect their legal and economic rights, which will allow them to improve and sustain wealth.
Failed businesses are a feature characteristic of broken communities, like those in my hometown. These communities have no sources to establish wealth, let alone a stable income, because businesses are continuously failing. Residents have limited ways to provide for themselves, so they resort to other means. Sometimes this can involve criminal action.
In the midst of this reality, however, I have seen creative energy and entrepreneurship that can save the lives of families like mine. I have a family member who was in and out of juvenile and jail his whole life. He opened his own trucking business to help people around my hometown move. Since its opening, he has not been back.
As a lawyer, I want to help small business entrepreneurs establish their foundations as stable businesses with products protected from infringement by large corporations and other businesses. Many of them are first-generation entrepreneurs, or they lack proper training to run a business successfully over the long term. I created a free website to help educate small businesses on the basics and importance of protecting their product. It is not legal advice, but a simple guide to help different entrepreneurs I see operating in my communities.
I believe two major purposes of the law are to punish and protect. I want to learn more about how to combat the negative effects resulting from using the law more as punishment and understand the views of those who promote this purpose over protection.
I think punishment has been overused by the American legal system, especially in minority and low-income communities. Experiencing the punitive effects of the law pushed me to want to promote protection over punishment. Learning from and working with other students who share my view of the law and those who share the opposing view, will allow me to gain an understanding of both, and incorporate each equally in my future strategies and legal practice.
I want to promote a more balanced perspective of the law among my peers to help us have an open-minded approach to the law. Receiving the The Law Offices of Andrew Dressel LLC Social Justice Scholarship will help me to attend school, so that I can promote a prospective an application of the law that is fair and provides opportunity for equity.