#  Lisa Coffman 

 



**Attorney, United States Courts**

   ![459030_10150705985074740_1202111194_o.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum4076/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/espp/files/459030_10150705985074740_1202111194_o_0.jpg?itok=gk5r5m2R) 

 

"After my first year of law school, I focused on environmental law. I'm sure that having a background in environmental science and policy helped, as I didn't need to start from the ground up. In my current career, I do draw upon the basic concepts I picked up in many of my undergraduate courses, including environmental chemistry, ecology, and biostatistics. Having that basic background means that I can "speak the language" of the experts involved in the lawsuits before our court.   
  
Someone gave me this piece of advice AFTER I went to law school: Pick a career that let's you use both your mind and your body in a way that is rewarding. (I probably would have thought harder about becoming a Park Ranger had I received this advice earlier.) Apart from that, I would encourage students to treat ESPP not as a program that teaches you material/facts, but as a program that teaches you how to think about problems and how to learn about new ones. I lost sight of that a bit when I was an undergrad. I found it again in law school, where you not only learn a ton of material, you learn how to learn about the law."  
**- Class of '97**