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Grant Stratton
July 2010
The VLP is pleased to
announce that
Grant Stratton has been
selected as
our Outstanding Law
Student
Volunteer for the month
of July.
Grant is a 2L at the
University of
Arizona James E. Rogers
College
of Law and has
volunteered with the
VLP Domestic Relations
Clinic
since the Fall of 2009.
Grant is
incredibly tenacious and
dedicated,
impressing VLP staff with
his
passion and commitment to
volunteering, law school,
and his
young family at home.
Although Grant is
originally from Brea, California, the past thirteen years he has
spent living and
contributing to the Tucson community certainly qualify him as
Tucson native. In 2003,
Grant began a two-year missionary service tour in
Nicaragua. He then
returned to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona.
In May 2009, Grant
graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English
Literature and Creative
Writing as well as a minor in Communications. He
eagerly entered the
following semester into the University’s School of Law.
When asked why he chose
to enter U of A’s Law School immediately after
his undergraduate
graduation, Grant remarked that he “wasn’t keen to wait”.
This past year Grant has
balanced his first-year course load, a busy
household and an
internship with Judge Phillip Espinosa at the Arizona Court
of Appeals.
When we asked Grant why
he chose to join the VLP as a student volunteer,
he told us that he was
inspired to help others who couldn’t otherwise afford
legal services. He also
believed that joining the program would be a great way
to get first-hand
knowledge as a “know-(next to)-nothing first year”. Grant says
that he knew this
experience would be “both exciting and something [that]
would push me to do my
best”. Above all, his time volunteering with the VLP
reflects his greater
aspirations to make “a positive impact on someone’s life”.
Grant’s experiences over
the past year working with the VLP and attending law
school have challenged
his views of the legal system and given him a greater
insight into the practice
of law. He says:
Before law school, the
legal world was a shadowy, nebulous
area with foreign
strictures and lurking penalties for anyone
foolish enough to
challenge it. Now it’s a shadowy, nebulous
area made up of
wisdom-earned-the-hard-way, clothed in logic
and dominated by whoever
can make the most apparent sense
out of it (or argues the
rule that the judge finds most palatable).
During his time at the
VLP, Grant has learned some valuable lessons about the
practical application of
law and the relationships between lawyer and client. He
believes that one of the
most fundamental—and possibly the most difficult—
obstacle a lawyer must
overcome to successfully serve a client is effectively
communicating in order to
remain “on the same page” as the client.
When Grant is not busy
studying or volunteering, you might find him at home
relaxing and playing
video games. He also enjoys escaping outdoors to hike and
camp. As a former
Literature and Creative Writing student, Grant also loves to
write and hopes to return
to writing fiction if he ever finds the “privacy or the
peace of mind” in his
hectic life.
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Past Outstanding Volunteer
Student Awards |
