Sturgill Turner Summer Associates: An Army Lieutenant and a Vintage Airplane Pilot Bring Top-Level Skills
UK Law 3L students Samuel Weaver and Rachel Bierman joined Sturgill Turner in May 2021 as summer associates.
We’re halfway through the summer, and proud of the work that our summer associates have been doing during these challenging times. Rachel Bierman and Samuel Weaver are both rising 3L students at the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law, and joined the firm in May 2021. “We’re excited to have such talented, hard-working colleagues working with us this summer,” said member Josh Salsburey, chair of the Sturgill Turner hiring committee. “We appreciate their work, and look forward to the great things they’ll contribute to the legal profession.”
“I am so lucky because I feel like I work on a completely different case every day, from medical malpractice to education or torts.” — Rachel Bierman
Army 1st Lieutenant Rachel Bierman has wanted to become a lawyer since the 6th grade, when she saw Rory Gilmore on the hit show “Gilmore Girls” dream about attending law school. Rachel earned her B.A. in political science with minors in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, and military science from the University of Louisville, while serving in the Army ROTC. While there, she realized that law truly was the career she wanted to pursue, and finds her Army training very helpful as she negotiates law school and her summer associate position at Sturgill Turner.
Rachel took a year off between undergrad and law school to complete some of her military training and obligations, and currently serves in the Army Reserves. “I am a military intelligence officer,” she explains, “so my training has definitely come in handy working with the firm and researching the law and various other things the attorneys ask me to find for them.” She will also use her training in her new position as Production Editor of the Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Law.
Working at Sturgill Turner has also widened her view of what a legal career looks like. “It’s so interesting just how different your career can be,” she says. “I always thought about criminal law, but now seeing so many different practice groups here, I have new insights on what kind of law I might want to focus on. I am so lucky because I feel like I work on a completely different case every day, from medical malpractice to education or torts.”
Whichever practice area she chooses, Rachel’s enthusiasm and hard work, along with her military training, have prepared her well for career success. “I am so ready to get to court – I love being in the courthouse,” she says. “I cannot wait to litigate a case!”
“I see this profession as a calling, not just a job, so I’m personally invested in it.” — Samuel Weaver
Samuel Weaver grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and started his career right out of high school, working in sales and marketing for a startup in Las Vegas selling exotic car driving experiences, before moving to another startup in the social media marketing space, where he ran marketing, sales, and customer service. But he’d always been interested in law, public policy, and the justice system and after eight years in business realized it was time to pursue his legal career. As an older prospective law student, he chose Thomas Edison State University and took only 18 months to complete his undergraduate degree online before enrolling at UK, where he was just named Managing Articles Editor for the Kentucky Law Journal.
He’s finding that law is “simultaneously extremely specific and impossibly vague,” he says. “I have no idea how lawmakers manage to do that, and it can be both frustrating and helpful. But I look forward to being able to solve problems and help reach a just result in the process. My wife could tell you I’m a solution-oriented person, and it’s true—I enjoy being able to find creative solutions to ‘impossible’ problems.”
Samuel’s work experience gives him realistic expectations for what life in the workplace as a lawyer is like and helps him take a more systematic approach to law school. “I also see this profession as a calling, not just a job, so I’m personally invested in it,” he says.
And as a licensed private pilot with endorsements for complex and high performing aircraft, and training in aerobatics and emergency recovery, Samuel is used to making quick decisions in critical situations. Now that he’s close to realizing his dream of becoming a lawyer, those characteristics indicate clear skies ahead.