Lawson Konvalinka
"Take advantage of the resources and opportunities present at Texas Law. The William Wayne Justice Center, Public Interest Law Association, and the clinical professors are a great place to start. Also, I would recommend looking at various areas within public interest law and trying them out to see what fits your personality best."
After graduating from Texas Law, Lawson Konvalinka served as a law clerk to the Hon. Andrew S. Hanen, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Texas in Brownsville, and then worked in Billings, Montana for Montana Legal Services Association, in the Foreclosure Assistance Program, and in Denver for Colorado Legal Services, in the Migrant Farm Workers Division. He practiced law in Chattanooga, Tennessee at Grant Konvalinka & Harrison, P.C. and then returned to Texas Law for several years as the public interest and public defense career counselor in the Career Services Office. He currently works for SmartStart, a counseling business that he co-founded.
While at Texas Law, Lawson participated in the Capital Punishment, Immigration, and Housing clinics. He was a member of the Texas Law Review, served as co-president of the Public Interest Law Association, and was a student organizer of the Law School’s 2009 and 2010 winter break pro bono trips. He spent his summers working for the Bronx Defenders in New York and the Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans. Originally from Tennessee, Lawson attended Vanderbilt University for his undergraduate studies. Before coming to law school, he helped start a microfinance organization in Peru.