Chol Pak '07

Hometown: Memphis, TN

Place of Employment: Vivid Sky, Inc.

Hobbies: Working out, running, playing hockey, watching college and professional sports.

Why Saint Louis University School of Law? I chose Saint Louis University because of its nationally recognized health law program. I became interested in health care when my brother went to medical school, and would like to practice in the health law field.

An Added Benefit: My legal education has made me more cautious in making decisions that could affect my life in the long run, and it has enabled me to understand everyday business practices that I did not understand before. I feel I am more ready to put my knowledge to use helping others.

Who was your favorite professor? Professor Dobbins. She is the most humble and down to earth professor. She never tried to impress us with her accomplishments and irrelevant information. She taught straight to the point and never included historical, rarely used rules of law that have no bearing on practicing law today. She always created exams that tested on everything we learned during the semester, instead of only testing on minute, inconspicuous rules that the class went over for one minute during the entire semester.

Favorite class? Torts. Especially, the Doctrine of “Last Clear Chance.” Under this doctrine, a negligent plaintiff can nonetheless recover if they are able to show that the defendant had the last opportunity to avoid the accident. For some strange reason, I remember this doctrine every time I leave the law school and cross Lindell Boulevard without using the crosswalk.

What advice would you give students preparing for their first year? Take advantage of the law school’s option to take graduate classes outside of the law school. I know that some students already have a preconceived concentration of law that they wish to focus, but students should keep their options open. Before entering law school, my goal was to concentrate on health law, but things changed in my third year. For a change of scenery, I enrolled in a graduate level business class for business students concentrating in entrepreneurship called, “New Venture Initiation.” My intention of taking this class was to learn the business aspects of opening up my own practice after law school. However, I soon found the interconnection of business and law more interesting. After volunteering my knowledge of business associations and intellectual property from my law school classes, my business professor recommended me to an entrepreneur who was looking for a legal intern for his start up company. After the interview, I got offered the position and the rest is history. I have been working for the company since its incorporation and accepted a permanent offer to stay with the company. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has let me experience how someone’s business idea went from a dream to a multi-million dollar company. I highly recommend that first year students come in with an open mind and explore all aspects of the legal world.

What did you learn about law that you didn’t anticipate? That everyone one of my friends thinks I took a Traffic Ticket class, and can get them out of speeding tickets.

Favorite quote: "Hard work pays off. It just might take a while."