Pettus of UMD Law and Society Minor sheds light on lessons of studying law

Pettus, university employee, shares life lessons

Studying law is not always a direct path to studying criminal law
By Jessica Zahurak
Brandee Pettus, Assistant Director of Law and Society Minor at the university, found
clarity in the administration hallways of the Bureau of Prisons. Pettus was not arrested, but on a
trip with her undergraduate class from the university. In those halls, she discovered what she
wanted to do with the rest of her life.
As an honors student at the university, Pettus knew all her life that she wanted to be a
lawyer. She attained a full ride to the university. Pettus
had a mindset that she wanted to be a criminal lawyer,
but her career took her on a journey, which taught
Pettus many lessons.

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Brandee Pettus is an alumni of the

University of Maryland.
Photo from Brandee Pettus.

Jessica Zahurak pettus p.2

Lesson 1: Criminal Law

I feel like I always had the I want to be a lawyer when I grow up mindset, said Pettus.
Or I want to be a teacher and teach law, or something else with law. Pettus thought that the
next natural step was majoring in criminology. When she thought of law, she thought of criminal
law.

I am going to
I am going to prosecute and keep people out of jail, or I

prosecute and keep

am going to defend them and keep innocent people out of jail,

people out of jail, or I

said Pettus. Upon entering undergraduate, I definitely thought I

am going to defend

wanted to be a lawyer, but one of my criminology professors,

Arnett Gaston, sealed it for me. He was awesome.
Gaston arbitrarily called Pettus out in class while talking

them and keep

innocent people out of
jail.

about the Bureau of Prisons and about talking to criminals. Gaston asked Pettus, What would
you do if you were going to a prison and you had on too short of a skirt and the prisoner grabbed
you? Pettus does not even remember how she responded, but Gastons questioning puzzled
Pettus. This was the way that Gaston introduced the trip to the Bureau of Prisons that hooked
Pettus onto criminal law.
And that was the best field trip of my entire life out of all of my school field trips, said
Pettus.

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Jessica Zahurak pettus p.3

Lesson 2: Never Give Up
Both undergraduate and law school graduations, Pettus almost fell off of the stage at
graduation. This was not due to excitement or fear of crowds, but Pettus was very pregnant at
both ceremonies.
I had to get help going up the steps. At the University of Maryland, one of the deans
helped me up, but I almost knocked over the flag. It was a disaster, but a happy disaster because I
was graduating, said Pettus.
Pettus got pregnant while at the university perusing her undergraduate degree, which
made her degree that much more difficult to attain. Because of the pregnancy, Pettus was forced
to overload on credits. She needed to graduate a semester early so that she would not be nine
months pregnant in college. It definitely made me a lot more focused. There was no more
partying and I really focused on my grades. Pettus had beautiful baby Bernard after graduating
from the university.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, even at a community college
level, women who give birth while attending college are 65 percent less likely to complete their
degree than women who do not give birth to children during

Women who give birth while

attending college are 65
percent less likely to
complete their degree than
women who do not give
birth at that time.
-National Conference
of State Legislatures

that time. With this statistic, it is clear to see that Pettus beat
the odds by not only completing her undergraduate degree
while pregnant; but, she continued on to get her J.D. from
law school.

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Jessica Zahurak pettus p.4

Lesson 3: Lifes Curveballs
After Pettus completed her second semester in law school, another professor interrupted
the fate that Pettus thought was lined out for her. Professor Andrew Taslitz, from Howard Law
School, taught Pettus criminal law. He shed the light on the real practice of criminal law and the
criminal law procedure. Pettus realized that it is not like it is on the television or how it is
portrayed in many books. Criminal law is demanding and difficult.
What I did was I kind of romanticized the practice. Professor Gaston [undergraduate
professor] and I never really talked about that piece of it so I made all of these assumptions and
then when I got to law school, all of those assumptions were broken down, said Pettus.
Pettus quickly realized that her dream of becoming a criminal lawyer was not her fate
after all. This did not take away her passion for the law, though. Pettus still loved the law and
courtroom aspect. She decided to focus on studying more of litigation.
Pettus is currently working with the Law and Society Minor with the Maryland Law
Program. In this position, she mainly handles the admissions and advising of students in the
minor and plays an active role in curriculum design and teaching within the program.
Pettus has certain goals for herself in the future. She hopes to have professional
development in in the area of higher education program administration. Additionally, she hopes
to have future career advancement.
Pettus strongly encourages others to find mentors, especially while studying at the
undergraduate level. This page can help to find a mentor that best fits your needs:
http://bit.ly/1pDgoq7.
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Jessica Zahurak pettus p.5

Mentors are always helpful. Not just people that you can look up to and say kind of I
want to do what they did or I want to have the drive that they have, but people that you can
actually bounce ideas off of that have experience in areas that you want to go into, said Pettus.
Talk to many people as you can about what you want to do before you get into it.

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SEO: Pettus, UMD MLAW Minor employee, hopes to achieve more

Pettus works with Law and Society Minor to achieve greater goals
Pettus hopes minor will branch out to create classroom diversity
By Jessica Zahurak
Almost falling at both graduations, Brandee Pettus went against the odds to attain both
her Bachelor of Arts from the university and her J.D. from Howard University. She was very
pregnant at both ceremonies; but, she managed to get across the stage with help to receive both
of her diplomas.
Today, Pettus works at the university as the Assistant Director of the Law and Society
Minor through the Maryland Law Program. She works as a liaison for the university and the
University of Maryland: Carey School of Law. This gives the opportunity for students to learn
directly from professors of the Carey School of Law in the Law and Society Minor classes.
Pettus also works directly with the admission and advising of students in the program.
She is a great source of information for anyone looking to apply to the Law and Society Minor.
Pettus is also a great source to get information about law school even if the student is not
applying to the Law and Society Minor.
This is the first cohort of the Law and Society Minor at the university, but Pettus said that
there has already been great success with the minor. There were more applications than expected
and more events than anticipated.
Pettus hopes to see the minor get more publicity than before. She hopes to attract students
from a more diverse selection of majors.

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Jessica Zahurak law and society p.2

I would like to publicize the minor more. I know that we get a lot of applications last
year, but I really want to triple the amount of applications. And I think that part of that is just
letting the campus know that we are here, said Pettus. I would like to see more engineers or
biologists. I think that they would bring an additional component to the classroom.

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