Legally Bond
Legally Bond
An Interview with Bond's Fall 2025 Associate Trainees
In this special episode of Legally Bond, we get a chance to hear from Bond's newest class of associate trainees. Tim Bouffard, Cecilia Brey, Alex Brockhuizen, MacKenzie DiLeo, Grant Haffenden, McKenzie Kestler, Lindsay McCarthy, David Reinharz, Courtney Ryan, Lexi Takashima, Sheila Tapia, Joseph Vogt and Diana Waligora share what advice they'd impart on their 1L selves, why they are excited to be a part of the Bond team and more.
Hello and welcome to Legally Bond, a podcast presented by the law firm Bond, chenek and King. I'm your host, kim Wolf-Price. Well, welcome to an episode that is becoming a tradition here at Legally Bond, the episode where our producer, kate Femia, interviews the new law school graduates who joined the firm as associate trainees or, in the case of two of them this year, associates, as they have already been admitted to practice. Having new graduates join the firm is not only part of how Bond continues to grow for the next 125 plus years, but it's also a time where we all get re-energized about practicing law and working for the firm. So enough from me. Let's hear from the associate trainees.
Speaker 2:Tim Bouffard, fordham University and New York City. I'm looking forward to getting to know everything that the law firm has to offer. There's a lot of really great lawyers who work here in a lot of different areas, and I'm well aware of the fact that I don't know anything yet. So I'm looking forward to being a part of that team, getting to learn from some great attorneys and trying to support as best I can. As of today, I'm interested in a lot of different things, I think specifically the higher education practice group.
Speaker 2:Before I came to Bond, I worked at Fordham University for about eight and a half years, so I know a lot about colleges and universities. We all went to college, but not everybody knows what a provost does or how a university operates, and that's something that I do know. So I'm hoping to kind of get to be able to support and use that knowledge base that I have. I think what inspired me is just the ability to be able to support people in times that are not always great. You know people come to lawyers to get help. Sometimes those things are very important, other times they're just. I have this transaction that I need some advice on. I don't know, and I want to be able to help people in whatever kind of stage of their life that they're at. So just I want to be a helper, really.
Speaker 3:My name is Cecilia Bry. I just graduated from Albany Law School and I'll be working in the Albany office as of today. I am most interested in environmental and energy law. While grades in law school are extremely important, and you should definitely study very hard, there are other things especially in the job market that'll really set you apart. Something that I've found to be especially important is curiosity and enthusiasm, especially about a particular area of the law, and you'll find that that'll take you very far. I had an academic background in undergrad that was very multidisciplinary, so like foreign languages, politics and environmental science so I wanted to do something with my career that would have me constantly learning about a wide variety of different things, and I find that, because there are so many areas of law and because those areas intersect so often, that would be the perfect sort of profession for that.
Speaker 4:I'm Alex Brockheisen. I went to the University of Buffalo School of Law and I'll be in the Rochester office. Last summer I really and I'll be in the Rochester office. Last summer I really liked the collaborative nature of the Rochester office and just all of the offices in general and everyone made me feel like it was a big family there. So I'm really enjoying going back to that and having that support team while I'm starting this career and I'm really interested in labor and employment, but specifically school law. I'm really interested in labor and employment, but specifically school law. My parents are both teachers and they're in the education system and I think that it's going to be a good way to kind of combine both of those interests of mine.
Speaker 4:I go to the gym. I try to go like three, four times a week just to kind of clear my head, stay active, well-being. I like golf. I'm not very good at golf but it's fun and then I like to just play softball during the summer and I use that. After a long day of bar prep I would go to my own league in Rochester or drive up to Buffalo and play with the attorneys there.
Speaker 5:Hi, I'm Mackenzie DeLeo. I went to the University of Florida 11 College of Law and I'm going to be in the Naples Florida office. A piece of advice I would give to anyone starting law school is stay true to yourself. Remember why you're doing it, who you are and the kind of work ethic you have. I think it can be easy to get caught up in the minutiae of the everyday tasks and trying to stay on top of everything and even being hard on yourself at times, but I think you know stepping back and reminding yourself why you're doing it and why it's important to you is always a good thing In terms of relieving stress and grounding myself again.
Speaker 5:I always like to go on walks, so if you can find somewhere nearby where you live or where your law school is like a trail or a park to go on walks, that's always good for clearing your head and getting steps in. I was inspired to pursue law after actually studying journalism in undergrad. I really liked being able to hear people's stories and interview people and interact with sources. As I was doing that, I learned that I wanted to do more than just tell a story and I think journalism can have a great impact and definitely just sharing their stories helps people, but being able to actually intervene and take action means a lot, and that's what I'm looking forward to most.
Speaker 6:My name is Grant Haffenden. I went to the University at Buffalo School of Law, and I'm going to be in the Buffalo office. The thing I'm most looking forward to, I think, is just yeah, I mean, it kind of is implied already that just being part of the team I think being here last summer and even the people that I interacted with before starting with my summer are great. I think, from my experience last summer and even just going through orientation now, it is kind of a team atmosphere, collaboration atmosphere, everyone's kind of looking out for one another and wanting to support one another, no matter what department you're in or what kind of issue you're working on. I think that's what really drew me to Bond and I think really excites me about starting here.
Speaker 6:Starting off law school so like for me, I took a few years off in between undergrad and law school. So in undergrad I was a college athlete, so I was very busy already outside of just classes. So for me, like going back to school after it was like four or five years, I really kind of just like made a like a commitment to myself or told myself like I'm going to fully dive into school. I have nothing else going on, and I think that's really the piece of advice for incoming law school students that helped me the most Just really take advantage of your first year of law school. Don't be afraid to ask questions, no matter how big or small. Go to office hours if you don't know something. The professors and all the other staff that's at the law school want to see you succeed. No matter how tough maybe a professor is on you in classes cold calling or how hard their exams may be from word of mouth or whatever, at the end of the day, the law school is there to help you, help you succeed. They want to see you succeed. So really just kind of dive right in, use all those resources that are available to you.
Speaker 6:From the beginning, well, I've always kind of been in a position where, like I, enjoy helping people and, like you know I guess full disclosure before I was went to law school, I was in kind of sales but also like sales and helping out people and, you know, while I wasn't a huge fan of the job that I was working at before, the one benefit I did get out of it is that at the end, goal was helping people again, big or small issues, and that's obviously what the law is and that's how I view the law at least is you know, people have issues, no matter again how big or small, but at the end of the day you're helping a person, you're helping a group kind of accomplish a goal or figure out a problem that they don't know how to, and I think that's kind of just where I'm at and that's why I wanted to pursue a law degree and it's been great ever since.
Speaker 7:My name is Mackenzie Kessler. I went to the Syracuse University College of Law and I will be in the Rochester office. My best piece of advice is to stay kind. I think a lot of people get wrapped up in that competitive mindset and, honestly, law school and the legal field fuels those feelings. But if you keep yourself grounded and treat others with kindness, your life will be made so much easier and you'll just be pleasant to be around. So everyone will like you. I am an artist, so anytime I feel stressed. I don't always whip out a whole painting, but I at least do something like scrapbooking or junk journaling and that puts me into the flow mindset, where I'm not thinking about work, I'm only thinking about what I'm doing, and that helps a lot. Right now I'm the most interested in trust and estates. I think it puts me in a good position to work with people one-on-one and help them come up with plans for their future, and that excites me.
Speaker 8:My name is Lindsay McCarthy. I just graduated from St John's University School of Law and I'll be working in the New York City office as of today. I'm most interested in either labor or litigation, or a mix of two would be ideal. I worked on a lot of labor and employment matters last summer as a summer associate and they were super interesting. So I would be very interested in those areas as a summer associate and they were super interesting, so I would be very interested in those areas For my well-being.
Speaker 8:I really like to go on walks outside. It's a good way to physically remove yourself from a stressful environment. Get outside, feel the sun which unfortunately we won't be feeling that for much longer but feel the sun, get into nature. Be feeling that for much longer, but feel the sun, get into nature. I really enjoy doing that and I'm also a big reality TV fan. It helps me shut off my brain when I'm stressed. So this summer I was really into Love Island, which was great, studying for the bar at night. Just turn your brain off.
Speaker 8:If somebody were starting law school, I would give them the advice to kind of really trust yourself and stay in your own lane In law school. It's so easy to compare yourself to other people because you're in this environment with so many type A people and you're graded on a curve so by necessity you're being compared to other people. But really just stay true to yourself, what works best for you, how you learn, and try not to compare yourself to other people. It's very easy to listen to the person sitting next to you who claimed to stay in the library until midnight and be like, oh, I didn't do that, so I must not know what I'm doing. But you know what you're doing and just stay confident in yourself.
Speaker 9:My name is David Reinhars. I went to the University at Buffalo School of Law and I'll be in the Long Island office. I'm most interested in the labor employment practice because, having taken both employment law and labor law in law school, they're both areas that I really found a keen interest in and I'm looking forward to exploring them more. I'm a big tennis fan. I played for the varsity team for my undergraduate at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and I love playing both competitively, recreationally and again just as a great way to relieve some stress. My grandfather was the first lawyer in my family, went on to have both my father, uncle and cousin as a lawyer, so I'm looking to be number five here and my grandfather was a very instrumental part of my life and he helped really guide a path for me and I'm thankful that he chose law that I'm following in his footsteps.
Speaker 10:My name is Courtney Ryan. I recently graduated from Syracuse University College of Law and I'll be working in the Syracuse office here at Bond. I'm really looking forward to getting to collaborate. I feel very lucky to be in a position where I'm surrounded by attorneys who have so much experience and knowledge that I can kind of learn from each of them as an associate trainee, getting to experience all of the different departments and practice areas and really just figuring out where I fit best and what my niche will be. I am most interested in data privacy law and the cybersecurity practice group. That's where I'm leaning more towards at this point in time, just based on prior experiences that I've had with internships, externships and interning at Bond previously. But I'm definitely still open to exploring other areas of law and really just through experience, kind of figuring out what I like, what I don't like, where I would fit best and where my skills would be best utilized, the best piece of advice.
Speaker 10:That's not super flashy or exciting, but what really helped me was to make sure that you're outlining as you go every day what I did every day after class. At the end of the day, when I got home, I would outline for all of my classes for that day. What I did every day after class at the end of the day, when I got home, I would outline for all of my classes for that day and that really just helped me stay on top of things. So when the end of the semester came I wasn't frantically scrambling, trying to go back months and months and months from the beginning of the semester, trying to remember what the professor said or what are my notes and the abbreviations meant. It really just helped me stay organized and stay on track to really set myself up for success come final exams.
Speaker 11:My name is Lexi Takashima. I went to Syracuse Law and I will be in the Syracuse office as of today. I'm most interested in the bankruptcy and business practices. I think the biggest piece of advice that I would have liked to receive, especially starting off law school, is to be more confident in where you are and what you know and kind of just really fully lean into learning and starting off your legal career like the first day of school. I mostly try to engage in things that I won't do during, like the school day or homework. So I enjoy reading, but it's not necessarily like a de-stressing activity when you've read all day, so I'll try to do things like exercise when possible. Or I enjoy doing like different art projects or home projects, things like that that I can do creatively but not a ton of brainpower needed.
Speaker 12:Hi, my name is Sheila Tapia. I'll be working in the Westchester office and I graduated from Pace Law University. So before going to law school, I worked as a professional actor in New York City theater, film, television so obviously I love speaking to large groups of people. That's where my comfort zone is. So litigation seems like the perfect fit. At least that's what I found in law school. I excelled at trial advocacy. I excelled at writing. I had no idea that I was good at persuasive writing. So I'm looking forward to learning more about that and seeing what I can contribute.
Speaker 12:There are various reasons and they'll change every day really. But the major thing was that I was working my tail off during the pandemic. Well, no, before the pandemic I'd recorded I don't know three television shows, a few commercials. I thought I'm in a good place, my career is moving along and all these things, and yet I was making less money than when I first started working 19 years ago, and that's because of streaming. Platforms changed our compensation, how we get paid, residuals and things like that. I was so busy that I didn't notice. I just knew that I was working more and sort of coming up short at the end of the month. I know I guess I have to keep hustling for another job, right?
Speaker 12:The pandemic came around and everything stopped in my industry and I thought, well, I'm going to be okay because I did all these shows just a few months ago. Residuals are going to flow in and they didn't. And that's the first time I saw, oh no, what has happened here. And I lost my health insurance and so many other actors. You know, like myself, a middle class actor, we lost a lot of things because we depended on residuals. We lost a lot of things because we depended on residuals. When we go to work, we'll book a job and they'll say, okay, we'll pay you X amount of money for the week and then the following week job is over and we're not getting another paycheck, right, we're depending on when the show airs again. Well, the contract that was in place, our union contract, didn't cover the situation what would happen with streaming platforms? So we weren't getting those residuals and if we were, they were like five cents two dollars.
Speaker 12:So I thought to myself during that time gosh, darn it. I'm going to save us all, I'm going to get in there with the union and I'm going to fix these contracts, you know, but I don't know what I'm talking about and I thought, well then I need to understand what it is that I'm going now. I don't know if I want to work for SAG-AFT or work with theater companies, production companies to avoid what happened, because I think like a middle-class actor, right, and I know how to say well, you might want to eliminate the risk of a strike 10 years from now. So think about this or the other thing. I'm here to see how that's going to evolve and what I'm going to do with their career. I had before and where I am now and how I can put the two together.
Speaker 12:So I took the July 25 bar exam and I was surprised to learn that I had so much to learn. I found myself teaching myself things that I had done. I was part of the part-time class at Pace Law, so it took me four years. I graduated with high GPA. I was like I'm prepared for this bar exam and no, yes and no right, I would say to a first a 1L I would say it's never too early to think about the bar exam, even though it seems so far away.
Speaker 12:But familiarize yourself with some of the questions, what they're actually going to ask you what the bar is going to ask you versus what your professors are teaching. It can be very different. The rule of perpetuities wasn't taught to me because it's not really used. Bar exam loves it. And if your professor doesn't address something that you see that might be on the bar exam, go to an office hours and ask and say, hey, what about this? I know we didn't talk about it in class, but can you just tell me a little bit? I feel that even some vague understanding of something or some conversation about something will anchor you later. So the federal rules of civil procedure To me I learned it in a vacuum because I've never litigated a case, I've never put something, filed anything for myself.
Speaker 12:I just have these rules that mean. Right now they mean very little to me, but I own a house. So when I had to do mortgages I got that. I'm like, oh wait, a minute, I know about adverse possession, my neighbor, I had a thing with my neighbor. So whatever anchored me in my life or whatever I actually talked about with my professors was helpful later. So that's why I say it'll save you some stress in three years if you just take a look at some of the questions and talk to professors. So I used to be a marathon runner. I can't do that anymore, sadly time and other reasons, but running is my thing. I actually got up early this morning, at six, and went for a run. I feel so much better the days. I feel calmer. During the day I can handle things if stress comes at me. I'm in a good place to compartmentalize issues and deal with them as they come.
Speaker 14:My name is Joseph Vogt. I am an alumni, I guess, from Albany Law School, graduated in 2025, back in May, and I'll be in the Albany office. I think the most important part of, I guess, going to law school is realizing that it's a marathon, not a sprint, and it's, you know, take your time. You know you can't do all things, you can't be all things to all people, and it's just, it's all about moderation. Moderation and that was something I struggled with for sure, where I was like I need to do everything, learn everything and memorize everything. You can't take your time, pace yourself, you know, because you can't do good if you're not good.
Speaker 14:Well, I'm a little older, uh, as a non-traditional student, so things that are kind of mundane I enjoy, like mowing my lawn, you know, shoveling snow in the wintertime, laundry dishes, things like that that are, you know, part of life, that help keep you mentally clear. Because if you're living in, you know shoveling snow in the wintertime, laundry dishes, things like that that are, you know, part of life, that help keep you mentally clear. Because if you're living in, you know squalor, you know you're going to feel kind of, you know, a little unkept mentally and then you can't do well scholastically, so those can kind of keep me, keep me grounded, keep me busy. But then there's other things too. Like you know just reading a science fiction book that I don't need to memorize anything, it's just for entertainment. That's important too.
Speaker 14:So years ago, when I was young, I used to work at the Cheesecake Factory. I was a manager there for a long time and it was a good life. But as I got older I realized that I was making good money but I wasn't doing anything that mattered. I wasn't really helping people and I wanted to really do something that brought me fulfillment as a person but also could help other people in a positive way. So that was really the main predicate for me going to law school.
Speaker 15:My name is Diana Walagora. I went to Albany Law School and I will be part of the Albany office. I had a career in management corporate consulting for 15 years prior to attending law school and during that time, the latter 11 or so years, I spent with a company called Deloitte. I had the opportunity and the blessing to work with Deloitte's General Counsel on employment related matters and that, of all of the things that I had done over my career the various items was one that really stuck out to me as something that intrigued me, that I was very passionate about and that piqued my interest that I had in law, even more so than any other experience at Deloitte. Although I had worked with other constituents, obviously along that time frame I thought I would be interested in employment law. So, coming into Bond, I had heard from Albany Law School that Bond was a great firm specifically for employment law as well as other areas, and when I got to Bond I worked very closely with the labor and employment folks, but also the business and corporate folks, and that's really where I'm drawn to. I harked back to the business corporate days that I really missed and enjoyed. So that's the area that I'll be focusing on Embrace it.
Speaker 15:Being a non-traditional student and being in the workforce for 15 years, I admit that when I first joined law school I saw it as a get in, get out, get back into the real world. And then I wanted to make sure that I really met folks, that I really did natural networking with individuals, met my professors, really got to know them. I was involved in various activities Albany Law Review to know them. I was involved in various activities Albany Law Review, ta-ing for a few professors and those were my favorite experiences. So just embrace it. Yes, it's chaotic, especially one L year, but there's nothing like it and you will learn so much. You'll just expand the way that you think, the way that you embrace challenges, and it'll be over soon enough as well.
Speaker 1:Thank you to all of the associate trainees for taking the time to speak with us and we look forward to welcoming them back on future episodes of the podcast. Special thanks to producer Kate for making the magic happen. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Legally Bond. If you're listening and have any questions for me, want to hear from someone at the firm or have a suggestion for a future topic, please email us at legallybond at bskcom. Also, don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to Legally Bond wherever podcasts are downloaded. Until our next talk, be well, subscribe to Legally Bond wherever podcasts are downloaded.
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