By: Makayla Dilliner
To many students, the life of a lawyer may be considered a glamorous career, full of heated debate and money. While it can be an enjoyable job, real life has shown to be not exactly as the movies and TV shows we watch suggest. Class of 1994 graduate, Kapono Kiakona, a partner at Porter, Kiakona, and Kopper, shared his life and lessons in the field of law.
After transferring between not one but two different colleges, University of Northern Colorado and the University of Nevada at Reno. Kiakona found himself at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He mentioned the importance of happiness and the need to be closer to family.
“My mindset at the time was, I'm not happy here, I don't know what I can pinpoint it at, but I am doing everything I can to go somewhere else. In Reno, I spent most weekends visiting my family in the Bay Area or Vegas.”
Talking about his college transfer experience, Kapono gave credit to the Western Undergraduate Exchange program. Known as WUE, the program enables students to save on nonresident tuition at 160+ western-region schools. “Luckily, the schools I attended as an undergrad were all a part of the WUE program. Every student should know about and utilize that resource. People may say that you are wasting time and money [by transferring]– yet at the time college was less than $10,000 a year because of the WUE program” he explained.
When it came to his degree, Kiakona switched from a physics degree to an education in political science. “In physics, I was a low B student. It was a lot of work just to pass even though it was something I found fascinating. It wasnʻt something I loved enough to keep going after,” he explained.
Despite using his political science degree for law school at Boston University, Kiakona shared his lack of direction with his Juris Doctorate. “ I had no idea what I was going to do with my life,” he said.
While many people may drop law school due to the rigor and expense, Kiakona explained the opposite was true of his peers. “A lot of people in my graduating class chose not to drop law school because of how expensive it is. That being said, a lot of people stop practicing law after a few years.”
After working in litigation, Kiakona is now providing legal services for non-profit organizations, primarily representing community and condominium associations. A community association is responsible for the general maintenance and overall running of a development. “ The work is challenging and I look at it as the board of a condo and homeowners association, those are all volunteers. And for the most part, what they care about is, they care about their community, which is why I enjoy working with them,” said Kiakona.”
While many may struggle to find a well-paying job coming out of law school, especially one to pay off any remaining debt, Kiakona made it clear that it is not only law school that comes with its struggles. “It's possible to do well enough coming out of law school, but it's still a struggle. Everything is hard, life is hard. The more successful you become, life doesnʻt get any easier– you just become stronger and more capable of making it through,” he explained.
While you can work as hard as you must in order to succeed- what may also play a part is being at the right place at the right time. Kiakona explained the impact that luck can have on one's life. “Luck plays a role in it, but so does the continued effort, the harder you work the luckier you may become is another way to look at things.”
Many of us students have heard of the regret that comes with the field of law. Many may change their minds either during law school or after the bar examination (a test that allows you to practice law), however, Kiakona reminded students who are looking for a job in law, that difficulties come with all career paths. “If at some point, you didn't think about giving up, you may be one of the happiest people ever. I don't think I know anyone that hasn't thought about giving into something worth pursuing,” he explained.
“No matter what you do you'll always have regrets, there are missed opportunities. For me, I regret the amount of time I spent bemoaning bad times. When things were terrible, when something didn't work out, when I was working in places I didn't like, I regret the amount of time it took for me to make a change. You have to be willing to be aware of the problem, make the right changes, and get it together. And maybe that is what needs to be done, or maybe you just need to change your circumstances. It's a tough choice, and it's dependent upon each of us individually, but without a doubt, it's going to happen.”