Law School Grads Pursue Careers as Vast as Texas

For graduates of the University of Texas School of Law, the options are endless. Starting law school with different backgrounds and interests sets up students for success, whether starting their careers at law firms, in public service, or clerking for a federal or state judge.

Part of Texas Law's class of 2026, Chandler Lawn, Joe Holden and Cooper Tyler embody the strengths of the law school here at UT, with career interests spanning from sports and entertainment law to generative artificial intelligence and civil litigation. Read more about each below.

Cooper Tyler

Tyler practically grew up in the halls of Texas Law. His parents met and got married during their first year at Texas Law, where his mom later returned as a mock-trial professor.

"I would always walk around the halls and be like 'I want to be like these students. I want to be a law school student,'" he said.

As an undergraduate student, Tyler was a member of the track and field team as a javelin thrower. After enrolling at Texas Law, he found out he had two more years of NCAA eligibility and picked up the javelin again. During his first and second years at Texas Law, he spent his time split between the classroom and the track, a big feat for anyone, but especially for a law student.

"My first Big 12 championships during the outdoor season were during my finals for my 1L year, which is really important for getting jobs and internships," Tyler said. "It was very stressful because I was out on the track studying while competing, but in retrospect it was a lot of fun. I'm glad I did it."

Tyler's love of sports influences almost every aspect of his life, including balancing his ability to stay physically fit and mentally strong. After graduation, he plans to take the NFL agent exam to continue working with athletes.

"Getting to sign players of my own and work with football for the rest of my life, it'd be a dream come true," he said.

Chandler Lawn

Lawn's passion for the music industry started long before her time at law school. At age 12 she began her professional career as an artist, attending the Grammy Awards in high school for a song on her first album. After studying music business in college and stints living and teaching abroad in Peru and Spain, Lawn enrolled at Texas Law ready to dive deeper into music and patent law.

Alongside her background in the industry, Lawn has spent the past year as an AI Innovation and Law Fellow on campus, doing local policy research. Established last fall, the AI Innovation and Law Program at Texas Law was created to empower students to shape the future of AI policy and prepare for the impact of AI on legal practice.

"We're compiling a report for the Texas Legislature on how startups and midsized businesses are using AI and integrating their products into the current landscape of laws," she said. "There's a lot of misunderstanding about where current law stands, and what we can do in the future, so I do a lot of research there."

Her research also looks at the different ways students use AI.

"We also do a lot of work integrating AI into campus and making sure that students at UT are best prepared to use these new tools not just in their student life, but in their future practice."

During the fall, Lawn will join the entertainment and technology team of law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP in New York, ensuring that creators are compensated as fairly as possible during this tremendous shift into the generative AI era.

Joe Holden

Before his time at Texas Law, Holden spent five years in the U.S. Navy as a surface warfare officer in San Diego. Although the switch from being on ship to law school may seem like a big one, Holden said learning how to balance responsibilities and how to structure his time helped prepare him for the past three years.

"My time in the Navy definitely helped me stay organized and has influenced my approach to studying and schedule planning," he said. "I think the skills I gained in the Navy also helped shift me towards litigation."

After graduation, Holden is moving back to San Diego to work in civil litigation. As someone who came into law school "pretty soft spoken," Holden said Texas Law helped him open up.

"Coming into law school, I was surprised that I actually really enjoyed advocacy courses and mock trial - just getting up in front of people and actually having to tell a story," he said. "I feel like that made me very uncomfortable before, but now I actually like it."