From Setback to Success: Sarah Sanchez’s Path to Practicing Law

Sarah Sanchez had dreams of attending a four-year university, moving away from home, and having the traditional college experience. But, when she was told she wasn’t ready for college-level work, it nearly derailed her dream of higher education. Despite graduating high school with honors, her first college applications ended in disappointment when she was told she didn’t meet the testing targets and was advised to take non-credit courses she couldn’t afford. But instead of giving up, Sarah turned to CCV. 

“The staff at CCV made me feel welcomed and comfortable and I told them about my prior experience,” Sarah said. “I took the tests and, come to find out, my scores were exceptional and I could take almost anything.” With a renewed energy,  Sarah enrolled at CCV and began taking classes in 2001 to earn an associate degree.

Sarah’s goal was to become a doctor after her experience with a job shadow while in high school. “I just knew that I always liked the medical field. I like science – it’s easy to check if you’re right or wrong,” she said. But, while taking classes part-time at CCV Sarah started a job as a legal assistant at the law firm Costello, Valente & Gentry, P.C. in Brattleboro, which changed her career trajectory. “I didn’t necessarily like law when I started to work here, but the attorney that I worked for, he cared about other people,” she said. Sarah watched this attorney work a case without pay to help a mother and her children, “that’s when I was like ‘okay, you know what, I could like this.’ This is a way to help people,” she said.

Sarah continued with her classes at CCV while working at the law firm until she graduated with her associate degree in liberal studies in 2007. One month after finishing classes, she welcomed her first son and chose to take a break from college until her kids were in school. During this time, she stayed at the law firm and planned her path to becoming a lawyer through Vermont’s Law Office Study Program (LOS Program). The program is a path for aspiring attorneys to take without attending traditional law school. It entails a four-year clerkship, working under the supervision of a Vermont attorney or judge while following a course of study, at the end of which you are eligible to take the bar exam.

For Sarah to take this path through the LOS Program, she first had to earn a bachelor’s degree. She transferred her CCV credits and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she earned a B.A. in business administration. “It was a very efficient way to use my credits and my work experience to get a bachelor’s degree…I don’t think any of my [CCV] credits didn’t pass along,” she said. She then began her clerkship, learning the law from a mentor while continuing to work as a legal assistant for the next four years. 

When it came time to take the bar exam, Sarah’s less-traditional path to becoming an attorney gave her an upper hand. Since a big piece of the bar exam was about deciphering case studies, she had first-hand experience to fall back on. “Every single one of those real world cases I had actually dealt with,” said Sarah. She passed the exam and was admitted to the Vermont bar in 2020, becoming an attorney licensed in the Vermont state and federal courts. She is now a partner at the law firm, managing the firm while also taking on her own cases.

Sarah’s main area of practice is personal injury, which connects back to her interest in the medical field and the classes she first took at CCV. “I understand it,” she said of the medical jargon in the cases. “Our job is to explain it in a way that everyone can understand…we’re in a business that’s about big problems, there’s this knot that they can’t solve. We’re there to fix it, to unravel it.” That’s her favorite part of her job: helping others. “I like helping people who have been treated wrong for no reason. Especially hard-working people, your everyday people…I’ve found a lot of times we change people’s lives.”

While it’s been over a decade since she started taking classes at CCV, Sarah acknowledges the role that the College played in her life, how CCV helped her as she now helps others. “I liked the cost, I liked the classes, I liked it all,” she said. “I would recommend CCV to others because I think it’s an affordable way to figure out what you want to do. It’s a good place to go when you don’t know where your next step is but you don’t want to stop learning.”