So...You Want to be a Lawyer?

When John Stanton, from Los Angeles, California, applied to college ten years ago, he tried to impress the admissions officer by saying that he wanted to become a lawyer. It worked! The admissions officer was impressed! He told Stanton that he had read that there were only eight deaf attorneys in America. Stanton was surprised. "Only eight deaf lawyers? We need more than that!" he thought. Now Stanton has fulfilled his dream and become a lawyer himself. Here is an interview.

WAY: When did you become deaf? Stanton: I became deaf when I was four years old, after I got meningitis.

WAY: Where did you go to school? Stanton: Several schools told my parents they didn't want me but, fortunately, a Catholic school in the neighborhood accepted me. So I've spent my life "mainstreaming" in hearing schools.

WAY: How did you communicate? Stanton: I used speech and lipreading. Friends copied their notes for me at school and that was enough to allow me to get by.

WAY: Did you have any contact with people who are deaf? Stanton: Yes, University of California Los Angeles had a club for mainstreamed deaf teens. I made many friends there.

WAY: Why did you choose to go to college at Dartmouth? Stanton: Dartmouth was very interested in attracting more Deaf students. They put cable TV into my dorm room so I wouldn't have to carry my caption decoder into the lobby every time I wanted to watch TV.

WAY: Where did you go to law school? Stanton: Georgetown Law School.

WAY: How did you communicate there? Stanton: Through Computer Aided Real Time (CART), also known as stenocaptioning

WAY: Can you describe that? Stanton: CART basically means a court reporter comes in and stenotypes everything that's being said word for word—jokes, coughing, everything—and the Deaf person reads along as if he or she is watching a captioned program live.

WAY: Does CART work? Stanton: I was absolutely amazed at how much I had been missing in classes all of my life. I'll always wonder how well I could have done at Dartmouth if I had CART.

WAY: Interesting… Stanton: I also was able to take my own notes and participate in classroom discussions. I participated more in a week at Georgetown with CART than I did all four years combined at Dartmouth.

WAY: When did you graduate from law school and pass the bar? Stanton: I graduated in Spring of 1997 and passed the Maryland Bar last June.

WAY: Did you find a job? Stanton: Sure! At Howrey & Simon—a big, national law firm.

WAY: How do communicate with hearing colleagues? Stanton: Other lawyers send E-mails or visit my office if they need me.

WAY: What are your future plans? Stanton: In summer, I clerked for a federal appellate judge in Cincinnati. I want to make partner in a law firm and maybe become a judge some day.

General comments may be sent to: Ken.Kurlychek@gallaudet.edu
Last modified June 1, 1998
Copyright © 1997, All Rights Reserved
Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center

Gallaudet University 800 Florida Ave. NE Washington, DC 20002-3695