All the Right Reasons

There’s a cliché that some people are drawn to law school because they like to argue. For Sara Jane Pruell, it was because she enjoyed reading contracts. 

As a marketing executive for a decade for brands like Brooks Brothers and Tarte Cosmetics, she recalls, “I really started to find that I liked reading the contracts and implementing a lot of the negotiations from those marketing contracts, more so than the marketing itself.”

Once, when Pruell was negotiating the renewal of her lease on a New York City apartment, the landlord asked if she was a lawyer because she was so detail oriented. She wasn’t at the time but now she is well on her way to becoming one. In May 2025, she will graduate with a JD from the Roger Williams University School of Law.

Pruell reflects on her journey to law school and her years as a part-time student juggling work, school, and two young children, one of whom was born shortly before summer term exams. (“Like any good type-A law student, I planned to give birth right after summer session final exams but unfortunately, my son had other plans,” she says.) 

Helping small businesses

Pruell also had a more typical reason to pursue a legal career: she wanted to help people. She nearly joined the Peace Corps after graduating from Salve Regina University in 2010 and has long thought about how she could make a difference. Law, she says, “seemed like a really great way to help people, and to advocate for those that don’t always have a voice.” As she was considering law schools, she appreciated the emphasis RWU Law places on volunteering and pro bono work.

At RWU Law, Pruell was able to combine her knack for meticulous analysis with the desire to speak up for those without a voice. Despite her packed schedule, she has participated in service-oriented activities including the Business Start-up Clinic and Minority Business Law Collaborative. Both activities bolstered her interest in transactional work. “The Business Start-up Clinic and the Minority Business Law Collaborative are unique opportunities where you can help people in a transactional way,” she remarks.

For example, Pruell worked on an asset purchase agreement from start to finish in the clinic. She calls her experience with the clinic and Minority Business Law Collaborative “really formative for me to be able to use everything that I’ve learned in my classes and put it into actual practice.” Coming full circle from her own experience negotiating her lease, she also was able to spend a semester helping tenants at the Eviction Help Desk.

 

Negotiating the future

With the stereotypical image of law school as hyper-competitive, Pruell was pleasantly surprised by the camaraderie she found at RWU Law, including on Law Review, where she serves on the editorial board. Older than many of her Law Review colleagues and a mother of two, she says they have been supportive and appreciate her life experience. “You might have different life experiences than some of your classmates and that is valuable,” she advises anyone considering law as a second career. She also jokes that, “there’s value in being able to negotiate with your children and use that in your contracts class the next day.”

There is yet another reason Pruell wanted to go to law school. “I really wanted to make a career change that I thought my son would be proud of,” she recalls. Her older son is six now. At first, he didn’t understand why Mom was doing homework all the time. Now he knows that at the end of this, she will be a lawyer. With all the arguments he wins, she says he might be a better lawyer than her. 

Not surprisingly, Pruell wants to practice transactional law after she graduates in the spring and continue to provide pro bono services. She also considers joining an in-house corporate legal department someday. “I think wherever I end up,” she says, “my sons will be proud.”