Following Her Instinct

Rachel Feiden ’19 was sitting in a business law class in high school when she first realized that she wanted to be lawyer.

“I was totally enthralled by [the idea],” Feiden recalls.

However, that was 2011, and the aftermath of the Great Recession was hurting the legal profession just as badly as the finance industry.

“Everyone at that point told me going to law school would be the worst decision I could make,” she says. “‘Are you sure you really want to do that?’, ‘Lawyers are so unhappy!’, ‘You could spend all that time and money and never get a job!’”

Fast forward to 2016, when Feiden wrapped up successful undergrad career at Iona College, where she majored in mass communication, completing several internships in the public relations field and finding herself on the fast track to a PR career with a firm in New York City. Yet, it still didn't feel quite right -- her favorite classes were always the law-related ones.

“During my senior year, I found myself about to embark on a totally different career that I wasn't passionate about,” Feiden says. “It was then that I decided to do the exact opposite of what everyone had told me for years not to do – I went to law school."

She arrived at RWU Law precisely with the goal of practicing transactional law, and she stuck to that plan. While working in RWU Law’s Corporate Counsel Clinic, Feiden landed an externship with the Boston Red Sox, fell in love with Boston – and corporate law.

Today, Feiden is “the first person in my family to become an attorney and the happiest I've ever been,” she says. “Through law school and pursuing this career, I've been fortunate enough to meet and work with some of the greatest attorneys and have had experiences that I wouldn't trade for anything. All I can say is, when you know what you want to do, go for it. Never let someone convince you otherwise.”

Story courtesy of Lawyer Stories.