As a seventh-grader, in anticipation of a class trip to the Daley Center in downtown Chicago, Jewell Nile Briggs wrote an expectation essay in which she remembers passionately describing how she wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up.

Briggs is now an intellectual property attorney with Harness, Dickey & Pierce, PLC in Troy where she counsels clients across a range of industries, from chemical and biopharma laboratories to large electrical and heavy manufacturing companies.

During her senior year at Loyola University in Chicago — where Briggs earned a triple undergraduate degree, cum laude, in biology, forensic science, and chemistry — a forensic professor required students to observe a hearing at a courthouse. Briggs once again found herself at the Daley Center, the only non-attorney/non-party in the courtroom.

“The judge noticed me and during a recess welcomed me into her chambers,” Briggs said. “We had a wonderfully fruitful conversation and, that afternoon, after not really giving it much thought since seventh grade, I decided to go to law school.”

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