We’re pleased and excited to announce this year’s scholarship winner! Each year, Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum Bluestein, LLP awards one incoming or continuing law student a scholarship to help with tuition costs. We look forward to receiving applications each year from students, who we believe represent the top of their class, and reading about their accomplishments. This year, we received over 100 applicants, and after carefully reviewing them we have selected Alex Bartlow as this year’s awardee! Congratulations Alex!
Alex was extended offers from multiple law schools. He will be attending Duke University School of Law as as first year law student.
Alex Bartlow
Duke University School of Law
“Thank you so much! The DDRB scholarship puts me closer to pursuing my goals at a younger age, and for that I will be forever thankful.” – Alex
Alex graduated summa cum laude from Butler University in 2018 with degrees in Accounting and Spanish. He maintained a 3.97 GPA. His honors include being named a Top 15 Most Outstanding Butler University Student, Eli Lilly Community Endowment Scholar, Indiana Outstanding College Student of Spanish Award, Lacy School of Business Dean’s List, and University Honors Program.
Since graduation in 2018, he worked for Ernst & Young in Indianapolis in the assurance services practice, and is currently volunteering for the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library. Alex completed his CPA exams in the summer of 2018, and in the fall of 2020, he became a licensed CPA in Indiana.
Alex made the decision to pursue a career in law, and has been extended offers from several law schools. He has developed interests in business law and environmental law, and hopes to be able to practice in both areas of law in his future. If there’s anything we can say about him, it’s that when Alex puts his mind to something, he’ll achieve it!
During the application process, Alex was required to write and submit an essay describing what he hopes to achieve during his legal career. He has agreed to have us publish his essay, which we invite you to read below:
“‘Don’t fall!’ my father shouted as I reached for the second highest limb of the pecan tree in our backyard after a laborious climb to the top. The air was fresh that day and the wind let me sway back and forth. After an easier climb down, I had returned safely to the ground. Peculiarly, this memory often reminds me why I want to pursue a legal education. Being in that tree, looking at the calm pond off in the distance, and feeling the cool wind on my face, I was breathless. My admiration for nature became wildly apparent in that moment. I wanted to protect that feeling, both for myself and others.
Almost 14 years later, my mind has not changed. I yearn to make a difference with my legal education by pursuing a career at the intersection of my passion to protect nature and my skill set for entrepreneurship and business. Specifically, it is my hope to serve as in-house counsel for a socially responsible and innovative organization which holds nature on a pedestal, just as I do. As in-house counsel, I would be responsible for a wide spectrum of legal matters which the organization faces. Additionally, I would have great transparency into and moderate influence over the decisions which drive the organization, allowing me to constantly learn and develop into a better attorney and business professional. I wholeheartedly believe that becoming this type of lawyer will afford me the chance, whatever it may be, to make a lasting, positive impact on someone or something while also fulfilling my drive for innovation.
Receiving the DDRB Lawyers Legal Scholarship would allow me to dedicate myself earlier in my career to protecting our water, land, and air by defending and championing sustainable businesses and their practices. Additionally, being a DDRB Scholar would clearly ease the financial burden of law school, ultimately allowing me to focus more of my limited time in school to entrepreneurship and environmental clinics. The feeling that I experienced in that pecan tree years ago taught me that the things which are most valuable in life are those which are the most vulnerable and deserve our unwavering protection. I yearn to be an ethical problem solver with a knowledge-based toolkit. A lawyer, to me, carries with them the responsibility to be a catalyst for positive change in a world riddled with complex, but solvable, problems. This is a responsibility I will not take lightly, and I promise to fight for that which is vulnerable.“
– Alex Bartlow