College Experiences That Helped an Attorney and Filmmaker at Bailey Law Firm and YachtKlub Productions Succeed
Michael's college success stemmed from a philosophy professor who helped secure law school scholarships, engaging with the LMU graduate film program, and a senior poetry class that unexpectedly revealed a writing talent—a skill "that I can push over to like films and stuff," impacting their dual career path as an attorney and filmmaker.
Law School Preparation, Creative Writing Skills, Film Production, Networking, Interdisciplinary Learning
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Michael Erike
Attorney & Filmmaker
Bailey Law Firm & YachtKlub Productions
Loyola Marymount University
Sandra Day O’Connor College Of Law - J.D.
Finance
Arts, Entertainment & Media, Law
Legal
Scholarship Recipient, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. Taking the LSAT prep course early helped him get a scholarship to law school.
2. Getting involved in the LMU graduate film program fueled his interest in filmmaking.
3. A poetry class helped him realize his writing skills could be transferred to filmmaking and other creative writing pursuits.
Transcript
What did you do in undergrad to set you up for success in your career?
Here's the cleaned transcript:
It's three examples. One was meeting Rob Allison, a philosophy professor who taught me and Jer for the LSATs early on. It was actually random how we met him, but that was huge.
He did such a good job that he allowed Jer and me to get scholarships for law school. I got a full scholarship, and Jer got a significant scholarship, all because we did well on the LSATs. Thank goodness they're getting rid of that. That saved us so much extra time.
The second thing was the LMU graduate film program. Although I wasn't enrolled there, I did a lot of projects there and learned a lot. It was so fun, and I thought back then that this is what I wanted to do with my life. That helped fuel my passion even before seeing *Black Panther* and *BlacKkKlansman*. It was a great, fun program that I didn't attend.
The third thing is I took a poetry class when I was a senior. I would have thought the most because I'd done a lot of writing since I was a kid, including poetry. It started with two girls I liked in elementary school. I thought the best way to express that was to write poems to them, but I never gave them the poems. I still dread that because I'm curious what would have happened if they had read them.
I was into poetry for a while. In the senior poetry class, the last project was writing a specific style of poetry. You have to have a certain number of syllables in 13 lines. It's not a haiku; it's something I'd never heard of before.
I did it, and then I continued it after my years at LMU. Even though I was moving on to a new chapter in life, I made the teacher cry with it. She told me I should consider being a professional poet, whatever that means. That stuck with me. I realized I had a skill in writing that I could apply to films and other things. That stuck with me, and I still think about it to this day.