By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News
Luciana Viramontes’ interest in law was piqued during a 10-year career in the food industry, where she became very familiar with food safety laws and regulations and developed compliance, food safety, and training programs.
“At the management level, I regularly spent time reading and interpreting laws and regulations, and this really continued to grow my interest in the further study of law,” she said.
Clearly, her new career path was the right choice.
Viramontes received a slew of honors at the July WMU-Cooley Law School Honors Convocation, including the Alumni Distinguished Student Award, Student Bar Association Distinguished Student Award, Leadership Achievement Award, and induction into Scribes, the American Society of Legal Writers.
Earlier in the year, she received the Woman Lawyers Association of Michigan (WLAM) Foundation General Motors Scholarship and Award. Viramontes considers her induction into the National Order of Scribes a great honor.
“More and more cases are resolved through alternative dispute resolution methods, and many resolutions are reached because of the attention placed on drafting detailed, well-researched complaints, responses, and mediation briefs,” she said.
As courts dockets become congested, Viramontes said, “well-drafted legal filings can also be instrumental in providing the court with tools necessary to resolve disputes by presenting cohesive legal analysis and arguments.”
“Being recognized as a skillful legal writer means a great deal to me,” Viramontes said, “and will certainly be a skill I can use to benefit future clients.”
She served as editor-in-chief of the Law Review, which put on the Distinguished Brief Awards and a Symposium.
“I had the opportunity to work with the best and brightest students, amazing writing department faculty, our very distinguished faculty advisor, and authors from all over the country to publish multiple editions of the WMU-Cooley Law Review, both in print and online,” she said.
Viramontes also served as media alerts editor, reading and summarizing precedential 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decisions published by the American Bar Association.
“The best part was working directly with the faculty adviser, having your work published online, and promoted via Twitter as a tool for practicing attorneys who subscribed to updates so they could stay current on 6th Circuit decisions,” she said.
As treasurer for the International Law Society, Viramontes was part of a team that brought the organization back to life.
“It’s definitely a growing area of law and one that intrigues me, and being a part of this community helps keep me informed and involved,” she said.
As a teaching assistant for the dean of academics, Viramontes helped improve the Summer Skills program.
“It was also exciting to hear about, help with, and see how the faculty and staff are continuously improving the curriculum and programs,” she said. “I’m excited about all the programs and ideas WMU-Cooley develops for every kind of student, including non-traditional students like me.”
From a young age, Viramontes was interested in careers that involved helping others.
“Initially, I wanted to join the diplomatic world, but as time went on, found myself more and more interested in the practice of law as a mechanism to help others,” she said.
A graduate of Central Michigan University with an undergrad degree in political science, Viramontes chose WMU-Cooley in Lansing for the flexible schedule options that allowed her to individualize her schedule based on her needs and those of her family.
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