When Laurel Utterback ’24 first enrolled at Bucknell, she pictured herself on the pre-med track. Now, just over a year after graduating, she’s a second-year law student at Case Western Reserve University School of Law– and thriving on the health law track.
“I graduated from Bucknell in January of 2024, but I walked with my class in May of 2024,” Utterback explained. “At Case Western, I am on the health law track, which means that I pursue a concentration in health law, so I have to take an extra set of required health law courses– Introduction to Health Law, Healthcare Financing and then a couple elective courses like Genetics and the Law and HIPAA.”
In addition to her coursework, Utterback is deeply involved in campus life. “I’m the president of the Student Health Law Association, as well as the president of the Federal Bar Association, so those have been really great ways to interact with the Cleveland legal community and get involved on campus,” she said. She also serves as a legal writing teaching assistant for first-year students and is an associate editor of “Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine“, a notably top-ranked journal in the field.
Utterback designed her own interdepartmental major at Bucknell in Bioethics and Public Healthcare, while also minoring in Economics and Public Policy. “My first year, I was taking a lot of the pre-med science courses,” she said. “I was taking organic chemistry and all those standard pre-med courses and I had room for one elective. I was scrolling through the course and found a Bioethics course that I decided to take. Little did I know, that would be my calling.”
Her passion grew through research with assistant professor of philosophy Katherine Ward on the ethics of mandating COVID-19 vaccines. “She actually was the one who encouraged me to look into law school, which really scared me at first,” Utterback recalled. “Standing in a courtroom was so intimidating… but she continued to encourage me, and now here I am.”
Utterback also credited her coursework in Healthcare Economics with professor of economics Amy Wolaver and an Anthropology of Medicine class with associate professor of anthropology Allen Tran as key experiences that broadened her perspective. “It was really cool to tie in these different aspects of healthcare through my coursework,” she said. “Be open-minded and take elective courses, because you never know where your interests may lie.”
While at Bucknell, Utterback leveraged the Center for Career Advancement’s advising and alumni connections to explore legal careers. “I did a ton of advising with Bucknell’s pre-law advisor Molly Gorby, and I also used the Center for Career Advancement for resume reviews,” she said. “Especially during the application process, I met with her frequently to choose what schools I should apply to, how to study for the LSAT and to more generally discuss my interest in health law.”
A pivotal opportunity came through the Bucknell Alumni Board Mentorship Program in collaboration with the Center for Career Advancement. “During my senior year I filled out a form for the alumni mentorship program and indicated that I was interested in Bioethics. Then I was matched with Mr. Scott Uebele ’00, who is on the Board of Trustees at Bucknell,” she explained. That connection helped Utterback secure an internship with Advarra, a clinical research review company, where she worked under the Associate General Counsel and contracts team. “That was really a full-circle moment, and it truly shows how a Bucknell connection can go a long way,” she reflected.
She now works as a Gift Planning Intern at University Hospitals, helping ensure that donor contributions are processed correctly.
Utterback encourages students interested in law to take advantage of similar opportunities. “Bucknellians love to help Bucknellians!” she said. “If anyone ever sent me an email or a text, I’d be more than happy to chat with them about the law school application process.”
The transition to law school was challenging but rewarding. “The faculty and staff and my fellow students are amazing,” she said. “It’s really unique to be in law school in Cleveland, because there are four major hospital systems all within a couple miles from here, so being able to network with various attorneys has been great.”
In her first year at Case Western, she even returned to competitive tennis, joining the NCAA Division III team. “Everyone thought I was crazy, but I think it worked out in the best way possible for me,” she laughed. “It forced me to get my work done… and it was really great to get a break from the intensity of law school. Having tennis forced law school to not consume me.”
This coming summer, Utterback will join the Cleveland-based law firm Benesch as a summer associate. “I’m really looking forward to exploring a ton of different areas of law,” she said. “They have a very renowned healthcare practice area… but I’m very open to exploring all different kinds of law.”
For Bucknellians who are considering law school, her advice is simple: take initiative and stay open-minded. “Talk to people, reach out to people. Networking is super important, even though it can be intimidating, but my biggest piece of advice is go for it,” she said. “You never know where one email can take you.”
Utterback’s path shows that with passion, persistence and the right support, Bucknell students can turn their aspirations into reality.
