December 02, 2024
For someone used to going fast as a track star at The Ohio State University and John Burroughs School, waiting weeks on end to receive the results from the Texas Bar Exam is a lot more stressful for Lailah Elliott. But you won’t find her waiting on the sidelines – Elliott recently started her legal career practicing at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLC in Dallas, after earning her law degree from Southern Methodist University in May. [UPDATE: Lailah received word that she passed the bar in late October 2024!]
“We had our graduation on Friday and then had to start bar prep that next Monday. It was 10 weeks of studying, 40 hours a week,” Elliott says. Elliott’s passion for law was driven by a desire to make a difference after witnessing disparities in the legal system. “I always told myself I want to be an attorney and help people who need good representation or who don’t necessarily know their rights,” she says. During her last semester of law school, Elliott worked in a clinic that focused on violence against women. She hopes to be able to help more in that field doing pro bono work in the future.
Now in the professional world, Elliott still uses some of the organization skills she learned during her six years at City Academy, where she recalls writing down her work for the week in her planner and having her parents sign off on it. “I still do that to this day,” she says. “I handwrite everything in my planner for the month and make sure I’m checking off those boxes.”
Looking back on her time at City Academy, Elliott’s most memorable experience was a trip to Memphis in 5th grade to visit the Civil Rights Museum as well as The Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Upon graduating from City Academy in 2011, Elliott attended John Burroughs School, along with several of her classmates. “City Academy helped prepare me well for John Burroughs,” she says. “A lot of the books we read in 5th and 6th grade we ended up having to read again in middle school at Burroughs, so that was very helpful.”
After graduating from John Burroughs, she attended The Ohio State University, where both her brother Ezekiel (CA ‘07) attended, and where her sister Aaliyah (CA ‘18) started this fall. She majored in Strategic Communications and ran track for the Buckeyes team that won both the Big Ten indoor and outdoor championships in 2019. “College was actually easier than high school for me,” says Elliott. “I was very prepared. I had all those skills that started with City Academy and were reinforced through high school.”
Balancing athletics and academics was something Elliott had been doing since childhood including as a three-sport athlete at John Burroughs (field hockey, basketball, and track), a skill that proved invaluable during her time at Ohio State. “My parents always reiterated that sports are not everything. Before I could go to practice, starting in elementary school, homework had to be done,” she says. “We had to make sure that we were taking care of stuff at school before we could do the fun things.”
That mindset was especially important as a Division I athlete, where the pressure to compete and perform can sometimes overshadow the “student” side of “student-athlete.” However, Elliott was sure to keep her eye on her ultimate goal of becoming an attorney. “I told [my coaches] I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to be a great athlete, but in the long run I’m not going to be a professional athlete. But I do know that I’m going to be an attorney so I need to make sure that I’m prioritizing my academics,” Elliott recalls saying.
For current City Academy students aspiring to a legal career, Elliott emphasizes the importance of mentorship, especially as someone who attended a prestigious law school as a first-generation law student. Hopefully, she says, that could even be her someday, where she can tell an aspiring lawyer, “I started at City Academy. I know what it takes to do that. It’s very doable, but there’s a certain process and a way you have to go about things.”