Fashion meets law: one UC graduate’s path back to campus

Christine Szydlowski’s path to the University of Cincinnati College of Law is unlike most. With her combined passion for leadership and helping others achieve their goals, the college welcomes her back as the director of externships for the Center for Professional Development.

You might recognize the always-trendy CPD director strolling the halls of the college decked out in her Bearcat red and black. But Szydlowski’s eye for fashion (and extensive legal background) has given her more than enough experience for her new role.

After graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s in education, a calling to teach led her to the 6th grade classroom. After a few years, she decided to change careers and began her transition to the legal field.

To some, working full-time, commuting, and pursuing an education full-time seems impossible. To Szydlowski, it’s routine. She was busy of course, but explains that while a student at UC, she developed more skills than she anticipated, and grew her social circle as well.

Szydlowski has more than just a legal background. After working in litigation for several years, she learned that conflict was not her favorite aspect of the field and decided to shake things up. Szydlowski ventured into fashion and joined Cabi, a company created by entrepreneurial and driven women like herself.

For the last 13 years she has built her own business as an independent wardrobe consultant and business coach. She empowers women through their wardrobe and enhances the leadership abilities of her peers. Needless to say, her motivation is simple: to help others.

Szydlowski brings that same motivation to her position at Cincinnati Law.

As externships director at Cincinnati Law, Szydlowski is responsible for more than just supporting students as they pursue externship opportunities and strengthen their resumes. She also helps students find their passions.

It’s important for her to feel like her students are taking away as much as possible from the course. One student wrote, “I cannot express how truly thankful I am for the legal externship placement and class...It may not have been a doctrinal bar course, or anything required, but it was something that I will forever hold near and dear because it gave me confidence to move forward and grow as a law student. I have always suspected that the true growth that a law student has is not that which is within the things learned from a book, but from the field work and the igniting of the fire within that keeps us moving toward the goal which we initially set out to conquer.”

Through her courses, Judicial Externships and Legal Externships, the class aims to introduce students to the possibilities of their career. Having experienced the fears of the unknown herself, Szydlowski guides those who are still discovering their areas of interest.

Szydlowski was quick to prove her success as director soon after she assumed the role. In less than two months, Szydlowski found legal externships for 46 students, and judicial externships for 17 students. That’s right, 63 externships in little over one month.

After years away, the trendy-professional and well-rounded Bearcat is excited to be back on campus at Cincinnati Law where “it feels like home.”