[Stetson University College of Law Spring 2018 Commencement, May 19]

Upcoming graduate Kevin Reali set sail for law school after five years of serving in the Navy. The part-time student didn’t trade his sea legs for casebooks, however. Instead, he successfully balanced his studies with working full-time at Eckerd College as coach of the sailing team.

Following his undergraduate career at the University of South Florida, where Reali studied engineering and competed on the sailing team, he served in the Navy and worked as a nuclear surface warfare officer. He then entered the private sector – but knew he wanted to further his education.

Reali reasoned that, given his engineering background, he could find success in intellectual property law. Soon, he also realized the analytical skills acquired through engineering apply to every aspect of law.

So, his law journey began.

“I came to law school and thought I knew exactly what I was going to do, but I didn’t know anything about law,” Reali said. “It wasn’t like I’d been waiting my whole life to do law; it just ended up being the right thing and, in hindsight, it was a lucky choice because I really have enjoyed it.”

Reali’s “day job,” coaching a team of 32 college students at Eckerd in nearby St. Petersburg, is seven days a week during the season. That work begins in the afternoon on weekdays, with sailing competitions on the weekends. Because of that schedule, Reali typically had to prepare for class on weekday mornings.

“[My job] is uniquely set up very well for going to school part-time, because I can devote part of my day in the office to doing some reading or preparation. I’d rather have more work with flexibility than a set number of hours with no flexibility,” Reali explained.

In addition, Reali balanced memberships in both the Stetson Law Review and Stetson Law’s moot-court program, noting, “It’s a conscious decision to balance school and work or take on debt.”

By virtue of those members, Reali believes he has developed a stronger peer network than through classes alone.

“When I started law school, I didn’t think I was going to be involved in any organizations,” he said. “I just thought, ‘I’m a part-time student; I’m going to do my work, and I’m going to disappear and that’s all I’m going to do.’ The moot-court competition schedule can be challenging with my work schedule, but Professor [Brooke] Bowman has been really good to me, and I still got to participate, still got to do competitions. But she was also understanding when it wouldn’t work. Moot court is really rewarding; you get to write, you get to work with professors, you get to network with coaches that come in and volunteer their time.”

Now, nearly finished with his 10th and final semester at Stetson, Reali looks forward to a legal career and hopes to one day work in litigation, using his engineering background to break down technical cases.

“I appreciate the flexibility [at Stetson]. Not all schools have a part-time program, and even if they have a part-time program, I wouldn’t expect that a professor would appreciate the conflicting time demands of a part-time student,” Reali said. “I never felt singled out or like it was hurting me to be a part-time student.”

-Bianca Lopez