Alison Cleary ’00
Major: Government
Profession: Lawyer
Home: Amherst, New York

It doesn’t seem that long ago to Alison Cleary that she was closing her books at St. Lawrence and opening them at the University at Buffalo Law School. Today she is opening business and tax law books at her desk as an associate of Hiscock & Barclay, LLP.

Cleary says, “Although this is where I hoped to be when I started law school, I certainly wasn’t expecting it.” When she left St. Lawrence, she was planning to study sports and entertainment law; she changed her focus to tax law and general business and corporation law because she found it suited her interests more.

Cleary worked as an intern at Hiscock & Barclay in Buffalo for 10 weeks in her second year of law school. “It was a great experience because it exposed me to many different types of law,” she says. “I worked in several areas of legal practice and met people who worked in each of these fields. My work there reinforced my interest in business and tax law.”

When she was ready for a full-time job, Cleary knew of an opening in the firm’s tax department. She applied and is now one of 160 attorneys in its five offices statewide.

A leader on campus, Cleary captained the field hockey team, was in the government honorary and the national leadership honorary Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), was vice president of her class and was a member of Kappa Delta Sigma sorority. She says it was her St. Lawrence experience, which built both her confidence and her work skills, that prepared her for law school and her career.