Photo / Courtesy of Maine Law
Maine Law student Son Nguyen is originally from Vietnam and served in the U.S. Marine Corps for five years.
November 8, 2022
Vietnam native, military veteran finds his calling at Maine Law
Son Nguyen is a Vietnam native who came to the United States at age 16 and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps two years later. After five years of service, he studied government and history at the University of Texas at Austin to fill in his knowledge gaps about his new country.
“In my last year in the military, I had some life-changing experiences that made me realize I did not really understand a lot about this country,” he says. “I left the military with the goal in mind to educate myself and also to work.” He shared one of those experiences in his law school application, writing how he was shocked to hear a racial slur used by a fellow Marine. He also wrote of his desire to learn how to think like a lawyer.
“With a law degree,” he wrote, “I will have the credentials and tools needed to dismantle systemic racism, abolish hyper-incarceration, provide pro bono services to disadvantaged communities and protect civil rights. I love this country and want to see the American Dream become a reality for everyone, not just the privileged few.”
Today, the 29-year-old is a first-year student at the University of Maine School of Law, with classes in contracts, civil procedure, torts and legal writing.
He’s especially fond of civil procedure, taught by Visiting Professor Kaitlin Caruso. Nguyen looks forward to getting practical experience before he graduates, either in UMaine’s Prisoner Assistance Clinic or in the Rural Practice Clinic set to open next year in Fort Kent.
“That is definitely something I will do in my second or third year,” he says.
That should be good training for Nguyen’s chosen career path.
“I’m very interested in becoming a civil rights litigator or public defender,” he says.
While the majority of his family is still in Vietnam, his mother and siblings are in California and Oregon. Nguyen has no plans to leave the Pine Tree State anytime soon.
“Home for me has always been where I choose to live and where I love it,” he says. “Right now, that is Maine.”
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