Sarah Balas is a Chicago native from the northwest suburbs. She received her BA in English from Loyola University in 2014. Sarah had the opportunity to spend a year working for a Liberty Mutual civil defense firm in Chicago, where she enjoyed taking an active role assisting in case research and motion drafting. Her time at the firm exposed her to the realities of litigation work and the expansive range of the legal field.
While attending DePaul, Sarah excelled in health law seminars and other health law courses. These content specific courses, in combination with serving on the programming team for the Jaharis Health Law Institute, further enriched her education at DePaul. Coming into law school, Sarah anticipated enjoying health law and estate planning courses; in fact, Wills and Trusts would become one of her favorite courses and impactful in influencing Sarah’s targeted career path.
For Sarah, the Jaharis Health Law Institute provided necessary exposure to health law subject matter that highlighted the breadth of the health law field. The ability to take a health law course each semester as well as work as the Co-Director or Programming for the institute gave her proper insight into the field and ultimately has developed her interest to pursue a career in this area.
Following graduation, Sarah plans to take the bar and pursue a position in either health law or estate planning at a Chicago based firm, organization, hospital, or university. When asked what advice she would pass on to rising law students she says, “Law students should be intentional. Have a reason for taking certain classes or pursuing certain job opportunities, and make your reasons unique to what you want - not just what you think is expected of law students. Don’t let it make you nervous when what you’re doing doesn’t line up with what your classmates are doing, because if you’ve been intentional in your choices, then you’ll put yourself in the best possible position to achieve your unique goals and needs.”
As Sarah’s law school tenure comes to a close, it’s apparent by her academic and professional success that her intentional choices have produced an exceptional attorney to be, headed toward impressive accomplishments to come.