Football Star Conner Kempe Turns Eye to Law

Conner Kempe is best known for his role as a starting varsity quarterback at the Benjamin School, and later at Dartmouth College. Although Conner Kempe’s achievements on the field were many, and included spots on the Ivy League Football Honor Roll, recognition as one of the top five career passers at Dartmouth, and multiple broken records for yards passed at the Benjamin School, the renowned student athlete has decided to trade his playbook for law books.

After graduating from Dartmouth College in 2012, Conner Kempe secured admissions offers from twenty different law programs throughout the country. He chose the Stetson School of Law, located in Gulfport, Florida, and he is now pursuing a degree with an expected graduation date of May 2015.

Conner Kempe was inspired to pursue a successful career in law largely by his father, who leads the law firm Joseph C. Kempe, Professional Association, Attorneys and Counselors at Law, in Jupiter, Florida. Conner Kempe interned with his father during the summer after his first year of college, learning about estate and tax planning, investment, trusts, and a variety of other topics related to financial law. This aspect of the legal field spoke to Conner Kempe’s interests in economics, which he was studying at Dartmouth.

Later, Conner Kempe also interned with Congressman Thomas J. Rooney (R-FL, 16^th District), and gained experience with more public aspects of law. He sat in on hearings and votes, wrote summaries and reports, and communicated with constituents about current issues such as the debt ceiling and health care reform.

With this experience, Conner Kempe decided to pursue a career in law. Although only in his first year of law school, Conner Kempe already knows that the decision was a sound one, as he finds the material extremely engaging and enjoys speaking with professionals about their own experience in the legal field.

Conner Kempe Recommends Internships for Prospective Law Students

Conner Kempe secured admission to twenty different law schools after graduating from Dartmouth College in 2012, and he credits much of his admissions success to the fact that he was able to build significant legal experience before applying to law school. How? Conner Kempe held two internships while he was an undergraduate student, and he highly recommends that college students considering a career in law apply for internships in their undergraduate years, for the following reasons.

Law schools like initiative. Law programs receive thousands upon thousands of applications each year, says Conner Kempe, and one of the things that can make an application stand out is if it shows that law school is part of a long term plan. Conner Kempe’s internships go back to the summer after his freshman year of college, demonstrating that he began taking steps to a legal education early.

Internships build skills. By gaining first hand knowledge, students who participate in legal internships have the experience that law schools are looking for. Conner Kempe’s internships taught him about both specific processes in the legal field and more general concepts about how law works as a whole.

Networking is key. Through internships, students are able to work with advanced professionals in their chosen field, who may know individuals on the admissions committees of law schools. While Conner Kempe certainly doesn’t believe that knowing the right people will get you into law school, it is helpful to be able to get letters of recommendation from professionals whose career footsteps you’d like to follow. 

Internships show commitment. Although a summer job scooping ice cream may pay, an unpaid internships shows that a student is committed to gaining knowledge and experience, regardless of whether or not it comes along with a paycheck. For students who cannot afford to work for no pay, Conner Kempe recommends investigating scholarship programs or internship funding from your college or university.

Conner Kempe: A Biography

Conner Kempe, currently a student at the Stetson School of Law, grew up in Florida with parents Joe and Tami, and three younger siblings, Kirby, Colby, and Kylie. He attended the Benjamin School, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, from 1994 to 2008. Here, Conner Kempe excelled in sports and academics alike, and was also the president of the Chess Club. Most notably, Conner Kempe was a top-rated football player, breaking all of the Benjamin School’s career passing records as a varsity quarterback.

When it came time for Conner Kempe to attend college, he was approached by numerous colleges and universities that offered attractive football scholarships, Additionaly, Ivy League schools like Harvard, Penn, Yale, Brown, and Princeton were only a few of the nation’s top schools that opened their doors to Conner Kempe. Ultimately, he settled on Dartmouth College in Pennsylvania, which would allow him to focus equally on sports and academics.

Conner Kempe majored in economics, on a money, banking, and finance track. After studying abroad in Sydney, Australia, Conner Kempe returned to campus to take part in immersive summer economics programs and to write a senior thesis about start-ups and parent companies. Conner Kempe continued to show his prowess on the football field, and was ranked among the top three Dartmouth players in the school’s history for total career passing yards, completions, and total yards. He also won numerous awards for his football talents, including Ivy League Rookie of the Week and multiple spots on the Ivy League Football Honor Roll.

While a student at Dartmouth, Conner Kempe secured an internship with Congressman Thomas J. Rooney (R-FL, 16^th District) that took him to Washington, D.C., the summer before his senior year. He had also previously worked at his father’s law firm, learning about estate planning and wealth management. These experiences led Conner Kempe to apply to law schools. He was accepted to twenty different programs, some with scholarships, but chose to attend the Stetson School of Law in Gulfport, FL. Stetson is ranked #1 in Trial Advocacy, #3 in Legal Writing, and is regarded in Elder Law. He expects to graduate in 2015.

Stetson Student Conner Kempe’s Legal Experience

While he only began his study at the Stetson School of Law in 2012, Conner Kempe had already racked up an impressive list of legal skills and experiences through internships held during his time at Dartmouth. The knowledge and tools that Conner Kempe earned through work for Joseph C. Kempe, Professional Association, Attorneys and Counselors at Law, as well as for Congressman Thomas J. Rooney, inspired him to purse a legal career, and have helped him take the first steps towards pursuing his academic and professional goals.

Conner Kempe spent Summer 2009 and time during his Spring Break in 2010 working for his father’s law firm. In this capacity, Conner Kempe learned about estate and tax planning, wealth management, and multifamily office services. Conner Kempe gained hands on experience with the creation of trusts and business entities, estate and gift tax planning analysis, and the review of hedge contracts and investment policy statements. As an intern, Conner Kempe worked with SEC regulation of investments, as well as other organizational aspects of the legal field.

During the summer before his senior year at Dartmouth, Conner Kempe worked as an intern for Congressman Thomas J. Rooney (R-FL, 16^th District).  In addition to performing office duties, Conner Kempe had the unique opportunity to see the legislative branch of the United States government at work.  He sat in on and created reports about the Oversight Committee hearing on the Hatch Act, Committee and House hearing and vote on H.R. 2278, and Committee hearings on H.R. 2231. This experience gave Conner Kempe a greater understanding of public law, as well as current financial issues such as the debt ceiling, financial reform, and raising the age for entitlements.

Conner Kempe is excited to gain more legal experience, and he looks forward to a successful career in law.

Conner Kempe Recommends Study Abroad

While studying economics at Dartmouth, current Stetson School of Law student Conner Kempe took the opportunity to spend the winter of 2010 studying abroad in Sydney, Australia. The trip allowed Conner Kempe to focus on developmental economics, and network with some big names in the Australian business and finance world. Given his own experiences, Conner Kempe highly recommends that college students spend some time studying abroad, for the following reasons.

Experience different cultures. Although some might not think that the difference between the United States and Australia would be particularly different, Conner Kempe said that the experience of international travel was very valuable. Students who take part in study abroad programs have the unique opportunity to fully immerse themselves in a culture other than their own, and learn to see the world from a different perspective.

See academics from another angle. Conner Kempe found that studying economics from an Australian perspective was eye-opening. Students who spent a semester or a year in another country have the opportunity to learn from scholars who were trained in their field, but with a completely different national and cultural background. This can allow students to gain an additional viewpoint on their studies.

Improve language skills. Although Conner Kempe traveled to an English-speaking country for his study abroad, he says that immersion is always the best way to learn a language. Conner Kempe, who is conversational in Spanish, highly recommends studying abroad in a non-English speaking language for students who would like to improve their foreign language proficiency.

Get outside your comfort zone. Traveling alone can be anxiety-inducing by itself, but doing so to the opposite side of the world pushed Conner Kempe to fully open himself to new experiences. Conner Kempe fully believes that taking a risk and traveling to a new country can help students to grow as individuals and improve skills relating to independence, communication, and problem solving.