Sharilyn Nakata
Ph.D. in Classics
January 2021
Immigration Attorney
Sharilyn Nakata received her PhD in Classics in 2004. She discusses her time working as a tenure-track professor, her transition to law, and how to always prepare for the unexpected.
Tell me about your current job.
I’m an immigration attorney for a nonprofit in Riverside. Our organization serves low-income and otherwise disadvantaged clients who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford an attorney. We provide our services for free. My focus is victims of domestic violence.
What did you study at UCI?
I was in the Classics Department. I got my degree in 2004. And my dissertation was on colonization narratives in Virgil’s Aeneid. It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it.
Were you planning to go to law school after graduation?
Law school was the last thing on my mind. If someone had told me I was going to be an attorney, I would have said, You’re crazy.
How did you become an attorney then?
My final semester at UCI I got a job offer at a small liberal arts college in Iowa. It was a three-year position, but they said they would match any tenure-track offers I received.
I went onto the market the first year and got a couple of offers. The college I was at put me on the tenure track, so I stayed. It was nice, I really enjoyed it.
When it came time for tenure review, that’s where things fell apart. The dean indicated he wasn’t going to support me for tenure, though the tenure committee approved me. When they gave him the file, he overrode it. And the president took his recommendation. So I didn’t get tenure.
Suffice it to say, I just left. It was really hard, it was a really difficult year for me. The one thing that kept me going were my students -- I was doing this for them. I wasn’t leaving with all this bad feeling, there was a lot of good feeling.
What happened next?
I decided not to stay and go back onto the job market. My partner is also an academic — she’s a professor at Claremont Colleges in English. She was already here in California and she got her tenure. And we decided I would just come back and come home. It was a really difficult decision, I loved academia, I loved my subject. I decided to come back and look for a new career. But what to do, what to do?
It so happened we had students who worked as paralegals, and they both told us that they felt that skills academics have are transferable to the legal profession. So I thought okay I’ll check it out. Well it just so happens UCI has a continuing ed program with a paralegal certificate program, and I started doing that. From the very first class I took, I was like wow, this is really cool. I had never been interested in this profession before. I really took to it.
Then I got to thinking I’d like to do more than this. And UCI also has a law school, it just so happens. It was across the street from the continuing ed office. I thought, I know the university, I know the campus, the app was free — I’ll see what happens. I got in and got a scholarship, and I’m like okay, I think I’ll try this.
What was your experience like in law school?
I went to law school full time and it was a great experience. I initially didn’t know what field of law I would get into. I wanted to do something that would be meaningful. I did an immigration law clinic, it was intense and I learned so much. So I thought maybe I’ll do this.
How did the skills you gained in academia translate to law?
As an academic we’re trained to be very careful, close readers. Studying Greek and Latin, you really had to be super sensitive to nuances. That really helped me.
Also, working with people — I loved working with people. I loved the one-on-one aspects; I loved being in the classroom. With clients, we really get to know them intimately, deeply. They share things with us they’ve never shared with anyone before. I feel that working in academia, that really helped me in terms of the work I do as an attorney. Lots of things were transferrable.
Are you glad you did the PhD?
I am. I still read as much as I can. I still buy books. I still keep up with what's coming out. I attend conferences where I can, especially when they're in California. I really love Greek and Latin.
What advice do you have for folks in graduate school right now?
Based on my experiences, I would say, as much as you can, follow what you love. If you can do what you love for a living, you should try and make that work if you can. If you can't, sometimes things come up and are beyond your control, and that's ok. I've learned you make the most of it.
And also, be prepared for the unexpected. Don't expect that things will go the way you’ve planned or the way you’ve set out. Your path might not be linear, you might encounter twists and turns.