Talece Y. Hunter Plays The Hand She Was Dealt Remarkably Well
“That was the hand I was dealt.”
When Talece Hunter spoke those words four years ago, she was referring to her plight as a student at a law school that no longer existed. Charlotte School of Law had just closed its doors, and Hunter wasn’t sure what her next steps would be.
Everyone who ever attended law school has faced their share of challenges, but Hunter’s story is unique in many ways. She had already taken more hours than she would be allowed to transfer to her next law school, was working full time and going to law school at night, and had already invested too much time and money to quit.
What did she do?
She found a law school that offered a weekend program. She attended classes in person – in Florida – prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. She attended classes remotely once the pandemic set in.
She graduated in September, and much to her surprise and delight, was elected Valedictory Speaker of her graduating class.
That’s how Talece Hunter played the hand she was dealt.
It certainly wasn’t easy, and the journey is far from complete. But when Hunter sits for the bar exam in February at the age of 39, rest assured she has gone the extra mile to get there, and then some.
Step one was finding a law school.
“I found four schools that had weekend programs,” Hunter states. “One was in Chicago, one was in Michigan, one was in Wisconsin, and one was in Florida. I chose Florida. I chose Cooley School of Law, which was connected with Western Michigan University; they have a satellite program in Florida.”
The law school was located in the Riverview community and marketed as Tampa Bay, Hunter said. She resumed her legal education in September 2018 and continued traveling to Florida for weekend classes through the winter of 2020, after which she attended classes online.
“One good thing about covid was that it allowed me to take one additional class online per semester,” Hunter said. “Otherwise I would have finished in December. It was a blessing – taking classes online – because I saved on hotels, travel, and sleep. The only downside is that I do not like online learning because I am so accustomed to in-person learning. It was a difficult transition for me but there were so many benefits also.”
On one memorable weekend when Hunter was commuting to Florida, she chose to drive the 600-mile trek instead of flying, only to find out that she had left everything behind.
Everything!
“This was the weekend that I had to do an oral argument, and I left everything at home in Charlotte – luggage, bookbag – I had absolutely nothing. I got to the hotel about 1:30 in the morning and had class at 9, and there was no way I was going to drive back to Charlotte.
“I literally had no pen, no notebook, no pencils, no paper. So I got to the hotel, where they knew me because I had been staying there on a regular basis, and told them I needed paper, I needed a copier, I needed a highlighter, I need a pen, I need anything that you can give me. I didn’t have my laptop, didn’t have my flash drive, didn’t have my hard copy.”
Hunter rewrote her oral arguments from scratch, from memory, by hand.
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“Normally I sit in the front of the class and volunteer to go first,” Hunter said. “I didn’t go last but near the end because I was still writing. I changed some things, and I think I actually did better than I would have done with my pre-planned oral argument.
“I never will forget that day. I literally opened the trunk and saw the empty trunk and closed it back. I thought, ‘Maybe I am seeing things; this trunk is empty.’ I opened it back up and wondered, ‘What am I going to do at this point?’ I even had to go and buy clothes the next day because I had nothing.”
How did she do?
“I got an A on the class, and I got an A on the oral argument.”
As for her reaction to being elected valedictory speaker, Hunter replied, “I was shocked!”
“There were several qualifications, and then once you meet them and the school determines you have the grades and are in good standing, they narrow it down and then the students vote from that slate. I was very shocked when the students voted for me because my last three semesters were online, so most of the students had never met me, never seen me. I was honored that they voted for me after just seeing me on the computer screen.”
Apparently, her classmates were impressed by what they had seen online.
“I was not the student who didn’t speak up in class.”
Hunter had originally intended to attend graduation in person, but after careful consideration, decided it best that she and her family attend virtually.
“Initially I had planned on going to graduation in person when the school was in the planning phase,” Hunter said. “They didn’t have a date in the beginning, and then once they told us the date, which was September 11 – the 20th anniversary of 9/11 – I just could not feel safe being in an airport on September 10. Plus everything that was going on with Afghanistan.
“That, plus the last few graduations were canceled because of covid, so they were combining multiple graduations into one. I’m thinking, ‘everybody does not wear a mask in Florida because there is disagreement over that, times multiple graduations, that’s a health risk for me.’ Plus, my grandmother was going, so I did not want someone in their 80s exposed, so I decided not to go and had the family come to my home here in Charlotte.”
Perhaps it was fitting that Hunter videotaped her valedictory address and delivered it virtually, in much the same way she completed law school.
Looking back, Hunter feels good about the education she received from Cooley and is looking forward to taking the bar exam, at first in North Carolina and ultimately in South Carolina too.
Hunter is employed by Barings, a financial investment firm with locations throughout the world, including Charlotte. She was recently promoted to Legal Analyst – Regulatory & Registered Funds. She joined the company in 2017 as an analyst after working as a paralegal for Wells Fargo.
Originally from Queens, N.Y., Hunter came to Charlotte in 2001 to attend Johnson C. Smith University, earning her bachelor’s degree in political science in 2004. She also holds a master’s degree in political science from Ohio University and received her paralegal certificate from Duke University.
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.