09.28.05


From left, Carolyn and Jason Tompkins.

Alumnus launches law career with new priorities in place

Jason Tompkins, a 2002 graduate of Erskine College and a 2005 graduate of Cornell University Law School, spoke at Erskine Monday, fielding questions from students interested in the legal profession.

An E.B. Kennedy Scholar, Tompkins had completed his first year of law school, married Erskine classmate Carolyn Bursley, and nearly completed the first semester of his second year at Cornell when he was diagnosed with cancer in late November 2004.

Tompkins' academic endeavors came to a halt as he was hospitalized, but as soon as he could he went back to school. His one concession to his illness was the deferral of his first semester exams — he took them in March. He graduated on time and in the upper 10 percent of his class.

"I needed something to keep my mind off things," Tompkins said, speaking about how he managed to continue his studies.

Tompkins had been married only about 18 months when he was diagnosed with cancer, and coping with it was a challenge for a couple just learning how to live together. "It's really both people facing it," he said. "The stages you go through — denial, anger, and so on — Carolyn went through just as much as I did."

Along with the emotional turmoil of confronting a serious illness, the couple had to deal with practical problems.

Tompkins scheduled his classes so that he would be able to keep up his treatments. "If this had happened during my first year, I don't think I could have continued," he said. "By the time the cancer came along, I could choose more of my classes."

Accommodating his treatment schedule was also a problem for his wife. "Carolyn was working two part-time jobs when I was diagnosed with cancer," Tompkins explained. "When it was known that I would have to go through three surgeries, six months of chemotherapy and at least eight doctor appointments per month, she quit one of her jobs and worked part-time for US Airways.

 "She switched to a very early morning schedule that would allow her to care for me and take me to all appointments," he said. "Chemotherapy sessions were usually about four hours per day, three afternoons per week, every two weeks."

Although Tompkins was a student in a highly competitive environment and welcomed the work of law school studies, he learned to ease out of the fast lane. 

"Everybody I knew was focused on grades, classes, and studying," he said. "I reordered my priorities and realized how important family life is, and how important friends are."

Among other things, he took up snow skiing and spent more time with friends. "There was a mountain ski resort 30 minutes away," he said.

Tompkins' altered priorities were evident to his law school friends. "I think I did have some effect on them, because they noticed the change in my work habits and in my outlook," he said.

"To some extent they relaxed a little bit and realized that grades and money aren't the be-all and end-all of practicing law — we all started spending more leisure time together, not just studying all the time."

Focusing on the important things — "your family, your friends, your faith" — also helped Tompkins and his wife as they endured a period of stress they never envisioned when they spoke their vows back in May 2003.

"If anything, it strengthened our marriage," Tompkins said. "I think we learned more about each other that six months (of my cancer treatment) than in the previous year and a half."

His advice to students is based on his own difficult experience, which he hopes they will be able to avoid. "I try to find the good in what happened to me," he said. "It taught me what was really important in life — not how much money you make, what school you go to.

"If you can figure out what your priorities should be in life without going through a life-threatening disease, then I encourage you to do so," he said.

Tompkins' changed outlook has done nothing to diminish his enthusiasm for the law, which began before he entered Cornell. He enjoyed a rewarding summer job before law school, working with Erskine graduate Neil Jones, a patent attorney in Greenville, and during a part of the next summer he worked for Alabama Attorney General Philip Pryor, responding to inmates' appeals.

"That was the most fulfilling job," Tompkins said. "I felt like I was doing something worthwhile for the public."

Reflecting on his Erskine experience, Tompkins, who majored in biology, said his undergraduate studies "really prepared me well for law school." He attributes this to Erskine's focus on liberal arts. "I had to write so much, even as a science major," he recalls.

He has kept in touch with Erskine biology professors Dr. David Ritland and Dr. Mary Lang Edwards, and Carolyn, a history major, has corresponded with Dr. David Grier, the Erskine history professor who advises prelaw students. When Tompkins mentioned to his wife that he would be willing to talk to prelaw students, she contacted Grier, and he was invited to speak.

Now, Tompkins looks toward the future. "I have to be checked every three months for the next year, and have periodic blood tests," he said. "I'm in it for the long haul — but the worst part is definitely over."

He landed a job in energy law last summer, working for the firm he will be joining in October, and Carolyn is working at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport as a gate agent.

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