President’s Column
| Publication year | 2020 |
| Pages | 5 |
Interview with Incoming VBA President, Elizabeth Kruska
TC: I’m meeting with VBA Board President-Elect Elizabeth Kruska, just before the VBA Annual Meeting where she will offcially take offce. Elizabeth, on behalf of Vermont Bar Journal readers everywhere, thank you for taking time to meet with me today.
EK: My pleasure!
TC: First, can you tell us a bit about your background. Where did you grow up and where did you go to school?
EK: I grew up near Kalamazoo, Michigan. Luckily, we have many really great public colleges and universities in Michigan, and I went to the University of Michigan (hooray for in-state tuition!). I earned a BS in Natural Resources and Environment. I took a lot of policy classes, and also a lot of forestry classes. While my classmates were sitting in lecture halls, I was canoeing to soil pits and measuring tree diameters. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Since I seemed to be focused on environment and policy, I looked at law schools with those focuses, and ultimately picked Vermont. Even though my focus changed while I was in school, I’m glad I ended up here!
TC: A fellow Mid-westerner! What led you ultimately to consider law school as a path?
EK: The OJ Simpson trial was fascinating for me. It happened in the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. I remember watching several days of Kato Kaelin’s testimony and thinking, “how does anyone possibly know what they did at 10:20 or 10:25 on a particular day?” and also thinking that the lawyers must have known why that was important. That sort of gave me the idea about going to law school.
Then in college I took several policy classes, and an environmental law class. I found that I understood the method of analysis and thought it was something that might work for me. I’ve always been a fan of puzzles and I like fguring out things - it seemed like kind of a natural ft.
TC: Did you consider practicing anywhere else besides Vermont?
EK: I had considered moving back home to Michigan. My parents still live there, and it’s hard to get to see them very often when I know I have to drive fourteen hours each way to do it. My husband, who I met in law school, is from New Jersey and felt like he wanted to stay in Vermont. We made the decision together to stay here.
TC: I can relate! What law jobs have you had during your career so far?
EK: I did mostly public...
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