Signature: Michelle Renee Shamblin

Michelle Shamblin was surprised to learn she’d won the Scribes Law-Review Award for an article she wrote about how public school districts handle race.

In fact, she was the first student in LSU Law School history to win the prestigious national award.

“My dad is an educator [who served as a teacher, principal, and coach] and I have always been intrigued by the legal issues intertwined with school law,” Shamblin says. The case she wrote about “had recently come down from the U.S. Supreme Court, was pretty controversial, involved constitutional issues—a favorite area for me—and impacted schools. It had lots of room for legal analysis, policy arguments, and passionate writing, which in my view make for great legal work.”

Growing up in “close-knit” Tioga, Shamblin’s early introduction to law was JAG, the TV series about Navy lawyers. She developed into an opinionated young woman who says she’s quick to make fun of herself. “I care about people’s opinions of me, like any normal person, but I won’t sacrifice who I am or what I believe to please anybody. What you see is what you get!”

After earning her bachelor’s degree in history at Louisiana College in Pineville, she immediately entered law school with a singular ideal: “I wanted to change the world. Most politicians and all judges—two lines of work that I consider to have the most impact on society—are lawyers.”

AGE: 24

HOMETOWN: Tioga, La.

TITLE: Third-year LSU Law Student, Scribes Law-Review Award winner

If pressed, she identifies more with conservative beliefs “on most if not all issues,” and believes the power vested in judges isn’t to be used to forward one’s own agenda. “Conservative and liberal judges alike should interpret the law as written, whether they like it or not, and let the people speak through their elected representatives if they disagree with the law.”

Shamblin is a firm believer in hard work, citing Colossians 3:23, and her hard work gets results: In addition to the Scribes Award, she routinely wins honors and consistently makes the law school chancellor’s list. She attributes her present successes to the support system she had growing up, comprised of both family and teachers. “I had wonderful teachers all throughout school who did everything from dropping off a load of Boxcar Children books for me because they knew how much this little second-grade kid loved reading, to writing strong letters of recommendation for my law school applications. I had basketball coaches who made me run so much I truly understood ‘no pain, no gain.’”

And now, after nearly two straight decades of school, Shamblin graduates this month. She will begin a year of clerkship for Chief Judge Edith Jones of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Houston.

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