By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News
After earning his undergraduate degree in biology from Wayne State University, Joshua Davey spent two years as a medical assistant for Shores Urgent Care in Saint Clair Shores.
He had planned on attending medical school, before deciding that career path wouldn't provide the work/life balance he wanted; and after the medical work, spent two years as a billing auditor for RPM Freight Systems in Royal Oak.
Then Lady Justice beckoned; and Davey is now a 1L student at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, where he is top in his class with a 3.92 GPA, and recipient of a Book Award for Contracts I, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, Applied Legal Theory and Analysis.
"I was drawn to study law due to the joy I get from serving others and a career in law allows me to constantly pursue service to others," he says.
Although still a relative rookie in law school and studying during these strange pandemic times, he is enjoying the experience.
"One of the things I really enjoy is how evident it is that your professors want you to succeed," he says. "Especially with all classes being online, they've worked really hard to be available for us and to ensure the students' success.
"I'm involved in Federalist Society, and hope to get more involved with other organizations as we return to campus, such as Law Review."
Davey currently is interested in constitutional issues and medical malpractice law, but has no firm career goal in mind yet.
"I'm just focused on doing well and getting a job," he says, and is looking forward to this summer's externship in the chambers of Michigan Supreme Court Justice Brian K. Zahara.
Davey has found both positives and negatives to studying legal classes online during the pandemic.
"As a 1L I can't compare the experience to previous years of law school but I can reference my undergraduate studies," he says. "Positively, I've found the lack of having to commute to school and then go to and from class allows me to be much more productive. When a class ends you just simply exit that window and pick up the next book you have to read.
"The downside is the lack of a sense of community with classmates and the professors. It's been very hard to build many relationships with people due to the online nature of classes."
A native of Grosse Pointe Farms, where he currently lives, Davey is the oldest of six.
"There's never a dull moment in our household," he says with a smile.
He enjoys life in the Motor City area.
"The thing I enjoy most about Detroit is that the restaurant scene that has exploded in the last five or six years," he says. "As someone who loves to try new restaurants, I enjoy the variety and quality available."
He spends a great deal of time investing in his local community, and has coached Little League baseball since his mid-teens, as well as organizing tournaments. He also has coached some youth/high school football and basketball.
In addition, Davey has spent the past six years working as a mentor to high school students with YoungLife, a Christian ministry that reaches out to middle school, high school, and college students in all 50 states and in more than 100 countries around the world.
"I really enjoy being able to pore into the lives of the kids I work with, seeing the men they grow up to be, and knowing I was able to play a small part in that," he says.
