One spring morning, college senators ran through Wartburg hallways, waking up over 1,000 of the 1,800-person student body to march at the President's mansion. Known as “Project Orange,” the object was to demand that students have a more active part in decisions directly affecting them — and it worked. As student-body vice president at the time, Abhay Nadipuram realized how powerful a leader's voice can be and how much change a passionate group of people could motivate.
Nadipuram’s desire to advocate for a cause and represent groups of people steered him to attend the University of Iowa College of Law and become a lawyer.
“Lawyers are often the acting agents for participants in a system, representing them and their issues while providing the knowledge and background needed to win a case,” Nadipuram says.
And that’s exactly what he does today.
After graduating with his B.A. in political science at Wartburg College in 2010, he attended the University of Iowa College of Law, and graduated in 2013.
As a recent UI alum, Nadipuram, from Waterloo, Iowa, landed a job at Lederer Weston Craig PLC in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, practicing civil litigation, commercial litigation, insurance defense, municipal law, and personal injury law.
“What I like most about my job is that it challenges me to be creative and solve problems in ways that I haven’t before,” he says.
Most of his day entails researching various topics of the law, writing research memoranda on research, and discussing findings with senior attorneys to help them develop a strategy for a case. Nadipuram credits the UI College of Law's legal writing curriculum for his ability to hit the ground running.
“Whether it’s a memorandum for an attorney or a brief for the court, legal writing has to be clear, concise, and correct,” he says. “The UI College of Law’s writing program taught me how to do that, and I think that was the most valuable element of my education.”
In addition to his legal practice, Nadipuram is committed to service. He volunteers for a non-profit organization called the Iowa Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, which is an organization of attorneys that provides free legal assistance and education to artists and arts organizations across the state.