Q&A with Michael Burns ’98 Biology Major Turned Lawyer

Michael Burns’ route to performing for a Fortune 500 corporation was a winding one particular, and possibly would not have transpired if it weren’t for a significant turn taken in the vicinity of the conclusion of his Wabash occupation. 

Like a lot of pupils, the 1998 graduate arrived to the Faculty imagining he experienced his job designs figured out. Even though his father is a law firm, Burns was decided to turn out to be a health care provider and majored in biology.

Immediately after learning overseas in Australia throughout the second semester of his junior year, Burns began questioning if joining the health care field was what he really required to do. Graduation was receiving closer, and the stress of uncertainty was setting up.  

Thanks to a bit of encouragement from his mother, Burns received to where he is right now, leading a wide crew of lawyers and company experts as the vice president and basic counsel at CSX, a person of the nation’s major rail-based transportation businesses, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

Burns is liable for the company’s legal, company secretary, chance administration, freight promises, and environmental and hazmat capabilities. He started his career at CSX in 2006, has held positions of rising obligation through, and is a graduate of the Govt Progress System at the Harvard Business School.   

“I hope my tale will assistance other present and former Wabash pupils recognize that for a lot of, the long term is not a straight route that can be planned out totally,” mentioned the Fort Wayne, Indiana, native. “My path as a biology big turned legislation university student at the 11th hour of my Wabash job was scary at the time, but turned out to be one of the very best choices I’ve manufactured. I glimpse back again now with a sigh of reduction.”

Q: What drew you to initially study biology? When did the switch to legislation take place?

Considering the fact that my early teenage many years, I was persuaded I wanted to be a health practitioner. Coming to Wabash, I realized that majoring in biology was the path I necessary to comply with to come to be a medical professional. Of training course, I promptly located out that currently being a biology significant would not be an straightforward path, but I had produced a program and was sticking to it.

That out of the blue transformed when I studied overseas at the College of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Prior to my vacation, I truly started doubting my conclusion to examine biology and go after a job in drugs, and I felt trapped in the route that I had taken. Generating items worse, as the route grew to become additional challenging, it became clearer every single semester that I wasn’t a powerful biology college student. I was surrounded by numerous biology colleagues, which include fraternity brothers at Phi Gamma Delta, who have been excelling. It was stress filled and my plan was unraveling with what I felt was small time still left to pivot.

When I came back again from Australia, I believed about choices: possibly a masters in bioethics, perhaps just discover a position to get some expertise and then go back again to college. I didn’t have a plan and graduation was fewer than a yr absent. A single night I was on the mobile phone with my mom. Sensing my panic and reminding me that I was only 22 many years previous, she explained, ‘Why don’t you just just take the LSAT (Law School Admission Check)?’ I made a decision to do it so I could have that in my again pocket in circumstance I necessary it. I figured with a legislation diploma, comparable to a Wabash diploma, my solutions for a profession in lots of various fields would be extensive open up. I now experienced a system.

Q: You took the LSAT your senior year though majoring in biology and minoring in heritage. How did you prepare for the exam?

It was surely challenging balancing a biology big and researching for the LSAT. At that stage, most of my biology classmates were being heading to health-related faculty or other submit-graduate perform in a biology or chemistry-related field. I may have been the only one particular who was having a wholly diverse path.

Right after having (and passing) the LSAT, I felt like I was heading in the appropriate direction, or at least experienced a approach for the up coming couple of a long time. Wanting back, this was the very first time that I really recognized the worth of my Wabash schooling and the wide variety of troubles it ready me to handle.

Q: You’re a 2001 IU Robert H. McKinney School of Regulation graduate, and have been with CSX now for 16 yrs. What lessons have you uncovered from your route as a Wabash undergraduate to where by you are now?

All through my almost 5 a long time practicing law in Fort Wayne and even my 1st a number of years with CSX, I constantly thought that I required to have the response or my clientele or business companions would believe I was not a fantastic law firm. Although I unquestionably essential to learn numerous spots of the legislation as I progressed in my vocation, I acquired that it is not an in depth know-how of the legislation that tends to make you an effective law firm.

Your means to converse well and operate collaboratively with your consumers, business associates, and colleagues is what sets you apart from other individuals. Having solid communication and interpersonal techniques, along with sound psychological intelligence, are much more vital capabilities than just understanding as a lot as you can about any distinct space of regulation. 

It is Ok to tell your consumer or small business companion “I really don’t know the response, but I’ll assist you determine it out.” I inform pupils and young attorneys all the time that you know you are heading in the ideal course if your teacher or professor famous ‘plays perfectly with others’ on your report card. 

Q: What do you appreciate about your current function?

For the very first fifty percent of my legal job, I genuinely focused on labor and work-relevant legal troubles, both equally at the regulation company and at CSX. I enjoyed that perform, but was ready to extend my expertise and skill set. I’ve been privileged that CSX has delivered me with the possibility to grow my legal and professional abilities by major a huge crew of attorneys and small business pros across a vast range of disciplines. My days are filled with legal and regulatory problems, strategic planning, and staff making. No two days are the same, and I seriously take pleasure in the several problems that arrive my way every single day.

Q: What advice do you have for learners?

Irrespective of whether you determine to go to graduate college, leap proper into the job current market, or commit some time touring, you have numerous several years forward of you to select a occupation. You will make faults, you will get pissed off, and you will stress. But this is section of the journey, and it will be value it.  I have forgotten extra than I understood about biology, but I wouldn’t go again and modify my path.  Wabash helps develop a basis that will provide you well in any occupation you select and the challenges you will encounter alongside the way.