BYU Law professor Michalyn Steele, the keynote speaker for the Utah Center for Legal Inclusion Pre-Law Symposium, encouraged future law school students to "dare to be."
The Pre-Law Symposium, hosted by BYU Law School, provided students interested in law with the opportunity to explore a legal career. The symposium also offered students a chance to learn about available resources and receive invaluable advice from admissions counselors, practicing lawyers and law students. Michalyn Steele was the keynote speaker for the event.
Geidy Achecar, an immigration attorney and former student of Steele, was the driving force behind the symposium.
“I remember pretty vividly that there wasn’t any ego with her,” Achecar said. “She was very compassionate, just kind, and there was no ego — it just made room for us. She is exemplary.”
Steele is the Marion G. Romney Professor of Law at BYU. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in humanities from BYU and completed her J.D. at Georgetown University. Steele was raised on the Cattaraugus Reservation of the Seneca Nation of Indians in New York. Her work, both before and after law school, has focused on civil rights, particularly concerning Native American tribes. In winter 2025, she will be a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, teaching Federal Indian Law.
At the beginning of her speech, Steele spoke about her mother’s accomplishments with a law degree. Steele’s mother attended BYU Law School when Steele was 12, with three kids in tow, leaving their home in New York.
“She had a marvelous career. She did law school somehow with three kids. She somehow made it,” Steele said. “She dedicated her career to working with tribes in the Intermountain West, became a tribal judge, and helped many tribes build up their justice systems. I admired her career very much.”
Although her mother’s career was inspiring, Steele did not initially plan to follow the same path. She graduated from BYU with a degree in humanities, uncertain of her next steps. When meeting with a career advisor, she noticed a flyer.
“As I was leaving, I saw a pinned announcement on a cork board. It said the Senate Judiciary Committee was hiring,” Steele said.
After asking about the job, she was told it was hard to get, which wasn’t exactly encouraging.
“But I thought, ‘Well, you don’t get a job you don’t apply for very often,’” Steele said.
She applied, landing an interview with Senator Hatch’s office, though she initially felt out of place.
“Just sitting in the waiting room, I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t for me. What am I doing here? This is silly,’” Steele said. “I almost left, but I decided to go into the interview.”
To her surprise, she was called back for a second interview and eventually got the job, despite having voted for Bill Clinton. She worked for the Judiciary Committee under Senator Hatch.
“One of the reasons I was interested in the job, even though I wasn’t politically aligned with Senator Hatch, was his seat on the Indian Affairs Committee. I was interested in those issues,” Steele said.
She worked on many critical issues with the Indian Affairs Committee, gaining a unique perspective through experiences like Justice Breyer’s confirmation hearing.
“I wasn’t important; I wasn’t a main character on that stage at all, but I was learning, gaining experience, friends and perspective,” Steele said.
One day, Steele said she attended a meeting on a topic she was passionate about. Everyone else at the table was a lawyer. When she tried to share her thoughts, the response she received was pivotal.
“I said something and tried to contribute. The conversation stopped, everyone turned and looked at me, and they asked, ‘Are you a lawyer?’ I said, ‘No,’ and then they went back to their conversation. I left that meeting and thought, ‘Guess I’ll go to law school,’” Steele said.
After that, Steele attended Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C., beginning an influential career in civil rights.
Steele then shifted her speech’s focus to the attendees. She shared Google’s definition of “clipping a bird’s wings” and read, “The purpose of clipping a bird's wings is not to prevent flight completely, but to ensure the bird is unable to achieve or sustain upward flight.”
Steele warned attendees against clipping their own wings and encouraged them to “dare to try” and “have the audacity to hope.”
“Apply for the job. Apply for the law school. Do your best. Make yourself valuable wherever you land, even if you hate it. Make yourself valuable there until you get to the next thing,” Steele said. “You dare to dream.”
Steele also shared advice from her grandmother, who would say, “We weren’t supposed to be here.” Steele explained, “She meant they didn’t expect we would survive this, but we did. It was her way of telling me to defy expectations.”
“Because I’m Seneca, because I have ancestry that was determined to survive — even attempted genocide — that background is, in many ways, my superpower. It is not some obstacle I need to overcome.”
Steele concluded by describing what a law degree could do for the attendees.
“The purpose of a law degree is to give you access to where decisions are made and to make you fit as an advocate for others,” she said.
With the context of her own experiences, Steele added, “Once you get that credential, then you’re sitting in that room where they’re talking about what to do about laws. And if they all turn to you and say, ‘Are you a lawyer?’ Suddenly, your voice counts.”
Steele emphasized the importance of untestable skills like storytelling and empathy, and how these qualities should be brought into the legal field.
In closing, Steele remarked, “I’m ordinary, right? I just do the work. I just dare, and partly that’s because my mom dared.” She added, “My background as a Native American woman, or as a religious minority, is not an obstacle I have to overcome — it is among the gifts and powers that I have.”
Steele’s speech aimed to inspire attendees not to limit themselves. Her journey from applying for a job with Senator Hatch’s team to a respected career in civil rights exemplifies the value of daring to pursue unconventional paths. She encouraged attendees to “Dream big. Don’t clip your wings. Defy expectations.”
Beth Madsen, an attendee, shared, “I was really impressed by her. I thought she was really down-to-earth and humble. I loved her message; it was inspiring and amazing.”
Lucia Ayala, also an attendee, said Steele’s story inspired her.
“As a minority, seeing another female lawyer from a minority succeeding in this field is super cool. I loved how she shared her story,” Ayala said.
After the speech, Achecar added, “That’s always her message: ‘You can just be ordinary.’ There’s nothing exceptional about the people we consider to have made it — they just did the things that we can do.”