Associate, WilmerHale, Boston, Massachusetts
Amit Tantri became interested in a career in law while working as an analyst with Compass Lexecon, an economics consulting firm that provides expert testimony for use in litigation and other legal proceedings. “My work involved collaborating with economists to produce expert testimony, and then helping our law firm clients use their testimony effectively in legal proceedings,” Tantri said. “Working closely with our law firm clients, I gained an appreciation for their work, and in the process got to know a community of antitrust and energy lawyers. I liked the work they did, and a law degree was the logical next step for me.”
A Connecticut native who earned his undergraduate degree in economics at Middlebury College in Vermont, Tantri applied to Vanderbilt in part because “I’d spent my entire life in New England, and the idea of spending three years in a different part of the country was interesting,” he said. Vanderbilt’s size also appealed to him, and he found his interview with Ned Perry, Class of 1975, a partner in Hirsch Roberts Weinstein in Boston, who took Tantri out to lunch, extremely encouraging. “I’d always been in small-school settings, and I like that,” Tantri said. “I knew the academics were going to be great at all three of the schools I was considering. I had a really good experience at Vanderbilt’s Admitted Students Day, and that did a lot to convince me to choose Vanderbilt.”
Tantri was also impressed with Vanderbilt’s Career Services department. “It’s more transparent in terms of telling you exactly where class members end up than most,” he said. “I wanted to make sure I would have the opportunity to go back to the Northeast, and I’ve found plenty of opportunities in Boston. I would encourage anyone not to worry about going back home to work with a Vanderbilt Law degree.”
Tantri’s interest in a career in corporate transactional law led him to take a number of corporate and regulatory law courses. “Randall Thomas’s Mergers and Acquisitions class was one of the most impressive courses I’d ever taken,” he said. “Professor Thomas or his colleagues have worked on many of the deals you’ll learn about in class, so you get firsthand knowledge of how they worked. I’d also encourage anyone—even if you aren’t interested in regulatory law—to take a class from Kevin Stack. I had him for Regulatory State my 1L year, and his enthusiasm for the subject made the class a great experience.”
Tantri found that his consulting experience prior to law school was “a huge help” in his summer job searches. In summer 2011, he landed a coveted internship in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice; he received a stipend to help defray his expenses as well as course credit for part of his work. “As a consultant, I helped companies gain DOJ clearance for their proposed mergers,” he said. “At the DOJ, I worked in the Antitrust Division, which investigates pending mergers. I now have a 360-degree view of the antitrust process, and that will be valuable even if I don’t end up practicing antitrust law.”
Tantri spent summer 2012 working as an associate with WilmerHale in Boston and joined the firm after graduating in 2013.
Tantri found roommates through the Class of 2013 Facebook group before his 1L year, and he and four classmates then rented a house on Nashville’s storied Music Row, where many of Nashville’s record companies and recording studios are located, which is within walking distance from the law school. “We’ll keep in touch for the rest of our lives,” he said.
