Old School Law School Grad

Alice Thomas doesn’t expect to be a lawyer for long; just long enough to “nibble” at some injustices. Why is that, you ask? Because on May 15, at 79, Thomas will become the oldest graduate in the history of McGeorge School of Law at the University of Pacific in northern California.

An article in Tuesday’s Sacramento Bee highlights the ups and downs Thomas faced while earning a law degree as a senior-citizen student, which includes a stint on academic probation and the death of her longtime companion to Alzheimer’s disease. Not to mention bare mid-riffs.

Thomas enrolled at McGeorge in 2002 and finished her work in December. She leaves McGeorge owing $70,000 in student loans, but she already has a job at a Reno law firm and hopes to pass the Nevada or California bar exam this summer.

And why did she want to become a lawyer in these golden-est of years? To help people and make money doing it. We say amen to that.