Turning 'Yes' into Leadership at Baylor Law School with 2L Jax Mahlstadt
Turning 'Yes' into Leadership at Baylor Law School with Jax Mahlstadt
In this episode of Counseller’s Corner, Jax Mahlstadt, a second-year law student, reflects on leadership, service, and the significance of saying yes at Baylor Law School. As the president of the 2L Student Bar Association and co-president of the Baylor Environmental and Natural Resource Law Society, Jax discusses embracing leadership opportunities, representing the student body, and how prioritizing involvement over a predetermined career path has influenced his law school experience.
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TRANSCRIPT
Jeremy
Hi, this is Jeremy Counseller, Dean of Baylor Law School. Welcome to another edition of Counseller’s Corner. And today, I'm very happy to be joined by fifth quarter law student Jax Mahlstadt. Jax, welcome to the, to the podcast.
Jax
I'm grateful to be here.
Jeremy
How are you doing?
Jax
I'm doing fine.
Jeremy
Yeah?
Jax
I'm doing fine, yeah.
Jeremy
Okay. So, you, we were talking right before we went on the air. We were talking about sort of your roots.
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
Tell me where you're from originally.
Jax
Originally, I'm from just south of Des Moines, Iowa. Kind of the south-central part of Iowa. The heart of the Midwest, I'd say. And then I went to college for a total of five years in Missouri as well. Not too far south of where I grew up. So, very, very centralized.
Jeremy
What college did you go to?
Jax
I originally, that my first four years I went to Truman State University. It used to be called Northeast Missouri State. If you know any of the generations before me from the Midwest. And then my fifth year was at University of Missouri, Saint Louis.
Jeremy
Okay.
Jax
We call it umsol (UMSL) for short.
Jeremy
You were a college athlete?
Jax
Yes.
Jeremy
What, what, sport did you compete in?
Jax
I was a swimmer. Okay. That was the fifth year we got some COVID eligibility, which was...
Jeremy
Oh, yeah. Yeah. You. My understanding is you were named Bulldog of the Year.
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
What does that mean? That's from, hat's an honor from Truman State.
Jax
It is.
Jeremy
What does that mean?
Jax
It's one of my favorites. That was just kind of a, gritty team spirit award that the coaches would, would pick a Bulldog of the year, someone they thought kind of brought it every day, but also was kind of the cheerleader of the team. And I won that my freshman year. And I was very excited because that was kind of my goal.
I didn't really know how I'd be able to contribute as a freshman. So, I kind of thought, well, I'll just bring the spirit. And then, got it again my senior year, which I was much more proud of because the plateaus and the ups and downs of competing and realizing there's always bigger fish. There were some rough parts through the, the middle two years and then the senior, senior year being able to win that again, I felt like I kind of refocused. So, I was pretty proud of that one.
Jeremy
Yeah. So what events did you swim in?
Jax
Yeah. So, for the non-swimmers, I'll do this in down and back, in the vernacular. But I would do down and back once of every stroke. The 200 IM, that was one of Michael Phelps as events, if you're familiar with him. I would also do the 400 IM, which was down and back twice of every event, and then the two hundreds of each stroke. So, kind of just call it mid-distance stroke.
Jeremy
Yeah, yeah. It was always interesting to me the things you learn competing at that level in any sport. How that may have helped you in law school?
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
Or hurt you. I don't want to assume that it's been a help.
Jax
Yeah, it's been an incredible help. I think there's a lot of hard lessons that I was starting to learn and learned throughout college and through swimming. But I feel like the only way to really learn something is through repetition, kind of learning it the hard way.
And law school has been more reps of the same lessons, which I was very kind of grateful to realize. It's true. I wasn't sure how it would translate. But it did. And one of them is just kind of being; I felt I was very entitled to very specific outcomes. I worked really hard and I wanted a payday, and I had an idea of what pay day looked like.
And it was never, you know, how you dream exactly. There was never that perfect time, never scoring a certain amount of points. And that was really frustrating. You kind of look at it as everything, at everything you did is a sunk cost. But I realized there was some entitlement in that, and I was missing out on a lot of other great things that were happening.
And my fifth year, I was better about letting go of that because it's like I've already swam, kind of like gave up on it. Mentally I was like, well, I'll just go have fun. And then I realized I wasn't giving up. I would maybe just now tapped into, my growth mindset, like how it should have been the whole time.
And law school has just been another chance to be like, how I know I can keep learning this.
Jeremy
Yeah.
Jax
So grateful .
Jeremy
You're, I think you're absolutely right about the repetition thing.
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
Translates. And I also think it's interesting I've heard it put that way. But looking for a payday and I think it's a wise thing. The payday is not going to look like exactly the way you envision it in all likelihood, but it certainly does.
I think a legal education certainly does pay off in a variety of ways. And I think in some unexpected ways for, for many students. Right now, you're a fifth-quarter student, as I said at the top. What sort of courses are you taking right now in your fifth quarter of law school?
Jax
Yeah. Right now, I actually got a little bit of an itch for the transactional side during our transactional quarter.
For those who don't know, fourth, fourth quarter is a lot of business organizations and trust and estates. And I loved it. And I still think I want to be a litigator, but maybe I can litigate in the business area. So, I'm taking business organizations two, taking security regulations, which is stocks in the SEC, which I know nothing about.
Hopefully a little more now. And that's been pretty, it's been pretty fun too.
Jeremy
Yeah. I think it's, you know, a lot of people come into law school with a very specific idea of what they want to be. I think it's a healthy thing for most people to keep somewhat of an open mind about what area of practice they may want to pursue, because as you go through law school, you know more about those areas of practice. Yeah.
Jax
Right.
Jeremy
Yeah. Well, I think that's, I think that's fantastic, fantastic. And I think all those courses are going to help you, even if you are a litigator. I understand that you are a first-generation student. I don’t know if that's first-generation college student or law student?
Jax
Everything.
Jeremy
Yeah.
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
Yeah. Me too. So, tell me, tell me about what that means to you and your family and...
Jax
Yeah. Yeah, so I don't. I never thought of education as a, like a, as a foreign thing. My parents were, my mom homeschooled me through elementary school, and then kind of dispersed me to the world after that. So, like, it felt like education was throughout our family. I never really realized I was a first gen, and my mom worked really hard to get us started, which, which was great.
And, yeah, as I got older, I realized, oh, my dad was working really hard without, without education so that we could. And then it started to be like, oh, this is actually a very cool thing I'm doing. And, but yeah, I don't know, it was never too foreign. It felt like what I was supposed to do is, see how far school could take me and just...
Jeremy
Yeah, I have very similar feelings about it. It's sort of like this is something a little different once you're kind of going through it.
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
Do you have, you have siblings?
Jax
I have a lot of siblings.
Jeremy
Okay. Tell me about that.
Jax
Yeah, I have six, six siblings.
Jeremy
Where do you fall in the birth order?
Jax
I'm the oldest.
Jeremy
Okay. Yeah. Are your younger siblings going to college or doing other things?
Jax
Yep. So far, we're three for three following me. Hopefully two for two graduating this year.
Jeremy
Okay, good.
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
Good.
Jax
Yeah. Two of them are freshmen now. One's a senior in college. My, my oldest younger brother went to Truman as well. So, we had one year together, which was a ton of fun.
Jeremy
Are any of them swimmers or athletes or...
Jax
No. My brother was a heck of a baseball player and just tore up his shoulder right before college. Moved on and found better things to do.
Jeremy
Yeah.
Jax
And, yeah, I ended up being the only college athlete, but yeah, we all had fun in high school.
Jeremy
So, similar thing for my family. Every, all the grandchildren in my generation, they all became, most of them went to college and got a degree. I was just the oldest and happened, happened to be the first.
Jax
Yep. That's exactly how it is.
Jeremy
It's, it's generational. But I, like you, I never thought, well, this is really unusual for me to go to college. It felt natural. But, you know, you kind of figure out that it's a little unusual for your family as, as you go through.
Okay. Something I want to talk to you about is the Student Bar Association.
Jax
Sure.
Jeremy
I want you to tell me, first of all, what does it do, SBA? What does SBA do and what is your current role in that?
Jax
Okay. In that order?
Jeremy
No. Any order you want to take it.
Jax
Any order. Currently I'm the 2L SBA president.
Jeremy
How did you get that position?
Jax
It's actually kind of a funny story. It's, I'd say it started last year. We had students running for president, running for vice president, and secretary was blank. And I didn't think I was going to be a part of student bar. I had enough on my plate. I thought with Civ Pro and, I was walking out of the cafeteria...
Jeremy
Glad to hear that since I teach that course. I'm glad it put a lot on your plate.
Jax
Yep. And one of the one of my older buddies was walking by. He said, why don't you put your name up there? I was like, now that you said it, I have to. So, I threw it in there. And then...
Jeremy
This is for the secretary.
Jax
This was for secretary. And then, this year the sheet was up again, and the president spot was open. And I was, after secretary a year, I enjoyed serving the student body, but I was like, the school's going to ramp up. We're done with this fun and games. And then I saw the open president's spot, and I was like, oh, I should probably put my name in there, too.
And then I did. And no one else wanted the, wanted the burden, I guess, of running or anything like that. So, I just had it. I just woke up one day realized unopposed.
Jeremy
Unopposed.
Jax
Unopposed.
Jeremy
My apologies for not, addressing you properly as Mister President.
Jax
I’m easy about that.
Jeremy
So, Mr. President, what are what are your duties and what does the SBA do?
Jax
Yeah. The SBA is a, just a student body organization that serves serves our colleagues. I specifically and within the 2L group of students, there's an executive board that is for the whole school. We put together all the student events, socials, town halls where students can come to us with concerns that we need to pass, pass up the ladder.
We put on law prom. That's more exec. I'll give them their credit. And. Yeah, I guess a lot of it is just people coming up to me in the hallway and saying, hey, we the coffee maker is getting old again.
Jeremy
And yeah, it's a representative body. And I meet with the executive committee twice a year, and that has been I've said this on the podcast before, and I really mean it.
That has been a great channel of communication and very candid conversation about, you know, the executive committee saying, here are some things that we think we could do to improve the student experience or something else. And then I will say, yeah, that's something we can do, right? Or I'll say, we can't really do that. And here's why. Yeah.
But it has, they are a group of just great young professionals is, is who they are. And it's fantastic.
Jax
And students here are pretty, pretty bold at like thinking of what could be changed. I remember hearing some, some requests and concerns and that had never crossed my mind as something we could think about. And then sure enough, it gets passed up the ladder. And then there’s serious discussions with you. Things are moving.
Jeremy
I mean, this is this is a community, and we're and we're all a part of it. And we move, you know, students have a voice, and that voice is really the SBA. And I'm just really grateful for how effectively the SBA has operated, in my experience, about 18 months as Dean. It's been, it's been, it's been really good.
And all of our, student organizations are really, sort of subgroups of the SBA. They're all under the SBA. So, it's a, we have a very vibrant, student organization community here. Now, something else you do as a, as if the SBA work doesn't take up enough of your time. You are the co-president of the Baylor Environmental and Natural Resource Law Society.
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
What's that organization do, and why is that work important to you?
Jax
Yeah. So environmental was something I just had a, you know, like an inkling I might be interested in when I walked on the campus and the and the group was really good about, taking us in, me and my buddy, I have a buddy from California who was big in the environment, and we got pulled in really quick, and, it just felt like a natural progression.
We were friends with the people running it, and they got us passionate about it. And what it does is kind of just raise awareness that environmental law is, is a body with plenty of jobs and really important work. Both sides, you know, plaintiffs work, saying you can't do this or even on the defense side where you're not always a big bad guy.
Sometimes you're just making sure people do it right the first time. And I mean, yeah, I know it's a, it's a cool field.
Jeremy
Yeah, I did a little bit of that work myself.
Jax
Okay.
Jeremy
Okay. What do you want to do with your career? I mean, we've heard a little bit.
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
Environmental law, litigation, possibly transaction.
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
What do you think is going to shape, what direction do you think you're going to go?
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
And it's okay if you don't know.
Jax
Yeah. My, my, my specific dream goal like we discussed not having is, to work pretty hard and just get in like the biggest search for the areas of biggest friction that I can just to learn a lot.
The biggest fights, working for whoever I can, and just get a, get a busy career out the gate. And then I think, kind of develop expertise in a, in a niche area I really like, I really admire professors that are super knowledgeable about a specific area. I think that'd be really cool to segue into after a few years, maybe as a jack of all trades. And then the dream would probably just be to, to teach one day.
Jeremy
Good.
Jax
Down the road.
Jeremy
Good. Okay, we have now come to the lightning round. Your, the questions are silly and your answers have to be short. What's your favorite way to spend a rainy day?
Jax
Read a book.
Jerey
Big cities or small towns?
Jax
Small towns.
Jeremy
What's the last show you binge watched?
Jax
The Sopranos.
Jeremy
When did you do that? Recently?
Jax
I binged half of it right before1L, and I binged the second half probably about...
Jeremy
second half of the whole...
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
Series.
Jax
Yep.
Jeremy
All right. We can talk about that offline.
Jax
All right.
Jeremy
My thoughts. If you could be, if you could make a cameo appearance in any TV show, which one would it be?
Jax
Succession.
Jeremy
Which fictional world would you love to live in?
Jax
Narnia.
Jeremy
Good answer. Is cereal a soup?
Jax
No.
Jeremy
If you could invent a new flavor of ice cream, what would it be?
Jax
Some spin off of vanilla, but better.
Jeremy
Favorite midnight snack?
Jax
Probably leftovers of dinner.
Jeremy
Something you've always wanted to learn but haven't yet learned?
Jax
I have a fashion, fascination with, like using hand tools to make a cabin and a log cabin, a huge...
Jeremy
So, you can talk to animals, or you can speak every human language.
Jax
Speak every human language.
Jeremy
You have to live either without music or without movies.
Jax
Without movies.
Jeremy
I understand you have a question for me.
Jax
Yes. I didn't prep them on this. Can I ask you a lightning round question real quick?
Jeremy
Sure, sure.
Jeremy
Before I do my real question? What's your favorite book?
Jeremy
Oh, man. One that always sticks with me. Remember that it's one of my favorites. Let me put it this way. It's a book called “A Canticle for Liebowitz”, and it's, sort of a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel.
Jax
Okay.
Jeremy
I really like that book, and I think it's fantastic. So …
Jax
Very good
Jeremy
“Canticle for Liebowitz”. Yep.
Jax
All right. To my, to my longer question. In my time under, as your, as your student, I've picked up on a lot of creative things you do. You write homilies for the dean's devotional. You write your own textbook for your class. You created this podcast. I was curious, do you view yourself as a creator, as a creative person? And if you do, where does that stem from?
Jeremy
I don't know that I would describe myself as creative.
Jax
Okay.
Jeremy
Here's what's true about me. I am... It's a weakness. I'm very easily bored. I do not like long meetings, as anyone who knows, who works on the staff can tell you. I do not like long meetings. I like short meetings. I like to the point. I'm very easily bored.
Monotony is part of, I think, the work that we all have to do.
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
But I need something to break the monotony. I need to keep, I need to keep myself entertained.
Jax
Okay.
Jeremy
And so a lot of the things that I do, I do because I think they're fun and, and so, if it's fun and it also has some benefit to the law school, that's where I want, to where I want to show up.
I like the podcast . I think the podcast is fun for me. But that, that alone is not a reason to do it. But I do think that's where the kind of ideas come from. As far as class, I think it's fair to describe me as theatrical. I mean, that's just my personality.
Jax
Okay.
Jeremy
I think, you know, that's where that comes from.
And I, I want, I want to be able to, in class, I wanted to, the main thing is for the material to be understandable to students. It's there for the taking for them. But at the same time, we ought to be able to have a good time in class. We ought to be able to laugh. We ought to be able to see the humor in things.
And I think sometimes laughter helps the medicine go down. You know, if you...
Jax
Yeah.
Jeremy
if it can just help. And, you know, I've been, I've been at the law school now for almost 23 years. And, you know, it's a huge part of my life. And so, I want to, I want to have, you know, some, some fun while I do it right, right.
The other thing I will say is I am supported in all this work by a fantastic faculty and staff who, by their nature as a group, are rather entrepreneurial. You know, they, that's just kind of who we are is to be entrepreneurial. And there's, and there is also a, but I described this as, the let's start with yes. Right. Let's start with you. This is something we can do. Let's make it happen. If we can. And I think that's a, that's just a good culture that we have around here.
Jax
Well, I'm, I'm glad you said culture because when you, when you said let's start with yes and see what we can do, I'd say that's a great descriptor of the feeling at Baylor. It's, it's a how many offerings do we have to say yes to. I get myself into trouble for saying yes all the time. Yeah. And yeah, but it's always great.
It always works and you feel a lot better and more experienced for it. So yeah, I think that is a culture thing.
Jeremy
Yeah, I think it's right. And I'm, I'm pleased to hear you say that because you do, you need to be open to being busy. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that you can take advantage of and learn a lot from and meet people and build your, your network. There does have to be, you know, the no. Because, because sometimes saying yes to that, that one additional thing could cause you to not do as well in some other important effort.
But yeah, learning when to say, to err on the side of yes, but, but also keeping the no ready to go. It's something, one of the Baylor lawyers that I worked for when I first got into practice after my federal clerkship, she told me, when a partner comes to you and asks you to help, the answer is always yes.
Jax
Sure.
Jeremy
And if the answer needs to be no, she'll tell them the no, and, and I, and I think that's, you know, that, that's a good attitude to have. You know, you do have to have a no in your pocket or in your supervisor’s pocket. You've got to be able to get out of things. Jax, thanks a lot for joining the podcast.
It's been a great conversation.
Jax
Thanks for having me. Yeah.
