Julia Menke

I am a state attorney in Florida, where I prosecute crimes and go to trial. My work involves giving people the best case scenario for the certain types of crimes that they commit. I work for the government in the area where I grew up. I've always been drawn to this career - I grew up watching Law and Order SVU and always thought I would eventually work in a Special Victims Unit to help victims. My mother would always tell me that I would get paid to argue, and she was right. I decided to go out of state for law school to North Carolina Central Law School in the Raleigh-Durham triangle area because I wanted to experience something different and see a different cultural area. It was scary at first to move to a different state where I knew nobody and live alone, but in the end it was great and I met wonderful people. After law school, I came back to Florida to work where I grew up, which was always my plan. I am the first person in my family to go to graduate school at all, and I think only a few of my family members have graduated with at least an AA degree.