Marcos Mendoza comes from a family with a strong dedication to education, and shares similar careers with his father and two sisters.
Q. Where did you grow up?
A. My dad began his career with State Farm right after law school and we moved around as he was promoted within the company. As he progressed in his career, we eventually settled in Bloomington, Ill., State Farm’s headquarters, where he eventually became a senior legal counsel from which he retired after 43 years. My parents still live there.
I also worked for State Farm for 15 years after law school, and one of my sisters is an adjuster with them in Bloomington as well. My other sister is an Assistant Attorney General in Kansas.
Q. Where did you go to college?
A. I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Baker University, a small Methodist liberal arts school in Kansas. My parents met there when they were in college and my sisters also graduated from Baker. I earned my law degree from Washburn University School of Law.
This May, I’ll graduate from the University of Connecticut School of Law with an LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree in Insurance, essentially a specialized fourth year of law school. UConn has the only such program in the U.S., attracting lawyers from around the world. I recently received the CALI award for Academic Excellence for receiving the highest score in my Insurance Litigation class, so I was pretty pleased. Right now, I’m working on revising my thesis and hope to get that approved for publication in their law review, the Connecticut Insurance Law Journal — we’ll see!
Q. Between work and school, do you have any time for other interests?
A. Work will always be busy — I work for the Texas Association of School Boards, which is the administrator for the TASB Risk Management Fund, and I appreciate their ongoing support. Along with school, not much free time right now! I try to treat school like a hobby — you never achieve success at anything unless you like what you are doing. I get to one or two football games out of town each year, and I am a perennially suffering Kansas City Chiefs fan. Of course, Texas Longhorn football can be distracting, and lots of fun.
Q. What will you do with all your free time after graduation?
A. I’ve lived all over Texas in the last 24 years, and I love spending time learning its history. I like traveling to various parts of the state — exploring west Texas or the gulf coast in my Jeep, visiting the Alamo (I saw the Travis Letter during its only display!), or just appreciating a Saturday afternoon here in Austin playing dominoes and discussing politics with friends. We usually have great festival-friendly weather in the spring and fall, and I enjoy attending the South by Southwest and Austin City Limits music festivals, just a few miles from my house. So, I’m looking forward to it! I really can’t imagine a better life.