D. Hunter Perez ‘22 is a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Army JAG Corps. Originally from Tampa, Hunter graduated from Florida State University in 2019, where he majored in economics with a minor in business, and enrolled at Stetson Law that same fall. We recently sat down to discuss his Stetson experience.

What first made you want to go to law school?

My father is an attorney, so I grew up knowing what they did. 

"As an attorney, you get the opportunity to advocate for people, to tell their stories, and do serious, impactful things."

So I think that’s why I wanted to go. I wanted to do something that mattered.

What drew you to Stetson?

I picked Stetson because I wanted to advocate, and I wanted to be on the trial team. I knew I wanted to be in a courtroom advocating on behalf of others, and Stetson has way more opportunities than other schools to take those kinds of classes.

Even if you don’t end up on the trial team, there are still a lot of professors that have advanced courses that develop your trial advocacy skills – courses that are specifically tailored to litigating in a courtroom. That allows you to get way more experience than you would at another school.

Those skills are really fundamental, because, even if you don’t think you want to work in a courtroom, whatever area of law you go into you’re still going to be face-to-face – either with a client, or a boardroom, or with any number of people – in situations where you have to be able to advocate for your client’s position. So it’s incredibly helpful in law school to learn how to look at a problem from both sides and then tell the story that your client or your side benefits from the most.

How did you join the Army’s JAG Corps?

I decided I wanted to try to join the Army JAG [Judge Advocate General] Corps probably as soon as my 1L year. It came about through a lot of personal and professional relationships with people who had served and were serving. I looked at different opportunities and avenues of employment after law school, and I decided I wanted to work with service members so I could use my law degree and the skills Stetson gave me to do the best I could to help soldiers.

Right now I work in legal assistance, so my clients are soldiers, dependents, retirees, sometimes DoD [Department of Defense] civilians, and I get to advocate for them and help them with all kinds of different issues.

Were you in ROTC or did you have any military background before you decided you want to become a JAG?

No. I had no military in my family. But I’ve done over ten years’ worth of volunteering with a nonprofit called Task Force Dagger Special Operations Foundation. My biggest touchpoint with them has been through their annual Dagger Dive down in Key West where I’m a scuba diver instructor. I go down there with the foundation and teach wounded warriors and their families how to scuba dive. It’s a real bonding experience for everyone involved.

So through my work with Task Force Dagger, meeting all those service members and building personal and professional relationships, mentor relationships, etc., I ended up looking at the Army. That felt like what I wanted to do. So I always wanted to be a lawyer, and then I also wanted to be a soldier, and JAG was the natural connection. It was just a pipe dream at one point, but I worked hard and I got it! And now I’m here, sitting in Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

What part of your experiences at Stetson do you think best trained you for the work you’re doing now?

Without a doubt, it was the Trial Team. I think those are some of the best experiences you can have in law school. It prepares you as closely as you humanly can to step in front of a real judge, with a real case and a real client, and feel like you at least know what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it. You learn who you are as an advocate, and you’re prepared to deal with whatever comes down the line.

Stetson’s Clinics are also an invaluable resource. Stetson has fostered relationships with different communities and local circuits throughout the area. In those settings you’re getting real work in real trials. I did the Sixth Judicial Circuit Prosecution Clinic my last semester.

Because of that clinic, I did real-world legal work before I even graduated law school.

"By the time I graduated, I’d worked in real jury trials, I’d done voir dire, I’d cross-examined witnesses, I’d interviewed police officers."

Stetson really has a plan for their students with all these clinics. They push you to do all these things so that you realize you can do them; so that you graduate prepared for whatever it is you want to do.

What course did you find most challenging your first year?

I’d have to say Legal Research and Writing. And I think my Research and Writing professor would probably say the same thing! [Laughs.]

In your first year in Research and Writing you have to learn a whole different language with different words and different phrases, but what it does is it prepares you for your other classes in law school. You have to be an effective advocate in writing as well as verbally, and Research and Writing prepares you for that.

What course did you enjoy the most?

It would be either Evidence or Evidentiary Foundations and Objections. Both were with Professor Boals. Both of those classes were really tailored to practical questions about how you actually work as an attorney. Stetson’s very very good at that. Some schools’ classes are all geared toward how to pass the Bar exam.

"At Stetson, they’re not just training you to pass the Bar. That’s going to happen. Being a good attorney: that’s what they’re actually training you for."

In Evidentiary Foundations and Objections, you’re required to use the rules of evidence while standing up in one of our courtrooms, actually arguing and directing witnesses and practicing doing things on your feet. That’s what I liked so much about that class.

What advice would you give people starting out on their law school journey?

If advocating is something that you’re passionate about, there are very few schools out there that can compare to Stetson.

Remember: law school is hard. It’s three years of doing things you’ve never done before. But when you think back to why you first wanted to do it – maybe it’s to advocate for people, maybe it’s to transcend a social class, maybe it’s to make a lot of money – whatever it is, you have to have a why to look back on when things get difficult during the process.

"Future You is going to look back at what you’re doing now and be thankful."