Raised in Austin, Texas, Daniel Tyrone L’25 did not come from a family of lawyers. In fact, his happy, suburban childhood was thanks to the hard work of his parents, who ran their own small businesses. His dad had a contracting company, and his mom owned a small restaurant.
“My first real exposure to law was as a kid interacting with lawyers who would come into the restaurant,” he says. “As I started to get some insight into their world, it quickly became apparent to me the complexities of the situations they had to deal with and that that the job of an attorney included mental deep dives into heavy matters—a perception that never left me.”
After graduating from Texas State University, he admits he was a bit lost, but he could “hold a conversation with a brick wall,” which led him to his first professional job as a headhunter. That led him down a career path working in internal recruitment, employee relations and human resources at a number of companies. Today, he is the vice president for human resources for Bishop Lifting Products, Inc., a private equity-backed organization operating in the industrial lift niche. And, while he intends to stay in his current role, he is eager to soon be adding “legal counsel” to his title.
It was his work in employee relations that reignited his thoughts about studying the law. “As an employee relations specialist, your job is to investigate and mitigate any employee-related matters, particularly those with legal ramifications,” he explains. “I found that I really loved exploring basic employment law and enjoyed the research, as well as the opportunity to talk to some of the employment counsel.”
As he grew to better grasp this type of work, he noticed that many colleagues throughout every job function treated the law as a bit of an afterthought, noting that most smaller companies often do not have the luxury of inhouse legal counsel and avoid getting outside counsel due to cost. “I didn’t understand why others avoided researching the law, but I also realized it was an opportunity for me,” he says.
“Working in HR and also being in charge of legal makes me so much more valuable as an employee.”
—Daniel Tyrone L’25
It was the COVID pandemic that amplified his focus on the need for legal counsel in the workplace. He was still employed but stuck at home, so he took a practice LSAT one day. “I scored much higher than I thought I would,” Tyrone says. “So, I decided to run with it. I studied for the LSATs for four months and got a great score.”
Tyrone wasn’t looking for a change in his career path but an enhancement to the one he already had. “Working in HR and also being in charge of legal makes me so much more valuable as an employee,” he says.
However, he knew he couldn’t put his career on hold and, more importantly, he needed to be attentive to his wife and two children, so he sought out a program with flexibility.
“I didn’t know how limited my options were when it came to finding a hybrid law school,” Tyrone says. “I assumed that JD programs were like MBA programs and that every institution would have an online option, but I was wrong. I cannot tell you how happy I was when I found Syracuse Law’s JDinteractive Program (JDi). Not only was it what I was looking for, but it was at Syracuse University! That’s a brand. Everyone from Texas has heard of Syracuse!”
“My classmates are 25 to 60-plus with careers that range from a brain surgeon, a professional gambler, Fortune 500 execs, a news anchor, a farmer and some stay-at-home parents. Words cannot describe how bright the people in my cohort are. That’s the beauty of this program is that it allows those with limited time and many responsibilities to earn their JD.”
—Daniel Tyrone L’25
Now a 3L at Syracuse Law, Tyrone is well on his way to enhancing his HR career. He has nothing but praise for the way the JDi program allows him to juggle law school with the rest of his responsibilities, but his real admiration is for the diversity in backgrounds of his cohort.
“My classmates are 25 to 60-plus with careers that range from a brain surgeon, a professional gambler, Fortune 500 execs, a news anchor, a farmer and some stay-at-home parents. Words cannot describe how bright the people in my cohort are. That’s the beauty of this program is that it allows those with limited time and many responsibilities to earn their JD,” he says. “I’ve made great memories and formed great relationships, and I have the text chains over the past three years to prove it—filled with law theories, debates, sports conversations, parenting advice and more.”
Tyrone looks at his JDi experience as one of the best decisions he ever made and nothing short of “amazing,” as he looks forward to completing his degree and using his hard-earned legal skills in his career.
“I’m not sure I was anything exceptional to Syracuse Law,” he says with humility, “but Syracuse Law was exceptional to me.”