Shantel Thompson’s Major Comeback

Shantel Thompson, 33, learned she passed the Uniform Bar Exam and her dream of becoming an attorney was finally going to become true. Less than 72 hours later, Shantel's dream almost ended when she was shot in her side and nearly killed by a random stranger as she was walking in the park around 6:45 p.m. With the bullet piercing her spine, Shantel is now fighting to walk again. In Shantel’s words, her shooting is a “minor setback for a major comeback.” Please help Shantel have a major comeback after her minor setback. Your funds will go directly to Shantel to help with her medical and rehabilitation expenses, food, lodging, and meals. The initial fundraising goal for Shantel was $50,000, and it has since increased to $75,000 given Shantel's increased needs and the tremendous amount of support she has received.

 

With only $750 to her name, Shantel left Omaha, Nebraska for law school in St. Paul, Minnesota seven years ago. Shantel let nothing stand in her way even though she had little in both finances and a support base. She knew she wanted to become an attorney, help her community, and experience life outside of Omaha, the only place she had ever lived.

 

Shantel enrolled in an evening school program at William Mitchell College of Law (now Mitchell Hamline School of Law) so that she could work during the day. With help from her church, Shantel stayed in a hotel one week, and then stayed with a Mitchell staff member until she was able to find an apartment close to school. For the first semester and a half, she continued to work part time at FedEx, which meant she’d finish with classes around 10 p.m. and stay up for her shift, which started at 2:30 a.m. She wasn’t falling behind in her classes, but she needed help understanding the material.

 

She sought out and received additional academic help, including weekly meetings with a longtime faculty member who saw Shantel improve her grades by working hard and staying positive. He said, “Shantel overcame numerous obstacles in her study of law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law,” and “[t]hrough her hard work and dedication to the study of law, she has become a capable and confident law student. She will be a credit to the profession.”

 

While in law school, Shantel held a dozen or so legal-related work and volunteer positions during her time in law school, mostly dedicated to public interest law. But she also found time to give back, logging an enormous amount of time as a volunteer with the Minnesota Justice Foundation.

 

Following her graduation in 2017, Shantel was one of 25 future lawyers across the country to be named “Law Student of the Year” by National Jurist. She has since worked fulltime with the Omaha Public School District. Shantel also worked as a paralegal for a solo attorney specializing in landlord, tenant law. Always finding ways to challenge herself, she has started to work on more complex business matters, including business formation and estate planning. Recently, Shantel was hired to practice law as an attorney in a small firm in Omaha, but was hoping to return to Minnesota to build a practice there and serve the community given the network she built. In the meantime, she hopes to work in the predominantly African-American part of Omaha where she grew up. Her vision is to work with legal aid to set up a medical-legal partnership that would serve not just a community center or a clinic but the whole community of North Omaha. Shantel has said, “We’re taught at church that you may not understand what’s going on in your life, but you have to have faith.”

 

Shantel will not stop pursuing her dream of becoming an attorney and serving others. With your help, even with a gift as small as $5, Shantel will get there.

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