alumni proFile Photo couretsy of Drew shoals ’05 A journey from music to mergers drewshoals ’05 has He graduates from the Ivy league’s transition from my music life to graduate played drums in all And this September, he will start as an as- school.”Because Shoals didn’t want to golaw School.niversity of Pennsylvaniau sorts oF jazz joints. sociate at Shearman & Sterling llP, a straight from “the fancy tour bus” to the now he’s on his way to global law firm headquartered in New court advocate in the Bronx for The For-law-school classroom, he first worked as aork City.y newyorkcity; not to So why did a professional jazz musician tune Society, a nonprofit that offers become a star, but to mergers and acquisitions? tion. During this stint, Shoals experienced-troubled youth an alternative to incarceraforgo a successful music career for a life of practice law. “I’ve always been a bit of a nerd. In the power of the law while representing high school, I was involved with the Con- first-time offenders, mostly young adults, stitution team, band and choir,” said who were looking at jail time. Bye dwa r d weinm a n Shoals, who attended Whitman as a Gar- “I was in charge of representing these rett Scholar – Whitman’s most prestigious clients, trying to get them into communi- He’s jammed with Portland blues leg- scholarship – and graduated cum laude ty-based programs to help them learn life end Curtis Salgado. He’s rocked sold-out with a major in African American studies. skills and get jobs rather than serve time,” shows with Pat Monahan of Train and “I had done everything I wanted to do Shoals said. “I worked with amazing law- Tony Furtado. He’s even recorded his own in music. I was flying to Cancun, Mexico, yers and judges, as well as the youth that jazz album, “The Greatest Haven’t Been for gigs and played in front of 14,000 peo- had come from really rough backgrounds Bornyet,” released on Diatic Records. ple in Chicago. I got to do that rock star but were willing to work hard to get their After living the “rock ’n’ roll lifestyle,” thing, but law school was always in the lives back on track through our program.” what does Drew Shoals ’05 do for an back of my mind since college. I figured if encore? I waited too long it would be hard to Continued on page 42 July 2012 41
Whitman Magazine July 2012
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