For Professional and Personal Endeavors, Passion is Key for Anthony Sharett ’02
Anthony Sharett has created a pro bono legal clinic at his church, co-chaired a conference for minority undergraduates interested in law school, and mentors four students. Service to his community is clearly a passion for him.
Despite the impressive number of volunteer activities, the modest Columbus resident quickly says his top priority is his family, which includes his wife, Hope Sharett ’03, and their 22-month-old daughter, Ava. “Charity starts at home,” Anthony says. “However, it can be difficult to make family a priority along with so many other outside responsibilities. Once you make sure that your family is being supported in a way that they deserve, it is easier to go out and be a civic leader.”
Anthony is an associate in the commercial litigation group in the Columbus office of Shumaker Loop & Kendrick, LLP. The Troy, Ohio native attended Ball State University, where he majored in political science and was a sprinter on the university’s track team. While Anthony was an intern at the Indiana Legislature, attorneys there encouraged him to consider law school. “Becoming an attorney had crossed my mind before, but attending law school had not become a reality until that summer,” he says.
He chose Ohio State because it was a “moderately priced law school with a prestigious reputation,” and also because the college’s dean at the time, Gregory Williams, was a Ball State graduate and someone whom he admired. It was during his first year of law school that he met his future wife, Hope. Hope is the director of outside counsel for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
Following graduation from Moritz, Anthony spent about a year with a small Columbus firm before heading to the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of Financial Institutions. At the Department of Commerce, Anthony honed his regulatory skills while overseeing the state’s banking, mortgage, and credit union industries. Anthony was hired at Shumaker Loop & Kendrick last November. “My ultimate goal is to be the most skilled attorney that I can be,” he says. “Then I can really begin to inspire and mentor those who might have challenges and goals similar to mine.”
Anthony has already started down an impressive trail of community participation. He recently co-chaired a conference sponsored by the John Mercer Langston Bar Association, where he now serves as vice president, which attracted more than 70 undergraduate minority students. Participants learned what it takes to get into law school, what majors are conducive to succeeding in law school, and listened to a national speaker. Cybele Smith, director of public service and public interest programs at Moritz, was asked by Anthony to speak at the conference. “Because of the work of Anthony and his committee, many students who felt a career in law was out of reach, saw and interacted with a bevy of successful attorneys who will no doubt become role models and mentors for them in the future,” she says.
His accomplishments don’t stop there. He is currently mentoring four students in two different Columbus Bar Association programs, but Anthony says that he aims to inspire many others in informal ways as well. “Mentoring is one of the best ways that the integrity of the legal professional remains positive,” Anthony says. “I enjoy helping them realize what it means to be an attorney, and the importance of the legal profession and remaining ethical.” In May, he also started a monthly program at his church, First Church of God in Columbus, where clients can receive free legal advice and consultation. He also serves on the Board of Governors for the Columbus Bar Association and is a board member of the Columbus Early Learning Centers.
Anthony says his late father, Charles Sharett, taught him that taking
action on what is important to you is what makes the difference. “He
was the most instrumental person in my life and certainly instilled some
of the ideals which I live by today,” he says. “What I have
found is that I am passionate about these initiatives. Certainly I am
passionate about the free clinic and providing service to those who need
it. It’s easy to be a volunteer because it’s easy to identify
a critical need to serve those who desperately need guidance and cannot
do it on their own.”
