Student Profile: From Buckeye Football to Moritz
The difference between this year and last for 1L David Lisko goes beyond coming to law school and being recently married. This year, he is no longer on the football field at Ohio Stadium wearing his number 18 jersey during the game.
Lisko played wide receiver for the Buckeyes and said that this year it’s been tough transitioning to being a spectator. “What I miss most about football would be the competition, being a part of a team, and being with my friends from the team almost all day everyday,” he said. “I miss being down there with the guys during the game. It’s weird not knowing what is going on with the team when I watch them.”
During his run as an Ohio State football player, he played in two Fiesta Bowls, the Alamo Bowl, and two BCS National Championships. He recalls that the annual Michigan game was one of his favorite moments. “All the Michigan games are standout games,” he said. “The amazing thing about all the home (Michigan) games is that the crowd comes out onto the field.”
So how does one hang up his jersey and go to law school? “My dream was to play pro football, but after coming to Ohio State to play for the team I realized that I wasn’t going to play pro,” he said. “There are just those few amazing players that you see and think, ‘they’re going to go pro.’ After a while it was obvious who would keep playing and who wouldn’t.”
With a preexisting admiration for the legal profession Lisko applied to Moritz. He liked how it was a national law school that gave people the opportunity to reach out beyond Ohio. He accredits his smooth start in law school to his time on the team. “Football helped me a lot for law school. It gave me the right work ethic to be here,” he said.
He also said that Coach Jim Tressel influenced the type of person he is. “Coach Tressel makes you want be a positive role model in society and give back to the community,” he said. “He’s an amazing influence and an amazing leader.”
But the countless hours that David spent on the football field and in the weight room as an undergrad have been replaced with an almost equal number of hours studying in law school, he said. “It is definitely different not having football take up my entire life, but law school is more time consuming than football was,” he said.
At Moritz he is a 1L representative in the Student Bar Association. His signs were scattered through out the hallways with luring candy and humorous phrases like, “Don’t be a dum dum, vote for Lisko.”
Besides law school and student organizations, Lisko is busy living the married life. So how is balancing newlywed life and law school? “Easier than balancing single life and law school,” he said.
Lisko met his wife, Chelsie, in a political science class as an undergrad at Ohio State. They got married on July 5. Although she is a native of Melbourne, Fla., they are both completing their graduate education here at Ohio State.
With his relatively short time at Moritz, Lisko says that his favorite class so far is criminal law. He says that he finds the subject more interesting. “They make shows about criminal law, not torts,” he said.
Ironically, he also said that his favorite professor is Professor Cole, who teaches torts. He says that she is funny, but brutal with the Socratic Method and spares no one who makes an uninformed comment in class.
So what are the plans of a former Ohio State football player exactly? “Work for the biggest firm in the biggest market and eventually run for political office,” Lisko said.
Lisko says that he would like to run for office in Ohio. “The real reason I want to run for political office is because I have a very strong belief in community service and I look at politics as the easiest way to help people the most,” he said.
