LaDyrian Cole is a Dallas native who attended the Marvin E. Robinson Business and Management at Yvonne A. Ewell Town-view Center. She graduated from Stephen F. Austin University with a degree in radio/ TV communications and worked as a flight attendant for United Airlines, even living for a while in South Korea. She later became a TV reporter in Abilene, then Tyler.
When her contract at a Tyler TV station ended in January 2020, she decided to leave but wasn’t exactly sure what was next. Two months later, the pandemic hit, and she decided it was the perfect time for law school, which had been in the back of her mind for quite some time.
As a journalist, she would often find herself in courtrooms covering cases and trials. But she was “tired of being on the sidelines” and “wanted to be more involved to have an impact on the outcomes.”
As a result, her initial plan was to pursue criminal law. But mentors helped her realize it’s the kind of law “you take home with you. It affects you outside the office; you’re holding people’s lives in your hands.” She switched to corporate law and will begin working in November.
She chose UNT Dallas College of Law because it is a “school of community,” as she described it. Both internally and externally. She also liked the affordability, so she could “get a great education, but not extreme debt.”
She earned a Dallas Bar Assn. Judge Sarah T. Hughes Diversity Scholarship, which paid her tuition for all three years. The mother of a seven-year-old daughter also serves as vice president of the UNT Dallas College of Law Black Law Students Assn.
