The Law Quad is the setting for many stories. For Aaron and Cara Ahola, it was where they met and fell in love as 1Ls. They were married in 1995 and now—despite having started careers and a family in Boston—the Aholas make frequent trips back to campus to celebrate the Michigan Law community that brought them together and the memories they continue to make in Ann Arbor.
“Some of the happiest years of our lives were spent at Michigan,” says Cara. Both she and Aaron are active Reunion committee members and dedicated Law School Fund donors. “I am forever grateful to the Law School for giving me my husband, closest friends, a solid educational foundation, and life-changing opportunities. Graduating from Michigan launched my career.”
Both members of the Class of 1994, the Aholas increased their giving to a leadership level (known as the Cavaedium Society) for their 20th Reunion, but that isn’t the end of their gratitude. “We always will give,” Cara adds. “And with next year being our 25th Reunion, we plan to step it up even more.”
Cara, assistant vice president and senior attorney at The TJX Companies Inc. in Boston, credits Michigan with opening the door for her to accept the role, which she describes as something close to her dream job, nearly 18 years ago.
“I always have thought that the jobs I have gotten had less to do with the place I was before and more to do with where I went to law school,” she says.
Her Michigan education also meant that Cara had seven years of work with Big Law firms in New York and Boston even during a tough market as a newly graduated real estate attorney.
“It was a time when hordes of young legal professionals couldn’t get jobs and had all these student loans—but coming from Michigan meant that we had our pick of jobs,” says Cara. “It was very true for me and especially for Aaron.”
Like Cara, Aaron—senior vice president and general counsel of Akamai Technologies in Boston—started his career by practicing at Big Law firms in New York and Boston, but he ultimately went in a different direction.
After two years with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York, Aaron took a five-month hiatus to work on a congressional campaign as its financial director. After successfully helping to unseat a three-term incumbent, he transitioned to Ropes & Gray LLP for four years.
“The most important thing Michigan instilled in me was a new approach to confronting and solving complicated issues,” he says. “There are so many things you face in everyday decision making, questions with no answers. But interacting with the professors and other students at Michigan made me realize that it is the thought process and learning how to think about something new that is the critical component to a successful career.”
It’s a skill that served him well as he worked his way up from a mergers and acquisitions attorney to his current position as a senior executive at Akamai. “My career has never been boring,” says Aaron. “And I thank Michigan for getting me here.”
Because the impact of their time at the Law School still resonates with the Aholas, they seek to repay the opportunities bestowed upon them.
“We give to recognize Michigan’s role in our lives, express our gratitude, and because the law is always changing, and so legal education has to adapt and evolve as well,” says Aaron, who hopes more of his classmates will join him and Cara as members of the Cavaedium Society.
“The Fund enables the people best suited to make those decisions to do so and affords them the flexibility to use donations in the way they believe will make the biggest impact. We trust those who run the Law School—folks who are already doing an excellent job—to get the best return on our investment.”
