Alumna earns UK College of Law Community Service Alumni Award

E

ven at a young age, Roula Allouch
’02 BE, LAW ’06 was a lawyer-in-training.
“As soon as I told my mom that
I wanted to go to law school, she
laughingly said, ‘Well, that makes sense,’
because I would always advocate for
what I felt was the just position,” Allouch
says. “Growing up, I was the kind of kid
who didn’t like to take naps often, and
my mom said that I would argue to her,
‘Why can’t I just sit quietly and read if
I’m not tired?’”
But law is about more than a welltimed rejoinder. Allouch, who practices
civil litigation in Cincinnati, including
defending personal injury actions and
product liability claims, also views her
role as a means to serve the community,
particularly advocating on behalf of
fellow Muslim Americans concerned
about civil rights in post-9/11 America.
“I felt a patriotic duty to work to defend
the rights and liberties, not just for the
American Muslim community, but for all
of us,” she says. “The experience I got
at UK Law helped to lay the foundation
for being able to assist and serve the
community.”
This month, Allouch received the UK
College of Law Community Service
Alumni Award in large part because of
her volunteer work for the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights
and advocacy organization. Allouch is
chairwoman of CAIR’s national board.

The award is given annually to a
graduate who has provided outstanding
leadership at the local, state or national
level toward causes not necessarily
related to the legal profession.
Of her selection, “Roula is a remarkable
example of a young lawyer and activist
whose passion and dedication has
a significant influence on both the
profession and her community,” says
David A. Brennen, dean of the UK
College of Law.
“Many people in my class and other
attorneys who have graduated from UK
serve the community in many different
capacities, so it’s humbling to know that
I was selected,” Allouch says. “But I take
it more as a reflection of the importance
of the volunteer work that I’m able to do
with CAIR.”

A new path

Allouch was born in Wisconsin to
Syrian immigrants (her father came to
the United States in the 1970s to serve
his medical internship and residency),
and she moved with her family, including
five siblings, to Kentucky when she was
a few months old. Allouch lived in Leslie
County, but primarily grew up in Berea
and Lexington.
A self-described “lifelong Kentuckian,”
she was an economics major at UK
and minored in decision science
and information. Allouch enjoyed
computers and figured that she’d work

“in some type of analysis position” upon
graduation. But as is the case with many
an undergraduate, higher education is
as much a journey of discovery as it is
acquiring the skills necessary to succeed in
industry.
Economics, it turns out, is about more
than allocating money and resources to
satisfy wants. The field also provides an
important avenue toward understanding
the effects of laws on a society.
That realization set Allouch on a new
path.
As a sophomore, she took a career
assessment test, which suggested that a
legal career might be a good fit.
“That started to point me in the direction
of going to law school,” Allouch says.
“The idea developed around my junior or
senior year, and I really started thinking
seriously about it. Things were falling into
place.”
She enrolled at the UK College of Law
where, once again, her expectations were
upended. Allouch initially thought that
she’d practice transactional or business
law because of her undergraduate degree.
That’s until she took part in her first mock
trial, which gave her an up-close look at
legal niceties. She liked what she saw.
“I really loved the idea of trial and
courtroom work, and that’s when I started
to proceed down that route,” Allouch says.
“I enjoyed the process, arguing facts to
support your argument and presenting the
case to a judge and jury.”

Defending rights and liberties for all
16

Summer 2016

By: Andrew Faught

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