Kyle Batter
Listen to the conversation (approx. 42 minutes) or download it.
Graduated in 2005 with a double-major in Composition and Film Scoring. Principal Instrument: Electric Bass, though his true love was the piano.
Position: (Associate) Corporate Attorney at Hueston Hennigan LLP.
Overview: After graduation, Kyle want to L.A. where he had a successful 6-year run working in entertainment industry, working as a composer, sound editor, and similar roles. However, this career involves short-term projects and he didn’t enjoy the constant need to look for work. Finding himself married and a father, he wanted a career which was more stable would provide better long-term security. Being a lawyer met his criteria, so he took a LSAT-prep course and got into USC Gould Law School. He was in the top 10% of his class in that first year, so got job offers from two law firms–it’s common for top law students to get job offers when they still have two years of law school remaining! He chose to work at Irell and Manella after graduation, as they had a good work-life balance. After less than a year a year, two senior partners, Hueston and Hennigan, left to form their own company, and took 40 others (about 1/6 of the firm), including Kyle, with them.
You can view Kyle’s LinkedIn profile here.
Choice Quotes: “Berklee helped create me as a person, which contributed to my future success. Being there and loving it and digging in deeply to everything I was doing all the time instilled in me a certain diligence and responsibility which, carried over to my work today.”
“The misunderstanding about attorneys is that we spend all our time in court. Probably 5% of our time is spent in court. The other 95% is spent in the office researching, writing, and communicating.”
“If you’re ready to move on from the music industry, search within yourself–what other areas are you interested in? Remember you can get a degree in anything and still be very active in music. It’s not like any part of that experience will ever go away.”
Kyle at Berklee. “Music remains a very important part of my life. I play music almost every day. As my children get older I hope to get even more involved in the future.”
Kyle with his family. “Corporate attorneys can have demanding hours and lifestyle. I made clear to any firm I went to that my family is priority #1.”
Another thing Kyle is passionate about is veganism. “It’s more than ten times as much water to grow the same number of calories of beef, as opposed to grain and vegetables. In a state (California) that is constantly telling us to take shorter showers, etc, to me it’s just abhorrent that the government doesn’t acknowledge the real problem (with what is causing excessive water usage). That’s what started my interest in veganism, but now there are many supporting reasons.”
See the full index of successful Berklee alumni.