GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY — Luke Nichols delivered a commencement address to George Mason University law school graduates in May 2025, drawing on his experience navigating economic hardship and career instability after graduating during the 2008 financial crisis. He told the graduates, “Survival is not something we just do in the woods.”

Nichols, an attorney, said survival is something people have to do “every single day, whether you’re building a fire, or gutting a moose, or drafting a motion.” He recounted how, three months before his own graduation, the 35-attorney firm where he was clerking laid him off. By the time he sat for the bar exam, he was in “panic mode.”

After graduating, Nichols sent out 3,200 résumés and secured 15 interviews but received no job offers. One in three students in his law school cohort never landed a legal job. During an interview for an entry-level associate position in Boynton Beach, Florida, a law firm partner pointed to a licensed attorney with 20 years of experience who had been hired as a receptionist after 300 people applied for the role. When asked why he deserved the job, Nichols replied, “Because I am very, very good looking.” He did not get the position.

Nichols obtained his law license in October 2009 and opened his own practice the next day. He worked for free for 13 months and spent $15,000 on failed advertising before a final campaign brought a flood of clients in the 14th month. He credited aggressive saving before and after law school as critical to his ability to endure that period. “I had money in the bank, and he had debts,” he said, comparing himself to a classmate he later hired—someone with strong academic credentials whom he described as having “everything I wasn’t.”

Nichols, who graduated second-from-the-bottom of his law school class and called himself “the weird dude who was always fishing instead of studying” and “a hot mess as a student,” urged graduates to prioritize financial security. “Money is freedom, money is power, money is flexibility,” he said. He also advised, “If you are fortunate enough to get a paycheck, don’t you screw it up either.”