'You can do anything': Doctors said she wouldn't live a day. Now this UA grad is a lawyer
Megan Parker sat in her wheelchair with her tablet on her lap, anxiously waiting to learn if she passed the bar exam.
Friends and family of the University of Akron law school graduate clustered around her.
“Guys, I passed!” Parker exclaimed.
Jaclyn Sims, Parker’s mother, and other loved ones cheered.
Parker fought tears as she scrolled the list, looking for the names of other friends.
“Mom, I passed,” Parker said again.
“You did it, baby,” Sims said, moving in to hug her daughter. “I knew you would.”
Parker, 24, learned in late October that she passed the bar exam on her first try, a huge milestone for the Akron woman who has faced major health obstacles throughout her life. She has a rare form of muscular dystrophy, severe scoliosis and respiratory failure. She had a tracheostomy as a child and is on a ventilator and uses a motorized wheelchair.
She lost count of the surgeries she’s had after her 30th procedure.
Despite these challenges, Parker graduated in May from UA’s law school, passed the bar exam and got a job as a first-year associate at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, a prestigious law firm in Cleveland where she worked during the summers in law school.
“At times, when I reflected on how much she was accomplishing – and with such determination and so cheerfully – it would remind me to work harder at my own job,” said Mark Schultz, one of Parker’s UA law professors. “It’s an inspiration to those of us who don’t have to overcome that degree of a challenge.”
Parker credits her success to the support she’s gotten from her family and the doctors and nurses at Akron Children’s Hospital, where she’s well known from her frequent stays, with the longest lasting 89 days.
Sims, who has five children, was literally by Parker’s side throughout this journey. She attended law school classes with Parker in case she needed medical attention and now goes to work with her to provide this same help.
“To see what she has accomplished is mind-blowing,” Sims said. “It’s definitely been a wild ride.”
Parker endures health challenges that start at birth
Parker was born in Wooster and grew up in Mohicanville in Ashland County, which boasts a single stop light and church.
When Parker was born, doctors told her family she might not make it through the night. Sims had an emergency C-section after doctors were only able to detect a faint fetal heartbeat.
Parker’s arms were out of their sockets, and her feet were back against her shins. She spent her first seven days in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“They knew something was wrong but didn’t know what,” Sims said.
When Parker was 4, the family learned she had muscular dystrophy, which causes progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. They didn’t find out until later that she had a rare form called Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy that is only seen in one in 1 million people.
Parker had a wheelchair from the time she was 2 but didn’t use it much when she was little, as she was able to move around on her knees and on a tricycle.
That changed when Parker was 5 and they found out she had scoliosis, with her spine curved at a 22-degree angle. Doctors inserted growing rods in her spine in what would be the first of 12 back surgeries.
When Parker was 8, she spent 53 days in Akron Children’s Hospital for influenza, swine flu and pneumonia. She only weighed 27 pounds because her body was working so hard to breathe. She had a tracheostomy, which involved inserting a tube in her windpipe to help her breathe, and was placed on a ventilator.
“As crazy as it sounds, it’s been the best thing for you,” Sims said to Parker during a recent interview at Parker’s law firm. “You’ve had a more normal life with a ventilator than you did before.”
‘Disease does not define her,’ doctor says
Dr. John Pope, a pediatric intensive care specialist at Children’s Hospital who has been involved in Parker’s treatment since she was 5, said muscular dystrophy made her muscles weak and impacted her breathing. He said she would get sick and end up in the intensive care unit a few times a year.
But Parker didn’t let her health issues get her down, Pope said. He recalled her once making bracelets to sell from her hospital room.
“Her disease does not define her,” Pope said. “She has always been an incredibly fun person. She loves life. She didn’t let this condition get in her way – at all.”
Pope also has fond memories of Parker from a yearly summer camp for children with breathing issues in which volunteers help them experience feats like climbing trees and swimming.
Parker said she had a great time at camp and especially enjoyed the squirt gun fights. She said volunteers would fill up four water bottles for her, so she’d be ready to attack.
“I was ruthless!” she recalled, laughing.
Parker chooses UA for her undergrad degree
When it came time to pick a college, the choice was easy for Parker.
She wanted to leave the small town where she’d grown up. Plus, her parents had divorced, and her mom was living in Akron. If she went to the University of Akron, that meant she could live with her mom. It also had the added benefit of being in the same city as Children’s.
Parker started at UA in August 2017, deciding to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Media Studies with a public relations minor.
Sims said having a nurse attend classes with Parker didn’t work out, so she decided to accompany her daughter instead.
Parker thought she might want to go into creative writing until she took a journalism class and fell in love with it. She worked as a reporter for the Buchtelite, the UA newspaper, and then was the editor for two years.
Parker still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do after college until she took a class on legal issues in media and learned about intellectual property issues like copyright and trademarks.
“This is something I can do,” Parker thought.
Parker had joked with her mom since she was a kid and saw “Legally Blonde” that she would one day go to Harvard and become a lawyer. Back then, Parker said she wanted to be Elle Woods, the main character in the movie.
When Parker graduated from UA in May 2020, Sims asked her, “Are we going to Harvard?”
Parker, though, had learned that UA had a great intellectual property program in its law school. She applied there and was accepted.
Parker attends law school during the pandemic
Parker started law school in August 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
Parker said this was scary, though she took the view that people who got COVID-19 could end up on a ventilator – and she already was on one.
UA took safety precautions, like having people wear masks and sit 6 feet apart. For the law school, only first-year students attended class in person, while second- and third-year students were virtual.
Sims went to classes with Parker four days a week, while Nancie Parker, Megan’s sister, handled one day. Sims said she often wore headphones and watched Netflix during Parker’s classes, only tuning in if she thought a topic was especially interesting.
Parker ended up in the hospital twice during law school — first when she got pneumonia and then when she had to have her gall bladder removed. Both times, she attended classes virtually, with the hospital staff putting a note on the door saying when she couldn’t be disturbed.
Emily Morris, a UA law professor, said Parker was an excellent student who also excelled in extra-curricular activities like Moot Court, which holds simulated court or arbitration proceedings. She said Parker competed in Moot Court and then helped coach other students.
“She was a fierce judge,” Morris said. “She would tell students, ‘You need to do this.’ The students loved having her as a judge. She’s a force of nature.”
When Parker looked for a summer job during law school, she asked several firms if they would be alright with her mom or sister accompanying her to assist with her medical care. She said all of them seemed uncomfortable until she interviewed with attorneys from Benesch, who said they would have her family members sign a non-disclosure agreement like a paralegal.
During her initial interview with Benesch, Parker had to pause while her mother provided her with suction to help her breathe better.
“I told them, ‘Sorry guys,’” Sims recalled. “They got to see what we were trying to explain.”
Parker worked at Benesch both summers she was in law school, with her mother or sister accompanying her.
When Parker graduated from law school in May, she wanted to make sure she wasn’t the only one who was recognized. She talked to the law school staff about giving her mom a special award at the school’s award ceremony. She made a certificate for a “Juris Mom-orate” and presented it to her mother.
Sims, who cried and got a standing ovation, said she appreciated this gesture. She has the certificate in her cubicle outside of Parker's office.
“It meant a lot,” Sims said. “It meant she really appreciated everything I’ve done.”
Parker passes the bar and starts new job
When Parker graduated from law school, her mother sat by her side and held her hand.
Several of Parker’s doctors from Children’s attended the ceremony and the party that followed, as did many of her colleagues from Benesch.
Parker studied for the bar exam for three months before taking it in July. She said people kept telling her she passed, but she wasn’t going to believe it until she saw her name on the list.
“You did fine,” her friends told her. “Think about the worst attorneys you know — and realize they passed.”
Parker said her biggest fear was scoring just under the required 270 out of 400. Instead, she scored 317.
“It was a huge relief,” Parker said.
In late August, Parker started working full-time for Benesch in the intellectual property group. The firm is in the heart of Cleveland, and Parker has a great view from her office on the 45th floor.
Lidia Mowad, an associate at the firm, said Parker can’t take notes like other attorneys but has an amazing ability to recall information.
“She is able to operate in ways I couldn’t,” Mowad said. “Her brain is so much more advanced. It is able to overcome her challenges.”
Mark Avsec, a partner in the firm’s intellectual properties group, said they won’t put any ceilings on what Parker can do, including eventually going to court.
“We just think the sky’s the limit for her,” he said.
Mowad said she calls Parker their “secret weapon.”
Parker did research for Steve McHale, a Chagrin Falls entrepreneur, about regulations on artificial intelligence.
“It was some of the best work I’ve ever seen from Benesch,” said McHale, a Benesch client for 20 years. “She thought about areas we hadn’t thought about. That gave us a heads up so we can be in front of things.”
McHale said he would welcome the chance to work with Parker again.
Parker hopes to make partner and serve as a role model
As for Parker’s future, she said she wants to stay at Benesch, where she feels comfortable and like she’s part of a family.
She hopes to one day be named partner and to make a name for herself in the legal profession, much like Elle Woods, her hero from “Legally Blonde.”
Asked about Parker’s medical prognosis, Sims said she doesn’t know. Doctors originally said Parker wouldn’t make it a day, then predicted she wouldn’t live past 13.
“I told them to stop saying it,” Sims said. “It makes me want to wrap her in bubble wrap until then. We’re going to live every day to the fullest.”
Pope at Children's said people with muscular dystrophy like Parker are at a greater risk of getting pneumonia and other types of infections and ending up in the hospital.
“Hopefully, with good medical care, she will live a long life,” he said.
Parker said one of her goals is to be a role model for others with medical challenges.
“I want to be someone for people with disabilities to look at and say, ‘I can do that too,’” Parker said. “I want to be able to show that it takes work, but you can do anything.”
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com, 330-996-3705 and on Twitter: @swarsmithabj.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron woman Megan Parker becomes lawyer despite many medical obstacles
