Student Spotlight: John Berger '10
“I’ve always had an interest in being a lawyer, especially in the field of corporate law,” says John Berger, “and I’ve always had an interest in markets and business transactions. I felt that being a lawyer would be the best way for me to be a part of those transactions, to shape them, and to have an interesting place in the business world.”
Berger has pursued both his law and undergraduate accounting studies at Notre Dame, but his quest for Double Domer status isn’t unusual. More remarkable is the fact that he took the Illinois CPA exam last summer—between college and law school—and scored higher on the rigorous test than anyone else in the state. That feat earned him the Illinois CPA Society’s Gold Excel Award. Berger also won the 2007 Elijah Watt Sells Award, issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, recognizing the ten highest scorers on the CPA exam in the entire country.
Some people would have preferred to kick back a little between demanding academic projects, but not Berger. The New Lenox, Ill. native sets goals for himself and goes after them—successfully. Even so, he wasn’t one of those little kids who presaged a spectacular business career by running the most successful lemonade stand in the neighborhood.
“I never did anything particularly entrepreneurial, but there were business stories in the news that sparked my interest when I was in high school,” Berger says. “The Enron scandal made me realize that accounting was going to be very important in the business world … and that knowing about accounting concepts and terminology would be a great benefit. ”
This summer, Berger has a chance to explore those concepts in depth. As a research assistant to Professor Matthew Barrett—who is also a CPA and his academic advisor—Berger is helping to update Accounting for Lawyers, which Barrett co-authored. “It’s the preeminent textbook as far as legal scholarship in accounting goes,” Berger says. “The last edition went to press in 2006, so we’re researching all the new developments of the last two years and writing up summaries and analysis for the supplement, to be published this fall.”
After graduation, Berger hopes to do corporate transactional work in Chicago, tapping what he calls Notre Dame’s “great alumni network” to find a job in a large law firm. He’s already zeroed in on a goal, of course. “Every business transaction has tax implications. Companies want to know how those will impact balance sheets and income statements,” Berger says. “To be able to bring that additional knowledge, besides awareness of what the legal implications are—I think it will bring value to the work I do for my clients in the future.”
