People said it would be too stressful [to become a lawyer] because of my Tourette’s but I went after it because they told me not to do it.
“I played a lot of sports,” he says
“and my peers simply looked at me as an athlete who made funny noises. Athletics helped socially because I went through stages being ridiculed and ostracized, but then I developed friends through sports who became like my support group. It gave me an
identity outside of Tourette’s.” Merklinger
says that it was in spite of his condi- tion that he began to consider law as a career. “I remember
when I was young, all the jokes about law- yers,” he says, “but I wanted to find out about lawyers, how they were able to make all the laws. People
said it would be too stressful because of my Tourette’s but I went after it because they told me not to do it.” His condition also helped him
understand that “people who are dif- ferent have problems that need help,” and that he could fulfill this function as a lawyer.
ACC Docket’s
After graduation from Wofford
College in South Carolina, Merklinger took a job in Japan teach- ing English. Being fired from that job because of his Tourette’s turned out to be a great character-building experi- ence. He refused to walk away from his occupation and succeeded in get- ting another job, he says, because the employer recognized his persistence and determination. “Tey hired me because if I still
wanted to work,” he says, “they thought that I would be a good employee because I would be dedicated.” Following his year of teaching in
Japan, he went to the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he got his law degree. His Tourette’s had compelled him to use his legal educa- tion to help those with disabilities and in situations that put them at an unfair advantage, and this attracted to him to his law school’s pro bono program. His first case involved an immigrant fighting deportation, and he won.
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