During my 3L year, I worked in the Federal Appellate Litigation Clinic, which taught me so many lessons about how appeals and federal sentencing work. Professor Melissa Salinas was very hands on as my partner and I prepared to file an appeal for our client in the Sixth Circuit.
I applied those lessons to my clerkship in the Ninth Circuit with Judge William A. Fletcher, who really cared about his clerks and was a generous mentor in my post-clerkship job search. I also learned so much from my fellow clerks.
When I decided that I wanted to apply for clerkships, Greta Trakul, the Law School’s judicial clerkship adviser, helped me find that position. She also helped me find a clerkship with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, where I am working now.
The district court has been fast paced and varied. I’ve seen cases at different stages and worked on trials and sentencings in just my first few months. The clerkship has motivated me to seek out trial-level litigation for the future, which I hadn’t had much exposure to before.
Michigan Law trained me to view the law not in the abstract but as a tool that you can use to help people. I look forward to carrying that lesson through in my next position as an honors attorney in the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.
