Child Advocacy in Action

I love law school, but at times it’s easy to feel isolated from the real world amid all of the studying. By the time March of my first year rolled around, more hands-on experience was exactly what I needed so I participated in Alternative Spring Break this year at the Council for Children’s Rights in…

Do UVA Law’s Alternative Spring Break, Just Not for the Reason I Did

I will admit it. I was not excited for UVA Law’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB). I had signed up for less than altruistic reasons. Namely, I had registered because it seemed like an efficient way to knock out the forty hours of pro bono needed to receive a Public Interest Law Association grant for the…

A Week at Public Defender Service in DC

I came into law school completely certain that I was going to be a public service lawyer. I had absolutely zero exposure or experience to public service lawyering, however. Though I had a large collection of community service hours, mostly centered around working with kids in impoverished, inner city communities (my motivation for attending law…

From “Serial” to Law School: A 1L’s Exploration of Innocence Work at UVA

One of my first introductions to UVA Law was in Fall 2014. I had gotten hooked on the popular podcast "Serial" during my commute to work. On episode seven, the Virginia Innocence Project Clinic at UVA Law partnered with the host, Sarah Koenig, to work on Adnan Syed's case. By the seventh episode I was…

Winter Break Pro Bono: Charlottesville-Albemarle Public Defender’s Office

As fellows in the Program in Law and Public Service, we—Corey Parker and Ray Gans—know that we want to devote our careers to public service. We have also been eager, as 1Ls, to dive in and gain experience in public service. Volunteering pro bono hours with the Charlottesville-Albemarle Public Defender’s Office over this past winter…

In Support of Non-Traditional Lawyering

One of the most exciting and overwhelming aspects of public service is that there are so many different career paths to explore. While many of my peers in public service pursued laudable careers in prosecution and public defense, I sought out less traditional experiences. Though choosing less common paths can be risky, it can also…

Thinking About Externships?

Externship application season is quickly approaching, and you may be wondering whether an externship is right for you. Externships might seem scary because they take up your entire semester and/or may be located outside of Charlottesville. This past semester I had the pleasure of completing a full-time, individualized externship at Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal)…

Shaping Justice Conference Inspires, Activates Students

It’s not always easy to keep in mind why we’re in law school. However we plan to use our education, the daily demands associated with getting that education often distract us from our goals and the values that inform them. The law school institution itself, for better and for worse, can feel isolated from the…

Get Out: Becoming a Practice-Ready Lawyer

Law school is an ivory tower. It exists hundreds of miles above our clients’ on-the-ground experiences. We sit in these rooms—divorced from reality—deriving “holdings” from age-old judicial opinions. We theorize, contemplate, and speculate about principles of law from our aerial view. And in the “elevated” exercises of the traditional law school class's Socratic method, we…

Reflections from a Courtroom

I had never walked into a courtroom before law school.  The only people I knew who had been in courtrooms entered as defendants.  For me, courtrooms had a very serious and almost terrifying power about them.  And yet this year, I have walked into a courtroom at least once a week.  To say the experience…