Student and Alumni Profiles

Professional Experience Prior to Law School:

Intern for Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz
City Year Corps Member at City Year, Washington DC

What I Am Hoping to Do with My Law Degree:

When I finish law school, my immediate goal is to clerk for a federal judge. In the short term, I want to be a litigator, hopefully in a rights-based area like the environment or civil rights. Long term, I would like to serve in Congress and use my experience in law to help pass good laws and represent my hometown.

My Best Experience at Penn Law:

It is difficult to identify a single “best” experience at Penn Law, because my time here has been filled was great experiences. In my mind, my “best experiences” fall into a kind of chronology of milestones that have each in their own way been very rewarding. Finishing my first year, and then applying the tremendous amount of knowledge I acquired to working in a Judge’s Chambers the summer after my 1L, was a wonderful experience. Seeing the doctrines and practices I studied in law school play out in the real world proved to me just how valuable my legal education at Penn really is.

My Favorite Course:

Constitutional Litigation. This course was phenomenal for a multitude of reasons. It happily married theory with practice, by taking a very real world approach to approaching issues of Constitutional law in a litigation framework. Instead of a casebook, Professor Kreimer assigned almost exclusively unedited Supreme Court opinions, allowing us to enter into a dialogue with the Justices and closely follow the development of doctrines over time, as well as identify gaps and inconsistencies in the law. Small enough to be intimate, yet large enough to assure a wide-ranging exploration of different points of view, the course was intellectually challenging and engaging. In short, it is the kind of course I came to law school to take.

An Example of How the Law School’s Cross-disciplinary Approach Influences My Legal Education:

In a whole host of courses, my professor’s expertise in areas outside the law have brought valuable perspectives to our understandings of how the law interacts with and is influenced by other disciplines. In criminal law, for example, Professor Stephen Morse has a PhD in Psychology, so he is able to bring really interesting nuances about the human psyche into our discussions about mens rea and culpability. In my contracts class, on the other hand, my professor has a PhD in economics, and so theoretical concerns about how the contracts law works in a market environment really brought the law to life and demonstrate how practically important these laws are. Whether it was Professor Claire Finkelstein’s PhD in Philosophy coloring my understanding of jurisprudence or Professor Cary Coglianese’s expertise in Political Science and public policy elucidating the interaction between government and regulatory and administrative law, the emphasis on thinking broadly across disciplines when studying the law has influences how I think about a whole host of areas of law.

Meaningful Cross-disciplinary Experience at Penn:

Going to an incredible panel on the recent market collapse, with professors from the Law School and Wharton. It gave me a much needed perspective on the current crisis and a much firmer understanding of what is happening and why, from a legal and economic perspective.

Working as an Associate Editor of the Penn Law Review, I read articles that combine everything from history and philosophy to law and economics to advance new concepts in the legal academy. My work on my journal is constantly exposing me to new ways of approaching legal problems that draw from a wide range of disciplines.

Penn Law is known for its collegial environment. Why is collegiality important to a legal education? How has it affected your legal education?

Collegiality is important to me because my classmates and I are all on this together. Upperclassmen are happy to provide outlines and advice, and lots of clubs provide mentors to help us. My peers are supportive and it is great to be able to discuss cases and legal problems with them. There is not even a hint of cutthroat character in the people here. To the contrary, my classmates and I want to learn, from our classes and each other, and help each other achieve that goal.

My Favorite Philadelphia Moment:

The night Obama won the election was undoubtedly my favorite Philadelphia moment. After the announcement of his victory, shouts of celebration filled the streets. Then, when the President spoke, all became silent, and you could hear his words echoing throughout the city. Following his speech, I attached my old American flag to a pole, hitched it to the back of my bike, and raced toward City Hall. Thousands of people filled the streets, as people paraded down Market Street in exultation. There was singing, cheering, crying and dancing, as people of every race, age and background gathered together to celebrate in a spirit of brotherhood. Biking through the city on that night, I finally understood why Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly Love.

What I'm Most Proud Of:

I'm proud to be a scholar here at Penn. I think it is a culmination of my academic work up to this point and extremely rewarding and fulfilling.

My Extracurricular Activities at Penn Law:

American Constitution Society - Speakers Chair
University of Pennsylvania Law Review – Associate Editor
Penn Law Democrats - President
Street Law – Teacher
Employee Advocacy Project – Advocate
Penn Law Leadership Initiative – Board Member
Latin-American Law Student Association
Jewish Law Student Association

What I Did For Public Interest:

For two semesters, I have taught middle school students about their constitutional rights in the criminal justice system through Street Law. I spent a semester at Greenfield Elementary in Center City, and now teach at Joseph Leidy Elementary in Belmont. I also help represent clients in hearings for unemployment compensation through the Employee Advocacy Project. Finally, I performed election monitoring during the Presidential Election in 2008.

My Favorite Place or Activity on the University Campus:

The Law School Courtyard is a great meeting place where I really enjoy hanging out with my fellow students. On the larger campus, I love Locust Walk.

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