Student and Alumni Profiles

Professional Experience Prior to Law School:

I spent the first two years after college working on various local, state and federal campaigns in Northeast Ohio. My record was 1-5. Realizing that losing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, I joined the private sector. For the next two years, I ran an e-commerce retail company.

What I Am Hoping to Do with My Law Degree:

The sheer number of options available to Penn Law graduates is overwhelming. I have a keen interest in government work, such as working for the SEC or DOJ. Too often, government work gets a bad name for being overly bureaucratic. There’s a place for dedicated and engaged individuals to change that perception.

My Best Experience at Penn Law:

Each 1L is placed in a cohort along with 14 or 15 other 1Ls. The cohort takes a legal writing seminar together, and has an assigned administrative liaison and advising professor. Our professor, Christopher Yoo, took our cohort out for dinner at Distrito, a great place near the Law School, and talked with us for hours about our concerns and apprehensions as we started law school. It reinforced the idea that Penn Law doesn’t just talk about collegiality, it walks the walk.

Professor Who Influenced Me Most:

Professor Tobias Wolff constantly reminds his students of the power that lawyers wield within our society, and the corresponding responsibility that they must adopt. He provides a framework for not only our other classes, but how we must think of the law and its effects. Most of all, I admire that he works outside of the Law School to implement the ideals that he talks about in class.

My Favorite Course:

See above. I fully expected Civil Procedure to be tedious, but Professor Wolff has made it a thoroughly enjoyable class. Civil Procedure is constantly evolving, so our education changes whenever there are new interpretations on the Rules of Civil Procedure. And every now and then we learn that even Supreme Court justices make mistakes (see Bell Atlantic v. Twombly).

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

The Institute for Law and Economics, a joint endeavor between the Law School, the Wharton School and the Penn Department of Economics, puts on programs throughout the year that are open to law students. The Institute brings in insightful speakers who help make sense of economic turmoil, market developments, and corresponding legal effects. The Law School is not isolated within the overall University: instead, it’s a fully integrated partner.

Meaningful Cross-disciplinary Experience at Penn:

William Ackerman, a hedge fund manager, recently came to speak at Penn Law about what he thinks will happen to retail investing over the next few years. His thoughts helped me make strategic decisions over the direction of my company.

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

Law school is, without a doubt, hard. It is emotionally and intellectually challenging, and requires an immense amount of work and dedication. Adding divisive competitiveness on top of this is unnecessary. Penn Law prides itself on having a student body that is concerned with not only one’s own interest, but the interests of their peers. I had to miss the first twenty minutes of class one day to head over to Student Health. In that time, four people, two of whom I didn’t know all that well, had e-mailed me to make sure I was okay, as well as to offer to catch me up on the material that I missed. We all know we’re graded on a curve [1L year only], and yet students know that the correct (the collegial) thing to do is to help each other out. This is truly the defining characteristic of the school – it’s not just lip service.

My Favorite Philadelphia Moment:

The first time I climbed the “Rocky” stairs (singing the theme song in my head) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I almost fell over when I turned around. There’s a stunning vista from the Art Museum, along the Ben Franklin Parkway, over Logan Circle, and directly into City Hall. Anyone (especially anyone with any interest in urban planning) should see it.

What I'm Most Proud Of:

Keeping up! My peers are some of the brightest people I’ve had the opportunity to meet. I am constantly impressed by their analysis, insight, and wit.

My Extracurricular Activities at Penn Law:

Penn Law Immigration Clinic and Lambda Law.

What I Did For Public Service:

I recently began working with the Penn Law Immigration Clinic, doing casework for the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society, and am currently taking affidavits for an asylum seeker’s proceedings.

My Favorite Place or Activity on the University Campus:

I particularly like the coffee shops and restaurants on Sansom Street across from the Law School. No matter how late you leave the library, there will always be people eating and drinking at New Deck, White Dog or Bubble House. It’s a good place to go with professors, which is my favorite Penn Law tradition – it is expected that students ask their professors out to lunch during the year. I never experienced this as an undergrad, and it’s quickly become a highlight of my experience at Penn Law thus far. 

All I know of Philadelphia is from the movie of the same name. And it looked kind of drab, depressing and gray. What’s it really like?

Philadelphia has surpassed every expectation I had. It’s walkable (and eminently bikeable), and filled with greenspace. It is nothing – nothing – like the dingy urban wasteland so prominently featured in the Tom Hanks film. An added perk is the restaurant scene; there are great, affordable restaurants scattered throughout town. All in all, Philly’s a city with a lot of heart, and is an ideal place to go to law school.

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