Virginia Richards

Virginia Richards, from Providence, Rhode Island, is passionate about the legal intersections of race, class, and gender in the United States. She graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University as a QuestBridge Match Scholarship recipient, receiving her bachelor’s degree in Law, History, & Society and Political Science, minoring in African American & Diaspora Studies and Gender & Sexuality Studies. Her senior finals thesis was entitled, “Interracial Elopement Articles as a Site of Late 19th-Century Anti-Miscegenation Fearmongering.”

Virginia takes pride in her student advocacy work. With QuestBridge, she fought for administrative support for low-income students, producing Vanderbilt’s first-ever “Money Matters” week, low-income student graduation ceremony, and the University’s identity initiative of PersistVU. With the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), she led a movement in solidarity with Black women student survivors of sexual harassment, holding the University accountable for failing to investigate tenured professors facing allegations of sexual misconduct. Committed to community service, Virginia organized professional and winter clothing drives for low-income students, and Angel Tree events.

Prior to joining Penn Carey Law, Virginia was an SEO Law Fellow at Cooley LLP in Boston, engaging in both litigation and corporate legal work. She will return to Cooley Boston for her 1L summer as a Diversity Fellow.

Virginia currently serves as an Advocate of Penn Carey’s Custody and Support Assistance Clinic. She looks forward to further involving herself with student organizations like Black Law Students Association and exploring the other clinics. She is proud of being a part of a long legacy of Black students at Penn Carey Law fighting for the existence of the Dr. Sadie T.M. Alexander scholarship.