Hailey McHugh Gilles

What motivated you to pursue a career in law? 

I was motivated to pursue a career in law largely by my professional experience working with attorneys in state government, election administration, and election nonprofit work. Many of my earliest professional mentors used their legal backgrounds to not only find creative legislative and litigation-based solutions but also to problem solve more generally. Really, at the end of the day, my career in law started as a pursuit to be more like inspiring women I had the pleasure of working with before law school. 

What experiential learning experiences (clinics, internships, trials teams, affinity groups, etc.) did you participate in, and how did they contribute to your legal education? 

My work as the Temple National Lawyers Guild (NLG) chapter treasurer and my experience as member of Philadelphia NLG’s board allowed me to put my legal education to use by providing “Know Your Rights” trainings across the Philadelphia and Camden area and provided me access to civil participation through NLG’s legal observer work. NLG’s Legal Observers attend actions, demonstrations, and protests to create documentation during events which can later be used in defense cases, public statements, and litigation which aims to hold law enforcement agencies accountable for the actions of their officers. I had the joy of not only working as a legal observer throughout my time in law school but also the honor of providing Legal Observer trainings to temple students and providing opportunities for law students to learn more about NLG during the 2025 Disorientation which I had the honor of planning alongside Drexel and Penn law’s NLG student chapters. 

What participation and leadership positions did you hold, and how did that shape your law school experience? 

I had the honor of serving as the Editor-in-Chief of Temple Law Review, Volume 98. This leadership experience was incredibly formative as I learned how to navigate the ups and downs of organizing over fifty law students to select, edit, and publish over twenty works of scholarly work across 4 issues. Not only did this role take dedicated detail work, but it provided me with the opportunity to think critically about long term planning to set my team of Volume 98, and TLR’s future volumes, up for success in the future. I could not be more thankful for my time on TLR for the lessons it taught me, the work I produced in the role, and the friends I made through many late nights in the TLR lounge! 

Which faculty members influenced you the most, and how? 

Professor Donald Harris’s Introduction to Intellectual Property class my spring of 1L year was one of the most formative classes of my law school career and his guidance continues to influence my drive, passion, and intellectual curiosity. Professor Harris expects students to not only complete class readings but to be deeply curious about the readings, the law they outline, and the societal implications under the surface found in the court’s reasoning. To be clear, Professor Harris’s classes are hard, but they prepared me and other students for the hard work of law school and a legal career and we could always count on him to answer our questions, guide our understanding, and provide clarity, so long as we were willing to put in the effort to show up to the discussion engaged, inquiring, and always well read. 

What advice would you give to current or prospective Temple Law students? 

If you want to be the best legal writer (and editor) you can be, join Temple Law Review! 

What do you wish you had known before starting law school? 

Go to law school in the city you want to practice in long term!