Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Undergraduate School: Drexel University; Physics
Job: Associate at White & Case LLP (Washington, D.C., for one year), then a clerkship with Hon. Gerald A. McHugh, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, followed by a clerkship with Hon. L. Felipe Restrepo, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Program: Part-Time Evening
Temple Law Community
I was a member of the Temple Law Review during my 3LE and 4LE years, first as a staff editor and then as the editor-in-chief. I was also a member of the Jessup International Moot Court team during my 2LE and 3LE years. Both experiences were vital to my development as a law student. Both forced me to be a better writer, editor, communicator, and problem solver. And both provided the unique opportunity to work closely with many other excellent law students.
Faculty Influence
I can think of no other way to answer this question than to list the professors to whom I returned after persevering through a first class. Those are Professors Dunoff, Hollis, Little, Mehra, Rieser, Shellenberger, and Stanchi. I must especially recognize Professor Stanchi. It is only thanks to Professor Stanchi that I understand what it takes to write like an effective lawyer—to write clearly, to persuade, to characterize the bad and highlight the good, to persuade some more, to tell stories. And to write and persuade and highlight and storytell in such a way that the reader feels at all times free to reach any conclusion she might want but, by the end, must agree that the only possible punchline is a victory for your client. A delicate craft indeed, but one that I am much more confident employing after my three semesters as a student in a Professor Stanchi class, improving bit by bit.
Law School Lessons
Very many people have helped me along the way—written letters of recommendations, slapped my resume on judges’ desks, explained and reexplained tricky concepts, critiqued my writing, and on and on. Temple Law is a fantastically collegial environment. And I imagine it will be some time before I am surrounded again by so many intelligent, conscientious, funny, and good natured people.
Try your best to be a good teammate. Law school is, of course, an individual endeavor. So strive for great grades and seek out all the opportunities you can. But the pie is big at Temple Law, so to speak. There is room for everyone to succeed. Your classmates today will be your colleagues tomorrow—well, a few years from now!