Law School: Notre Dame

College: University of Dallas

Expected Graduation: May 2027

Hometown: Lawrence, KS

Campus Activities: ND Chorale, Federalist Society, Jus Vitae

What were your duties as an NCLA clerk?:

I prepared research memos for attorneys on specific legal questions that came up in NCLA cases, researched potential venues and drafted a facts section for a future Education is Speech challenge, and helped draft the motion to dismiss response in the BASE Access case.

What did you most enjoy about your clerkship?

Basking in the insanity of my fellow clerks. On a work front, I enjoyed getting to answer legal questions using obscure lines of case law that I otherwise never would have known existed. It’s a great feeling when, after hours of diving into Westlaw from different angles, you finally find precedent that’s spot-on for the issue.

What interesting thing(s) did you learn about Administrative Law?

That the government is protected in a way that no other litigant is. In several of the cases I worked on, we wanted to sanction and handicap the government for their mistakes and misconduct but found out that we couldn’t because of the high bar case law sets. There’s even a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (55(d)) that sets a higher standard for getting default judgment against the government than against other parties.

How might you use what you’ve learned later in your professional career?

After studying civil procedure during my second semester of law school, I got a lot of practical experience with the concepts that will give me a head start when I encounter them again.

Any advice for other students who want to clerk at NCLA in the future?

Make sure you get to know not only your fellow summers, but the permanent staff as well. Take advantage of the social opportunities that NCLA offers and create some of your own as well. Also, if there’s a type of assignment you want to work on, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for it.