Photo by Jes Torres Baker
I graduated in the top 3.3% of my class at California Western School of Law (based on final class standing of 7/215), where I received a full academic merit scholarship and served as Editor in Chief of California Western International Law Journal. I completed several internships while in law school, including serving as an extern for three different federal judges, interning with the Racial Justice Program at the ACLU National Headquarters in New York, interning with the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, helping to staff an immigration clinic in San Diego, and working as a student intern at the California Innocence Project.
After graduating from law school and taking the California Bar Exam, I spent two years serving as a law clerk to a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. There, I drafted reports and recommendations on dispositive motions in prisoner civil rights cases, motions to dismiss and answers in habeas corpus petitions, and motions for summary judgment in social security appeals. I additionally wrote bench memoranda on a variety of discovery and case management issues in anticipation of civil motion hearings.
My commitment to social justice began long before I entered the legal profession. Prior to law school, I worked for three years as a program manager for SOS Outreach, a Colorado-based nonprofit organization that provides outdoors programs for underserved youth. My first two years were at SOS Outreach’s headquarters in Colorado, after which they sent me to the Lake Tahoe area to start a new office for the organization. I was ultimately successful in this endeavor, leveraging resources for participant growth of 300% from the 2009/2010 winter season to the 2010/2011 winter season in the Reno/Tahoe region.
In between my time in the nonprofit sector and beginning law school, I spent a year as a volunteer elementary school English teacher on a remote outer island in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a tiny island nation in the Pacific. As part of my service, I prepared eighth grade students for their high school entrance exam, with three students passing, up from zero the prior year.
In my spare time, I am an avid surfer and backcountry snowboarder. I am additionally a Baja enthusiast, and I make frequent trips across the border in search of tacos and waves.
Education
California Western School of Law
Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, June 2015
Colorado College
B.A., Sociology, May 2008
Bar Admissions
California
Law School Honors and Awards
Dean's Honor List: Every eligible law school trimester
Academic Excellence Awards (Highest Grade in Class): Property I, Property II, Trial Skills Training for Distinguished Advocates, Fall 2013 STEPPS Class (Advanced Legal Writing and Professional Responsibility), Spring 2014 STEPPS Class, Criminal Procedure I
National Order of Scribes Inductee, for achievement in research and writing, 2015
Diane Ethics Award Recipient, 2015
Justice Howard B. and Mrs. Joan C. Wiener Scholarship Recipient, 2014
2013 Josi Dixon Summer Public Interest Law Foundation Grant Recipient
Distinguished Advocate Award Recipient for opening statement, 1L Moot Court Competition, 2013