My fellowship experience at CAC has been deeply rewarding. Over the course of the fellowship, I’ve had the opportunity to research and draft amicus briefs on major cases before the Supreme Court and lower federal courts of appeals. The issues have ranged widely, from state sovereign immunity to arbitration, international human rights to environmental law, to immigration. But two things have remained constant throughout my time at CAC: the intellectual challenge of mastering an unfamiliar area of law with each new case, and the desire to help courts reach the correct outcome. That combination of intellectual fulfillment and purposeful litigation has made working at CAC a joy that I’ll cherish for years to come.

Throughout my time at CAC, I felt supported and inspired by a team of brilliant attorneys and staff. My supervisors provided consistently valuable feedback while retaining a level of collegiality that fostered frank debate about the merits and weaknesses of our arguments. They also encouraged me to work on cases in areas of personal interest, like federal jurisdiction and access to justice. And their dedication to CAC’s mission pervaded the office space, making it easy to dedicate long hours to drafting briefs. Likewise, CAC’s paralegals and office staff enabled me to produce work of the highest quality. The people played a large role in my rewarding experience.

As I reflect on the past year, I believe that CAC’s mission is more important than ever. Textual and historical methods have come to dominate judicial legal analysis today, particularly at the Supreme Court, but CAC remains the only nonprofit organization steadfastly demonstrating that such methodologies can lead to progressive outcomes too. CAC’s work gives the progressive cause a fair hearing before our nation’s courts across a wide range of statutory and constitutional issues. I feel proud of the work I’ve done as part of the organization and am excited to follow its achievements from afar.