Tell us about your interest in appellate work and why you decided to join this Mentorship Program.

I come from a prior career in literature. My last book was a collection of essays and poetry borne out of a Fulbright year during Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement. The book’s publication should have been my career-making moment, but instead left me wanting more from the promise of writing: not just to tell the story, but to change its outcome. Appellate work appears to fit that bill and may even be a more expressive medium for what I hope my words can do. I joined the Mentorship Program because the doors to appellate practice have been especially obscure in the law school curriculum. I was attracted to the Program because it’s tied not to a job or locale, but rather to a broad community of minority law students who have been confounded in ways I find familiar.

What has it been like working with your mentor/mentee? Is there an experience you particularly enjoyed, something significant you learned, etc.?

My mentor and I have met monthly on Zoom to talk about anything from clerkship advice to food and travel. I was delighted to realize we both had a Hawai‘i connection, and even had some neighborhoods in common. It’s been important for me to have the support of someone who has seen the landscape ahead, but I would say it’s been even more important to learn that the landscape has people like my mentor: warm, approachable human beings willing to give of themselves. I’m looking forward to meeting up in person when it’s feasible to do so again.

What is something you will take with you from this experience? It could be appellate-related or broader, such as something you realized about yourself, our profession, etc.

I’ve at last come to appreciate networking! Meeting people through the Mentorship Program has felt less like building a network to leverage for personal gain, and more like discovering a pattern that already exists out there—to find my own place within it. It has made the world of practice seem smaller, the doors of access seem more open, and the connections between all of us ever shifting but very much alive.

Tell us about your interest in appellate work and why you decided to join this Mentorship Program.

I’ve been interested in appellate work since law school, when I got the chance to participate in my school’s Supreme Court clinic and work on two cert petitions and a brief in opposition to cert. After two appellate clerkships and a couple of other jobs, I’m now in private practice at a law firm that specializes in appeals.

My firm supports other efforts to promote diversity in the legal profession, but The Appellate Project is the first program I’ve seen that is specifically focused on appellate practice. I’ve benefited from mentors who encouraged my interest in appellate work, and I am excited to do my part in helping the next generation.

What has it been like working with your mentee/mentor? Is there an experience you particularly enjoyed, something significant you learned, etc.?

Getting to know Henry, my mentee, has been a great experience. Although the pandemic has inspired me to rekindle existing professional connections, I’ve had fewer opportunities to make new connections—especially with younger lawyers and law students whom I’d normally be meeting at events.

As it happens, Henry and I have shared interests and experiences outside of the law, and I’ve enjoyed discussing those with him. That, in turn, has reminded me that being a good mentor is about more than just helping someone get a particular job or credential.

What is something you will take with you from the experience? It could be appellate-related or broader, such as something you realized about yourself, mentorship, etc.

The mentorship process has prompted me to reflect on what I like about my work, some of which might not be obvious to law students considering appellate practice as a career path. For example, many people associate appeals with advocating change in the law. But in most of my appeals, I’m not trying to change the law. Rather, my task is to craft the best possible arguments based on a fixed trial court record and binding legal precedents. Finding creative ways to work within those constraints is a highlight of the job, and discussing that point with Henry helped me appreciate it for myself.