“Consider opportunities in government service, either at the outset of your career or later down the line.”

“Mentor all law students who have the ability and interest in appellate practice.”

“Build a community around you that you can lean on throughout this journey, because the legal profession (while it has made some strides) is still overwhelmingly failing to create inclusive and sustainable pathways for people from diverse backgrounds.”

“We have to be in the room where decisions that impact us are occurring. There are many tables and there is room at those tables for more of us. I can’t sit at all of the tables, but together we can cover more than I ever could alone.”

“There is no substitute for strong writing skills. Take a legal writing course while you have the chance and read the legal writing of the nation’s best appellate advocates.”

“Ask a person you admire to coffee, go to office hours of a professor you have not met before, or take on an opportunity even if you feel incapable or are experiencing imposter syndrome (which we all do from time to time).”

“Demystifying the process and providing greater individual support could go a long way to diversifying the pool of law clerks, which is a key to diversifying both the appellate bar and the judiciary.”

“Law is a dynamic field: there are so many ways in which trial legal strategy tie into subsequent appeals, so I was never far from thinking about appellate issues.”

“I think it’s important to support affinity groups, to elevate underrepresented people to positions of power, and to generally make space for the voices that can sometimes be the most silenced. “

“Appellate courts and the appellate bar should broaden their efforts to recruit interns and law clerks, including by recognizing that grades do not always correlate to research and writing ability.”

“For the path to leadership to be visibly open to talented and qualified people of all backgrounds, the appellate bench and bar has to reflect our country’s rich diversity.”

“There are times when we, as individuals, are our own rate limiting factor because we think we need more training, more experience, more credentials, more something. While that is sometimes true, it is also often true that we doubt ourselves because we listen to a voice in our head that questions whether we are good enough.”

“Appellate fellowships commonly offer the opportunity to argue cases in state and/or federal court sometimes just a year or two removed from law school.”

“As a matter of law and justice, anyone who has the interest and aptitude to succeed as an appellate advocate should have the chance to do so – regardless of their personal background or characteristics.”

“Your reputation is everything in this profession. You don’t build that overnight. It is the cumulative product of every interaction you have, every day, with everyone in the community, starting in law school!”

“Fewer and fewer cases go to trial at all and even fewer are appealed after trial, which means appellate work is quite sparse in private practice. Government appeals, however, are steady and more positions are available to focus exclusively on appellate practice.”

“I dreamed of going to law school to learn how to best help solve the tangle of problems in my community that had been generations in the making, resulting in cultures from both within and without that required us to forfeit dignity, safety, and respect.”

“Virtually no effort is spent, in my view, educating law students about what it takes to become an appellate judge.”

“Representation heightens the public perception of fairness and improves decisionmaking by ensuring that diverse experiences are taken into account.”

“Go into law school without overly committing to your conception of the kind of lawyer you want to be. Having an open mind has been extremely helpful to me finding my passion.”