Describe your journey to law school. What motivated you to apply?

I’ve been motivated by the concept of correcting injustice and inequality since a very early age—literally being a third-grader who carried a pocket constitution in my backpack. I explored the possibility of going into other professions as I got through high school and college, but it always came back to loving law.

What was your law school experience like?

It was blissful ignorance. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I had no mentors; no one to guide me on what steps to take and what jobs to apply for. I enjoyed school, learned a ton about law and legal reasoning, made friends, played softball, and didn’t worry or focus on building my network or other aspects of developing a strong base for professional growth. It felt great at the time because I knew there would be a big firm job on the other side, and I was told that a big firm would nurture me and develop me into a partner. I got a lot of well-intended bad advice. And I didn’t get the advice I needed. I didn’t even know what a clerkship was until a friend told me he had a clerkship on the Fourth Circuit. I just perceived it as a job, and I was happy for him and said “congratulations.” I had no idea how important that was. I also had no idea how many hurdles would be placed in front of me or how high they would be. I had no idea how hard it is to break into appellate practice with no support system and no guidance. There was nothing like TAP, nor were there useful resources on the fledgling Internet.

Did you know about appellate work in law school? If not, when and how did it first get on your radar and why were you drawn to it?

I learned as a 1L that appellate work was what I’d dreamed of for so long. Before that, I had an amorphous view of what it meant to be a lawyer who made the law fair for large swaths of people. I quickly learned that the most effective place to do that is in a legislature. Knowing myself and my lack of interest in doing what it takes to get elected to anything, I looked into what I believe to be the second most effective place to make a difference—appellate work. I quickly found that it fit me perfectly. I then tested the theory in my school’s Fourth Circuit clinic and loved the practice area.

How often do you encounter Black people in the appellate field? Why do you think that representation is important?

It is an extreme rarity.

What advice would you give to a law student of color who aspires to be where you are now?

Love the law with a thick skin and a hard head. You will have so many setbacks that are not inflicted on others. And you will come to inflection points where you have to decide whether to fight on or take a path with less resistance. I’ve known several incredibly capable lawyers with impeccable credentials who have chosen the latter after fighting for some time. I cannot fault them at all for determining that they are better off clearing different hurdles that are fewer and shorter in another practice area. You need to truly love this to continue to fight on. Also, find mentors because your career already has started, and you may not know it yet. What you do now (grades, activities, getting to know your professors, attending symposia at your school, etc.) will ripple forward for decades. And there are plenty of appellate lawyers out there who would be happy to help guide you forward.

What’s one thing law schools and/or the appellate bar can do to ensure our highest courts are representative of all our communities?

Recognize that credentials and capability are not perfectly correlated. Credentials are important indicia of capability, but when we deify one credential or another—particularly one that is more available to people of certain ethnicities—we set a path toward a less diverse and less capable appellate bar. Law schools, to a degree, and the appellate bar much more so should do better at looking at the whole person when deciding whether to hire, promote, or provide an opportunity for an argument or to otherwise lead a case. I have been fortunate to find a few people here and there who took a broader view and allowed me to show what I was capable of. I’ve found magnitudes more who have ignored me because I did not have the good fortune to, at 22 years old, know that I must serve in a clerkship, or the good fortune to at 19 and 20 years old know what I needed to do in law school to make myself most presentable for a clerkship. I’ve taught students who have run into this same problem—their capabilities overlooked because they did not get this or that credential. The problem is not limited to people of color, though there appears to be a disproportionate effect.

Do you have any closing thoughts that you’d like to share?

It is hard to express how happy and grateful I am to be one of the few people on the planet who both gets to do the work he loves to do and fully provide for his family. A few years ago, I was talking to a young, Black lawyer who wanted to do appellate work and I said much of what I’ve included in my responses here. She then asked if it has been worth it. Without hesitation, I said “absolutely.” I still feel that way.