VANDERBILT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- President of the Black Law Students Association
Adrielle Conner's journey to Vanderbilt started with her goal to be a community-oriented advocate. She knew law school would help her achieve this goal and identified three important factors in choosing a law school: A strong record of job placement nationwide, professors who mentored students, and a collegial atmosphere. "Vanderbilt was at the intersection of everything I wanted in a law school," she said. "Vanderbilt places graduates in a variety of locations and has professors who truly care about the development of students. And it felt like a true community here. You can learn the law at many law schools, but what drew me to Vanderbilt was the environment."
Having attended a large state university for undergrad, Conner also sought a smaller school that provided a more intimate feel. She wanted an environment where she could bounce ideas regarding her goals and passions and create meaningful connections. "I found that at Vanderbilt," she said. "Students here support one another and are a close-knit community."
As a 1L, Conner recalls being impressed when a student in her Contracts class offered to share a chart she and another classmate had created as a study aid with the entire class. "I learned later that she booked the class," she said. "That's the culture here-working collaboratively so we can all succeed and do well."
Conner plans to join Alston & Bird in Atlanta after graduation, and she credits the law school's Career Services department with helping her identify firms that were a good fit. "Career Services was very helpful in giving me feedback on resumes and cover letters. I made sure to send over my materials before 1L and 2L OCI to present the best version of my materials to recruiters," she said.
She also hopes to do pro bono work in education law. She spent two semesters working as an extern with the Education Rights Project of the Nashville Public Defender under the supervision of Beth Cruz, who launched the project out of an existing program soon after earning her J.D. at Vanderbilt Law in 2010. "My externship allowed me to explore an area of law I am passionate about," Conner said. "I learned so much about zealous advocacy."
As president of the Black Law Students Association, Conner leads one of the law school's most longstanding student organizations. "BLSA was critical for my success," she said. "Having an organization here that highlights the unique contributions that black people and allies bring to the legal profession is amazing. It's a lot of work, but BLSA has given me so much community and so much warmth and support."
She is looking forward to her legal career. "I paid special attention to finding a firm that believed that pro bono work and community involvement was integral to the success of every lawyer," she said. "It's very easy to fall into the binary of public interest or big law. I believe there's room to explore both."
Caroline Grady has been selected as a Cheek Scholar for the Class of 2026. Read More
Job Titles:
- Milton R. Underwood Chair
Christopher Slobogin, Milton R. Underwood Chair in Law, is an authority on criminal procedure, mental health law, and evidence. He has published more than 200 articles, books, and chapters on those topics. Professor Slobogin is one of the five most cited criminal law and procedure law professors in the country over the past five years, with citations in over 6,000 articles and chapters and 250 judicial opinions.
Job Titles:
- David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair
J.B. Ruhl, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law, is an expert in ecosystem services policy, climate change adaptation, complex adaptive systems theory, adaptive ecosystem management and growth management.
Job Titles:
- Program Coordinator
- Program Coordinator, Criminal Justice Program
Job Titles:
- David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair
Michael P. Vandenbergh, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law, is an expert in environmental law and policy, public & private governance, climate change, private environmental governance, bypassing polarization, behavioral wedge, private sector wedge, and energy law and policy. Vandenbergh is one of the top 25 law professors in the US based on peer-reviewed literature citations.
Miles Brinkley had always considered becoming a lawyer, but after earning his bachelor's degree at Stanford, he decided to stay in the San Francisco area and work in cybersecurity. Four years later, he began applying to law schools, with an initial plan to specialize in data privacy and regulations.
Vanderbilt became his top choice because of the school's welcoming community, something Miles got to see in action during a campus visit. "[The current students] didn't know me… but they took time outside of Admit Weekend to talk and meet with me," he said. "Once that happened, it was a very easy decision for me. It showed that the school followed what it said on its online and recruitment materials."
Once he moved to Nashville, Miles began taking a breadth of courses, prompting him to reconsider a focus on data privacy. He benefitted not just from the different subjects, but also the various teaching styles and pedagogy. He also appreciates how the smaller class sizes made it possible to build personal relationships with professors.
"I think Vanderbilt's strength truly is how much the professors do care. They're willing to give you very micro-focused attention, making sure you're getting the material you need. It never, even with my toughest professors, has felt indifferent," he said.
Miles has kept busy outside the classroom, leveraging his professional background as the Technology Editor of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law (JETLaw). He's also served as president of the Honor Council and is the current president of Phi Delta Phi, in addition to being a mentor for the ONEelevate Leadership Program and the Professional Development Chair for the Black Law Students Association. He's also the president of the law school soccer team, which he says is "wonderful" for stress release.
Miles spent his 1L and 2L summers interning at Kirkland & Ellis's Houston office and will be returning there full-time after graduation. He appreciates the flexibility that the firm offers associates when it comes to pursuing work. "It's known for the free market platform, so you just go get any assignment you want… I was in the transactions practice group, so that was the pool, but the pool is very wide, [and] within that, I found investment funds," he explained. "It was special. I just got it, I liked it, and that's what I'm going to end up doing [full-time]."
He initially connected with the firm through several alumni: one, an associate who spoke on an on-campus panel, and another, a partner who attended a career fair. He understands what an impact those connections had on securing his first internship and eventually his job offer.
"When I signed my full-time offer, I gave everybody a big hug, and they said, ‘We're so glad Jessica flagged your resume two years ago, and we're so glad you met Andy [at the career fair],'" he recalled. "Those connections from people that simply went to Vanderbilt were the reason that I was able to get connected and then end up at a fantastic place."
For Miles, Vanderbilt didn't just help him secure a job offer or become a more analytical thinker; it helped him understand why lawyers think and act the way they do. "I've always been a people person, but [law school] made me a people-first person… because law is made by, interpreted by, [and] engineered by people. And if you can't understand the people that write judicial opinions or make laws - or that you're negotiating with on every aspect of law - it doesn't make sense," he said.
Job Titles:
- Program Coordinator
- Manager of Academic Program Support Services
After battling her own health issues in middle school and high school, Rachel Davis originally wanted to become a doctor. Once she enrolled at UT-Austin and started taking pre-med classes, she realized that while she was still interested in the healthcare field, a career in medicine wouldn't be a good fit. She grew drawn to the idea of becoming a lawyer.
Rachel knew she wanted to apply to law schools with smaller class sizes. Her high school graduating class was roughly 40 people, and she wanted to get back to that more personal collegial experience. Vanderbilt stood out to her for its smaller class sizes, as well as its recruiting ties to her home state of Texas. "I really liked the idea of getting to know your professors, having more community-based relationships, and not having to struggle to connect with people," she said.
Law clinics were another priority for Rachel, who describes herself as a hands-on learner. She applied for the lottery as a 2L and was placed in the Immigration Practice Clinic. Through two semesters-the second in the Advanced Clinic-Rachel was able to get real-life experience while receiving guidance from Clinic Director Professor Alvaro A. Manrique Barrenechea.
"My partner and I would conduct an interview with a client or third party, and then after each interview we would go back to Alvaro and say, ‘You know what we had planned to do, and this is what happened.' From there, we'd work to figure out how to help the client with the information we had," she explained.
Raghavendra "Rohit" Murthy taught high school chemistry for two years after earning a bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry at Wesleyan University and Northwestern University, respectively. Rohit's original career plan had been to become a chemistry professor, but his growing interest in science policy led him to apply to law school instead.
Rohit's family now lives in Springfield, Massachusetts, but he was drawn to Vanderbilt because of its national rank, small size, and collegial culture-and because of his good memories of Nashville and Vanderbilt, where his father, a college professor, earned his Ph.D. in economics. "I remembered growing up in Hillsboro Village, and Nashville and Vanderbilt felt like home," he said.
Vanderbilt's strong track record of national placement and its collegial culture were also key factors in Rohit's choice to attend Vanderbilt. "People come here from everywhere, and they go everywhere after they graduate, so we're not really competing with each other. We all celebrate each other's successes, and I'll have friends all over the country after I graduate," he said.
With his science background, Rohit entered law school expecting to focus on intellectual property or environmental law. But as he was exposed to different areas of law through the first-year curriculum, he found his interests broadened. "I really liked my 1L classes-even though I was called on in all three of my doctrinal classes on day one!" he said. "I found areas of law related to regulation, individual rights, and the environment particularly compelling, and I also developed an interest in international law."
As a 1L, he joined the Ambassadors, which works with Admissions to reach out to prospective students. He also enrolled in the Vanderbilt in Venice program, which allows 1Ls to spend part of their summer break taking upper-level international electives. "The Venice program gave me a great opportunity to gain exposure to international law topics early on," he said.
Rohit was vice president of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Ambassadors and served as a OneElevate mentor in a program supporting first-generation law students. "I saw my work on the Ambassadors, the EDI Council and OneElevate as opportunities to give back to the school and community I enjoyed so much," he said.
Rohit found working on the Vanderbilt Law Review afforded more opportunities to explore different areas of law. "Reading and critiquing legal scholarship was invaluable to my growth as a law student. Selecting articles with the Law Review articles committee as editor-in-chief became a crash course in so many different areas of law. It's also rare to have the chance to manage such a large team as a student, which was challenging, but such a pleasure-my classmates were great to work with!"
On law review and in classes, Rohit says he learned from his classmates as well as his professors. "Vanderbilt is a school with a good deal of diversity of thought, and faculty here are great teachers and careful researchers who are also interested in getting to know students and seeing us succeed," he said. "I've learned from professors who are renowned experts in their fields and from my classmates because of how intellectually curious and thoughtful they are in their questions and comments. Law school is certainly challenging, but VLS has been my favorite academic experience."
Rohit worked for a Dallas law firm in summer 2021 and found his summer 2022 job with Ropes & Gray in San Francisco through the On-Campus-Interview program at the beginning of his 2L year. He will return to Ropes & Gray's San Francisco office as a litigation associate after graduation.
Randall Thomas, John S. Beasley II Chair in Law and Business, has earned a reputation as one of the most productive and thoughtful corporate and securities law scholars in the nation. His recent work addresses hedge fund shareholder activism, executive compensation, corporate voting, corporate litigation, shareholder voting, and mergers and acquisitions.
After earning his undergraduate degree in economics at Villanova, Trey Ferguson was interested in studying law to learn more about political economy. "I wanted to understand the regulatory structure encompassing business transactions-I was very interested in how laws incentivize financial and strategic decisions and vice versa," he said.
His desire to attend law school was initially sparked by an undergraduate internship on Capitol Hill with Rep. Lucy McBath, who represents Georgia's 7th District in the House of Representatives. "Rep. McBath sits on the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee for Antitrust, and the matters I worked on piqued my interest by providing color to the economic theories I previously studied in class," he said.
Trey also had an interest in finance, and Vanderbilt's JD/MBA program, offered by two well-regarded professional schools that are directly adjacent on Vanderbilt's campus, opened up a broad array of career paths. "I was confident that coupling the Law School's analytical focus with the Owen Graduate School of Management's quantitative emphasis would make me a very competitive applicant for coveted internships and permanent positions," Trey said.
Vanderbilt Law and Owen also met other important criteria for Trey. Both schools have an extensive track record of job placement at premier firms, and the law school's competitive financial aid packages, its strong Law & Business Program, and its diverse faculty were also important to him. "The alumni I spoke with before I enrolled had nothing but positive things to say about Vanderbilt and its leadership," he said.
Vanderbilt's location in Nashville, Trey's hometown, was "icing on the cake," he recalled.
Trey particularly enjoys law classes where professors employ the Socratic method. "The Socratic method provides a unique academic environment, and you're forced to think on your feet. Professors here are very good at challenging students in ways that are critical to understanding intricate legal doctrines, and students' ability to similarly engage with professors enriches the learning atmosphere," he said.
After a 1L year he describes as "enriching," Trey interned with Cleary Gottlieb, a preeminent law firm headquartered in New York City, where he learned deal dynamics within the firm's M&A and Private Funds group. The following summer, he briefly returned to Cleary Gottlieb and also interned with law firm Sullivan & Cromwell and management consulting firm Bain & Company. Last summer, Trey interned with Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm, where he will return as a full-time Private Equity Associate after graduation.
Zoe Beiner's interest in a career that would involve writing led her to consider law school. A native of Atlanta, Beiner spent a year living in Israel and then majored in history at the University of Florida. "I really love writing, but I had no interest in being an author or a teacher," she said. "I found the dynamic nature of law careers incredibly appealing-there are so many different opportunities and jobs available to you once you have a law degree."
Beiner applied to 15 law schools and ultimately chose Vanderbilt after attending an Admitted Students Day. "I was struck by how genuinely kind and happy students here were," she said. "Vanderbilt offered a community I wanted to be part of."
As a law student, Beiner quickly discovered an interest in and affinity for litigation. During her 1L summer, she interned for Judge Leigh Martin May of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, for whom she plans to work as a law clerk after graduation. "Working for a judge gave me an opportunity to see how important a persuasive brief can be," she said.
During summer 2017, Beiner honed her writing skills while working at two litigation firms, Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Bondurant Mixson & Elmore, a boutique firm in Atlanta. "My classes at Vanderbilt really prepared me for the work I did last summer," she said. "I was able to experience a ‘war room' and all that working on a trial entails. I wrote jury instructions, helped an associate prepare for an oral argument, and researched and drafted motions. I really got a chance to observe what it means to be a litigator. I cannot imagine having confidently done that work without having taken Evidence or Criminal Procedure, which both provided me with important, practical knowledge."
Beiner and her partner, Nell Henson '18, won Vanderbilt's 2017 Bass Berry & Sims Moot Court Competition, which involved two criminal procedure questions. Beiner was able to apply the skills she gained working on the Moot Court case when she was asked to draft a motion to suppress evidence as a summer associate. "I really enjoyed applying those skills to a new problem," she said.
As a 3L, Beiner was Senior Notes Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. She also served on the Moot Court Board, Honor Council and was a member of the Jewish Law Students Association. "When I was a 1L, the 2Ls and 3Ls in each organization were really helpful in offering advice and guidance and resources," she said. "It was really rewarding to step into that role."