GW Law student Alexis Coletti, Class of 2027, has spent her law school experience so far taking advantage of every opportunity available.
In her 1L year, she worked with the Career Development Office to secure a position as a summer law clerk on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Then, in both semesters of her 2L year, she participated in the Field Placement Program where she externed with the United States Court of Federal Claims in the fall semester and the United States Department of Justice in the National Courts Section in the spring semester.
This summer, she worked as a summer associate law clerk at Davis Polk & Wardwell in the firm’s D.C. office. There, she worked on projects for the Supreme Court and Appellate, Civil Litigation, and White Collar Groups, as well as several pro bono matters. And this semester, she will participate in the Administrative Law Issues and Appeals Clinic and serve as the Senior Executive Editor of The George Washington Law Review.
All of that experience will add up to help her in her post-graduate clerkship for a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, which is her hometown district in Pittsburgh.
In the following conversation, Coletti shares her experience at GW Law so far and her advice for incoming or aspiring law students.
What made you decide to go to law school?
I didn’t always know I wanted to be a lawyer. In my senior year of high school, I was actually applying to go into communications to do broadcast journalism. So, I made it pretty far without knowing that I wanted to go to undergrad with the plan of becoming a lawyer.
I’m from a small town outside of Pittsburgh and my high school didn’t have a ton of history or government related course offerings. I had taken all of the offered history APs, but my high school had a law class that I hadn’t taken yet. I decided to take it my senior year, and it changed my life.
This class was so intellectually stimulating and interesting. I learned that I could use my skills to be an advocate for other people.
After that class, I switched my major to political science and sociology with the intention of going to law school. I’ve never looked back.
What interested you about GW Law and why did you ultimately choose to come here?
I was looking for a school in D.C., and I was looking for the great course offerings and great faculty. I was also looking for a school with a strong reputation and good employment opportunities, and all of that just happened to be GW Law.
The faculty is excellent. The professors not only have strong scholarly records, but they’re great at teaching. They’re amazing at what they do. And the school’s location is just unparalleled. It has a great reputation, great employment outcomes, and I’ve had a wonderful time here.
What sort of opportunities have you taken advantage of at GW Law?
At GW Law, I’ve taken advantage of the school’s large Field Placement Program. Something that drew me to GW Law was this program, how successful it was, and how many externship opportunities there were. I came straight through from undergrad to law school, so I didn’t have any work experience. I wanted to get some of that professional experience while I was still in law school.
The Field Placement Program has just been exceptional. I’ve been able to get course credit for my externships, and have had very unique opportunities that I wouldn’t have had anywhere else in the world. I would definitely advise people to take advantage of the Field Placement Program.
(In the Field Placement Program students are supervised by attorneys and judges and earn academic credit for externship work with government, judicial, or nonprofit organizations. Students also enroll concurrently in a corequisite course taught by a judge or attorney that relates to their externship. Learn more about Field Placement.)
Also, GW Law has a very large course offering. So any class I’m interested in, I can feel pretty confident that it will be offered at a time that I’m able to take it. I’ve been focusing on taking classes to prepare me for the bar exam, like criminal procedure, constitutional law, and my professional responsibility and ethics course. GW Law has an exceptional bar passage rate, so that was something I was drawn to as well.
What sort of support did you receive from the Career Development Office in getting these opportunities?
The Career Development Office helped me find my 1L summer internship in the Senate. I met with the Career Development Office multiple times during my 1L year because I didn’t have any pre-law school work experience. I really leaned on them for guidance and for help with navigating interviews and job applications.
Around the same time that I was recruiting for 1L summer, law firms started recruiting for 2L summer. This is something that the Career Development Office was really honed in on. They kept everyone in my class updated on important dates. Every Wednesday, they would bring around four employers to the school, and we could speak with them and learn about their firms during our lunch breaks.
The Career Development Office also had networking receptions, so I was able to come to the school and talk with attorneys from dozens of firms. The office both supported me individually in answering any questions I had about the application process, and then supported my class as a whole through this kind of programming that exposed us to all the different firms.
Tell us about your summer internship at Davis Polk’s D.C. office. What has the experience been like?
I’ve had a great summer at Davis Polk D.C. This office is growing, and it is an exciting time to be here. It has been especially impactful to work with the firm’s new Supreme Court and Appellate Group, which the firm launched just a few weeks before I started my summer there.
I was able to obtain this position with help from the Career Development Office. I learned about this opportunity because the office would send emails about new applications that have opened.
It’s been a great summer. I’ve gotten to work on so many different white collar, appellate, and civil litigation matters. I just really am grateful for this opportunity, this great team in D.C., and the Career Development Office for putting it on my radar.
What made you want to return to your hometown for your upcoming clerkship?
I’ll be returning to Davis Polk after my clerkship to work in litigation, and many of the best and brightest litigators at the firm formerly clerked. So they worked for a judge for a year or two, sometimes right after they graduated and sometimes after working at the firm for a bit.
Clerking is an exceptional opportunity, and something that will follow me for the rest of my career. You get a very strong mentor in this judge that you get to work very closely with for a year. You become a better writer and legal thinker, and it feels good personally to engage in public service and support the rule of law.
Federal clerkships are very competitive, so I knew that I wanted to focus on geographic areas where I had a personal connection and where I had something on my resume that would make the judge be interested in me. I knew that my Pittsburgh connections would definitely be a gold star on my application to Pittsburgh-based judges. So I interviewed for a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and was delighted to receive an offer.
I’m very excited to move back home to serve my community. Although I probably won’t be spending the rest of my legal career in Pittsburgh, it will be very meaningful to take the skills that I’ve honed at GW and use them to help people back home.
What advice do you have for aspiring or incoming law students?
For people that don’t have any work experience before coming to law school, I would tell them to lean on the Field Placement Program and the Career Development Office. These offices are filled with great professionals who want to help you further your career. They’re there if you are willing to lean on them.
Also, say yes to things. There are going to be so many opportunities in law school that you maybe haven’t heard of before, like journal, moot court, or mock trial. I’d advise you to try out a bunch of different things to meet people and see what you like, and to not be afraid to ask for help in these activities too.
I’m a first generation law student, so I am not only navigating law school having no prior work experience, but with no family experience or connections in the legal field. Knowing when to ask for help from the Career Development Office, from mentors, or from upper level students is really valuable. You’ll find that people are generous with their time and willing to help you out if you're willing to ask for it.