3L Brooklyn Lindsey has just returned from a field placement as the Ronald Reagan fellow at the Goldwater Institute, a nonprofit that defends Americans’ rights as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions.
“The summer after my 1L year, I spent some time researching and asking my network about public interest groups and nonprofits with a constitutional litigation arm. I focused my search on groups working in the areas I am passionate about like economic freedom, property rights, federalism, and eventually found and applied to the Goldwater Institute,” Brooklyn recalls.
During a typical day, the majority of Brooklyn’s work included legal research and writing.
“This involved drafting memos for current cases, conducting research for amicus briefs, reviewing discovery documents, and exploring other legal issues that Goldwater might be interested in taking on,” she says. “If I was not researching or writing a memo, I was working on a writing assignment from our writing workshops or reading recently decided cases.”
For Brooklyn, the most challenging and simultaneously rewarding part of her field placement was researching a legal question that didn’t have a clear answer.
“Many cases we were litigating were on the leading edge of the law and therefore lacked clear precedent. This could make the research and writing an arduous process,” she says. “I loved working on cases that were on this leading edge and helping to establish precedent for future cases. It was exciting and rewarding to work on cases that were helping people retain their freedoms and protect their livelihoods.”
Brooklyn says she is grateful to have the opportunity to go to law school and that S.J. Quinney College of Law’s generosity made that possible.
“SJQ has some awesome professors that I am lucky to have learned from and worked with over the past two years. I am also grateful for the friendships I have made,” she says. “Within the field of law, I am most passionate about an attorney’s role as an advocate and counselor. I am passionate about providing greater access to justice to those who are usually prohibited due to cost, the complexities of the legal system, or lack of guidance and knowledge that they even have a case.”