GW Law student Ruby Nitzberg, Class of 2027, came to law school after another career as a researcher in documentary, film, and television.
She was inspired to enter the legal profession after researching Supreme Court cases and falling in love with the art of oral argument. Now in law school, she is focusing on public interest, hoping to work in labor, employment, or consumer protection law.
This summer she was a summer associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser in DC, a labor law firm “devoted to empowering workers and the institutions that advocate for them.”
Nitzberg talked about her time at Bredhoff, her experience as a second-career law student, and her advice for navigating law school in the conversation below.
What made you want to go to law school?
I worked as an archival researcher in documentary, film, and television for seven years before I went to law school. The whole time I was doing that people told me that I might like law school and that I might make a good attorney. It was always kind of the road not traveled, and it never went away.
I was at a point where I wasn’t really enjoying the work that I was doing in my previous career. I got put on a show called “Deadlocked,” about the changes in the Supreme Court from the Earl Warren years to the modern era. As I was working on it, part of my job was reading these Supreme Court cases and transcripts of oral arguments. I enjoyed doing that so much more than any other aspect of my job at the time. I was spending way more time doing that than I should have and not enough time actually doing the archival research. I just realized that I get a whole lot more enjoyment out of figuring out an argument, figuring out the best way to present things, and speaking clearly in a way that people understand about important issues like their rights. That was all much more engaging to me. So that’s what convinced me to eventually take the leap and go to law school.
Why did you choose GW Law?
I was already in DC, and a lot of [the decision to go to GW Law] was that I really loved DC. It’s not only such a central city from a legal perspective, but it’s also just a very fun, vibrant city.
Also, GW Law has a great public interest reputation. I really wanted to be centrally located and I am someone who is somewhat politically minded. So, being in an environment where other people were thoughtful about that, that was something that was real to them and not just this theoretical thing that was happening somewhere else, that was part of it too.
Why did you choose to pursue a public interest focus?
Going to law school a little bit older, it was really important to me that I did not just go in order to make the most money and that was it. I want to do something that feels meaningful. I want to do something that is helping people access their rights, express their rights, protect their rights. If I’m going to be spending a lot of time doing legal work, I want it to be in service of something and not just in service of my own enrichment.
More specifically, what I find myself interested in—and also what I found myself doing this summer—is mostly in the economic justice wing of the public interest area, like labor law, consumer protection, and antitrust stuff, which I picked for a couple of reasons. One is I wanted to find something that felt valuable and helpful to people but that I could do day in and day out. There’s really important public interest work that, coming here a little bit older, I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle as a daily job. The economic justice stuff felt more genuinely helpful from a public interest perspective but also something that I could handle.
Funnily enough, I found myself really interested in those classes. I never in a million years thought I would enjoy Corporations, but it’s one of my favorite classes that I’ve taken. The puzzle of it is really fascinating. Coming from more of a humanities perspective, figuring out how to translate that stuff for people who aren’t as business-minded or financially minded is really engaging.
Tell us about your summer experience at Bredhoff & Kaiser. What was that like?
I was a summer associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser, which is a union-side labor law firm. Their clients are unions and union funds. It was really fantastic.
It’s just been great because I’ve really enjoyed this firm. They really have been exposing us to stuff that you can’t really get at law school. I was at a deposition. They’ve taken us to arbitrations. You get to see the real practice of lawyering and the interpersonal stuff. School naturally is much more about learning the law, learning to write, learning to research, all very important, but there was a lot of exposure at Bredhoff & Kaiser, which has been great.
How did you go about finding that position?
I knew I was interested in labor law. In my 1L summer job with a federal judge in Maryland, within this research I was doing for a particular case that had come before us, I read a case that Bredhoff and Kaiser was involved in. I was like ‘Oh, this is really well written. I’m engaged in this case. It seems really interesting.’ And I thought, let me look them up, and they had summer associate positions open. It was really kind of random and lucky.
If there’s a topic or area you’re interested in, it can be more helpful to go off the beaten path like that because, if for nothing else, you’re putting yourself in a smaller pool of applicants and you’re more likely to be chosen.
What advice would you give to other GW Law students?
I would really encourage people to take classes that scare them or that they think they maybe would be interested in. I took Corporations, thinking it had a scary reputation. I really loved it. Professor [Dalia Tsuk] Mitchell was a great professor. She made the topic really engaging. It was challenging in a fun way. I would definitely encourage people to take classes that are challenging.
Also, I love the Writing Center. Everyone who writes has the experience of thinking, “I’ve been working on this for too long, and I can’t tell if it makes any sense anymore.” You need another reader, and the writing fellows are taught to read for that stuff. Being a writing fellow was great too because it exposed me to a lot of different styles of writing than I would have seen otherwise. So that was helpful for me just in terms of becoming a better writer.
For anyone reading this, you don’t have to be a writing fellow, necessarily, but I think it’s good for you to find one thing in law school that you’re doing that is not just about yourself, just for your own mental health if nothing else.
What advice do you have for other people considering going to law school after starting a career in another field?
You have a real advantage in that you know why you’re there. If you’re going to law school after a different career, this is a choice you have been thinking about for a while, and you’re finally doing it. You’re there for the right reasons, whatever the right reasons are to you. Be really honest with yourself about your method of working. Something that is a benefit of being older is you probably do know yourself a little better. Listen to that voice. Don’t let the pressures of law school convince you that you should be a certain way. You know yourself and follow that.
Finally, talk to younger people. I have several good friends who are 24 and 25. They have an interesting perspective. They’re smart. They’re funny. They’re thoughtful. You can bring the sort of wisdom of work experience to them, and they can bring a passion and excitement about the law to you.
