Welcome, Julia and Rachel.
RACHEL GOLD: Hi sorry I keep on going in and out. My Internet decided to be unstable now. [Laughter].
We're going to call on the Internet gods to cooperate for the duration of this meeting and Julie do I rook okay?
JULIE MCGINNITY: You know, I think you need to fix your hair?
That's not the answer I was hoping for Julie but thanks anyway.
[Laughter]. No, Maurice, you look perfect.
That's what I was hoping to hear.
Thank you. [Laughter].
I'm going to be in the background but, please, if there's anything that I can do, you want to remind everyone, this meeting will — since it's a breakout room not be recorded.
And if you want to — I can do it or you can do it, have everyone except the interpreters turn off their videos, that will be helpful. So that people who need to see the ASL interpreters aren't seeing multiple videos.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Okay. Does it help if we turn off videos, I'd be happy to if it's helpful.
I mean, other than the cohost, I'm going to leave it to your judgment. But I think — for people who are watching the — probably the fewer that they need to see, the better.
So, yeah. I think so.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Okay.
RACHEL GOLD: Maybe my Internet will improve if I have the video off.
I think that's possible, Rachel. I'll be deprived of seeing the both of you, but I can live with that, I think.
RACHEL GOLD: Maybe when I — I'll give it a few minutes. I think construction is happening in my building and maybe that's impacting it.
Yeah. Julia, do you want to give a few minutes for people to join and then we can start from there?
JULIE MCGINNITY: Yeah, yeah, in case people are coming from other things. Or just running a bit off. I mean, it's lunchtime. [Laughter] I feel like this will be probably be pretty laid back but if we meet some new people out of it, I like making friends. [Laughter].
I'm also sorry it's so loud. I think Baltimore is under a windstorm or something. It's just been crazy all day. I can't hear it on my end, if that helps.
Okay, that's good, because I feel like I'm in a tornado or something. [Laughter] Julie, has American said anything about you guys going back in person?
They're looking at doing hybrid next fall. So some classes, they're trying to do as much in person as they can, but I guess some professors don't want to. What about you guys?
RACHEL GOLD: Yeah, they actually just announced yesterday that they're planning for a full return to campus.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Oh, wow, that's really cool. Are you excited?
RACHEL GOLD: Oh I'm so excited. I was surprised they called it so quickly. Like, I thought we were probably going to wait through the summer.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Yeah, I know. I wonder if American will do that. Because American tends to follow Georgetown and other schools. But I guess they're having trouble. I don't know some of the professors don't want to have in person classes.
And, you know, they can't, like, at this point, you can't force anyone to do anything.
So ...
RACHEL GOLD: Sorry, my Internet is breaking up, so I heard part of what you said.
JULIE MCGINNITY: No, I was just saying that it's hard for some of the universities because if professors don't want to meet in person, they have a hard time forcing them.
RACHEL GOLD: Yeah, it will be interesting to see who follows suit.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Yeah. Did you guys get a spring break?
RACHEL GOLD: It looks like we have — we did, but I had a close friend who goes to American who told me about your spring breath and she was not so thrilled.
JULIE MCGINNITY: It was horrible, we all hated it. [Laughter]. That's a question. Who got a spring break? [Laughter].
I did.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Gosh.
RACHEL GOLD: I'm so jealous. Do you guys want to get started?
RACHEL GOLD: I'm going to try logging out of Zoom and logging back in one more time, and seeing if that helps our Internet.
Okay, so we're going to keep this pretty casual. It looks like we have a small group here. So just know, you know, no pressure. If you want to speak, just kind of say your name. You know, we have a small group. We don't need to raise hands. We have ASL interpreters with us as well. So that's awesome. And captioning happening.
And I thought we would start by introducing ourselves. There's the message from the captioner for anyone who needs captions.
So I thought we would just start by introducing ours, just where you go to school, what year you are in school.
And what, like, what kind of law you're interested in pursuing.
And maybe any questions you might have for other students.
So I Rachel, do you want to go first. I think Rachel is back. I want to make sure her Internet is here. Maybe not.
RACHEL GOLD: My Internet is a little in and out. But I'll try my best. Yeah, so my name is Rachel Gold, I am a 2L at Georgetown. Sorry, Julie, what were the other questions, I came in right as you were introducing and want to make sure I cover anything.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Just what kind of law you're interested in pursuing and any questions or anything interesting you would want to tell the group. [Laughter].
RACHEL GOLD: Sure, so I came to law school specifically to pursue a career in disability rights. I grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago in a really inclusive school system and when I got to college in Wisconsin, I learned that that wasn't really the norm.
So I'm primarily interested in special education law.
Yeah, that's what brought me to law school. Julie, do you want to introduce yourself?
JULIE MCGINNITY: Sure, I can go next. I'm an 0L at American University, and I have kind of some very interesting — I am interested in disability rights, and education as well. I'm also interested in juvenile justice, so that kind of intersection of, like, students/young people/disability is really interesting to me.
And I kind of came to law school a little later in life. [Laughter]. Rachel, I wrote a lot about some of the stuff you just mentioned because I also went to a really inclusive school and then working at the NFB which I did until last August when I started school I realized most kids don't have the same opportunities I did and aren't treated quite as fairly.
So I'm really interested in closing those gaps and helping kids get the supports that they need and learning how to advocate for themselves and, you know, kind of navigating these unfair systems. I can I can go next.
Yeah, go ahead, Hannah.
I am Hannah, I'm not in law school yet. I'm currently working at the national Health Law Program. But I am starting at Yale in the fall which I'm excited for. And I'm very interested in kind of the intersection of health law and disability rights. I guess my question is for you all is, like, in the fall, what your schools are talking about for students at high risk?
If the COVID situation is not great but classes are moving back to in person. I know Yale was saying that maybe they can't let people do classes online because of the ABA. I'm just curious what you all have heard about that.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Okay, that's a really good question. We will — let's — Rachel do you want to have people finish introducing themselves and then we'll start with that question? Because that's a good one. She got kicked off. Okay. Who else do we have to introduce yourself, and then Hannah will talk about COVID policies for the fall. [Laughter]. Do we have anyone else. I thought we had a couple of other people.
We just got people knocked off. Maybe that's our problem.
HANNAH: They're dropping like flies.
JULIE MCGINNITY: I know!!! We have the interpreters. We have Hannah, oh, yeah, we lost our other person.
I'll just address your question since it's pretty much just us. The problem with the whole — the different policies and the regarding COVID is that each University is going to have — like at this point American I don't think will force anyone to be in person because even by the fall not everyone will be vaccinated and there will be concerns about safety.
And I was telling Rachel, some of our professors are concerned, so I can't imagine that — I don't know. Like, I'm not an expert so what I'm going to say is going to be super, like — I'm kind of making this up in a way but I can't imagine that I would say, because of the ABA they would force you to go in person if you say, I'm at high risk so I need an accommodation to be online now that we can do school online. You know?
You should be able to say like I need this accommodation for collaborations to be I don't know, recorded, or hybrid classes or something.
HANNAH: I'm glad to hear that your school is making it seem like there will still be that option. I get a sense that Yale is trying. I think maybe they just don't want to submit to anything because they don't know what the accreditation policies will be. So ... hopefully it's something that is sorted out. Or hopefully the COVID situation is better. And we can go in person. But ...
JULIE MCGINNITY: I definitely hope the COVID situation is better. And, you know, I if we reach herd community, it will be. It's just hard to predict. Right?
HANNAH: Yeah, and it seems like there would be kind of an uproar if places were forcing people to go in person, when it wasn't safe. So hopefully the ABA will make changes but, I guess, their pre-COVID policy had been that you can't do any online classes basically.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Really? Huh. I didn't know that.
HANNAH: I'm not sure if that's quite the policy. Maybe it was you can't do hybrid. I'm not sure. But I know Yale was saying if it went back to pre-COVID policies, they would not be able to make an accommodation to, like, have people be taking the class online, which sounds kind of absurd. So I think they recognize it's absurd. So hopefully there's some work happening behind the scenes.
JULIE MCGINNITY: I can't imagine they would make people, which I think is why American is probably going to do hybrid. Because it's like, they can't make people go if they're worried about the virus. At this point that's just kind of unfair with everything being so — still so new with the vaccine and kind of uncertainty.
Yeah, I agree, but ... I was in that LSAT session, and I brought up to the LSAT people that they were making some students with disabilities go and take the test in person, which is — there have been a lot of surds in COVID times.
Oh, man. Well, LSAC is, yeah. [Laughter].
The MRP has been in person since last summer. My friend took it in a mask.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Really?
Yeah.
JULIE MCGINNITY: I'm telling you, if I have to take the LSAT in a mask, I don't know. That would be a lot. Because as a student with a disability you get extra time and things like that, and it's just — it's a lot. That would be sitting there for eight hours trying to take a test in a mask, with already being nervous.
When they can clearly accommodate you from your home if you don't have a disability.
RACHEL GOLD: I know, like, I said at the beginning that Georgetown is planning to go back to campus in person but I'm curious to see what accommodations they make because I don't think that they can get away with forcing everyone to come. But we'll see, I worked with a bunch of is Ls at the beginning of the year, and they were saying, oh, we'll move down to D.C. for the spring semester and it's crazy because I think a lot of them have never been to D.C. Where they go to school, so it will be good to have a lot of people back.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Same with American. I'm still in Baltimore. I haven't moved because why go somewhere more expensive? [Laughter]. Did we have someone else join us?
RACHEL GOLD: I think Julia maybe.
JULIA: I'm not sure which room — I want to see which information is where, so, yeah, no, sorry. Just quick question, I don't know if anyone knows but, like, is the lawyers for disability's group, is that just open to lawyers or can you also be a law student?
RACHEL GOLD: I personally don't know, Julie, do you know?
JULIE MCGINNITY: Which group, I'm sorry.
JULIA: The Zoom link for attorneys with disabilities?
JULIE MCGINNITY: Oh, I don't know. That's a really good question. I would imagine that they're open to law students. I mean, most things that are for lawyers with disabilities are open to law students. Especially since we — I mean, I haven't submit because I'm a 1L but a lot of us do lifter law work in clinics and things, so I would imagine.
RACHEL GOLD: If you're interested, go check it out. They won't kick you out.
JULIA: I would be quiet I just wanted to hear people and listen to people. So, yeah.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Yeah, no totally. But you are also welcome here.
JULIA: I'm Julie, by the way, I know there's a Julie, so I didn't want to go get confused.
Are you going to law school, at law school now, interested in law school?
I'm a 3L, so I'm done in two months.
Oh, my gosh. Congratulations.
JULIA: Yeah, thank you.
RACHEL GOLD: Where do you go to school?
JULIA: I go to Rutgers in New Jersey.
RACHEL GOLD: I imagine you took professional responsibility already if you're a 3L. Do you know professor Sue Tisher?
JULIA: No, but there's a Camden campus and I'm in the Newark campus and they are technically one but they are, like, three or four hours apart.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Oh, wow.
RACHEL GOLD: One of the teachers at Georgetown also teaches in Rutgers, and he would commute between the two in person. So I thought I'd ask.
JULIA: That's a commute!
RACHEL GOLD: Yeah, it's probably a lot — that's probably one thing that he got out of COVID times is that he could just switch on Zoom. [Laughter]. Hannah, as an incoming law student, do you have any law school questions, whether they're law school-related or you just want to hear from a 1L, a 2L and a 3L?
HANNAH: I guess, curious if y'all have kind of, like, disability-related clubs and stuff that your law schools and how those have been. I've heard a little bit about how it works in Yale but I'm already plotting a little bit with some incoming law students and a current one about whether there are changes that should be made.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Yeah, this is Julie. We have a disability rights law society at American University.
And so that's a group you can join. And also on our Student Bar Association, we have a disability — oh I don't know what it's called. I'm a 1L. Sometimes I'm useless for things that are, like — it's like the disability rights representative kind of person, who makes sure things are accessible or makes sure that the disability rights law society is involved in things that the Student Bar Association are doing.
So it's pretty well represented.
I've been kind of I haven't got involved in a lot of it yet but I definitely plan to.
RACHEL GOLD: There was talk last year right before COVID of restarting a club that I think had been active in the past but isn't currently. But we do have — yeah. We have like a lot of diversity and inclusion staff and officers. I can't remember the exact name, I think it's lengthy but they are kind of along the lines of what Julie was saying, making sure that there are those opportunities and that they're in communication with the ABA.
JULIA: I will say from my end is that you will get the state school perspective, but — so I've just started a disability rights club last semester with a bunch of 2Ls.
And we have our first ask meeting for all of the things that we had in a letter actually next week.
So it's a really new process for the school. I think that there's a lot of taboo related to disability in the legal profession, especially at my school. So, yeah.
RACHEL GOLD: Julie or Julia, have you done disability-related internships? I guess you're looking at this summer, right?
JULIE MCGINNITY: Yeah, I'm applying to them.
RACHEL GOLD: Awesome.
RACHEL GOLD: Last summer I worked at the department of justice, the disability rights section. I think a lot of the attorneys are actually at this conference and I could not recommend that internship enough, if government work interests you.
JULIE MCGINNITY: I actually looked at it, and I'm going to probably put in for it next year. I want to get my legal writing and research stuff a little bit more up to speed before I do something that's that, like, intense.
But it looks really cool. I bet you had a great time.
RACHEL GOLD: It was awesome. And honestly whatever your summer internship is, you'll probably do a lot of legal research and writing and it will help you grow. It will be a lot of learning opportunities.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Exactly, I can't wait to learn outside of my legal rhetoric class, I tell you. I feel like it will be so much better.
RACHEL GOLD: Julia, what type of internships or externships have you done?
JULIA: I have worked exclusively on voting rights.
RACHEL GOLD: Oh that's awesome.
JULIA: So I had only voting rights internships the last two summers.
RACHEL GOLD: Is that what you're hoping to do after you graduate?
JULIA: It is but I don't think I'm going to be able to do it just because it's really hard to get into that field. But,
I mean, at the Brown center last year, and at the lawyer's committee the last year. So, yeah.
RACHEL GOLD: Nice are you applying for fellowships or stuff? Sorry if this is a stressful topic, we can switch gears.
JULIA: It's not — yeah, I don't know what I'm going to be doing yet.
RACHEL GOLD: I'm sure I'll be in your boat next year. All the private interest people this year, OCI was so different. So I had my summer internship before they had theirs but now they're all going to firms and know what they're doing after graduation and I'm pretty much the wild card.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Yeah, that's how things are. I don't have an internship yet, and everyone is like, okay, okay, non-profits always run late with internships, you're going to be fine. I keep applying.
But it's — Hannah, you're 1L spring semester is probably the hardest time ever. And I haven't done the rest of law school but I don't know that — it's hard. Because — well at least American give you more credit hours. And so you're doing more classes. And your schedule is crazy, and on top of that, they're like, you need to join clubs and do journal if that's what you want to do, which you don't have to do and you need to apply for internships, which is all kind of speeds up into the fast lane.
And you're like, hang on a minute, I still don't — [Laughter]. Yeah. But —
HANNAH: It doesn't help that there's a global pandemic going on.
JULIE MCGINNITY: No because half of the student population doesn't work well from home or I definitely struggle doing everything from these few walls. So we've had online job fairs, which are probably the most inaccessible things I have ever done. I'm blind. So it's like, you know, just not even eventually not even worth my time because it's like, I could spend two hours trying to make this work or I could spend two hours doing my reading. [Laughter] so ...
RACHEL GOLD: Are you reached out to anyone about the accessibility? That's so frustrating. I feel like especially in the remote world, that should be a consideration, well, it has to be a consideration. It just seems like people aren't taking it into account.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Yeah, I mean, I reached out for sure, and I said, like, beforehand I was like, hey, can we — can I test-drive this system because I'm using a screen reader and I'm really nervous that it's not going to work, blah, blah, blah, because they didn't get back to me. And because I tried to do a few different ones. One of them, I couldn't even sign-up, the process wasn't accessible. So I was like, all right, this is going to be really exciting.
So, I mean, it was — and my career office is aware, but they are not as helpful as they could be. And so I have a reader now who could help me through some of these things but I didn't know, so it was just a mess. I have found and I don't know, like, obviously no one here is required to disclose anything about whatever disability they may or may not have, but I have personally found as a blind person that things are less accessible because of the pandemic, that I have trouble getting a hold of people, I have trouble getting people to understand, like, since I can't walk into their office and show them, this is what my screen reader is doing, this is why it is inaccessible, fix it.
So I'm ready. Let's go back in person.
I'm glad that you have the reader now. I hope that's improving some things but it does feel like the system has a lot of flaws, so I'm sorry to hear that. And kudos to you, because I know you said, I agree, this is second semester of 1L is rough. So kind of going through the obstacles of 1L and then these accessibility issues — and the pandemic is probably a lot of added stress.
Yeah, it doesn't like can be stressful. I'm just kind of like, if I can just make it through the semester, I feel like it will be getting better from here. I hope that's true. They say 2L is really hard. But I'm like, I don't think could be worse than 1L. I don't know.
RACHEL GOLD: I honestly felt like this semester got better. Second semester of 2L. I don't know, Julia, what are your opinions?
JULIE MCGINNITY: I did half. So I did half law school Zoom and half law school not Zoom.
So, I don't know, 2L is a blur. I don't remember. Everything is a blur. For me I have a learning disability. So all exams are just stressful in a way that is unheard of.
But I guess for me, 2L year, I took a clinic because I got a fellowship so then it lessened my course load so I could just do real work instead of focusing on exams that had classes. 2L is, I think, nice because you can structure your schedule the way that you hopefully — hopefully you want.
That's good. And I imagine link went well for you.
JULIA: Yeah, I got an A.
JULIE MCGINNITY: Sorry, I was not prying for your grade.
No, no, it's okay. I actually never talk about myself because I just never — yeah. But Yad. I'm just really interested in clinic, so I was really excited to hear that that worked out for you. I found — I like learning and reading in law school. I don't like the volume of reading obviously, no one does. That's not abnormal. But the way that semesters are structured is very stressful, and that's the same for everyone. But clinic to me seems more — it seems like it would be more, like, a lot different, it wouldn't be here is an exam at the end of the semester, good luck!
So ...
JULIA: For me it was really nice that I was in the constitutional rights clinic, so — the case was filed, so I can tell you about it if you want, but and we worked closely with the New York silver liberties union, so it was really nice to do memos, and it wasn't graded — every assignment that you handed in was the complete reflection of your grade as the totality of your work, which I really appreciated.
JULIE MCGINNITY: That's great. Well, and they're more interested in helping you than — I feel like our legal rhetoric class, it's like every little thing you get counted off for but I've been told in the real world, yeah, they won't like it if you do certain things but it's not going to be the end of the world, they're just going to be like, hey, next time, okay.
RACHEL GOLD: I'm in a clinic right now, which I could stay in for the rest of law school, this has been my favorite semester of school so far. And it's just a— I'm actually working on part housing but part special education case.
RACHEL GOLD: Cool.
And it's just so different from normal law school. I'm trying to figure out if I can do it again instead of going back to regular classes.
JULIE MCGINNITY: What is it like virtually to do clinic?
RACHEL GOLD: A lot of phone calls. [Laughter]. A lot of Zoom meetings. I actually am trying to figure out what it would have been like in person because every time we meet with our client we just send her a text or talk over the phone and I'm wondering how often we would really be going to see her in person and I'm curious how it would have been in normal times but, yeah, it's a lot of Zoom meetings. A lot of e-mail. But it's going super smoothly I think.
My clinic has it figured out pretty well, so for that I'm really grateful.
RACHEL GOLD: That's cool.
JULIA: I guess for Rachel, maybe you could tell me differently but for me it depends on what work you're doing. For me it was all intact litigation. So, other than very infrequently meeting potential plaintiffs for a case, I didn't have a lot of calls with clients, we didn't really have — that wasn't the focus of the case. But I think that's the biggest thing is depending on the work. But maybe it will be a little bit different on site.
RACHEL GOLD: That's a good point. My clinic is called the health justice alliance and it's a medical-legal partnership. So we call with Georgetown med students too to have — I think Hannah, correct me if I'm wrong, you are interested in the intersection of health and distantly, and so that's a lot of what we do, and how lawyers and doctors can work together to really provide comprehensive services and care. So our clinic mostly does special education, housing, and eviction cases. Public benefits, I can't remember if I said that. But those are the big three buckets, public benefits, special education and housing. So it's all direct services, so it sounds like a little bit different than your clinic, Julia, which is cool that they have so many diverse opportunities. Doesn't American have a disability rights clinic?
JULIE MCGINNITY: Yeah, it does. And I auditioned — I'm sorry. I applied for it so we'll see. But, yeah, it has a disability rights clinic, and they do, I know they do special education. I think they do criminal justice type stuff too because they were doing some compassionate release kind of things with the criminal justice law clinic. They do I think they do housing.
It's just general, they do pretty much everything but benefits, times they do benefits, it depends on what comes their way, but it's more of a, you know.
RACHEL GOLD: Yeah, that's awesome.
JULIE MCGINNITY: I'm really interested in it, and it's a full year clinic, like I think you guys mentioned yours were, which is really cool. I would definitely — well, I haven't done clinic yet but I'm really excited about it.
RACHEL GOLD: No, no, you should be. I wish mine were a full year, mine is only this semester but I feel like if I could do it for a full year I definitely would.
I don't know if somebody new just jumped on, but if you would like to introduce yourself, you're more than welcome to, or hang out and listen, we're just having a casual conversation.
Yes, I did just join, sorry, my name is Sherif, I don't know how to introduce myself, but I am an LM student in new Combe University.
Fantastic.
Are we using the camera or not?
Right now we have our videos off for the interpreters. But you're not, like — yeah. It doesn't — yeah. You're not required to keep it off or anything. But. [Laughter].
Okay, no problem. No problem.
What year are you?
I'm first semester?
Oh, exciting.
I'm also a 1L so good times.
I already did my JD, I'm LLM.
Oh, sorry.
No problem. No problem. What university are you?
JULIE MCGINNITY: I'm in American, and we have Rachel here as well.
Yeah. I mean, where do you guys study, that's what I meant.
RACHEL GOLD: So Julie goes to American University.
Okay. Sorry. I forgot. There's a university called like that. Sorry, my bad.
RACHEL GOLD: No, that's okay. And then I go to Georgetown.
What — are you first year? Or second year?
RACHEL GOLD: I'm a second year.
I went to undergrad in Georgetown.
RACHEL GOLD: Nice. Georgetown, the undergrad campus is a lot nicer than the law campus.
Yeah, yeah, [Laughter]. I went too, because I lived in Pertari, one of the gulf states in the Middle East, I went to their campus, the Georgetown campus, so I haven't been to the main campus.
RACHEL GOLD: Oh, wow, that's awesome. The main campus is super pretty, and every time I tell people I go to Georgetown, they're like, Georgetown is such a pretty place. And I was like, yeah, except not where the law school is. [Laughter].
It's in a bad area, I've never been to the law school there.
RACHEL GOLD: It's not in a pretty area. It's close to the Supreme Court, so that's pretty cool. But, yeah, it's — I used to give tours when that was a thing when we could give incoming students tours. And I would talk with the admissions people, and they said that people would write in their essays to come to Georgetown that they were excited to study on, you know, the beautiful buildings on campus. And they were all talking about main campus.
So it's not super aesthetically pleasing, but at this point I'm so excited to go back in person that I won't bash Georgetown anymore.
I haven't been to D.C. for years. I've never been to main campus actually.
RACHEL GOLD: One day you'll have to come when it's safe again.
Yes, yes.
HANNAH: Are you living by duke?
HANNAH: Sorry, I was asking, are you living by duke?
No, I live in rally.
I live in Chapel Hill?
Are you in UNC or Wake Forest?
No, I am going to Yale in the fall, but my family lives in Chapel Hill. So I'm with them.
Nice, nice, very good.
No, I live in — do you know Pryor Creek? I live there.
HANNAH: Nice.
RACHEL GOLD: Does anyone else have any law school-related topics they would like to explore or thoughts you want to share?
JULIA: I'm going to be really quick, I'm going to check out the attorneys Zoom really quickly.
SHERIF: I couldn't attend the symposium. To be honest, I couldn't find them and I just got it now. So how was it so far? How was the past few days?
RACHEL GOLD: I haven't gone to other sessions yet. Have either of you guys, Julia or Hannah?
HANNAH: Yeah, I've been to most of them, and it's been really good. Lots of very different kinds of panels, which has been nice.
RACHEL GOLD: What's been your favorite so far?
HANNAH: There was a great one on intersectionality on the first day.
Just a lot of really cool people talking about kind of the intersections of disability and other marginalized identity in the workplace and I learned a lot from that.
If you don't mind me asking, why are you guys interested in this part of law? If you're not, that's fine.
RACHEL GOLD: I can share. I'm interested — so I came to law school specifically for disability rights. I grew up in a super inclusive hometown and pretty much did everything alongside my peers with disabilities, I went to school, went to campus, went to religious school.
And Dennis realize that that was unique until I went to college and had met people who still used the R word casually and people who didn't know what a special education program or services were and met a lot of people who didn't have the same upcoming that I did. So I always knew that I wanted to work with kids and kids with disabilities.
And so I ended up choosing law so that I could — mostly I want to work in special education, so just to really work to ensure that kids with disabilities are given the education to which they're entitled. So that's what brought me here. Very much like you, but I actually was — not in, in part of the community of people with disabilities.
I'm a wheelchair user, or I gradually became one, I should say.
So I too was part of an inclusive I grew up in Wisconsin, so I was part of a very inclusive school, and actually, my supposedly my generation, because I was born in 91, so my generation were the first ones to have gotten the benefits of the ADA for schooling. So I was in inclusive schools and everything.
So, yeah, I too, I realized, like, when I got to college especially in the Middle East, it wasn't the same.
And it was used the R word, not towards me but I've heard it used. So, yeah, I felt like I need to give back.
[ Simultaneous speech ].
Sorry, Rachel.
RACHEL GOLD: No, go ahead.
JULIE MCGINNITY: I was going to say, Sherif you and I are in the same — I was born in 1990. So right around the same age. [Laughter].
SHERIF: Yeah, yeah. I was — I thought maybe I'm one of the oldest here. But, yeah.
JULIE MCGINNITY: No, I feel old in law school all the time because I'm 30 and I'm like [Laughter].
SHERIF: I'm getting this, I'm getting there, don't worry. But Rachel, you said — where did you grow up? In D.C.?
RACHEL GOLD: I grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago but I was going to say, I went to college in Wisconsin.
SHERIF: Where?
RACHEL GOLD: Where in Chicago or in Wisconsin?
SHERIF: Where in Wisconsin, both.
I went to UW Madison.
What year did you graduate?
I graduated in 2018, I was born in '95.
SHERIF: My brother, of course, he graduated longer he was class of '09 from Madison.
RACHEL GOLD: Well, I'm Wisconsin. I don't — a lot of people in D.C. don't even know where Madison is. I grew up in the northwest. So — Midwest. And so I always, you know, I always was familiar with Wisconsin, and I got here and no one knew where it was.
Have you heard of Eau Claire?
Yeah, sure.
That's my hometown.
That's crazy.
And my brother actually went to U Chicago for his Ph.D. My elder brother. The oldest one.
RACHEL GOLD: Very nice.
SHERIF: So in Chicago also we know people.
RACHEL GOLD: I have a cousin who works at U Chicago and a cousin that is going back for business school. So lots of connections.
SHERIF: Yes, yes, yes. Small, small world.
SHERIF: It is very much so.
RACHEL GOLD: Hannah or Julia, I don't know if you want to share, we were just talking about why we're interested in this area of the law. Or what brought us here.
HANNAH: Yeah, I just have a kind of complicated chronic medical condition, and have been able to do really well with a lot of health care and kind of fighting for integrated school and employment but a lot of other people with similar disabilities do not get that, so.
Welcome, Hannah.
What other sessions are you guys hoping to go to today?
HANNAH: I want to go to the ones on health plans although I'm going to have to listen while on the road to get my second vaccine dose which I'm also excited for.
RACHEL GOLD: Oh, that's so exciting. I've not gotten mine yet but maybe some time soon!
SHERIF: I got my vaccine before I traveled, before I came to the US. So.
Did you recently travel?
SHERIF: Yeah, because I was living, as I said, I was living in Qatar for the last ten years. So — in the Middle East. So before I got to North Carolina, I got vaccinated, me and my parents.
HANNAH: What vaccine do they have?
SHERIF: Pfizer. Pfizer. It was before Johnson & Johnson got the one dose. So I took two shots. I took two doses, I mean.
HANNAH: I'm getting Pfizer too. So for me, the session, I'm looking at the sessions, let me see. I guess one or two — the justice — sorry, disability justice approaches to disability rights throughout disasters.
Throughout disasters. Sorry. That sounds interesting and also decision-making for development.
To be honest, ill wanted the education one about the schools because I think that's throughout my experience outside of the U.S., that's what's lacking. Around the world, in my opinion. U.S., it's not perfect.
But we've got it.
I mean, pretty good.
Maybe.
Again, I grow up in the Midwest and I still, like, was — no one [ off mic ] relatively pampered in terms of inclusivity so I personally didn't face many problems. So I could be wrong about other parts of the US.
No, I completely understand what you're saying. I don't remember if this is before you joined or hopped on or after, but I'm in a clinic right now and part of my case is special education, and our client specifically works with families in poverty, and so it's been really interesting for me to see the — how special education and related services how that differs when you're working with the school who largely has students who comes from families in poverty versus the area that I grew up in, so it's been interesting to see the differences because I don't think I realized just how many barriers so many faces face, and that's eloquently been maybe an epiphany that I had a little bit too Leif in life but I attribute that to growing up somewhere quite sheltered, and so I'm learning about those systemic issues in my clinic and I love being able to help.
SHERIF: What's the clinic that you're in, if you don't mind me asking.
RACHEL GOLD: Sure, it's the health justice alliance at Georgetown.
So it's a medical-legal partnership with the Georgetown medical school. So we provide through a combined medical-legal lens we provide care and legal services.
SHERIF: Nice. I don't want to sound really weird but do you have any internships in the summer?
RACHEL GOLD: Yeah, they actually — I think they actually do because I was talking to my professors about possibly helping them part-time over the summer, so if you're interested I'm happy to put you in touch.
SHERIF: That would be great, especially if it's possible remotely. If possible.
RACHEL GOLD: I'll put my e-mail in the chat, and if you want to send me an e-mail.
No, thank you.
RACHEL GOLD: Monica, I saw you popped in, if you want to introduce yourself, that's cool, if not, that's totally fine too. If anybody else wants to email me, you can use my email too, I put it in the chat, or if others want to put their email if something resonated with you.
Sorry, I was introducing and I was muted. [Laughter] sorry. My name is Monica. I am a 3L at Richard Hamelin in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
I am a — I'm an evening weekend student, during the day I'm an accessibility specialist at Thomson Reuters, I'm super excited to finish law school, I definitely feel the senioritis right now, I just want to be done.
RACHEL GOLD: Welcome, and graduates on being almost done. I'm jealous, I'm a 2L.
SHERIF: Here's another fellow Midwestern. I'm from Wisconsin.
I don't know the — I'm originally from Canada. And I came here five years ago, so I know Wisconsin exists as a state. But that's all I know. [Laughter].
SHERIF: Eau Claire is like two hours away from you guys, east.
RACHEL GOLD: Monica I'd love to know more about your accessibility specialist job and what you do and how you like it.
It is fun. I'm actually — my primary responsibility is Westlaw. So I work on the accessibility of Westlaw products, Westlaw US in particular, and try to make sure that new features coming into Westlaw remain accessible.
And then remediate existing issues with the product as well.
RACHEL GOLD: What kind of testing or what qualifications do you use to make sure that something is accessible?
So we target let me just say right off the bat, this is, like, I'm here personally. I don't represent my employer here at all. But we target WCAG 2.1 compliance. We have a testing team that goes through few features and reports any violations there. We also look at usability, making sure that people with various disabilities are able to use the product.
SHERIF: That sounds awesome. I wanted to ask you, I also had experience in accessibility. I've done it with digital but also physical infrastructure. Do you guys do it as well or is it only digital accessibility?
We have — we're mostly just digital. We don't do a lot of physical products before being at Thomson Reuters I was at target and at Target, we did a lot of that kiosky stuff.
That's fascinating that you're into the physical stuff. I think that's really fun.
SHERIF: The digital — I think I kind of stayed away from it because I'm not patient enough for, like, the digital stuff, it's not my go to I'm not very tech savvy. So I commend you.
RACHEL GOLD: I think we just have a few more minutes left, and I'm sure you'll be off to other sessions, so I want to make sure that you get there on time. Does anyone have any parting thoughts before we go to see what the rest of the sessions have to offer?
Thanks for sharing, everyone, it's nice to meet you all.
SHERIF: It was a pleasure. Thank you.
HANNAH: Great to meet y'all.
RACHEL GOLD: Julia and Monica, congratulates on being almost done, and Hannah, good luck next year with your first year of school.
HANNAH: Thank you.
MONICA: It's not too late to change your mind. Just kidding, good luck.
RACHEL GOLD: All right, well, it was nice to meet you all.
SHERIF: Nice to meet you.
HANNAH: Bye-bye.
Thanks everyone for being here.