About

Small choices can become pivotal moments. My interest in the law began when I wrote about Life After Innocence (LAI), a legal clinic at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, for a high school project. I learned about the vital legal services that the clinic provided to help wrongfully convicted individuals re-enter society and reclaim their lives post-exoneration. Moved by the lawyers and law students’ vital work, I asked if I could help the clinic. As a result, I became LAI’s first high school, then college, intern.

In working with the exonerated, I heard numerous first-hand accounts of how the justice system had failed my clients. From negligent public defenders to false eye witness testimony, the wrongfully convicted, particularly those of marginalized races or lower socioeconomic statuses, faced countless obstacles in their quest for justice. The thought of my clients being wronged by our justice system was perplexing, and it ignited my passion for social justice and the law. I will never forget seeing a client overwhelmed with emotion after receiving a certificate of innocence or a client’s relief as his record was expunged. LAI showed me how the law can function as a vehicle to empower others and tackle problems in our legal system, inspiring me to pursue a career as an attorney.