Ashley Grovert Kasarjian, Class of 2007
After graduation: Associate, Snell & Wilmer, Phoenix, Arizona
Undergraduate: Arizona State University’s Barrett Honors College (Political Science; Justice Studies)
Hometown: Phoenix, Arizona
Ashley Grovert Kasarjian has some practical advice for prospective students: “You are going to spend all of your time for the next three years with the students at your law school,” she says. “I chose Vanderbilt because I could easily see myself interacting with the students on many levels. You can go to any top school and get an education, but there are very few schools you will leave as a better person.”
Before graduating in 2007, Ashley, whose interest in labor and employment litigation grew out of three classes with labor law expert Robert Belton during her 2L year, had accepted a position with Snell & Wilmer in her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. “The alumni network at Vanderbilt is incredible,” she says. “When I started applying for jobs, alumni across the United States offered me support and advice. It definitely helps that employers automatically know what you’re made of when you tell them you go to Vanderbilt Law School.”
Ashley spent her 1L summer clerking for Judge Michael Daly Hawkins of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Phoenix, and she notes that her active involvement in student activities and organizations paid off handsomely in terms of experience and accomplishments she could highlight on her resume when she applied for full-time positions. She won first place in her 1L Mock Trial competition and served as a Mock Trial Associate Justice as a 2L, when she was also a semi-finalist in the law school’s Moot Court competition. During her 1L and 2L years, she was a member of the Trial Advocacy Society, the Moot Court Board and traveled on the Mock Trial National Traveling Team. She also served as the Vanderbilt Bar Association’s 1L and ABA representatives, on Vanderbilt University’s Graduate Student Conduct Committee, as a Vanderbilt Law School Ambassador, and as the student liaison to law school’s Faculty Appointments Committee. "I had a great experience at Vanderbilt in and outside of the classroom," she says.
