Nicholas Wallenburg, from Lenexa, Kansas, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for the Law School.
Wallenburg earned a BSBA in Accounting and an MPA from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His debate team experience in high school and college inspired him to pursue a career in litigation. He chose Vanderbilt due in large part to its faculty.
“My favorite course I took as an undergraduate was a business and law class taught out of the Regulatory State casebook that Professors Edward Rubin, Kevin Stack, and Lisa Bressman wrote,” Wallenburg explained. “When I discussed law school options with the professor of that class, he encouraged me to attend Vanderbilt, because the school has one of the best administrative law faculties in the country.”
During his time at Vanderbilt, Wallenburg served as Editor in Chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review and an Articles Editor for the Environmental Law & Policy Annual Review (ELPAR). He was a member of the National Moot Court team, Mock Trial team, and the Vanderbilt Legal Academy Scholars program. In addition to earning the Founder’s Medal, Wallenburg was named the Elliot Cheatham Scholar for the class of 2026.
Wallenburg’s perspective on his career shifted while working as a research and teaching assistant for Professor Edward Cheng. “I had enjoyed my first year of law school, but that experience – discussing and researching the big questions and helping students wrap their head around torts – made me realize that I would love to be a law professor,” he explained.
Wallenburg spent his 1L and 2L summers working for Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. in Kansas City, Missouri. After graduation, he will serve two clerkships – first with Judge Daniel Crabtree on the United States District Court of Kansas, then with Judge W. Duane Benton on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. In the long term, he hopes to pursue a career in legal academia.
“Over the last three years, I have learned so much about the world around me,” he said. “I learned that we are each capable of more than we think. Even though there were long nights and weekends filled with work, I truly believe I got the most I could out of my law school experience by saying ‘yes’ to those opportunities, and I would encourage future students to do the same.” 