Will McGoughran first thought he might enjoy a legal career during college, when he worked in the service center of a nearby courthouse, assisting indigent, pro se clients with administrative filings. After graduating from Anna Maria college, he spent a year working as a paralegal at a local immigration law firm. This experience confirmed his desire to work in public interest—and earn a law degree that could help him do so.

After arriving at Vanderbilt, Will began to grasp how varied his public interest career options were. He eventually shifted his focus. “I really wanted to do something where I’d help people and serve them,” he recalled. “Once I got to school and really started sitting in classes and talking to professors, I went into a more international law human rights path, and that was something I had no conceptualization of when I came to school.”

During his first year, Will worked for Professor Michael A. Newton, Director of the International Legal Studies Program, assisting with research for Global Rights Compliance. Will studied abroad in his 1L summer with Professor Newton as part of the Vanderbilt in Venice program and then as an intern with a barristers’ chamber in London, through a connection that Professor Newton facilitated.

While it’s rare for American law school students to intern abroad, it made sense for Will. “I was really interested in international criminal law, and I wanted to get my hands in it and see what it was like,” he explained. “To see how two different countries have taken their judicial systems on different paths was really cool, and I think it creates a better perspective when you come back and start to do work in the United States.”

In his second year of law school, Will served as an article editor for the Journal of Transnational Law and worked as a research assistant for Professor Ingrid Brunk, the Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law. He assisted her with the Transnational Litigation Blog (which Professor Brunk co-founded), even publishing his own post. “Transnational litigation is specifically what she focuses on, there’s not many people in the world that know it better than her. So, to get to sit there and learn and help out was a blast,” he recalled.

Will spent his 2L summer in the U.S., working in Washington, D.C., as a law clerk for the Department of Homeland Security. He assisted attorneys and other U.S. government professionals with research, litigation strategy, investigations, and interagency coordination related to the deportation of human rights violators. “I didn’t feel like I missed a beat by being overseas [the previous] year, even though it was untraditional,” he noted.

After graduating from Vanderbilt Law School, Will plans to return to Washington to serve as a clerk for Judge Richard A. Hertling at the Court of Federal Claims. In addition to support from the Career Services Office, Will also credits recommendations from Professor Newton and Professor Brunk for helping him secure this competitive and prestigious position. “When I accepted the offer, the judge told me that it was the recommendations of my professors that was the tipping point [for selecting me],” he said. “They’ve been great and helpful my whole time here, so it was not surprising to hear that they were so gracious with their time when the judge called them.”

“I think that’s like a common thread with not just professors, but students and administrative staff in the school,” he added. “Here it really feels like you’ve just got this whole support team around you that’s rooting for you… [and] are working really hard to make sure you get the most out of the law school experience and are set up well for a successful career afterwards.”