Law Student Spotlight February 2022

UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law

Law Student Spotlight

Meet Zoya Miller

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s “Law school ha here become somew lly where I can rea ce— make a differen e myself e s n a c I re e h w makes in a career that is is a difference. Th .” where I belong

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Zoya Miller would love to tell you that it was her life-long dream to go to law school, but she can’t. Because that’s not true.

This third-year law student from Northwest Arkansas was drawn to law school by her love of research and writing and her passion for helping people.

After graduating from Valley Springs High School, Zoya studied English language and literature at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. While at Lyon, she worked as a supplemental instruction leader for her peers and a mentor and tutor with Apple Upward Bound, where she advised high school students who were prospective firstgeneration college students, like Zoya was herself.

As she neared her college graduation, she knew she wanted to use her writing skills to help people in a practical way. “Dr. Terrell Tebbetts was my mentor at Lyon,” she said.

“He encouraged me to look at public interest law.”

Based on that advice, Zoya took the LSAT during her senior year and applied to Bowen.

“Bowen is the only place I wanted to go, “she said. “I wanted to stay in Arkansas, and I wanted the opportunities available in the state capitol.”

After finishing college six months early and before starting law school, Zoya moved to Little Rock to serve as an AmeriCorps Member with City Year Little Rock. This program puts AmeriCorps Members into elementary, middle and high schools to create equitable learning opportunities for children in a way that is responsive to diverse racial and cultural needs. It also supports teachers and staff in delivering instruction. In this role, Zoya worked 10 hours each day, five days a week. While focusing on English tutoring, she also helped students outside of academic instruction, mentoring and providing near-peer support.

“It was intensive and very rewarding,” she said. “I really enjoyed the experience.”

Some might also say it was good training for the demands of law school and her future profession. Indeed, since arriving at Bowen, Zoya has been as busy outside the classroom as inside.

Though “inside” is a relative term.

Because of the pandemic, half of her law school education has been delivered online, making it difficult for her to select her favorite law school experiences or memories.

“Of course, I’ve loved my writing courses because my passion for writing helped draw me toward law school.”

Zoya has worked in the law library since her 1L year, though it was quiet during Covid when only students and faculty could enter. This year, she is working as a reference assistant. Now that the library has reopened to the public, she enjoys assisting patrons with resources as they research their legal issues and cases.

Zoya’s reference work dovetails well with her first clerkship after her 1L year at the Center for Arkansas Legal Services (CALS).

“It was interesting because it was right when Covid hit, and there were a lot of questions about how judicial processes would continue during quarantine,” she said. “I did a lot of research on due process and court hearings as well as housing issues and evictions.”

She also enjoyed clerking at Gill Ragon Owen, where she was exposed to transactional law.

“Though I began law school with an interest in public service, I wanted to keep an open mind and experience as much as possible.”

Zoya is working as a research assistant with the State Courts Partnership, a unique partnership between Bowen and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC). The Partnership participates in NCSC initiatives but also conducts research and works on projects directly affecting courts and the legal community at the state, national, and international levels.

Zoya, as a research assistant, and Partnership director J.D. Gingerich coauthored a paper on how different courts handle red-flag laws. It was distributed to every chief justice in the United States Page 2 of 2

and is available on the NCSC website.

Zoya is also an Executive Editor of the UA Little Rock Law Review. Her note, Creating Consistency in Domestic Violence Asylum Cases, will be published this month in Volume 44.2. The note encourages the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to create consistent regulations governing domestic violence asylum cases. “I’ve loved seeing my work go from inception, to completion, to publication,” she said.

In addition, Zoya soon begins work as a Community Engagement Fellow in Bowen’s new Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform (Center). Her responsibilities will consist of organizing judicial listening events and managing the outreach for those events. The series will consist of five judicial engagement events throughout the state, bringing together judges and community members to talk about how the judicial system impacts their lives. It is a joint initiative of the Center and the State Courts Partnership, and is funded by a grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

This year, she is returning to CALS as an extern. “It’s a nice bookend to have my first clerkship also be my last outside work experience before graduation,” Zoya said.

On the rare occasion that she’s not working or in class, Zoya spends time with her dog, Kuni, a border collie mix.

She also relaxes by playing guitar.

As Zoya approaches graduation, she is keeping her options open. At this point, she’s interested in government and public service work, and is leaning toward family and juvenile law.

“There are so many things I’m interested in doing. I don’t have a set plan,” she said. “I’ve been taking steps forward and reading the ground in front of me. It’s led me back to where I started.”

“Law school has become somewhere where I can really make a difference— where I can see myself in a career that makes a difference. This is where I belong.”

University of Arkansas School of Law

Law Student Spotlight

Meet Ashley James

Ashley James

Screen Shot from “Ask A Fellow”

Information table from Pro Bono Week celebration at the School of Law Page 1 of 2

Ashley James has a passion for helping the less fortunate. After completing a short stint working as a paralegal, the 3L from Van Buren took a step to place her passion on a firm foundation: she applied to, and was accepted at, the University of Arkansas School of Law. Today, she is the school’s inaugural Rose Law Firm 200th Anniversary Pro Bono Fellow and is preparing herself for a career of service, most likely as a criminal defense lawyer.

James is a 2017 graduate of the College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas Forth Smith. An undergraduate internship with the Crawford County Public Defender’s Office refined her interest in law and allowed her to see how law and her desire to help others dovetail.

“I was really inspired by how hard the attorneys and staff worked to help the clients,” James said. “That internship solidified my desire to serve low-income clients and those individuals who may not have easy access to legal help.”

It was her dedication to public service work during her 1L and 2L years that led Dean Margaret Sova McCabe to select James as the first Rose Law Firm 200th Anniversary Pro Bono Fellow for the 2021-2022 term. The fellowship was adopted and funded by Rose Law Firm, the oldest law firm west of the Mississippi River, to commemorate the bicentennial of its founding.

As the Pro Bono Fellow, James is spearheading the school’s ongoing effort to create a culture that values service and community engagement. In 2016 the school added an academic distinction in the form of a transcript notation and medal for students contributing 50 or 100 hours of pro bono service during law school. During the 2021-22 academic year, James is responsible for fostering an appreciation of the importance of pro bono service within the school’s students and for creating and promoting public service opportunities.

Early in the school year, she organized “Ask A Fellow,” a virtual meeting that allowed students, especially 1Ls, to ask questions about the program. She also helped plan the school’s pro bono programs held in conjunction with the American Bar Association’s National Celebration of Pro Bro Bono in October.

“The best part of my fellowship has been seeing how committed our student body is to giving back to the community and making a difference,” James said. “A lot of my effort has been supporting ideas directly from other students and helping get those projects going or connecting those individuals with faculty that could get their projects going. It was the best kind of surprise.”

The appreciation of the student’s commitment is shared by the faculty of School of Law and with the members of Rose Law Firm.

“We are delighted that as part of Rose Law Firm’s bicentennial anniversary philanthropic effort that the U of A’s public service fellowships are supported and highlighted,” said Robin Allmendinger, managing member of the firm. “Ashley has worked to create an elevated awareness and called attention to how law students and lawyers should give back to their communities. Our firm congratulates Ashley and all students who serve, including the seven 2021 gold medal recipients

who volunteered 100 hours of pro bono service and the five silver medal recipients who volunteered 50 hours of pro bono work.”

James is the 2021-22 recipient of the James R. Van Dover Pro Bono Scholarship and is an exemplary law student. In addition to her coursework, she has participated in the mock trial competitions organized by the Board of Advocates. She is the 3L representative to the UARK Animal Legal Defense Fund chapter, has participated in the Criminal Law Clinic, and has volunteered for pro bono activities such as Arkansas Free Legal Answers and record sealing clinics. A volunteer position with the Center for Arkansas Legal Services (CALS) added James to the team creating the There’s No Place Like Home project. Her contribution to the project involved the collection of data, through Court Connect, about pro se litigants facing eviction so that attorneys could send information about assistance available through CALS. The dedication to service won James a coveted spot in this year’s Public Service Academy, a joint project of the Arkansas Bar Association, the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and the state’s two law schools.

The academy brings a diverse group of 25 lawyers and law students together for an intense program designed to give participants the tools needed for service as elected officials and volunteers.

“Throughout her law school career, Ashley has embodied the ideals of a public servant and has used her legal training to advance public interest work,” Brian Rosenthal, Rose Law firm member and chair of the 200th Anniversary Committee said. “Through participating on the executive board of the U of A law school’s Animal Legal Defense Fund and as a member of the Arkansas Bar Association’s most recent Public Service Academy, she has worked to move justice forward by words and Page 2 of 2

Ashley James (center) 3L representative, Tyler Entz (left) vice president and Calli Holland (right) president, UARK Chapter of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, manning information table at 1L Orientation.

deeds. In 2021, her work on behalf of families facing eviction combined her legal training with compassionate concern for others.”

James, like many University of Arkansas School of Law students, has benefited from the support and tutelage of the state’s bench and bar. In addition to the undergraduate internship she completed at the Crawford County Public Defender’s Office, James was invited back to that office last summer as a Rule XV Intern and assisted with the representation of juvenile clients.

She also had the opportunity to work with the Sebastian County Prosecutor’s office to experience the other side of the criminal justice system. During the summer following her 1L year, she interned at the Medicaid Fraud Unit of the Office of the Arkansas Attorney General, and has been a pro bono intern at CALS working with the planning team of the center’s Beyond Opioids Project.

As her law school career draws to a close, James looks forward to a career of service and to helping clients and individuals who do not have access to legal representation.