Will Crossley ('01)Alumni Spotlight: Will Crossley ('01)  -By Ariel Linet ('13) Like many UVA Law alumni, Will Crossley ’01 has experience in a range of fields. Although he loves his current job as Chief Counsel and Director of Voter Protection for the Democratic National Committee, he had no idea that this was where his career would take him. Before coming to law school, Will worked for the governor of Georgia, obtained an M.Ed. in Education Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University’s School of Education, and taught elementary school. When he graduated from UVA, he spent a year as the Barton Clinic Fellow at Emory University School of Law, working on issues affecting abused and neglected children in the child welfare system. Next, he clerked for Judge Julian Cook (LLM ’88) of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, and then for Judge Damon J. Keith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Prior to joining the staff of the DNC, Will spent four years as a litigation associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Washington, D.C. Will says that he couldn’t have planned this varied career path, but it’s clear that he has skillfully taken advantage of the opportunities that have come his way. While still at the law school, Will made connections that would shape his career. He met Elaine Jones ’70 (the first African-American woman to graduate from UVA Law) when she came to accept an award at the law school for her historic work as the first female president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Will asked Ms. Jones for career advice, and she suggested that he apply for judicial clerkships. The following year, Will enrolled in the Trial Advocacy College that is held annually at UVA, during which he met Judge Cook. Will would later apply for and ultimately secure a clerkship with him. These experiences during law school were the jumping-off point for Will’s career. Because Will had worked on President Obama’s 2008 campaign, he was known to the President’s advisors. After the election, Bob Bauer ’76, who was at that time the general counsel to the DNC (and had also been President Obama’s campaign counsel, and later White House Counsel), called and offered Will his current job. As Will described it, Mr. Bauer “didn’t have to ask twice.” At the DNC, Will supervises a small team of lawyers internally, as well as an internship program for law students over the summer, and a one-year fellowship that Will created. Will and his team advance voters’ rights in many ways, by educating voters (to “equip people for full participation in the democratic process”), advising party leadership, and working with attorneys across the country on issues in their states involving voting rights and litigation. Will works with the media, the President’s campaign team, and Democratic leadership around the country to protect the right to vote. When describing his mission, Will pointed out that there has been a movement over the last year and a half to change the laws on access to voting, and as a result a lot of states are requiring certain types of photo identification at the polling place. These changes prohibit many legitimate voters from exercising the privilege – primarily members of vulnerable populations like minorities, young people, and the elderly. Will explained that there is no empirical, documented problem with voter fraud in this country; as he sees it, “the real argument here is not fraud or no fraud – it’s about who carries the burden of voter access.” He believes that the right to vote is so essential that it should be the government, not the citizens, which takes on the responsibility of facilitating the right to vote. As he put it, “It ought to be easier, not harder to vote. We need to have more people, not fewer, participating in our elections. The government ought to have more of the burden, not less of the burden ... in ensuring that the systems that we use are adequate for processing the vote of the people. We are a democracy, and so the machinations of the governmental system – if nowhere else, in the area of voting – ought to reflect those democratic principles, and be open and not constrained, conflicted or closed.” In pursuing this goal, one major accomplishment that Will cited was a recent victory in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, decided in early March. It was the latest decision in a decades-long conflict between the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee over voter suppression policies. The initial decision had resulted in a consent decree, in which the RNC agreed that it would not continue with so-called “ballot security programs” that operated to turn away voters in minority neighborhoods. The case has gone back and forth over the years as these practices have continued. After the 2008 election, the RNC asked that the decree be vacated in its entirety, over the DNC’s opposition; the Third Circuit sided with the DNC by upholding the consent decree. Will was pleased with this decision because it represents one small part of the fight to ensure that everyone who is entitled to vote can exercise that privilege. Ultimately, what Will hopes to promote is the idea that people should protect their most basic rights as Americans. He does this work because he believes that each individual’s right to vote should be vigorously defended from attack or threat. “At the end of the day,” Will said, “we need to be as resolute, persevering and committed to the right to vote as we are to every other civil right that we have as citizens of this country.” PILA Board Bio ProjectPILA Board Bio Project By: Shimmy Edwards  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? I am the president of PILA, and I am responsible for helping to manage PILA activities and grantees. I focus on PILA's mission of promoting public interest work, and also on raising lots of money to help fund summer grants. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. I would love to see PILA expand the opportunities for all students, even those who are not grantees or 1L reps, get more involved with PILA. This could be through a formal membership program, or other creative ways. We want to find ways for all law students to get involved with PILA if they desire. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? I am interested in nonprofit and local government law, as well as criminal law.  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? As Disbursement Director, I am primarily responsible for coordinating the grant application and evaluation process. The best part is having a key role in PILA's mission of allocating grant funds as effectively as possible and getting to work closely with fellow board members to ensure the quality of that process. The worst part is not being able to give every deserving applicant as much as we think he or she deserves--not to mention some very complex Excel spreadsheets. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. I would like to see PILA continue to break fundraising records and allocate more grants than in previous years. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? I am interested in Education law and would like to work as general counsel for a school system or college or university to prevent any unnecessary lawsuits. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? Warren Buffet, who would best know how to stretch our funds as far as possible.  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? I'm currently serving as the Treasurer, which means I'm responsible for keeping track of PILA's finances and managing a budget that regularly exceeds $300K. The best part of my job is seeing all of the dollars add up after a successful fundraiser; the worst is spending a lot of time with excel spreadsheets to make sure none of it gets lost... 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. Fund everyone who applies for a grant! This is always our goal, and I hope we can eventually meet it. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? I'd like to do impact litigation, ideally bringing lawsuits to challenge gender discrimination and improve work/family policies. I'm drawn to litigation-centered strategies because history has demonstrated that it can be a very effective way to bring about needed policy changes and educate the public about social justice issues. I hope to advocate for women and families because I think far too many working mothers are shouldering huge burdens with too little support, which harms kids and increases the struggles that many families face. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? Cam Jansen. I'd kill for her photographic memory, and she's pretty good at solving problems.  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? I am an Auction Director, and I was responsible for arranging the logistics for the PILA Auction, specifically the venue, catering, DJ, buses, security, ticket sales, staging, decorations, etc. Our main goal was to increase revenue while controlling the event's cost—we wanted to raise as much money for PILA grants as possible! 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. Even after the historic amount of money given in PILA grants this year, I'd like to see the number of grantees climb even higher. A summer public interest job can change the course of someone's career, and so I think it's important to enable as many students as possible to take those positions. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? I'm interested in corporate and white-collar crime and crafting effective business regulations. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? Was Robert F. Kennedy on the PILA Board when he was at UVA?  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? I am the Co-Chair of Business Solicitations for the Auction. Nina Schwartz and I were responsible for gathering all of the donations from local businesses. We worked closely with grantees who solicited the businesses and were put together the program of Auction items. The best and worst part of the Auction job is working very intensely for a couple months in the fall -it is nice that the work is compacted but also very time consuming. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. I would like to see PILA create more of a school-wide public interest community that extends beyond just the PILA grantees. I would love to see more opportunities for volunteer work beyond pro bono opportunities. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? I hope to be a Public Defender. I strongly believe that every individual deserves to have his or her liberty protected, and love the idea of helping indigent clients during what may be the most difficult moments in their lives. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? Pele—the Football Player of the Century who has inspired and helped train kids around the world to play soccer and gives back as a noted philanthropist.  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? I am an Auction Director (we plan the auction), and I co-chaired the Business Solicitation Committee (we oversee grantees asking local businesses to donate to the auction). The best part about being part of the auction team is getting to raise so much money for PILA grants. You put in a lot of work and you get to see the results. The worst part for me was probably trying to do a mail merge using a corrupt Word file. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. I would like to see PILA work with the law school to offer more public service-oriented and practical skills courses. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? Women's rights. Before law school, I lobbied for women's access to reproductive health information and services. My work experience showed me that law is an essential tool in the fight for women's rights. It has been used to guarantee rights for women, and also to take those rights away. I am excited by the prospect of working to ensure that rights protected in law become a reality for every individual. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So many reasons. "We live in an age in which the fundamental principles to which we subscribe—liberty, equality and justice for all—are encountering extraordinary challenges, . . . But it is also an age in which we can join hands with others who hold to those principles and face similar challenges.”—Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? I am in charge of the on-grounds efforts for the PILA auction. I solicit and keep track of student and Professor donations. I plan and help shoot the advertisement videos. I formally ask and coordinate "night of" events with the Professor hosts. I work with three of the other auction chairs to package the items in groups, and distribute items once they are sold. The best part of my job is that I get to work with and form relationships with a ton of faculty and students. The worst part of my job is that it is a large, concentrated amount of work in the fall. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. I would like to see PILA organize more public interest and pro bono work, in addition to fundraising for grants. I would like to see PILA work more to mobilize the law school to do public interest work as a community. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? I am drawn to many areas of public interest law. I believe that I will eventually be a public defender, as I believe that everyone needs a voice in the legal system and hope to move our criminal justice system towards a rehabilitative model. I also hope to work on innocence and capital cases, as they were what initially sparked my interest in attending law school. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? Warren Buffett, because he is incredibly wise, kind, and could fund everyone!  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? As Membership Directors, Aditi Goel and I are responsible for PILA outreach and events that don't directly raise funds (the Fundraising and Auction teams handle those). We also produce an e-newsletter that goes out to PILA alumni every semester. Perhaps most importantly, we lead the PILA representatives (mostly 1Ls, but also transfer and LLM students) who are great liaisons for the PILA board. Spending time with the reps is definitely my favorite part of the job, and event planning (Membership coordinates about 4 per semester) is my least favorite. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. Next year, I'd love to see PILA find ways to get students who aren't reps or on the board more directly involved with PILA. There are a lot of students interested in public interest law who want to do more than show up to events. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? I'm most interested in race issues, especially preventing discrimination. Before law school, I worked on fair housing issues, and after law school I plan to return to that field. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? Thomas Jefferson of course! He was an amazing visionary but also very practical and grounded. And maybe we'd be able to have board meetings at Monticello. Plus, powdered wigs liven up any meeting, right?!  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? I am PILA's Membership Director and co-direct it with rockstar Helen O'Beirne. The goal of membership is to cater support to 1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls pursuing an interest in public interest -career or no career -by throwing events (like the PILA Fall Kick-Off with guest speakers Rachel Harmon and Andy Block), empaneling speakers, hosting socials, and most importantly, doing projects with the fabulous 1L PILA Reps. No doubt, the best aspect about this position is meeting and working with students who have public interest on their radar. It's refreshing and inspiring. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. The school provides support to public interest students through the Public Service Program, the Public Service Center, and PILA. What I would like to see -and definitely something PILA can facilitate -is an integration of all three. It would make it easier for students to be able to navigate the public interest world at UVA law, and it would strengthen the public interest backbone of the school. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? Fighting the man! I will be a public defender in Boston starting this fall. I came to law school with a background in public defense because of my work as an investigator at The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and I am very, very lucky to be able to see my interest unravel into a career. I got the heart of a PD, and as for why -that calls for a long, long conversation over food and wine. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? Michelle Obama, please. Need I explain? I think we should send her an invite!  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? I have been a Fundraising Director for two years now. I work with the other members of the fundraising team to put on the Fall and Spring Booksales and the various fundraising events, including Rock-A-PILA and PILA Trivia. It can be time consuming work, but its a fun and creative team to be a part of. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. I'd like to see even more cooperation with the Public Service Center and a continued emphasis on growing the strength of the public interest community here at UVA, increasing the ability to provide support and resources to students interested in working in a public interest capacity. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? I have worked in a range of fields, from international human rights law to housing law, but I am pursuing a career as a public defender. I'm drawn generally towards working with marginalized and disadvantaged populations, and I'm a sucker for the underdog thus public defense! 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? My idealistic (pretentious?) answer is Saul Alinsky; my calculating answer is Warren Buffett; my fabulous answer is Robyn, the most killingest popstar in all of Europe.  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? I am one of the four fabulous Fundraising Directors. We're responsible for all the fundraising events with the exception being the Auction. So we plan: The book-sales, Rock-a-PILA, Pong for PILA, PILA trivia, L*Star, and Grad Housing. I love planning the events, and thinking up ways to improve them. My not-so-favorite part is convincing law students that they aren't too busy/poor/exhausted to come to our awesome events. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. I'd love to do a big kick-off fundraiser at the beginning of the year. Perhaps a bar night at Bilt, or setting up our own couple of kegs in Scott Commons and selling some PILA swag. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? I'm really interested in Immigration. It's such a complicated area of the law that has such a drastic impact on individuals. I really enjoy helping clients navigate the intricate legal procedures of the field. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? Probably Gordon Gecko, he would be able to fundraise all the monies with that set of persuasive skills. Either him or Ginny Weasley. She seems clever and could just confound law students into signing up for events.  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? We plan all PILA's fundraising events except the Auction. This year the fundraising directors were responsible for: the fall and spring book sales, Rock-a-PILA (a Rock Band battle of the bands held at a local bar), Pong for PILA (beer pong tournament), grad housing (1Ls and 2Ls rent their apartments to 3Ls' families in town for graduation and donate half the money to PILA), and PILA trivia. Best thing: you get to work on a wide variety of events. Worst thing: you have to keep track of a wide variety of events. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. Work together with the Public Service Center and the Program in Law and Public Service to better articulate our unique roles supporting public interest work at UVA. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? Legal aid. I'm interested in the intersections between community organizing and law. I hope to develop long-term relationships with clients, both individuals and organizations, in which they define their most pressing problems and are active participants in envisioning and implementing solutions. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? The members of Blink 182 to judge Rock-a-PILA covers of Whats My Age Again and All the Small Things.  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and what's the best/worst thing about it? Fundraising Director. Responsible for making as much money as possible throughout the year so that we can give out as many grants to our fellow students interested in securing Public Interest positions. As a fundraising director, you are in charge of putting together events such as the Fall and Spring Book Sale, Rock a PILA, Pong for PILA, Trivia, L-Star Program. The best part of the job is promoting PILA and getting people excited to give donations. I love advertising and marketing for PILA. The most difficult part of coordinating all of the events is overseeing all of grantees who help out. There are a number of moving parts and people involved and road bumps are sure to arise. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. I would like PILA to introduce one more fundraising event in the Fall to replace Rock-APILA. Perhaps karaoke night? 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? My family has always put an emphasis on the protection of children’s rights. My grandfather was a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Rochester, New York, who pioneered day treatment programs for mentally ill youth. My parents are pediatric subspecialists as well as active promoters of treatment for mental health issues. As a result, I developed a strong interest in working with young people, particularly in the area of education and mental health. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? The actor Jack Black. Because he is awesome. Need I say more?  1. What is your position on the Board, what are you mainly responsible for, and whats the best/worst thing about it? I serve as the Alternative Spring Break Director on the PILA board. I am responsible for continuing to promote and expand the ASB program (started a few years back by PILA's Jesse Stewart) in which law students are sent all over the country to work in the public sector over their spring break. It offers a window into the real work done at elite public interest institutions and the time spent with passionate attorneys and applying legal training to real cases and real clients can ignite a spark within students to continue that kind of work in their careers. It also does a great deal of good in a short week. 2. Name one thing you'd like to see PILA do next year. I'd like to see more collaboration with the Public Service Center and Law School administration to help continue inspiring students into public sector work. Specifically, I'd love to see public sector externships for class credit during the school year become accessible and encouraged. This would allow students to be more competitive in the public interest marketplace and to serve the local community and raise UVa Law's presence in Charlottesville. 3. What kind of public interest law are you drawn to and why? I am drawn to personal advocacy in criminal law, specifically indigent defense. The precarious point at which you intersect in needy persons lives and serve as their voice within a broken criminal justice system is both difficult and inspiring. 4. If you could have any person from history (real or fictional) join the PILA Board, who would it be and why? I think I'd choose a fictional character from 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy, an extreme private sector capitalist. Not only for the laughs factor but because real diversity of opinion on the fundamentals can inspire better outcomes and would force the board to continually reevaluate and rearticulate the purpose of our many initiatives. It would keep discussion returning to the basic root of what kind of impact we want to have in the law school and outside its walls. And who doesn't love Alec Baldwin? Michael Moskowitz, Auction Director |
|
|