Jennifer Baker, JD '09, was a White House intern.
The University of San Francisco’s Jennifer Baker, JD '09, interned in the Office
of the Counsel to Vice President Joe Biden this past fall, working alongside Counsel
Cynthia Hogan and her two deputy attorneys.
In addition to assisting
the counsel's office with legal research, writing, analysis, and advising the vice
president on legal matters, Baker participated in activities sponsored by the
White House Internship Program – including a weekly speaker series featuring
White House senior staff members and a long-term service project working with
students in Washington, D.C. public high schools.
Baker applied for the
internship when she learned that her start date at O'Melveny & Myers in
Washington, D.C., where she secured a job offer after completing a summer associate
position there in 2008, would be deferred for several months due to the
economic downturn.
Baker was in the
Dorraine Zief Library studying for the bar exam when she learned that she had
earned the opportunity to participate in the highly selective White House internship
program. "The week I found out was maybe the least productive week of
studying I've had in three years of law school," Baker said. "I was
checking my phone and e-mail religiously." She hopes her experience at the
White House will give her greater insight into government lawyering, and she
plans to join O'Melveny & Myers in 2010.
"I am so grateful
for such an extraordinary opportunity," Baker said. "I know that the
skills I learned in the internship program and the contacts I made in D.C. will
be invaluable no matter where my legal career leads in the future."
Read about Baker's path
to the law and the White House in "Fortuitous Furlough," published in The New Lawyer supplement to the Daily
Journal.
