Appellate Practice in the Public Interest

Join OPIA for a community discussion with Wasserstein Fellow Sonia Carson ’12, an attorney for the Civil Division Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice. Sonia will discuss the surprising ways that real-life appellate practice differs from common stereotypes and the unique joys and challenges of representing the United States. Join her to learn how to become an appellate lawyer and why you can (and should!) begin your legal career in the public interest.

Lunch provided. RSVP below.

Sonia Carson is an attorney with the Civil Division Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice. She joined the Department of Justice through the Attorney General’s Honors Program in 2013, following clerkships for the Office of the U.S. Solicitor General and the Hon. Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Sonia’s docket includes the government’s most complex cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and the thirteen federal courts of appeals. She is the principal author of dozens of briefs on novel questions of national importance in administrative, constitutional, foreign relations, intellectual property, and national security law, among other areas, and she has presented 20+ oral arguments in five federal courts of appeals. Sonia is a member of the Partnership for Public Service AI Federal Leadership Program, the Heyman Fellowship Program, the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a volunteer fire department, where she is training to be an EMT. The National Law Journal named her a “DC Rising Star” in 2020. Sonia earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and her law degree from Harvard Law School. Sonia’s scholarship on cutting-edge law and technology issues has been cited more than two hundred times in publications around the world. Between high school and college, Sonia worked for five years in jobs ranging from manual labor to finance.

If you or an event participant requires disability-related accommodations, please contact HLS Accessibility Services at accessibility@law.harvard.edu two weeks in advance of the event.