Be Yourself and the Rest will Follow: Building a Fulfilling Career No Matter Where Life Takes You

Many people go to law school because they want to do meaningful work that benefits society, and it can be overwhelming trying to find the perfect job to do that. Join OPIA for a community discussion with Wasserstein fellow Kenda McIntosh as she discusses her unconventional pathway into a career in indigent defense and how bringing her values into her work – from commercial real estate, to immigration, to public defense – has created opportunities and opened doors she could have never planned for. Kenda will discuss the rewards and challenges of serving marginalized communities and offer practical advice on how to make the most out of the first few years of your legal career, no matter what you end up doing.

Lunch provided. Please RSVP below. Open to the HLS community.

Kenda McIntosh has devoted over a decade to public interest work in various roles.  Prior to becoming a Federal Public Defender, Kenda ran the criminal defense practice at Still She Rises, a non-profit organization in Tulsa which was founded to address the staggering rates of female incarceration in Oklahoma.  Embracing a client-centered and holistic approach, her philosophy of “no case too small” resulted in the dismissal of hundreds of cases, ranging from municipal tickets to homicide charges. This approach not only significantly reduced the state’s interference in the lives of the women served by the organization, but also translated into substantial economic benefit for the North Tulsa community, amounting to millions of dollars saved annually in bail, traffic tickets, court costs, and fines.

Before joining Still She Rises, Kenda served as an Assistant Public Defender at the Oklahoma County Public Defender’s Office where she handled cases ranging from misdemeanors and juvenile delinquent matters to general felony and capital cases. Prior to her time in Oklahoma, Kenda worked as an immigrant rights fellow at the International Institute of the Bay Area in Oakland, California where she assisted undocumented people with various immigration matters and was a pro-bono attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, where she obtained asylum for three families facing death in their home countries. She received dual bachelor’s degrees in Russian language and political science from the University of Arizona, and her J.D. from New England Law.

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.