Published in the Spring 2019 issue of Westwind Magazine
Most people spend their lives trying to steer clear of bankruptcy, but Elizabeth Jones’ warm embrace of the subject propelled her into a career she perhaps only dreamed of a decade ago. Now a Supreme Court fellow in Washington, D.C., she reflects on how she developed a passion for bankruptcy law and details how she hopes to help debtors moving forward.
Jones began making career plans even before she stepped foot in a college classroom: She wanted to be a lawyer, and she’d spend her
undergrad years at Walla Walla University gearing up for law school.
“I was pretty sure I wanted to do business for my major,” she says, noting that she’s always appreciated numbers, “but I kind of knew that for law I would need something else in order to feel a little more prepared.” She tacked an English minor onto her degree and joined the Honors Program to help round out her education.
Preparing for law school isn’t all about acquiring textbook knowledge, though; it’s about learning to hold firm under pressure.
“I knew I needed to push myself in other ways,” she says, “so I did that by doubling up on some classes and getting involved in other things outside of the curriculum,” such as ASWWU Senate, The Collegian, and the softball team. Despite the extra responsibilities, she finished all her coursework within three years to make up for time spent abroad in Thailand.
With a bachelor’s degree under her belt and unwavering plans for her career, Jones said farewell to the west in 2013 and headed to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to attend the University of Michigan Law School, ranked No. 8 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
“Going in, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” Jones recalls,
“and that was pretty intentional because I wanted to be open to the
possibility of falling in love with a certain type of practice.”
At one point she considered transactional corporate law; at
another, she was leaning toward litigation. When Jones got a taste
of bankruptcy law—a middle ground between the two—she realized
she’d found her niche.
Bankruptcy law might sound dull on the surface, but Jones argues that it’s far from black and white. “You really get the opportunity to reinvent the wheel in every case that you get,” she says. Though most bankruptcy cases fall within the same parameters, lawyers are forced to find creative solutions for each debtor.
Jones completed her law degree in 2017 and continued her journey east to clerk for a bankruptcy judge in New York City. During her clerkship, she heard about the Supreme Court Fellows Program
and decided to apply.
The program selects four individuals each year to work in one of four federal judiciary agencies, giving them practical experience and providing a path for them to conduct research on a specific topic. Jones proposed a bankruptcy-related research project in her application, and the unique pitch—coupled with her obvious zeal for the subject—earned her a placement at the Federal Judicial Center in the 2018–19 cohort. In August, she made the move to D.C. to begin work.
While one could argue that Jones has already accomplished plenty for someone less than two years out of law school, her motivation has yet to peak. She plans to do clinical teaching down the road, supervising law students as they represent real bankruptcy clients.
“There’s a very big subset of people that are trying to navigate this process on their own, which is very complicated and difficult,” she says. Running a clinic will allow Jones to mentor students and provide more representation for debtors who can’t afford attorneys. She will conclude her fellowship in August and move back to New York City, where she’s accepted a position at a law firm to continue working toward this goal.
For Jones, the next step seems to always be within reach. Maybe it speaks to her innate drive for success, or maybe it’s a result of finding what she loves. In either case, it’s clear that she’s not slowing down any time soon.