Plaintiff-Side Summer Associate Experience: Kate Walford

Kate Walford

UC Berkeley School of Law ’24

Summer Firm: Gibbs Law Group (Oakland, CA)

Coming into law school, I had no idea what plaintiffs’ law was. I did know that I wanted to do work on behalf of people – as opposed to corporations – and was especially drawn to vindicating the rights of workers. I was lucky enough to find my way into plaintiff-side work through the Berkeley Plaintiffs’ Law Association in my first semester as a 1L. I knew that I wanted to litigate and wanted to do work that felt meaningful; finding plaintiffs’ law felt like a perfect fit.

This summer I worked as a summer associate at Gibbs Law Group in Oakland, California. GLG represents clients who have been harmed by all kinds of corporate misconduct, primarily through class action lawsuits. In my summer at GLG, I was exposed to a wide variety of practice areas, including antitrust, employment, tort liability, financial fraud, and consumer protection. I worked on assignments for everything from multi-district litigation to class actions to individual employment cases and mass arbitrations. This experience broadened by view of the ways in which plaintiffs’ lawyers can advocate for harmed clients as well as fight for legal precedents which protect consumers, employees, and the public at large. I learned from the attorneys at GLG that plaintiff-side work is dynamic, creative, and highly responsive to prevalent societal issues.

In addition to the breadth of practice areas, working at GLG also exposed me to the life cycle of a case in complex litigation. I gained exposure to cases which were just filed, discovery disputes, depositions, all kinds of motions and briefings, and oral argument preparation. This exposure bolstered my understanding of class actions, multidistrict litigation, and the emerging practice of mass arbitration as methods of seeking justice.

I could not have asked for a better place than GLG to gain research, writing, and complex litigation experience this summer. Best of all, I felt intellectually stimulated, challenged, and good about the work that I was doing. In a world of increasing corporate control and misconduct, holding such entities accountable feels incredibly rewarding. Most students come to law school with a desire to pursue work which furthers justice, and I think that the growth of school-based Plaintiffs’ Law Associations across the country reflects this. I would encourage any law student who came to school with this desire to look into opportunities on the plaintiff-side!