Career
Where I'm Headed
My career goal is to practice labor and employment law at the intersection of environmental policy, worker protection, and emerging technology. My path is the Cornell University ILR → Cornell Law School 3+3 Accelerated Pathway — the most rigorous and economically efficient pipeline to the labor law profession in the country.
Why Labor Law?
Labor lawyers operate at the exact intersection of economics, organizational behavior, and federal statutory interpretation. They negotiate collective bargaining agreements, litigate Unfair Labor Practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board, and increasingly navigate the legal implications of AI in the modern workplace — the precise convergence of everything I've spent high school building expertise in.
Why Cornell ILR?
The Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations is the only undergraduate program in the country exclusively dedicated to the study of people and policy in the workplace. Its core curriculum — covering labor economics, U.S. labor history, organizational psychology, employment law, and conflict resolution — provides a massive contextual advantage before ever entering a law school classroom. ILR graduates don't learn their practice area on the job; they arrive already fluent in it.
The 3+3 Pathway
Cornell Law School's 3+3 Accelerated Pathway Scholar Program allows elite Cornell undergraduates to complete their senior year concurrently with their 1L year. Credits from the first year of law school back-transfer to satisfy remaining undergraduate requirements — eliminating an entire year of tuition (saving ~$99,734 in cost of attendance) and injecting the graduate into the legal labor market 12 months earlier. For a BigLaw associate entering at $225,000–$240,000, that one-year acceleration represents a quarter-million-dollar swing in lifetime earnings. The program also waives the LSAT requirement entirely for Cornell undergraduates with SAT/ACT scores at or above the 85th percentile.
Cornell ILR Acceptance Rate
Class of 2030: ~7–8%
3+3 Program
~7% of each Cornell Law incoming class
BigLaw 1st-Year Associate
$225,000–$240,000 base
1 Year Saved
$300,000+ in combined tuition savings + earnings acceleration
Experiential differentiator
Cornell Labor Law Clinic
The Cornell Labor Law Clinic — directed by Clinical Professor Angela B. Cornell — places law students as lead counsel on real NLRB unfair labor practice cases, binding arbitrations, and international human rights filings with UN bodies. Students don't observe; they draft position statements, conduct direct examinations, negotiate settlements, and author post-arbitration briefs. This is the defining experiential differentiator for a labor lawyer's training.
Trajectory
2027
Graduate River Hill High School
2027
Enter Cornell ILR (B.S. Industrial & Labor Relations)
2030
Apply to Cornell Law 3+3 Program (junior year, Jan 15 deadline)
2030–2031
Dual senior year / 1L year (credits back-transfer)
2033
J.D., Cornell Law School
2033
Enter BigLaw Labor & Employment or specialized L&E boutique
Long-term
Policy-facing labor law: AI workforce regulation, climate jobs, worker rights