JOE DAVIS ’07: B.A., BROWN UNIVERSITY 2003
"The summer after my first year, I clerked for the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation hearings for Chief Justice John Roberts. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. Everything I did in the first year—reading cases and trying to figure out what they meant—went into reading the briefs of Judge Roberts’ cases and trying to figure out what they meant and where he ‘fit.’ The experience really brought home to me how important the process is. If I have learned anything at Duke Law School it’s that the law can be, if used correctly, a powerful tool for social change. Hopefully, my JD/MPP will allow me to effect change, whether it be working on legislation in the U.S. Senate or protecting an indigent defendant from being wrongly convicted of a crime he didn’t commit."
Born and raised on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Davis is completing a joint degree in law and public policy through the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. Davis is involved with the Mock Trial Board, the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy, and the Innocence Project, where he worked with faculty and students to overturn the wrongful conviction of a North Carolina man accused of brutally beating a woman in 1995. He spent his last two law school summers as a law clerk for the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a summer associate in the government relations practice of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary in Washington, D.C.
Interests: Cooking, running, and “hanging out” with dog Milo
Favorite thing about Durham: The community: “There are so many opportunities to do great things for the city and the surrounding areas.”
CHRIS RICHARDSON ’07: B.A., EMORY UNIVERSITY 2003
"Part of being an attorney is not only getting the brief right and getting the law right, but also it is being able to represent your firm. And part of representing your firm is being involved. You should be out there. You should be a face and be visible to the community. My goal is to take not only the academic lessons I have learned here at Duke, but also the social lessons and apply them in my life and say ‘I am not just going to write a brief, I am going to represent you in a holistic fashion."
Richardson grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. After graduating from Emory University in 2003, he went to work with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, where he developed an outreach program aimed at helping cancer patients obtain legal services and assistance. His experience there helped him see how the law can help people. At Duke, Richardson is a leader in the Guardian ad Litem program and serves on the Journal of Gender Law and Policy and the Moot Court Board. He will study in Hong Kong in fall 2006.
Interests: Reading and volunteering
Favorite thing about Durham: “That its neighborhoods, houses, structures, design, and development are so diverse.“
ZACHARY McNISH ’06: B.A., WILLIAMS COLLEGE 1999
“I was a joint degree student in English, so I can say that Duke is really committed to interdisciplinary education. I think every big university is rhetorically committed to interdisciplinary education, but I think Duke is committed to it in a meaningful way. The ability to come here and be part of the Law School, but also be a part of the broader Duke community and to have professors both in Law and English be willing to engage in the intersections of those disciplines—that has been great.”
From Maui, Hawaii, McNish graduated from Williams College with a degree in history. In the Peace Corps he helped farmers in a remote village in Panama, work he credits with sparking his interest in law. “I realized that I really liked that mix of problem solving and advocacy, taking their problems on as my own and acting as an advocate on their behalf,” he says. As a law student, McNish volunteered at a local Legal Aid office in Durham, worked with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program to prepare returns for low-income Durham residents, and participated in the Community Enterprise Clinic. McNish also worked as a teaching assistant for a first-year legal writing class and was co-chair of the Public Interest Law Foundation. McNish was honored with a prestigious University service award for his community activities. In the fall, he will begin a clerkship for a federal magistrate judge in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Interests: Surfing, diving, basketball, and working with Native Future – a non-profit organization he founded upon his return from the Peace Corps. Native Future is currently assisting three Panamanian indigenous communities in their efforts to gain legal titles to lands they have traditionally occupied.
Favorite thing about Durham: “Its multifaceted nature – classy restaurants and smoke-filled pool halls, college students and oldtime residents, new science labs and warehouses. At the risk of sounding a little like Holden Caulfield, ‘there is nothing fake about Durham.’”
PAIGE BERGES ’07: B.A., STETSON UNIVERSITY 2004
“International work is very important to me, so the decision to pursue a JD/LLM was an easy one. I studied abroad in Mexico as an undergrad, and the summer after my 1L year I worked as a legal assistant at Arcelor in Paris. I was able to use my knowledge of international and comparative law to research steel requirements in Eastern European countries and China. Next fall, I’m going to Argentina to study for a semester. The courses and opportunities offered for LLMs help me understand different cultures and their varying legal philosophies.”
Berges was born in Killingworth, Connecticut, but calls Bokeelia, Florida, home. She earned a degree in political science from Stetson University. At the Law School, she is a member of the Duke Law Drama Society, the Refugee Asylum Project, Duke Law Democrats, and the Domestic Violence Advocacy Project. Berges worked as a summer associate in the New York office of Shearman and Sterling.
Interests: By day: running the Duke Trails, playing intramural soccer. By night: attending Duke plays and local rock shows in Chapel Hill and Durham.
Favorite thing about Durham: “It’s full of surprises—good restaurants, theater, indie movies, dance, and music of all kinds.”