To Eileen Prescott, ’18, practicing law meant advocating for people in need. It was in an undergraduate mock trial program where she first felt the spark for legal advocacy, and she decided to spend her career advocating for human rights.

Going toward academia came as something of an accident, an evolution of her path. Prescott had been working for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, reviewing the department’s often problematic work from 25 years ago. Her now-husband, Ryan Prescott, ’18, was living in North Carolina at the time and Prescott wanted to be closer to him. Wake Forest University was looking for someone interested in doing research critical of prosecutors—it fit with Prescott’s idea of advocacy. She took the job.

Once Prescott started researching and teaching her first class, she immediately knew that she wanted to pursue academia further. Her role in running the Accountable Prosecutor Project at Wake Forest was not a tenure-track role, so she got help from mentors at UChicago Law, like Professor Brian Leiter, to go on the job market.

Now at the University of Georgia School of Law, Prescott teaches criminal law and criminal procedure. She also does research related to crime and prosecutors, namely ways prosecutors can cooperate in appellate or post-conviction procedures. She also hopes to pursue more research on wrongful convictions.

While different from how she imagined her career, Prescott believes that academia is a unique and powerful way to advocate for individual rights. She said she draws on her experiences with professors and at work. She recalled a class with Aziz Huq, the Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law, who asked students to consider the point of a legal profession in their own careers.

“How do we use the levers of this complicated legal system to advocate for justice and improve society?” Prescott reflected.

Prescott's Advice to Aspiring Academics:

"Read law review articles for fun and out of curiosity. It’s especially helpful if you find an area of scholarship that motivates you. Learn all sides of an issue. What sides do agree or disagree with? Start thinking critically early."

This story is part of a series about Law School alumni in academia. View the full series here.