Olivia Probetts, ’21, Talks About Her Experience as a Ralph L. Carr Appellate Fellow in the Colorado Attorney General's Office
Q&A with Olivia Probetts | Recent law grad had fast track to handling cases in Colorado's highest courts
The Colorado Attorney General's Office employs a handful of recent law school graduates who serve as Ralph L. Carr Appellate Fellows, where they get immediate experience handling cases before the state's two highest courts.
"We wanted to figure out a way to bring newer lawyers into the office and give them real, substantive experience while also addressing some of the needs the office had," Eric R. Olson, Colorado's solicitor general until recently, told Colorado Politics. "And one of the needs is our backlog in criminal appeals."
Olivia Probetts joined the Department of Law for a two-year stint as a Carr Fellow in 2021, shortly after graduating from the University of Chicago's law school. She spoke to Colorado Politics about her time litigating criminal appeals and other projects — including a recent case the members of the U.S. Supreme Court heard in April.
Colorado Politics: What was going on in your life when you decided to apply for the fellowship program, and what brought you to the attorney general's office?
Olivia Probetts: I interned here the summer after my second year of law school. It was COVID, so I did it all from my kitchen in Chicago. But I had a great experience while I was interning. I did some big research projects, I wrote a brief, and I met pretty regularly with one of the Carr Fellows and he encouraged me to apply.
I also grew up here, so it was fun to get to return and go snowboarding more often.
CP: What was your route to law school?
OP: I had a bit of a circuitous path to law school. I studied theater in college and by the time I graduated, I knew I didn't want to perform, but I enjoyed the administrative aspect. So once I graduated, I started working at a theater company doing development — fundraising — and discovered I didn't find it engaging or interesting.
I wanted to find a career that would allow me to remain creative but also challenge me analytically. It sort of seemed like a really good fit once I decided I wanted to move on from the performing arts.
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