Emily Tancer, '11

Emily Tancer '11
Hometown: Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan
Undergrad: University of Chicago, '08
College major: Law, Letters, and Society and International Studies
Law School activities: Legal Forum, American Constitution Society, Women's Mentoring Program, International Fellows Program, Student Admissions Committee, Law Women's Caucus

Professors at the University of Chicago Law School are known for taking time to get to know students outside the classroom, whether it’s at a Law School social event or during lunch in the Green Lounge. They also make students an active part of their scholarly research.

Emily Tancer ‘11 started as a research assistant to Assistant Professor Rosalind Dixon in the Fall Quarter of her 1L year and also serves as a research assistant for Professor Tom Ginsburg. (Both are experts in comparative constitutional law.) The experience has helped Emily prepare for writing her own papers and gives her a sense of pride when the professor’s work is published. She also did citation work for Professor Dixon.

 “It’s really fun to know someone’s work well enough at this point that when she writes someone’s last name in her rough draft, I know which paper she’s talking about and how it fits in,” she said.

Emily came to the Law School after attending the University of Chicago for undergrad. She’s loved taking Law School’s seminars, like the Legal Scholarship Workshop with Professor Lisa Bernstein, where students critique young academic’s papers, or Recent Literature on Courts with Political Science Professor and Law Lecturer Gerry Rosenberg, where students and Professor Rosenberg talk about books for a few hours every week. Her favorite course, though, was Copyright taught by Professor Saul Levmore.

“He has a great presence in the classroom and is very entertaining,” she said. “It was also his first time teaching copyright law and it was really interesting to have his outside perspective and to know that he had taught himself the law and the issues involved right before teaching us.”

Here are Emily's plans after graduation:

“I will be working in the Chicago office of Drinker Biddle and Reath, where I summered after my 2L year.”