Political science graduate Alexis Nail ’20 is one of two recent Birmingham-Southern alumni who are second-year law students at one of the most prestigious schools in the country – Howard University School of Law. Howard was Nail’s top choice in the application process, their goal to educate not just lawyers but social engineers being something that has always resonated with her.

Alexis Nail ’20. Top photo: Nail (second row on right) is pictured with the 2L members of the Charles Hamilton Houston National Moot Court Team.

“The entirety of the school was created by social engineers – people who wanted better for our community,” she says. “We’ve produced some of the best social engineers that the country has ever known, and knowing that is what the school values, Howard was the place I wanted to be.”

Social engineering is at the core of Howard School of Law’s past and present, and now Nail, as well as fellow political science alumna Alexis Baldwin ’20, are both preparing for careers in law with sensitivity, perception, and a greater community outlook in mind.

Nail was not completely set on pursuing law when she was a student at BSC, keeping an undecided major while she took classes that interested her. Then, she began to see law as a clear direction for her career.

“Different classes at BSC revealed what type of lawyer I wanted to be, and law school became more of a reality,” Nail says.

One BSC class that made a strong impression on Nail was Professor Emeritus Dr. Fred Ashe’s “American Inequality” course. Though already able to recognize inequality, Nail found that the course changed her perspective on policies and societal norms and their impact on different groups of people.

BSC also encouraged Nail to serve in the Birmingham community through local organizations and as a Hess Fellow with the Krulak Institute. For her fellowship, she worked at Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, which provided real-world experience and professional connections, one of which helped her earn her upcoming job.

This summer, Nail will work at Relman Colfax, a D.C.-based civil rights law firm that will further her social engineering-based education. This experience follows her judicial internship last summer in the U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia.

All these experiences – even back to her legal research, journalism, and community outreach in her Hess Fellowship – have helped Nail discover what she would like to do after earning her Juris Doctor, though she does not know exactly where she will end up.

Nail does know she is grateful to be surrounded by incredible professors at Howard who always look beyond the law itself into its philosophical implications and how it connects to nonprofits, government, and pro bono work. Plus, BSC continues to help her in the law field.

“As a first-generation law student, the application process was very new to me,” Nail says. “BSC has a lot of resources I’ve been able to take advantage of, even now in law school. And I had professors who cared and helped me see opportunities.”

This story was included in a special law edition of From the Hilltop, Birmingham-Southern’s alumni email newsletter.

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