NCLA Internship Spotlight

Tate Curington

Summer Law Clerk

Law School: Georgetown University Law Center

Expected Graduation: 2022

Hometown: Dallas, TX

Campus Activities: Barrister’s Council (Appellate Advocacy), Federalist Society, Beyond A Reasonable Stout

Hobbies: Cooking, Reading

What were your duties as an NCLA intern?

My duties mainly consisted of conducting research and writing legal memoranda as well as checking the citations of court filings.

What did you most enjoy about your internship?

Knowing that the work that we do has tangible, real world consequences. It’s a great feeling to work on a case and obtain a positive outcome for our client.

What interesting thing(s) did you learn about Administrative Law?

How widespread its reach is and how central to our system of government it is. For instance, many of the hot-button Supreme Court cases are really just admin law questions.

How might you use what you’ve learned later in your professional career?

I’ve learned (and relearned) a ton of information on the more procedural side of the law that is necessary to know for litigation but not emphasized enough in law school. It doesn’t matter how good your argument is on the merits if you don’t follow local court rules or the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Any advice for other students who want to intern at NCLA in the future?

First off, do it! Second, try to develop a decent familiarity with the Rules of Civil Procedure and the basics of filing a lawsuit (standing, personal/subject-matter jurisdiction, etc.). Basically, review your Civ Pro notes. Finally, really learn how to use Westlaw/Lexis well. Otherwise, doing research will be a lot harder.