NCLA Internship Spotlight

Sanat Mehta

Summer Clerk

Law School: Stanford Law School

Expected Graduation: 2024

Hometown: Littleton, Colorado

Campus Activities: Naturalization pro bono project, Stanford Technology Law Review

Hobbies: hiking, reading nonfiction, travel (especially road trips), board games

What were your duties as an NCLA intern? Conducting legal research, writing memos, writing a blog post

What did you most enjoy about your internship? I really enjoy discussing NCLA’s cases and legal theories with my co-clerks and mentors.

What interesting thing(s) did you learn about Administrative Law? It is surprising how agencies and departments have the power to issue policies and guidance (and then change it arbitrarily) on issues that are significant enough to merit legislation by Congress.

How might you use what you’ve learned later in your professional career? My experience at NCLA is really improving my legal research and writing skills, beyond what I learned as a 1L. I am also learning about litigation strategy and how to identify the issues that are relevant at each given stage in a case.

Any advice for other students who want to intern at NCLA in the future? If you can, take Administrative Law before interning here—it’s not a requirement by any means, but you’ll be more familiar with relevant issues. NCLA works on a very broad range of cases, so there is something for everyone. You do not need to fit any specific ideological mold to be a good fit here, as long as you agree that the Executive Branch needs to be kept in check by the courts.

Publications:
+ A Backlash Against the Education Department’s Anti-Charter School Agenda

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