Scholar Spotlight: Haleigh Hoskins
“As a student at WashU School of Law, I plan to share my experiences and provide a listening ear to others, hoping our collective and diverse experiences can give the legal curriculum a richer context for understanding and discussion.”
Haleigh has known for a while that she would be an attorney. After graduating from Spelman College, Haleigh started looking at law schools that would be a good fit and keep her close to family, and WashU quickly rose to the top of the list. After a tumultuous year which included the death of her grandmother and a severe illness that led to her mother being hospitalized (the two women who raised her), Haleigh made the difficult decision to put her law schools plans on hold.
Since then, her story has read like something out of a movie. After taking a few months to regroup, Haleigh enrolled in a Master of Public Policy program at Northwestern University, which aligned well with her interest in civil rights interests and allowed her to stay close to home while her mother continued to recover.
While enrolled, she secured a role working for the Mayor’s Office in Chicago, where she worked on projects seeking to address racial issues from a “top-down” approach. She then was awarded a fellowship by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which gave her more experience in civil rights, this time addressing federal drug sentencing disparities for mainly Black inmates in an attempt to overturn wrongful convictions and reunite individuals with their families. While this work aligns with her advocacy passions, she longs to take a bottom-up approach—one that will educate individuals on their rights in their communities and workplaces.
Both of these experiences deepened her desire to return to her original goal of becoming an attorney who bridges the community with the justice system through education.
Why Law School?
While at Spelman, Haleigh spent one of her spring break’s traveling to Ferguson, MO to register citizens to vote shortly after the death of Michael Brown. During the trip, she was able to gain a deeper understanding of civil rights issues affecting the justice system. This spark was further fueled by a trip abroad to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she recognized the lack of legal knowledge among Black Argentines. After returning from her travels, she became a proponent of educational accessibility, desiring to change the world through civil rights advocacy. For Haleigh, becoming a civil rights attorney was the next logical step in a journey that started in her hometown of Peoria, IL.
The Impact of Coaching
While Haleigh was still enrolled in her Master's program, she realized that she had to double down and begin preparing for the gauntlet of the law school admissions process. Haleigh took the advice of one of her close friends and reached out to Ware PLC for support on her road to law school. Haleigh started her coaching journey in April of 2021, seeking assistance with re-taking the LSAT, re-thinking her approach to her application documents, and ultimately desiring motivation to enroll at a high-ranked law school on scholarship.
After months of hard work, Haleigh received multiple acceptances (with scholarships) and will attend her original first choice - the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis (ranked #16). Haleigh credits coaching with providing the support she needed to reach her goals, and that’s only the beginning.
Next Steps
Haleigh applied for and received a Law Fellowship from SEO, the only program of its kind to offer talented incoming law school students of color the opportunity to work at a top law firm during the summer before law school. Haleigh is currently participating in a 10-week, paid summer internships with one of the top firms in the country, WilmerHale.
All this from a young woman who was once told “I don’t think you’ll make a very good attorney. Actually, I don’t think you should go to law school.”