Amanda Lavis '10 and Ed Liva '10
Making History
Not many lawyers ever have the chance to work on the confirmation of a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Amanda Lavis '10 and Ed Liva '10 did it right after graduation from Villanova. After receiving their diplomas from Villanova Law in May, Lavis and Liva spent part of their summer working on the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Court. Both Lavis and Liva spent a semester working full-time in Washington, D.C., for the staff of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee during their third year of law school while receiving credit toward their Villanova law degrees. When the opportunity arose to continue working for the committee in preparation for hearings on Kagan's nomination to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, Lavis and Liva jumped at it. Following their work for the committee, both Lavis and Liva sat for the Pennsylvania bar exam. Lavis will begin work this fall for Rhoads & Sinon in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Liva will be a clerk to Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr. on the U.S Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. "I knew our Senate Judiciary externs would get great legal experience in Washington working for the Senate Judiciary Committee," said Professor Michael Moreland, who supervises the externship, "but the chance to work on a Supreme Court nomination is an extraordinary opportunity for these young lawyers--and is yet another way that Villanova offers the chance to get hands-on experience at the highest levels of the law."
