Visiting Jurist Rachel Bloomekatz on the Importance of Pursuing Meaningful Experiences
Judge Rachel Bloomekatz has worn many hats throughout her career: Supreme Court law clerk (on both the state and federal levels), assistant attorney general, appellate lawyer at a large law firm, civil rights litigator at a boutique firm, and—perhaps less common among federal judges—solo practitioner. Since 2023, she has been serving on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, a role she has described as her “dream job” because she gets to engage “in meaningful public service” while doing what she loves: reading briefs and writing opinions.
Bloomektaz visited the Law School on April 9 for the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Visiting Jurist program. She joined Professor John Rappaport to discuss her unique career trajectory, meaningful cases she has worked on as an advocate and as a judge, and her thoughts on public service.
One theme of Bloomekatz’s remarks was the importance of pursuing one’s professional and personal goals in tandem. “I’d like to tell you I had some master plan or guiding principle that I was always adhering to,” Bloomekatz said, “but for me, I was looking to try and gain meaningful and growth experiences and marrying that with figuring out how to be in the same location as my husband [for his career] and build a family. I don’t shy away from talking about, quite frankly, real life, because it’s something that has played a huge role in shaping my career.”
After starting her career clerking for Judge Guido Calabresi on the Second Circuit and Chief Justice Margaret Marshall on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Bloomekatz went to work at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. One of the draws, she said, was the ability to run a docket that was entirely her own, even as a young attorney. She encouraged students to consider working at a state attorney general’s office after graduation because unlike at a large law firm, “you’re going to be the one standing up on day one.”
Bloomekatz also mentioned the wealth of opportunities available in state courts when she reflected on her earlier clerkships. “State courts hear way, way more cases than federal courts, and they hear cases on the most intimate issues in people’s lives. The experience in a state court can be so impactful.”
After the Attorney General’s Office, Bloomekatz served as a law clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer on the United States Supreme Court and then joined Jones Day’s appellate practice in Ohio.
In one pro-bono case she worked on there, Bloomekatz represented Brandon Moore, who had received a 112-year sentence for a nonhomicide offense that he committed when he was just fifteen. Moore had no counsel when Jones Day took his case. The public defender’s office couldn’t take the case because they represented a codefendant; furthermore, Moore’s direct appeal had been exhausted, and there was not going to be a court appointment.
But there were strong constitutional arguments to be made, Bloomekatz recalled during her talk: intervening case law from the Supreme Court had held that juvenile nonhomicide offenders could not receive life without parole sentences and that they must have a meaningful opportunity for release. “Here was this kid with the longest sentence in the state of Ohio,” Bloomekatz said, “with completely changed laws about the constitutionality of that sentence, and those arguments just weren’t going to see the light of day.”
Bloomekatz successfully briefed and argued the case before the Ohio Supreme Court, which ruled that functional life sentences like Moore’s violated the Eighth Amendment. She stressed the importance of taking on pro-bono cases to vindicate important constitutional arguments and values. She also added that this kind of pro-bono work is one way young lawyers can get in-court experience earlier in their careers.
Bloomekatz spoke highly of her time at Jones Day. But after a few years there, she said, a change was in order. “I didn’t feel like I was growing and getting as many meaningful opportunities as I wanted to.” That feeling led her first to Gupta Wessler––a public interest litigation boutique focused on appellate litigation––and then eventually to open her own law firm where she continued to handle public interest litigation and appeals.
When Rappaport asked what law students should think about when considering the choice to strike out on their own, Bloomekatz emphasized flexibility; solo practice allowed her to represent clients and causes she was passionate about. Personal circumstances played a role too—her husband was taking a semester-long leave from The Ohio State University to do research in Uruguay, and with two children under four, maintaining a law firm practice while living in a foreign country was a tall order. Bloomekatz decided she would try her hand at a solo practice while out of the country and see what things looked like when she got back.
“It turns out,” she said, “solo practice is awesome.” One thing she enjoyed was the chance to focus on clients and causes closer to home. At Gupta Wessler, Bloomekatz was handling cases for plaintiffs all over the country and in the United States Supreme Court. Opening her own firm allowed her to “focus on things going on in Ohio and in the Midwest, to practice more in state courts, and to take on a different line of work that [she] found really meaningful.”
At the same time, she cautioned students against starting their own practice “on day one after you graduate,” encouraging them to build meaningful work experiences first; the point is to not rule it out as a viable option at some point in one’s career.
During her talk, Bloomekatz also reflected on her time on the bench. One thing that has surprised her about being a judge is how much autonomy she has: “I can arrange my chambers how I want…it’s been fun to come up with my own systems and my own best ways of doing things.”
Bloomekatz also emphasized the importance of oral arguments. The briefs are certainly important, she said, but “argument isn’t an empty formality…certainly in my court, [judges] are asking questions because they have questions.”
Rappaport asked about her thought process in deciding to take the new job, to which Bloomekatz replied that the decision to take the bench was not a difficult one. As much as she enjoyed her solo practice, being a judge feels like she “won the lottery.” She added, “I get to do interesting, meaningful work on behalf of the public and I get to work with really excited and eager law clerks.”
“We work hard,” she said, “but I also recognize how lucky we are to get to do this work.”
Conor Dorn is a second-year student at the Law School. Originally from River Forest, Illinois, Dorn studied history and philosophy at Saint Louis University before coming to the Law School.