{"id":221414,"date":"2024-12-04T11:53:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T16:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=221414"},"modified":"2024-12-16T08:49:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T13:49:18","slug":"graduate-finds-fulfillment-as-uconn-laws-first-supreme-court-fellow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/12\/graduate-finds-fulfillment-as-uconn-laws-first-supreme-court-fellow\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Finds Fulfillment as UConn Law&#8217;s First Supreme Court Fellow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Adam Kuegler \u201920 was already practicing law when he got an opportunity to be a judicial clerk, which led him to the Supreme Court Fellows Program.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-221419 img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/20230309_FS_Adam-Kuegler-260x300.jpg\" alt=\"Adam Kuegler\" width=\"260\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/20230309_FS_Adam-Kuegler-260x300.jpg 260w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/20230309_FS_Adam-Kuegler-888x1024.jpg 888w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/20230309_FS_Adam-Kuegler-768x885.jpg 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/20230309_FS_Adam-Kuegler-1332x1536.jpg 1332w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/20230309_FS_Adam-Kuegler-1776x2048.jpg 1776w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/20230309_FS_Adam-Kuegler-364x420.jpg 364w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/20230309_FS_Adam-Kuegler-577x665.jpg 577w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 260px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 260\/300;\" \/> He was one of four fellows accepted to the prestigious program for the 2023-24 year and the first ever from UConn Law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fellowship gives you a better understanding of judicial administration,\u201d Kuegler said. \u201cTaking a year to think about the law academically, to develop my research and writing skills, and to learn from people who are great researchers, great writers, and great mentors are all things that I\u2019ll value from this experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kuegler didn\u2019t follow the path of starting a clerkship right after law school. Instead, he joined a law firm as an associate and then applied for clerkships, landing two with a year\u2019s gap between them. Looking to fill that gap and seeking an opportunity to think about the law in an academic way, he came across the Supreme Court Fellows Program.<\/p>\n<p>The program offers its fellows a chance to broaden their understanding of the judicial system through exposure to federal court administration. It also requires fellows to produce a \u201cpublishable-quality\u201d work of scholarship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have an opportunity to do more empirical research as opposed to solely case law research,\u201d Kuegler said. \u201cIt provides you with that experience and with the opportunity to review the scholarly work of others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fellows don\u2019t work directly with individual justices of the U.S. Supreme Court but are placed with one of four federal judiciary agencies. Kuegler worked at the Federal Judicial Center, a research and education agency for the federal judiciary. The center\u2019s projects span a broad range of topics, including practice-oriented legal education on specific subjects, such as patent law, scientific evidence, or arbitration, and empirically based studies in judicial reform.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to producing his scholarly work, Kuegler supported the center\u2019s research and education activities. He found assisting with its publications especially interesting.<\/p>\n<p>The program also includes special enrichment activities like a Supreme Court Preview conference, gallery seating at Supreme Court oral argument and non-argument sessions; lunches hosted by the counselor to the chief justice; featured speakers such as the solicitor general, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and the White House counsel; and other events.<\/p>\n<p>Kuegler said he formed strong relationships with the other three fellows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBuilding those professional relationships was a very enriching part of the year,\u201d he said. \u201cTo be able to attend oral arguments and do other things together, helped us to learn from each other and build what I\u2019m sure will be lifelong friendships.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After practicing law for a year, Kuegler was one of the first clerks for Judge Sarala V. Nagala in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. He is now working for Judge William J. Nardini on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.<\/p>\n<p>Kuegler said he\u2019d advise current students to be open to different paths that might come up. \u201cLook into things that interest you and be curious about different areas of the law that might or might not be specifically related to the area of law you want to practice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He encourages others to apply for opportunities that interest them, even if they feel like a stretch.<\/p>\n<p>Kuegler said he found great peers and great professors who were wonderful to work with and a great law school community at UConn Law. He\u2019s maintained relationships with Professors Peter Siegelman and Kiel Brenan-Marquez, who have encouraged him and helped him develop research ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adam Kuegler &#8217;20 got a a close-up look at federal court administration while engaged in research and writing as a Supreme Court fellow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":221420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1857],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2418],"class_list":["post-221414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-law"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-29 19:25:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221414"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222225,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221414\/revisions\/222225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/221420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221414"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=221414"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=221414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}