Simone Unwalla

About Simone Unwalla

I grew up in Virginia and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics in 2019. At Penn, I was the head captain of the Varsity Women\'s Fencing Team, and I wrote my senior honors thesis on systemic Title IX violations within my university\'s Athletic Department. I also spent a summer interning at the Supreme Court of the United States. After graduation, I worked for two years with the nonprofit think tank CHILD USA. I contributed to projects related to the trauma-informed litigation of child abuse cases and statutes of limitation reform for civil child sexual abuse claims across the country. Much of my work focused on abuse in institutional contexts, demanding accountability from powerful organizations including the Catholic Church, USA Gymnastics, and the Boy Scouts of America. At Harvard Law School, I\'ve served as the Executive Technical Editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal, worked as a student attorney with the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic, and contributed to The [F]law, a student magazine that highlights how corporate law and power exacerbate social problems and systemic injustices. I spent my first summer as a legal intern with the Clooney Foundation for Justice, where I analyzed case viability for claims against individuals and corporations that knowingly finance and facilitate mass human rights violations. During my second summer, I gained experience litigating against powerful institutions with Kellogg Hansen, a high-stakes litigation boutique in DC, and Apollo Law, a plaintiff-side appellate firm that represents workers and consumers against corporate defendants. I recently graduated law school and passed the D.C. Bar Exam with a score high enough to practice in any UBE jurisdiction. I am currently clerking on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and afterwards I will be completing clerkships on the Hawaii Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. After that, I hope to pursue a career in plaintiff-side litigation. I\'m interested in work that seeks justice for working people and holds corporations accountable for violating people\'s rights in the name of power and profit. Eventually, I hope to join an appellate litigation practice that shapes the law so that it works better for individuals. I believe that our legal system ought to serve justice, not power, and I\'m interested in working with people who feel the same way. Please message me if you\'d like to connect!

Experience

1. Judicial Law Clerk

   U.S. District Court, Eastern District Of Pennsylvania

   Aug 2024 — Present

   Serving as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Anita Brody.

Education

• University of Pennsylvania

  Bachelor of Arts - BA

  2015 — 2019

• Harvard Law School

  Doctor of Law - JD

  2021 — 2024