Meet Hannah Schaller, a 2016 Biola English grad who recently finished law school and is now a Fellow at ZwillGen, a firm specializing in internet and technology law.
In a few sentences, describe your post-Biola work/life journey.
After I graduated from Biola, I pursued an M.A. in 18th-century English literature at the University of Oxford, which served as a sort of capstone to my undergraduate interest in writers like Wordsworth. At Oxford, I grew immensely as a scholar. I also loved studying and living abroad in a different culture — it gave me a richer, more textured perspective on America, myself, and the world in general.
After Oxford, I worked for a year at a law firm before starting law school. It was really helpful to get experience in the field before beginning my JD, because I learned a lot about how a law office works and how to interact with lawyers. The following year, I began law school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
I’m currently a Fellow at ZwillGen, a law firm in Washington, D.C. Afterward, I’ll continue to pursue a practice in data privacy and technology law.
What is your specific position (at the organization/company where you work)? And how did getting an English degree prepare you for the job?
I’m a Fellow at ZwillGen in Washington, D.C. ZwillGen is a law firm that specializes in internet and technology law, the area I’d like to continue practicing in.
Many of the skills I gained in my English major are hugely helpful in law. For instance, reading comprehension is one of a lawyer’s most important skills. A large amount of the job is reading and analyzing dense material, and majoring in English is excellent preparation. Writing is also very important. Writing memos, briefs, and other legal documents is different from the kind of writing you use in English papers, but you’re ultimately exercising the same skill: clearly and succinctly articulating relationships between abstract ideas and concrete facts.
In law, you’re also storytelling. You’re trying to explain the facts of what happened in a given incident (a car crash, data breach, etc.) and the applicable law in a way that persuades a judge or regulator to make a decision that favors your client. This narrative aspect of legal work is sometimes overlooked, but the ability to tell a compelling story is a core part of successful legal advocacy. (In other words: creative writing majors, your storytelling skills can be useful in the world of law.)
Another big element of law is teaching. When counseling clients, lawyers educate them about what a law says and what they should do in response. You have to explain dense material in clear terms to people not steeped in legal jargon. English majors are good at this because they are trained to break down abstract thoughts like complicated literary theories.
Public speaking is also a skill I strengthened in my English major that has supported my legal pursuits. Giving presentations in class and presenting papers at the Zeitgeist conference helped me to be comfortable and confident when presenting ideas to people in law school courses, job interviews, and more.
Law school was very different from undergrad, but as an English major I was well prepared for the transition. There are a lot of English majors in law — even our vice dean at UVA was an English major. (She has a PhD in Milton!) All of the above skills were immensely helpful toward my success in law school, and also prepared me well for my current job.
What was a favorite class or experience you had while a Biola English major?
It’s hard to choose!
Biola Shakespeare took the words off the page and brought them to life.
Critical Theory was also wonderful. I loved grappling with the deep, philosophical, theoretical side of literature. The methods of thinking and analysis that I learned in that class immeasurably enriched my studies at Oxford and really helped me engage with legal theory, too.
I also enjoyed Zeitgeist, both socially and intellectually. It helped me to become more comfortable talking in front of people, and I learned a lot from listening to my colleagues’ papers. As Guild president, I had a lot of fun organizing it, too.
What about life after college was most surprising to you?
I was surprised to realize how much less time I had after college. You’re busy in school, of course, but you become busy in a different way when you’re out of college/academia. For example, in college I didn’t appreciate how much time I had to spend hours immersed in literature.
Having less free time means that time moves more quickly, and you have to be thoughtful about how you use it. I have pursued work-life balance more intentionally than I did in college and graduate school, which has helped me thrive in a demanding field of work.
What advice would you give to a current Biolan majoring in English? Or what’s something you did in college that later helped you professionally?
I advise you to think outside the box about what your post-college career can be. Do a lot of research on what’s possible with your English degree, and be willing to explore things that you’re not immediately sure you’ll like. My career goals shifted throughout college as I researched various options. I wasn’t certain that I’d enjoy law, even when I started at UVA. But I ended up finding an area of practice that I find fascinating and exciting. Think creatively. Cast a wide net as you consider your future career possibilities.
One of the appealing things about law is that it's broad enough to be paired with pretty much anything. It touches every part of our lives. Whatever cause you care about, practicing law allows you to get involved with it and make a decent living at the same time. Even if you don’t work for a big firm, there are plenty of jobs out there — nonprofits, think tanks, companies, international groups like the UN or NATO, university work, etc.
With a JD you can also pursue different careers in writing — maybe as a reporter with a specialized insight into law and policy, or a novelist who incorporates these things into your stories (consider John Grisham and Scott Turow). Or, you could work in TV production for a legal show. Studying law gives you a specialized body of knowledge that you can apply beyond the traditional post-law school route of practicing law.
Are you reading lately, and if so, what?
Yes. I am reading a lot and loving it. That’s been an upside of lockdown!
I recently read Being Mortal by Atul Gawande and really enjoyed it. The author thoughtfully considers how we think about death in American society, which also holds lessons for how we think about living well.
I also recently read Where the Crawdads Sing, which was beautiful, moving, and at times heartbreaking. I loved the lush, vivid descriptions of nature and the surprising plot twist at the end.
I’m also reading Stephen King’s On Writing. It’s part autobiography, part treatise on the craft of writing. I love getting insights from talented authors on how they approach their writing.