Wednesday, Oct. 30, the Black Law Students Association hosted a panel titled “From Law to Legislation: Navigating the Intersection of Law and Politics.” Williamsburg Mayor Doug Pons, Williamsburg City Councilmember and clinical associate professor of law Stacey Kern-Scheerer, Virginia Congressman Bobby Scott, State Senator Aaron Rouse and Delegate Rae Cousins ’01 served as the panelists
Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Don Scott opened with introductory remarks.
“It’s so very important the work that you’re doing and that you will continue to do as new aspiring attorneys,” Scott said. “The work that you do each and every day will help protect vulnerable citizens, will help make sure that we protect the vote, protect those in the criminal justice system.”
Black law student association president Jayda Peets J.D. ’26 and community service chair Stephanie Bruno J.D. ’27 moderated the discussion, which touched on several topics relating to politics and the legal profession.
Kern-Scheerer said her decision to pursue law was influenced by the fact that she was a caregiver for her grandparents, motivating her interest in healthcare.
“When I graduated from college, I wasn’t sure about going to law school or medical school because I really didn’t want to think about those like, you know, medical issues, population health, but I also wanted to be an advocate for those who needed help,” she said.
Kern-Scheerer ended up attending both, but after law school, she decided to work on public health legislation in the U.S. Senate.
Cousins, who represents the 79th district of Richmond, said that her parents inspired her from a very young age to go into public service. Her mother worked as a teacher while her father worked for the commonwealth on workforce development and affordable housing advocacy.
“I grew up just seeing public service in my family,” Cousins said. “I was inspired to become an attorney and fourth grade after watching the civil rights documentary ‘Eyes on the Prize.’ I saw how attorneys like Thurgood Marshall, also Oliver Hill, Henry Marsh, who are both from Richmond, just how they use the law to affect change for Black Americans.”
Pons shared his thoughts on the challenges of being a public servant.
“There’s no question that serving in any one of these seats takes an enormous amount of time away from what could be your career,” Pons said. “Fortunately, I worked for myself when I decided to run for city council. I recognize that the time I dedicated was worth it to me. It may not be worth it to you, but I want to emphasize that running for public office is not the only way to get back to your community. You can volunteer in any number of organizations. I think that is as important as anything that we do up here.”
Scott is the dean of Virginia’s Congressional Delegation and the first Filipino American voting member of Congress. He is also Virginia’s first African American member of Congress since Reconstruction. Scott tells people going into elected positions that they can choose two out of four roles: politician, legislator, lawyer or businessperson.
“I wasn’t married, so family life was gone and I was a good politician or legislator, so my law practice was shut,” Scott said.
Rouse, a former NFL player and member of the Virginia Beach city council, emphasized the importance of voting. He is running to become the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor of Virginia.
“Voting reassures your participation and the strength of our democracy,” Rouse said. “So if you have an issue and you don’t decide to vote and like you can’t get on social media and start tweeting.”
Further highlighting the necessity of voting, Rouse touched on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow Virginia to purge some individuals on its voter rolls.
“And if it wasn’t, why are people fighting hard to take it away?” Rouse said.
Peets shared her thoughts on the association’s organization of the event, underscoring that community involvement is one of the pillars of her presidency
“I believe that this is directly intertwined with one of the foundations of our law school, which is being a citizen lawyer,” Peets wrote in an email to The Flat Hat. “With such an important election coming up on November 5, it was crucial that we emphasize not only the importance of national elections, but how local elections directly affect us as well.”
Peets said the BLSA prioritizes giving back to the community as public servants.
“We hold a very unique role in society in how we can help people, so ensuring that students know that becoming a public servant is an accessible career path is a message we successfully communicated to the future lawyers that attended the event,” Peets said.
Jaffar Kasasa, a law student at the College, appreciated the event’s focus on the difficulty of public service work in the state of Virginia.
“I think one of the important things that we talked about was the different experiences they had, the different paths that led them to how they got there, the importance in the difficulties that they have because they’re not paid very much,” Kasasa said. “And from the history I’ve read, Virginia is very relatively low paid compared to other states.”
