A summer opportunity doing research at the Office of the Legal Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Washington, DC, has given Lyndsey Stults a look at a possible career path.
“Working in employment law has really opened my eyes,” says the 3L who was the only summer intern in the office. She had done previous research at the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Working at the EEOC’s Office of Legal Counsel, which serves as the commission’s policy arm and issues guidelines to help interpret EEOC rules, gave Stults a look at how Title VII can be implemented.
Stults has performed research to aid the agency’s policy efforts under Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA. She also was fortunate enough to work directly with the office’s leadership to prepare the Legal Counsel for public speaking engagements on emerging issues in case law. Since the EEOC Office of Legal Counsel also serves as the in-house counsel for the Commission, Stults has gained exposure to administrative complaint procedures, providing research used for decision-making in internal complaints.
Stults started her summer break spending six weeks at the Family Equality Council, a non-profit working on legislative changes that will affect LGBT families, before going to work at EEOC.
During her third year of law school, Stults hopes to get a clerkship to broaden her experiences, in addition to serving on The John Marshall Law Review. In the spring 2012 semester, she was an extern with United States District Court Judge Charles Kocoras. She also has interned at Equality Illinois, and has served as a clerk in the Veterans Legal Support Center & Clinic.