Jill Maguire (right) travels through Segovia, Spain with her friends.

Spotlight On... Jill Maguire

By: Robert Deal

Posted: 2/8/05

Starting out in Longview, Texas, Jill Maguire (2D) may have grown up in a small town, but has since lived and seen the world through many perspectives in her quest to become an international lawyer.

Jill has been over-achieving through academics and school involvement since she was a teenager. Though she split time between athletics, where she was a member of the cross-country and track teams, music, where she was played clarinet in the school band, and student council, where she served as a class representative, Jill still found time to work part-time, study and graduate valedictorian.

"I just tend to work better under pressure," she said. "It's just more draining to me to be sitting around with out a lot on my plate."

After high school, Jill attended Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where she earned a degree in International Studies. With only 1200 students, Austin College was another small school in a small town, just 45 minutes north of Dallas, near the Oklahoma border. She quickly immersed herself in activities, serving as Treasurer and Program Director of the Delta Phi Nu sorority.

In order to enhance her international experience, Jill took every opportunity to travel and study abroad, spending her junior year in Spain. In the fall, she studied Spanish culture and economics at the Institute for European Studies in Madrid, where all of the courses were taught in Spanish.

"The constant Spanish made the first couple of months a constant headache," she explained, "but it taught me to live as a Spaniard."

For the Spring semester, Jill studied international security and modern history at La Complutense, also in Madrid.

"It was truly eye-opening to be there studying modern history and see the Kosovo crisis unfold from a perspective other than the standard American, and realize how many different ways there are to look at events," she said. "It's something you just don't get from studying [in the U.S.] alone."

During her senior year, Jill spent a month in Patagonia, Argentina as part of an advanced Spanish immersion program. Traveling throughout the country's cosmopolitan and waterfront areas, she gained yet another perspective on Spanish culture from the South American viewpoint.

After college, Jill entered the job market working as an antitrust paralegal at the Washington D.C. offices of Vinson & Elkins. It was during this time that she accomplished what she considers to be her greatest achievement, completing the Marine Corps Marathon. In October 2001, she made the 26.2 mile trek around the nation's capital and past the Pentagon, just weeks after the September 11 attacks.

"I'd wanted to run a marathon for a long time," she explained. "After all the training, it was incredible to do it here, especially after that kind of an event."

Jill arrived at Mason Law in 2003. Continuing her trend of immediate involvement, she was elected as a Student Bar Association (SBA) class representative for the first-year day class. As a representative, she helped organize the first annual Casino Night, a service project at the Nature Reserve in Arlington and a Spring Break service trip to Camden, New Jersey with Catholic Charities.

Jill has also been actively involved with the Association of Public Interest Law (APIL). Along with her help at the annual auctions, she was a recipient of one of the scholarships for her work at Ayuda, Inc. last summer. At Ayuda, a non-profit legal clinic, Jill worked with Spanish-speaking immigrants on domestic violence matters, an experience she would like to have again after graduation.

"I'd never worked for a non-profit before, and coming from a big firm, it was quite a shock," she said. "It was incredible to see that everyone who walked through the door received immediate help, despite anything else any of us might have been working on."

In her second year at Mason, Jill has continued to thrive. Academically, she is a member of the Law Review and Moot Court Board, where she recently won the Upper Class Moot Court Competition with partner Robert Bruce (2D). She continued her participation in the SBA, and was elected Vice President of Social Affairs, where she organized the Fall Gold Cup, ice cream social, Barrister's Ball and other happy hours. In the time left over, Jill serves as the President of the International Law Society, is an active member of APIL, participates in Judge Klein's legal clinic, and is a member of the Inn of Court. Also a member of the Jessup Moot Court team, she will compete in oral arguments with the team on February 19 at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.

This summer, Jill will be working in Tyson's Corner at Smith, Pachter, McWhorter & Allen, a firm dealing largely in government contracts and construction litigation.