Melanie L. Shender

I wouldn't be where I am today without the law school. I could have gotten a J.D. anywhere, but King Hall prepared me to be the best attorney I can be.

Melanie Shender — Class of 2003

Since graduating from King Hall with the Class of 2003, Melanie Shender has continued to give back to the law school by donating to the Annual Fund and the Law Review Endowment.

"I wouldn't be where I am today without the law school," she says. "I could have gotten a J.D. anywhere, but King Hall prepared me to be the best attorney I can be."

Today, Shender is an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of California. She litigates defense civil cases, focusing primarily on immigration appeals, writs of mandamus and habeas corpus, and naturalization suits. Previously, she was an attorney advisor at the San Francisco Immigration Court, a position she obtained through the Attorney General's Honors Program, a highly competitive recruitment program with the U.S. Department of Justice. There, she hired and supervised law student interns and expanded the intern program.

Reflecting back on law school, Shender says, "King Hall was more than an excellent place to get a J.D. The community was vibrant and engaged, and I made life-long friends."

While at King Hall, Shender was a senior editor and an articles assistant for the Journal of International Law and Policy, and a senior articles editor and member of the UC Davis Law Review. "I give specifically to the Law Review," she says "because it was one of my favorite law school experiences."