Alumnus Named Bristow Fellow

Daniel Richardson, a 2018 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, has been chosen to serve as one of five Bristow Fellows in the Office of the Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice.

As a Bristow Fellow, Richardson will help attorneys draft briefs in Supreme Court cases and prepare for oral arguments there. Fellows also make recommendations to the solicitor general about government appeals in lower federal courts.

He is currently clerking for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III ’72 of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Richardson has previously worked for the U.S. Judiciary and the Congressional Research Service.

“The [Office of the Solicitor General] is filled with dedicated and exceptional lawyers, so I am looking forward to learning all I can from them during my time there,” he said. “I am not sure I could ever feel totally prepared to work at a place like OSG, but the mentors and teachers I have had over the past few years in Charlottesville have been the best I ever could have hoped for. The Supreme Court Litigation Clinic was an especially valuable experience, which allowed me both to learn from some amazing advocates and work alongside a brilliant group of colleagues.”

UVA Law is tied for No. 2 nationally in the number of graduates named Bristow Fellows since the 2010 term, with five. Additionally, Wilkinson leads judges whose clerks later became Bristow Fellows during the same period, with seven.

“There is no substitute for clerking for Judge Wilkinson,” Richardson said. “The judge is an educator through and through, and spends a tremendous amount of time helping his clerks think about the law in new ways and communicate more effectively.”

At UVA Law, Richardson earned the Faculty Award for Academic Excellence for graduating with the highest GPA in the Class of 2018. In addition, he was awarded the Traynor Prize at graduation, which acknowledges written work by two graduating students each year. He also received the Jackson Walker LLP Award, and served as the editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Review, president of the Virginia Employment and Labor Law Association, and vice chair for career and alumni engagement for Lambda Law Alliance.

He graduated with a B.A. in political science and a B.S. in public management from James Madison University.