Student Receives Rosenbloom Award

Third-year student Rachel Anderson is this year’s recipient of the University of Virginia School of Law’s Rosenbloom Award.

The award, bestowed annually, was established by Daniel Rosenbloom ’54 to honor students with a strong academic record who have significantly enhanced the academic experience of other law students by volunteering support and assistance.

“The letters from Rachel’s classmates and section-mates were very compelling,” said Sarah Davies ’91, assistant dean for Student Affairs. “She is clearly someone who spent significant time and energy helping her classmates, even at the most crucial and potentially inconvenient times. Her actions show true dedication to the success of her classmates and the good of the larger law school community.”

Anderson, a Cleveland native, earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Georgetown University before going to law school.

Wes Williams ’22, who was in the same first-year section with Anderson, said her “giving spirit” helped him navigate law school. He pointed to her challenging questions in class and her hosting of a Civil Procedure study group.

“Rachel listened to those struggles and offered concrete help not once but almost daily,” he wrote in nominating her, “never once thinking about her own interests except to the extent that she truly took joy in the success of others, including mine. I am so grateful that Rachel Anderson is at UVA Law, and she is truly a paradigmatic example of what the Rosenbloom Award is about. I can think of no one more deserving.”

Anderson worked as a research assistant for Professor Rachel Bayefsky, who also nominated Anderson, praising her for “helping out fellow students and taking a collaborative approach.”

Anderson is a Law Alumnae Scholar who was articles editor of the Virginia Law Review, a William Minor Lile Moot Court Competition quarterfinalist and winner of the Best Oral Advocate Award for her 1L section.

Anderson said seeing lawyers serve as advisers with the small businesses she worked for persuaded her to pursue similar skills by attending law school. She said the community, the city of Charlottesville and the potential for clerkship opportunities ultimately drew her to UVA Law.

Anderson said she was “incredibly honored and humbled” to receive the award.

“I would not have made it through law school without the support, kindness and generosity of my professors and friends, so it feels good to believe that I have paid back even an ounce of that,” she said.

After graduation, Anderson will clerk for Judge Julia Smith Gibbons ’75 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She will work at Kellogg Hansen in Washington, D.C., after clerking.