Graduate With Highest GPA Says ‘Finding Balance’ Is Key for Students

Haley Gorman has earned the Faculty Award for Academic Excellence by graduating with the highest GPA in the University of Virginia School of Law’s Class of 2024.

After graduating, Gorman began clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston and has another clerkship lined up for the 2026-27 term in the Southern District of New York.

At UVA Law, Gorman was a member of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and a research assistant for former Dean Risa Goluboff and Professor Payvand Ahdout.

A Chicago area native, Gorman graduated from the College of William & Mary with a bachelor’s degree in government and history.

She recently answered some questions about her experiences and offered tips for success at UVA Law.

What are some of your secrets to academic success?

I don’t know if I have any great secrets to academic success, but I can say for sure that having the support of family and friends over the past three years made all the difference and allowed me to dive headfirst into the classes and opportunities I found exciting each semester. My support system provided a constant reminder that there is life outside of law school, which in turn helped take some of the academic pressure off and helped me stay grounded in the reasons I wanted to pursue law in the first place.

What advice do you have for current students?

More than anything else, I think finding balance in a way that works for you, whatever that may look like week-to-week and month-to-month, is the best gift you can give yourself. Life does not get put on hold for the three years of law school, and nobody benefits from making themselves miserable in an all-out sprint. As challenging — and messy — as it can be, finding ways to give yourself grace and maintain a big portion of your life that has nothing to do with how you perform goes such a long way.

On the practical side of things, I often found that law school could feel a bit like drinking from a firehose, so I looked for guidance on how to prioritize my focus in any given moment. In the classroom, that usually looked like talking to my professors to figure out what they hoped students would take away from the semester and tailoring my approach to exams and papers accordingly. But it also looked like waiting to start studying until we had covered enough material to get a sense of what each course was about — which had the added bonus of leaving some time at the start of each semester to rest and relax before kicking into high gear. In a similar vein, I also found that one of the easiest ways to alleviate stress for myself was to sort out my long-term goals and strategize toward those things instead of trying to keep every door open at all times, which freed up energy to work toward the things I wanted to explore further.

What was your most rewarding experience at UVA Law?

Without a doubt, the relationships that I built here. Between friends and professors who provided sounding boards for all things career, school and personal, I could not ask to have been a part of a better community. I would also say that living in Charlottesville itself felt like a reward, especially as someone who loves to get outdoors and feels most grounded spending time in nature. I loved having beautiful mountain views when I ran errands or seeing sunrises that made the sky look like it was on fire as I would walk out of the North Grounds gym in the morning. And my favorite moments each week were spent sitting in the quiet at Sugar Hollow, watching the sun go down over Skyline Drive.

What would you do differently as a law student if you had to do it over again?

I really loved my time at UVA, so there is not a whole lot that I would change. I am so grateful for the opportunities I had to get to know professors, especially [former] Dean Risa Goluboff and Professors Greg Mitchell, Payvand Ahdout and Micah Schwartzman [’05]. If anything, I wish I would have had more time to get to know many of the other faculty members whose work I admire.

What are your current and future plans?

I am currently clerking for Chief Judge David Barron on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and I will clerk for Judge Jesse Furman in the Southern District of New York during the 2026-27 term. Beyond that, I hope to do appellate work on some of the causes closest to my heart, including advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights and protecting the right to vote.