Solicitor General of the United States Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar, the fourth-ranking person at the Department of Justice, discussed her professional journey and offered career advice to a packed audience of Fordham Law students and faculty as a part of the Robert L. Levine Distinguished Lecture Series.
“The first piece of advice I would give you is to work with people you respect and who you think you have something to learn from, and then be open and receptive to learning,” said Prelogar. “I feel like being a lawyer is a lifelong learning exercise. I am still learning, day in and day out, with the attorneys I work with.”
Fordham Law School Dean Matthew Diller referred to Prelogar as “a legal powerhouse,” noting that she was only the second female Solicitor General in the history of the United States, after Elena Kagan, for whom Prelogar clerked after Kagan joined the Supreme Court.
“In a divided world that we’re living in, this is a great time to talk about what’s going on at the Supreme Court and to hear first hand from one of the most important participants in how our law has been made over the past few years and will be made into the future,” said Diller.
Prelogar’s second piece of career advice was to be kind to the people around you, even in high-pressure situations, “Litigation can be very contentious at times but I think that there’s really no fundamental trade off between being a fierce advocate for your client’s position, and being respectful and courteous to the other side and their position,” Prelogar said. “Being collegial just makes you stronger, it doesn’t in any sense diminish your opinion, or your arguments or your ability to persuade in a case.”
Lastly, she encouraged students to step outside of their comfort zone in order to really grow their skills. “Look for opportunities to make yourself uncomfortable…When I look back over the course of my career and the experiences I’ve had, the moments that represented the most opportunity for growth for me were the moments when I put myself out there and I felt really outside my comfort zone and out of my depth and I made myself uncomfortable.”
Though she started out her career wanting to pursue print journalism, Prelogar quickly changed tracks after beginning law school and completing clerkships with then-Judge and now Attorney General Merrick Garland and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in addition to her clerkship with Kagan.
Since graduating, Prelogar’s career has centered mainly on appellate and Supreme Court litigation. She served as acting solicitor general, principal deputy solicitor general, and as an assistant to the solicitor general. Previously, she also worked as part of the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and obstruction-of-justice. Now as solicitor general, she is responsible for conducting and supervising all Supreme Court litigation on behalf of the U.S.
The event was moderated by Kimani Paul-Emile, the Robert L. Levine Distinguished Research Scholar at Fordham Law; associate director of the Center on Race, Law & Justice; and faculty co-director of the Stein Center for Law & Ethics.
The Robert L. Levine Distinguished Lecture Series honors the legacy of Robert Levine ’26 and was established through the generosity of the Laurence W. Levine Foundation. Previous Levine lecturers have included Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sandra Day O’Connor and Sonia Sotomayor, and Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella.