Margaret Dreschel, née Burgess, alumna of the School of Public Policy and current Berkeley Law student, received first place in the national Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition.

Sponsored by Mercer University School of Law in honor of the late Adam Milani, a disability rights advocate and renowned legal scholar, the competition solicits student-written trial or appellate briefs on disability law, theory, or practice. In doing so, it seeks to promote greater interest in disability law and civil rights, and to develop quality legal writing skills.

Dreschel submitted a brief composed in a Written and Oral Advocacy class taught by Berkely lecturer in residence Michelle Cole. Selected out of more than 70 submitted by law students from across the country, her entry addressed a Title VII employment discrimination claim in which a department store worker was fired soon after disclosing his transgender identity to his supervisor. 

Representing the plaintiff, Dreschel argued that the department store violated Title VII both by firing her client on the basis of transgender status and by relying on illegal sex stereotypes in its decision. “Learning to write in this way has already been immensely helpful outside the classroom,” she said. “Last summer, I had to draft several motions to persuade the court one way or another.”

After graduating from the School of Public Policy in 2008, Dreschel worked for four years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, a finance and fundraising operator for a grassroots congressional campaign, and a policy analyst in the District of Columbia government. She hopes to become a federal government lawyer specializing in housing law, consumer protection, civil rights, or some combination thereof.

Originally found in Berkeley Law News.