Profile: Kristen Comer, Legal Assistant, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence Legal Action Project
By Regan Morris
Kristen Comer has been with the Brady Center since October. LawCrossing speaks with the legal assistant about her first legal job and her plans to become an attorney.
Juggling a fulltime job and law school four nights a week requires serious drive and stamina. Kristen Comer has both. During the day, Ms. Comer, 31, works as a legal assistant at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. At night she attends George Washington Law School. She started both law school and her first legal job last autumn.
The former teacher and Peace Corps volunteer wanted to blend her love of education with international work. So she completed a Master's program at Columbia Teacher's College, where she focused on human rights issues and international education.
"I found that if I wanted to work in human rights and international work, then the best thing I could do was get a law degree, and that's what brought me here," she said. "This is my first legal job. It's my first year of law school. I wasn't entirely sure of what to expect, so I don't think there are any surprises. But it certainly has been a fascinating job, and I'm really enjoying the relevance that it has to my studies."
She found the job on the idealist.org website and said the gun-control lobby was close to her heart. She believes that violence prevention is a human rights issue, and the issue is personal to her as well because one of her students was shot and killed when she was teaching in Seattle. Another student was wounded by a gunshot.
The Brady Center and Brady Campaign are the largest national, nonpartisan, grassroots organizations leading the fight to prevent gun violence. The Brady Campaign and the Brady Center believe that a safer America can be achieved without banning all guns. The groups want safer guns with childproof safety locks. They also support a ban on assault weapons.
The Brady Center uses litigation to reform the gun industry. Last year, the center had three landmark victories in three months, with combined settlements totaling $4.4 million.
Ms. Comer said her job mainly involves research and supporting five attorneys, including working on various research projects for them. One of the biggest challenges, she said, is just keeping abreast of all the various gun-violence studies on both sides of the debate.
"I'm the only legal assistant. They're really good about keeping me balanced, and I have a chart in my office that outlines what I'm doing for everyone so they can see what I'm working on." she said.
Ms. Comer, who grew up in Washington State, has always been an idealist. She spent two years working with the Peace Corps on the Thai-Laos border and also spent time teaching high school at an education clinic for students who had dropped out or spent time in prison.
"Both my grandparents and my parents certainly instilled in my brother and my sister and [me] the importance of serving your community and the belief that each person has dignity no matter what their standing is in life, where they live, or how much money they make," she said. "And I think that's certainly where my passion for human rights began."
Ms. Comer hopes to work as an international human rights attorney once she graduates, perhaps in the field of weapons proliferation.
"A lot depends on the kind of experiences that I have in law school and what I learn from working here," she said. "Ultimately, I would love to work at the World Court in The Hague or for the U.N. or work for another human rights organization. Doing litigation maybe; those are things that I would enjoy doing."
Ms. Comer has been helping the Brady Center attorneys prepare for upcoming litigation and hopes to help out in a courtroom soon. For others interested in a career in international law or gun policy, she said Washington, DC, or New York is the place to be. But she misses the great outdoors of Washington State.
Ms. Comer said the secret to success for working and studying fulltime is getting her school projects done on the weekends.
"It's certainly an exercise in stamina," she said. "I love school. I love to learn. I think that I will always be learning even when I'm not in school."
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