Kristen Comer + Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence Legal Action Project: Profile of an Influential Legal Assistant

Summary

As society continues to grapple with gun violence, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence has risen to the challenge. Through their Legal Action Project, they provide an essential foundation for litigation to fight back against irresponsible gun policies. Kristen Comer serves as a legal assistant for the Brady Center, providing crucial legal support for the Legal Action Project.


As the legal assistant for the Brady Center, Kristen Comer assists the staff lawyers by doing background research, drafting pleadings and motions, and gathering evidence for their legal cases. She also assists in filing legal documents with courts and drafting correspondence to clients. Kristen's responsibilities also include maintaining databases, analyzing legal documents and ensuring that all court filings are in compliance with applicable deadlines.

Kristen Comer is well-versed in federal and state gun laws, as well as the nuances of public policy and the advocacy process. She has a strong understanding of the Brady Center's mission to reduce gun violence and the urgency of their work. In addition, Kristen has experience in civil rights, health, and other social justice issues. She is passionate about fighting against gun violence and empowering lawmakers to take effective action.

Kristen obtained her Bachelor of Arts in English at Wake Forest University, graduating summa cum laude in 2018. Prior to joining the Legal Action Project at the Brady Center, she was a legal intern at the American Civil Liberties Union. Kristen is also an active member of several organizations dedicated to social justice, including the American Constitution Society and the National Lawyers Guild.

Kristen Comer is an integral part of the Brady Center Legal Action Project, providing her expertise and legal support to the team's efforts to reduce gun violence. Her passion for social justice, experience with advocacy, and commitment to the mission have helped to advance the cause for responsible gun policy. As the legal assistant for the Brady Center, Kristen is on the front lines in the fight against gun violence.
 

Kristen Comer: Legal Assistant at Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence's Legal Action Project

Kristen Comer is a Legal Assistant at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence's Legal Action Project. She is dedicated to the mission of the Brady Center, which seeks to reduce gun violence, encouraging responsible gun ownership. Comer's role as a Legal Assistant allows her to work directly with the team in the Washington D.C. office, as well as collaborating with the Legal Action Project's attorneys and staff nationwide.

Comer has made a commitment to increasing public safety by holding the gun industry accountable for its reckless advertising and marketing of firearms that aim to increase sales, while disregarding safety. She is helping the Legal Action Project pursue litigation that seeks to prevent gun violence by making the gun industry more accountable.
 

Kristen Comer: Dedication to the Brady Center's Mission

Since joining the Brady Center, Kristen Comer has been integral in furthering the organization's mission to reduce handgun deaths and injuries, as well as increasing responsible gun ownership. She works diligently with the Legal Action Project's attorneys and staff across the United States to take legal action against the gun industry, who, the Brady Center believes, are targeting dangerous and irresponsible advertising and marketing.

Comer is a strong advocate for the Brady Center's mission and has a deep understanding of gun violence prevention and its effects on public health and safety. Her work with the Legal Action Project has allowed her to help create a more equitable and safer society by challenging the gun industry's disregard for public safety.

<<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."