New 1L student Zoya Bernadas, ’29, chose to move from Texas because of SC Rice Law’s collaborative community and its children’s law programs.
“As soon as I stepped on campus, I felt the warmth and genuine support of the school,” she says. “On top of that, SC Rice has a Children's Law Concentration, a Children’s Law Center and a Domestic Violence Clinic, all directly aligned with what I want to dedicate my career to. The professors here are also incredible and have accomplished so much in practice, so seeing that lineup made it clear this was the best place for me to prepare for my future.”
During her time at Texas Christian University when she was a senior, Bernadas applied for a legal intern position at a personal injury firm. While it was not in her original undergraduate plan to become a staff investigator, the firm needed extra help with research and fact-gathering, and she jumped at the opportunity.
As an investigator and a notary, her job covered a wide range of duties depending on the day. Bernadas would collect juror cards and build out juror portfolios for the attorneys leading up to trial. She would also collect witness statements and signed affidavits in the field.
“I ran background reports on individuals to track down who and where to serve,” she says, “I followed any leads the attorneys needed me to chase down. It threw a lot of different and unexpected work at me. At one point, I was operating a microscope in the courtroom during proceedings!”
During her time as a staff investigator, she learned several valuable skills, including learning how attorneys prepare, how to pick and read a jury during voir dire, tracking people down and serving them court notices, and researching expert witnesses. She says she developed her research and investigative skills while with the firm.
While at TCU, Bernadas was a part of the Texas Association of Licensed Investigators. As a member, she attended conferences where professionals spoke on topics such as open-source intelligence, financial research, investigation ethics and AI.
From this experience, she determined she wants to be in the courtroom rather than become an investigator.
“The firm handled lawsuits involving sexual abuse causes of action, so a lot of the casework was centered on that,” she says.
The law firm’s cases, her criminal justice and child development coursework at TCU, and her time serving as a victim advocate for rape victims, solidified her path, which she says is eventually prosecuting special victims’ cases or child sex crimes.
“Children’s advocacy has always been where my passion lies,” she says. “Children do not choose their circumstances, and when victimized, they depend entirely on adults to step in. I want to be that adult.”
Bernadas credits her TCU constitutional law professor with instilling in her a deep reverence for the Constitution, and she says that directly relates to protecting the country’s most vulnerable citizens.
“Great scholars throughout history have stressed the duty to protect children, but I trace that conviction back to the very formation of this country,” she says. “To me, the Constitution’s Preamble's mission to 'secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity' is a foundational promise to protect our children and safeguard their futures.”