D.C. Bar Announces 2022 Writer in Residence
November 19, 2021
The D.C. Bar has selected University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (UDC) student Akeem Earle as its 2022 Writer in Residence. Earle, a 4L at UDC, will work alongside D.C. Bar staff writers and editors during the duration of the residency, which runs through June 2022.
The D.C. Bar Writers in Residence program, now in its second year, is a collaboration between the D.C. Bar’s Communities Office and Communications Department, providing law students a unique opportunity to hone their writing and interviewing skills, earn publication credit, and benefit from one-on-one interactions with attorneys across various practice areas. The writers in residence are expected to produce content for the Bar’s multimedia channels, including its award-winning flagship publication, Washington Lawyer magazine.
“We started the Writers in Residence program last year as a fully virtual option in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic as a way to continue providing our law student members with valuable learning opportunities,” says Candace Smith-Tucker, director of Communities. “Our first cohort of residents did such a great job that we knew the continuation of this program was a winning proposition for the Law Student Community. We look forward to working with Akeem this year and are excited to help him grow as a writer, scholar, and future lawyer.”
Earle currently works as a paralegal specialist at the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, where he interned in 2016. At UDC, Earle has served as parliamentarian for the Student Bar Association and as director of communications for the Black Law Student Association. He has also been a member of the UDC Mock Trial team for the past two years. Currently, Earle is a student attorney for the school’s General Practice Clinic, where he handles family law cases. In conjunction with the clinic, he is working with the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center to produce informational content on domestic relations proceedings for pro se litigants in the District.
“I hope to expand my creative writing skills as a writer in residence,” Earle said. “I truly believe in the duality of a lawyer in that our skills are not limited to applying facts to the law; we are multifaceted and have expressions outside of the law that impact us as humans and how we carry out our careers. The Writers in Residence program is a way to express myself in a different way while informing and educating the D.C. Bar community.”
Earle is expected to graduate in May 2022 and plans to work as a criminal prosecutor, with the hopes of becoming an assistant United States attorney.
