Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down and chat with WLD member Stevie Pactor. Stevie is a Staff Attorney with the ACLU of Indiana. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, and she is a board member of the Indiana Federal Community Defenders.
Stevie began her career as a Program Officer for Central Asia at the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In this role, she worked to help foster mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries as mandated by the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961. After having the opportunity to serve on a jury, Stevie was interested in attending law school.
After law school, Stevie served as a Law Clerk to the late Judge Michael Kanne of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and later joined Sidley Austin LLP’s complex commercial litigation group in San Francisco. Upon returning to Indiana, Stevie served as a Law Clerk to Judges Tanya Walton Pratt and Jane Magnus-Stinson of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
In her current role, Stevie works on a variety of constitutional law issues, but she is particularly passionate about her reproductive freedom cases. When asked what advice Stevie has for young lawyers, Stevie recommends familiarizing yourself with the Rules of Procedure and getting as much opportunity to hone your research and writing skills as much as possible. For young lawyers interested in practicing affirmative constitutional litigation, Stevie recommends getting experience as a plaintiff's side lawyer in any capacity and mastering the art of claim presentation. She also recommends interning at an intake-based organization, like the ACLU or Indiana Legal Services to better understand the intake process.
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