Spring 2026 Winner of the Lawyers of Tomorrow Scholarship

Emma Wagner

Emma aspires to become a public defender after graduating from the University of Michigan Law School. We are proud to support her educational journey and wish her the best of luck.

Read Their Essay Here:

In 2024, I sat across from a sixteen-year-old in a small room with thick plastic chairs and a tiny window. As is a routine part of my job, I was there to check in with him. At one point in our conversation, he looked at me squarely and asked,“Ms. Emma, why do you want to be a public defender?” The question took me by surprise, and I wanted to be both careful and honest in my response. I knew that my answer would sit with him in a way that it wouldn’t with many of his peers. In the District of Columbia, 16- and 17-year-olds can be charged as adults if they are arrested for one of five crimes. The young boy who sat before me was on trial for first degree murder, and if found guilty, would face decades in the federal Bureau of Prisons.

As I pondered the question and how I could respond to him, a child, my answer became clear. On the macro level, public defense is complex and difficult. On the individual level, it is quite simple. I explained to him that what I see as the main objective of the public defender is to portray a person. The prosecution works with facts, and exists in binaries and matrices that presuppose certain notions of guilt on the sole basis of evidence. But that process is often devoid of a sense of humanity for the accused. The public defender has the responsibility to bring this humanness back into the courtroom. By discussing the individual – who they are, what their life has looked like, the choices they’ve made – to paint a picture to a judge or jury that provides them with fundamental information in the decision to take away someone’s liberty.

I explained to him that I had seen multiple sides of the system. Specifically, when a friend of mine was killed while biking to work, most of my friends thought that the man responsible should be put behind bars for years. While I deeply mourned the loss, I also contemplated the facts that led to the accident and I recognized the need for retribution in my friends’ eyes. Retribution will never succeed in bringing someone back to life and often clouds our ability to evaluate information. Retributive policies have historically led to excessive sentences and wrongful incarceration. A just court of law is a tribunal that emphasizes the fair administration of justice, and does so equally for the man being held responsible for killing my friend as for my clients.

The young man looked out the window after I explained why I’d like to be a public defender. After getting lost in his thoughts, he looked back at me and said, “I really hope you do it, Ms. Emma. We need more people like you.” My main goal once I graduate is to remember to take the time to engage with my clients, and to remember to always tell their stories in the right way.