Jennifer Macauley '05, Law '08
Position: Associate General Counsel
Organization: A healthcare insurance agency
Location: New York
Jennifer Macauley a 2005 Sociology graduate of LMU, and a Loyola Law School 2008 graduate. After law school, Jennifer practiced civil litigation at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, a large multinational law firm. In 2010, Jennifer was able to pursue her lifelong dream of living and working in New York City when she was given the opportunity to serve as a law clerk for the Honorable Kevin Thomas Duffy in the Southern District of New York. This experience was truly life-changing – after practicing as a litigator, it was invaluable to gain insight into the “judicial” perspective. A native of Southern California, Jennifer was originally set to come back to California after her clerkship. However, with the end of her clerkship approaching, Jennifer realized that she was not ready to say goodbye to New York City and instead decided to take the New York bar exam and practice in Gibson Dunn’s New York office. Jennifer then practiced as an Assistant District Attorney in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, prosecuting healthcare fraud and public corruption. Jennifer is currently an in-house attorney at a healthcare insurance company in the role of Associate General Counsel.
“I knew that I wanted to be a Sociology major about a week into my first introductory course my freshman year. The ability to study people and the behaviors of different societies and organizations has always fascinated me. It was the best choice I made as an undergraduate. Not only did I enjoy my coursework and have amazing professors, my experience in LMU’s Sociology department provided an invaluable foundation to my legal career. While I was an undergraduate, I became deeply interested and involved in ethnography work – whether it was observing practices in the grocery store checkout line or the internal dynamics of different organizations – it provided me with a unique lens into how to view and analyze human behavior. This unique perspective has been beneficial in the practice of law, which can involve assessing different factual situations, conducting interviews, and performing analyses. The ability as an undergraduate to work so closely with my professors, gain extensive research experience, and learn about a wide array of such interesting substantive areas is truly unparalleled. To this day, my life – both personal and professional - continues to be enhanced by all of my learning and experiences in LMU’s Sociology department."