“No other law school can match the level of hands-on experience that Northeastern gives its students.
Giovanni Di Maggio ’12
“Why should we hire you?” The panel of judges asked Giovanni Di Maggio. “Because I have more practical experience than anyone else who is applying,” Giovanni recalls replying.
Giovanni wasn’t trying to brag — just speak the truth. “No other law school can match the level of hands-on experience that Northeastern gives its students,” he says. The judges apparently agreed, hiring Giovanni for a sought-after yearlong post-graduate clerkship. Between co-ops and the rigor of upper-level courses such as Federal Courts and the Federal System, what Giovanni calls “one of the most challenging courses at the law school,” he hit the ground running., “I remember the first day in Federal Courts — it seemed like an unclimbable mountain. Professor [Lucy] Williams was so supportive, so encouraging — she made me believe in my own potential,” he notes. “That came in handy during my first clerkship, particularly when I encountered complex legal issues or cases of first impression.”
US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Civil Division, Boston, Massachusetts
Giovanni spent his first co-op drafting motions and other pleadings in civil actions in the US District Court and the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
- International Law Society
- Northeastern University Law Journal
Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition
PHRGE Fellow, Physicians for Human Rights, Asylum Program, Cambridge, Massachusetts
With one of the law school’s coveted Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) Fellowships, Giovanni headed to Physicians for Human Rights, where he re-wrote a chapter on US asylum law for an update of the publication Examining Asylum Seekers.
Giovanni served as patent law research assistant to Professor Kara Swanson and as an immigration law research assistant to Professor Rachel Rosenbloom.
- Administrative Law
- Advanced Legal Research
- Appellate Advocacy
- Evidence
- Human Rights and the Global Economy
- Immigration Law
US Department of Justice, Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation – Appellate Section, Washington, DC
Giovanni drafted appellate briefs defending decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals on review before the US Courts of Appeals and also provided support for an immigration case in US District Court.
Constitutional Law
US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section, Washington, DC
Working alongside federal prosecutors tasked with protecting the rights and liberties of both citizens and non-citizens, Giovanni researched and wrote legal memoranda relating to criminal civil rights prosecutions in US District Courts.
- Judicial Law Clerk, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, Washington, DC
- Judicial Law Clerk, US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, Washington, DC