By Gwyneth K. Shaw
Liz Mooring ’25 knew she wanted to go to law school when she was 9, but her path to UC Berkeley Law was a winding one.
She took the LSAT as a Boston College undergraduate, then spent several years as an English teacher and a school administrator, including four as a vice principal at Oakland Technical High School.
“It was funny, because at 25 I thought I was too old to go to law school,” she says. “It’s part of why I became an administrator, because I knew I didn’t want to teach forever.”
Then the COVID pandemic hit — and the professional and social isolation sparked a reconsideration and a determination to pivot. Mooring scrambled to take the LSAT a second time and started law school in 2022.
She loved being a student again, even if her time evaluating teachers made switching to learning mode in the classroom an early challenge. Mooring relied on her established organizational skills and put her public speaking chops to good use by getting involved with the school’s Trial Team.
She also found community through Older Wiser Law Students (OWLS), an affinity group that aims to bring together students across a broad range of pre-law school experiences. Gatherings are informal and timed to be convenient for all, including students who are parents.
“I got involved as a 1L and it’s always been a chiller group — there’s no commitment or hours to do, unlike so many of the other things in law school,” says Mooring, who’s co-leading the group this year. “I joined because my mod was mostly 23-year-olds, and my best friend in law school is a full 10 years younger than me. I wanted to meet other people here who were in more similar life stages.”
Building community
Events range from exam period coffee breaks to happy hours and picnic meetups. Recently, the group threw a Valentine’s Day social with bagels, and on March 3 will revive a tradition of hosting a career panel featuring alumni who were members in their own student days to discuss their experience navigating post-law school professional life.
“I think it will be especially helpful for 1Ls who haven’t had their first law job yet,” Mooring says. “It’s kind of weird to be called an intern once you’re, like, 30.”
The group is open to everyone — there’s no minimum age, just an interest in engaging.
2L Meg O’Neill was 29 when she started law school and jokes that OWLS events are “a great opportunity to socialize with others who remember the turn of the century.” She met Mooring at an OWLS gathering and has found her mentoring invaluable.
“It definitely has enhanced my experience,” O’Neill says. “Just like any other affinity group, it is important to have spaces where you’re not the odd one out. I think only 6% of Berkeley Law students are over 30.”
2L Julia Saxby, who’s co-leading the group with Mooring, was “30 going on 31” when she started law school. She was nervous not just about leaving an established career and moving to a new state but also about how she would relate to and connect with peers — as a student and then entering the workforce as a new attorney.
“When I learned about OWLS during the process of applying to law school, it really did ease my mind,” she says. “It was a factor in my ultimately choosing to attend Berkeley — not all law schools offer an affinity group for older students.”
Saxby says her age isn’t as big a factor as she had feared, but there have been moments when she’s acutely aware of the age gap with her peers. That’s when the OWLS community has been the most valuable, she says, in helping her remember she’s not alone.
Being part of the group also introduced her to many fellow students she might not have crossed paths with otherwise, she adds, particularly Master of Laws (LL.M.) students.
“OWLS has been wonderful. We are a group with diverse lived experience who have come to law school at various points in our lives and for various reasons, but we can all get together and commiserate about back pain and enjoy a happy hour or picnic a few times a semester,” Saxby says. “The group is very much about coming together to have a good time without any pressure or time commitment, which I appreciate so much given how oversubscribed we all are.”