Overview
Erica doesn’t follow in others’ footsteps; she forges her own path. She doesn’t let the knowledge that something hasn’t been done before stop her from being the first person to do it. Erica’s entrepreneurial, off-the-beaten-path approach to life began as early as high school. Following graduation, Erica shocked her peers in rural Wisconsin by taking a gap year to live and volunteer abroad in Germany and Ethiopia, far away from her friends, family, and everything she had ever known. She returned to the U.S. after nine months with a newly found determination to achieve justice in her community and the world. Ultimately, this determination led her to law school and a career where Erica can use her drive to achieve justice on behalf of her clients every day.
Erica is currently an associate in the firm’s business litigation group, with a particular emphasis on complex commercial, healthcare, and products liability litigation. Prior to joining Robins Kaplan, she spent two years as a judicial law clerk for Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, and she also litigated at another local law firm. As a result of those experiences, Erica has extensive research and writing experience and knows how to craft winning legal arguments appropriate for every stage of litigation. Erica is also deeply committed to pro bono work. In 2021, she was named a North Star Lawyer by the Minnesota State Bar Association for her work representing pro bono clients in the areas of immigration, housing, and civil rights.
Erica graduated from NYU School of Law, where she served as an Executive Editor of the New York University Law Review, the Professional Development Co-Chair for Law Women, and the Events Coordinator for the Immigrant Rights Project. She gained practical legal experience during law school through internships in the New York Public Library’s legal department and the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, as well as through a fellowship with Her Justice, a New York-based non-profit organization that provides legal services to low-income women.
Before attending law school, Erica graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where she majored in Global Studies and Nonprofit Management. During college, on top of juggling coursework, Erica volunteered at various legal services organizations, including the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and the International Institute of Minnesota. In addition, she worked part-time at a local consumer rights law firm.
Credentials
Education
- NYU School of Law, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif (2020); Executive Editor, New York University Law Review (2018-2020)
- University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, B.S. in Global Studies and Nonprofit Management, summa cum laude (2015)
Recognition
- Named a “North Star Lawyer” by the Minnesota State Bar Association for providing at least 50 hours of pro bono legal services (2022)
- NYU School of Law Florence Allen Scholar (2019)
Community
Civic
- New York Women’s Bar Association Foundation Fellow, Her Justice (Fall 2018)
Professional
- Federal Bar Association
News & Insights
Legal Insights
Articles
- “Relying on the Unreliable: Challenging USCIS’s Use of Police Reports and Arrest Records in Affirmative Immigration Proceedings,” New York University Law Review, Volume 96, Number 1 (April 2021)
Admissions
- Minnesota
- U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota