From Google and Amicus Briefs to UA: How a Nontraditional Career Path Can Yield Interesting and Meaningful Work

Jess Miers, a visiting assistant professor of law at The University of Akron School of Law, opted for a non-traditional career track in the world of law. Yet it’s a path that more and more individuals are considering as an avenue to a legal career.

Miers has taken advantage of a career track known as J.D. Advantage. According to the National Association of Law Placement (NALP), this is a term used to describe a category of jobs for which bar passage is not required but for which a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree provides a distinct advantage.

After graduating from Santa Clara University School of Law in 2021, where she also received the Tech Edge J.D. certificate, Miers
started in a J.D. Advantage role at Google, where she was a senior government affairs and public policy analyst. Her responsibilities
included advising internal and external stakeholders on U.S. intermediary liability law topics such as state and federal content regulations, intellectual property and online marketplace issues.

Miers’s Google position served as a springboard for her next role as in-house counsel for the Chamber of Progress, a technology trade organization. Her work there centered around writing amicus briefs for some of the organization’s 30-plus technology company partners. In instances where one of the partner companies was being sued, or if they themselves were bringing a suit related to the technology issues in Miers’s portfolio, she would be tasked with writing an amicus brief. These briefs serve as an expert report for the court in which the suit was brought, giving the court a bigger picture as to the impact the issues in the suit might have on those other than the parties in the case.

Miers even had the opportunity to submit amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. One such brief, Brief for Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents, NetChoice & CCIA v. Moody, Paxton, (U.S. Dec. 7, 2023), outlined the many ways that HB 20 and SB 7072 would have undermined free speech protections previously put in place related to the moderation of website content. In another case, since becoming a professor at Akron Law, Miers contributed to a brief on a topic that has garnered a great deal of attention in recent months - Brief for Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner, TikTok v. Garland, (U.S. Dec. 27, 2024). This brief argued that the
government’s attempt to ban TikTok in the United States is unconstitutional, likening TikTok to a “modern-day public square.” This is especially the case since, as noted in the brief, “millions of Americans use TikTok daily to express political, social and economic
views.”

At UA, where she has been since 2024, Miers focuses on the intersection of law and technology, with recent research and scholarship centered on Generative AI. She is recognized as an expert in U.S. online intermediary liability law and has extensively
written, spoken and taught about issues such as online speech and Section 230, content moderation, intellectual property and
cybercrime.

Miers’s previous professional experiences were instrumental in preparing Miers for the mentorship side of her new role as a professor. She is able to draw on her experience to help students take advantage of key opportunities in law school – from publishing in trade publications and law journals to securing specific kinds of internships and externships – that set them up
for success in their post-law school job search. She knows what it takes to become a technology lawyer and can more effectively provide the hands-on mentorship that is often the key to Akron Law students’ success.

For law students, Miers’s journey is a valuable lesson – that the traditional post-J.D. career path at a law firm or in clerkships does not have to be for everyone. There are plenty of options and valuable opportunities for those who want to have an impact through law.