Increasing Her Impact: Tehya Gerbino ’27 Gets Involved at the Law School
It didn’t take long for Tehya Gerbino to get involved in her first semester of law school. Just a few weeks in, she became a blog editor with the student-run Election Law Society, work that has kept her busy reading, editing, and posting to the Society’s State of Elections Law blog.
“During an election year we worked long and hard, and still are, to get students’ research read,” Gerbino says. “Politics has always been a big part of my life, and I feel it is very intertwined with my passion for labor and employment law.”
Gerbino plans to expand her extracurriculars by joining other clubs and trying out for a journal later in the year. Over the next two summers, she hopes to secure meaningful work experiences in her field of interest.
Originally from Long Beach, New York, a town on Long Island, Gerbino received a B.A. in political science and communications from Northeastern University in Boston. She then decided to attend law school due to a passion for community service, something she was involved in throughout college and high school.
“That, mixed with my college experiences interning for the Massachusetts State government, showed me the value of working for your community and the impact of the legal profession,” she says.
During college, Gerbino spent two internship semesters (called co-ops) in Massachusetts state government, one at the Inspector General's Office and one at the Attorney General's Office. At the AGO, she worked under attorneys who represented state employees and became really interested in how the legal field can help workers.
“While not every case was aligned with my personal views, I got to see how the legal profession can help the systems of government function,” Gerbino says. “This also led me to research labor law, employment rights, and the roles of the state employees & agencies we worked with.”
During the summer before law school, Gerbino worked at a nonprofit, researching state and federal legislation. The most important experience, she felt, was getting to talk with people who volunteered with the nonprofit about the unions they were involved in, such as nurses and teacher unions.
“Then I got to give them my research into the state budget for schools and hospitals to supplement their information resources given to other advocates,” she says. “It was a small impact but opened my eyes to labor and employment movements in the state and country.”
These experiences informed both what she wanted to pursue during and after law school, and also why she chose William & Mary Law. Through her summer internships, she hopes to work in labor and employment law, perhaps for a union or nonprofit focused on providing legal services to workers/employment discrimination cases.
“Later on, I hope to continue down this path and increase my impact as much as possible,” she says.
Gerbino considers herself a social person who enjoys joking with friends, having in-depth conversations about the world, and learning from my peers at the law school. She is also a proud Gen Z internet kid who loves to engage online about pop culture, music, movies, TikTok, and the like.
William & Mary was a top choice for her because of the Law School’s dedication to educating citizen lawyers, which to her means “a lawyer that is focused on using their skills to make the country a better place to live in for its citizens and one that cares about their impact on the world.” Additionally, given its close proximity to the DC/VA area that is the hub for the federal government, she believes the Law School will align with her passions and past experiences very well.
Having experience in state government, Gerbino brings a unique understanding of its inner workings and the significant influence of laws—and any changes to them—on the operations of state-level governance.
“I think bring an interesting perspective; I always try to educate my peers about current events in unions, workers' rights, strikes, etc. that have an effect on the daily lives of people,” Gerbino says.