May 2018 Belmont Law graduate Ben Riggs wasted no time putting his legal degree to work at the highest echelons of U.S. government. A native of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, alumnus Riggs recently completed an internship in the Office of the White House Counsel.
From September through early December 2018, Riggs did a variety of tasks in the Counsel’s office, including drafting memorandum concerning various issues in administrative, immigration and labor law and identifying and organizing thousands of documents related to oversight requests. He also analyzed and categorized Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, compiled executive agency Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) policies and researched constitutional and statutory authority for presidential and executive agency actions, among other duties.
Active in Belmont Law’s National Moot Court team, Riggs also served as president of the Student Bar Association and chair of the Graduate Student Council during his time on campus. He credits his faculty members for providing the skills and opportunities to help him be successful. “Dean [Alberto] Gonzales, Professors Amy Moore, Jeffrey Usman and Tory Johnson are faculty members that were imperative to the development of my legal education. Professor Moore drilled in me a desire for academic excellence. From being cold-called in her Administrative law class to fielding rapid fire questions during moot court practice, Professor Moore demanded a thorough knowledge and understanding of the law. Additionally, Dean Gonzales’s National Security law course provided me the desire to seek work in the field of law devoted to protecting American national security.”
Riggs has already passed the Tennessee Bar exam and is seeking admission to the Washington D.C. Bar, as his long-term goals revolve around the nation’s capital. “My hope is to practice law in Washington D.C. working in national security, campaign and election law. Beginning in January, I will be clerking for the Republican National Committee’s in house counsel. In the coming months my goal is to begin the application process for the Army JAG Reserve Corp.”
