Emilie Baerga ’26

First in Her Family, Emilie Baerga Is Building a Home for First-Generation Law Students

When Emilie Baerga walks into a courtroom now, she carries more than a legal pad and a case file. She carries her family’s hopes, a quiet promise to her younger self, and the weight of being the first in her family to make it this far.

“I didn’t really know what law school was,” she said, laughing a little at the memory. “My mom was a paralegal, and she’d take me to court on ‘take your child to work’ day. I just knew I wanted to do that. But no one in my family was an attorney, so it was always, is this even feasible? How do I get there?”

Baerga, a J.D. candidate in the class of 2026 at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, is now vice president of the Latin American Law Student Association, co-founder and president of the First Generation Society, and a student ambassador. She grew up in Harrisburg, graduated from Central Dauphin High School, and earned her undergraduate degree in global and international studies from Penn State.

She is also, along with her sister, a first-generation college graduate and the first in her family to attend law school.
“My mom always wanted to be an attorney, but she had kids and life went a different way,” Baerga said. “I feel like I’m finishing that dream for her. It’s my dream too, but I take a lot of pride in that.”

By the time she reached her junior year at Penn State, Baerga knew she needed to decide whether law school was really in her future. She had changed her major, was catching up on credits, and was weighing big, practical questions.

“Can I afford this, am I taking a gap year, when am I taking the LSAT,” she said. “I was sitting with my advisor going through other career paths, and nothing stuck. I just kept getting pulled back to law school.”

She took a gap year to give the LSAT her full attention and applied to a small group of schools. Staying close to home mattered. So did finances. Her sister had just had a baby. Being near family felt non-negotiable.

“Widener Law Commonwealth was close to home, and it was the school that offered me a scholarship,” she said. “It wasn’t my only acceptance, but it was my only scholarship. So I was like, OK, this is meant to be.”

Being from Harrisburg, she is used to the raised eyebrows when classmates realize she is local.

“People ask, ‘What is there to do here?’” she said. “I tell them it’s a great place to have a family and a great place to go to law school. There’s not this huge party scene or big-city distractions. You can focus. And if you need that big-city feel, Philly, Baltimore, and D.C. are just a couple of hours away. It feels more like a treat than something in your face every day.”

When she first imagined life as a lawyer, Baerga assumed she would work in immigration law. Her family is from Puerto Rico, and many of her family friends immigrated from other countries. Watching them navigate complicated systems and face poor treatment pushed her toward advocacy.

“I just wanted to help people,” she said. “Immigration was the first way I saw that happening.”

She also had a short list of what she did not want to do.

“I used to say, I know I don’t want to do family law, and I don’t want to do medical malpractice,” she said. “Family law felt like it would be too emotional. I’m an empath, and I worried I would carry the work home with me. And med mal just seemed really niche and difficult.”

A torts class changed that. When the course reached negligence and touched briefly on medical malpractice, something clicked. Guest speakers from a medical malpractice defense firm visited near the end of the semester and deepened her interest. At the same time, her view of litigation was shifting.

After her first year, Baerga clerked for Judge Jose R. Arteaga in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The position grew out of a networking event she almost skipped, hosted by the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Hispanic Bar Association during her first weeks of law school.

“I was three weeks in and terrified,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I had time for events.”

She went anyway. There, she met attorney Sharon López, a past president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, who walked up, asked where Baerga was from, and quickly decided she would be her mentor.

“She said, ‘Do you have a LinkedIn?’ I said kind of, and she said, ‘You need to fix it.’ She gave me homework on the spot,” Baerga said. “I had never had someone be that invested in me right away.”

At that same event, Chief Judge Juan R. Sanchez spoke about a Federal Clerkship Pathways to Diversity program. Baerga introduced herself, followed through, attended the program in Philadelphia alone, and kept the connection going. Sanchez’s chambers eventually referred her to Arteaga, who hired her as a summer law clerk.

The experience, along with a trial methods course that became her best grade in law school, shifted her thinking.

“I didn’t think I wanted to litigate,” she said. “Watching trials and taking trial methods, I realized I do want to be in court, just not every week of my life. I like the preparation, the strategy, and then being in the courtroom sometimes.”
Medical malpractice, she realized, might offer a middle ground. Many cases settle, but the work can still lead to a trial.

Last summer, she joined RJ Marzella & Associates, a firm that focuses exclusively on medical malpractice, and she continues to work there during the school year.

“I really love it,” she said. “After graduation, I’d love to be at a personal injury firm and, hopefully, niche my way into just med mal. I know I might handle other cases at first, and that’s fine, but I genuinely enjoy this work. And in the future, I still want to do pro bono immigration work once I’m licensed.”

While Baerga’s path through law school runs through classrooms and courtrooms, another key part runs through the First Generation Society, the student organization she helped bring to life.

The idea came from then-third-year law students who shared similar stories and wanted a space for students who are the first in their families to attend college or law school. They organized one early event, a finals preparation program for first-year students that featured professors and academic success fellows offering advice on outlining, essay writing and exam strategies.

Baerga attended and found it genuinely useful. But after that, momentum stalled as the original founders prepared to graduate and the organization’s structure and status were still being worked out.

“They met with me near the end of last spring and basically said, please do something with this,” she said. “They had support from the school, but it was getting stuck in logistics.”

When they graduated, Baerga took on the task of pushing the idea across the finish line. She gathered friends to form a board, drafted the documents needed to seek recognition and worked with Student Bar Association leaders and administrators to chart a path forward. The group ultimately chose to pursue SBA recognition, and with the support of dean’s office leadership, the First Generation Society became an official student organization.

There were practical hurdles. Because the group was chartered in the fall, it had no immediate access to SBA funding. Dean’s office support helped bridge the gap.

“Dean cummings and (Assistant Dean of Students Randi) Teplitz were really supportive,” she said. “They told us, we’ll cover it until you get funding, which was huge.”

This fall, the First Generation Society hosted several community-focused events, including a financial literacy program for law students, a yoga session and a “letters to your future self” night. Baerga says spring semester will bring more programming, including a panel that features first-generation attorneys who can talk frankly about law school, the bar exam and the first years of practice. For Baerga, the heart of the organization comes down to three things: community, resources and celebration.

“It’s really daunting to get to law school and hear, ‘Oh, my dad’s an attorney,’ or ‘I’m going to work at my aunt’s firm,”’ she said. “Law school is hard for everyone, but it feels different when you do not have those connections or a roadmap.”

She wants students to know they are not alone and that there is nothing to be ashamed of.

“If anything, it is more admirable to be the first in your family and take that step,” she said. “There is so much to be proud of in being first gen, and I do not think it gets celebrated enough.”

She also hopes the First Generation Society will help students meet mentors, from attorneys willing to speak on panels to professionals who might become long-term guides.

“You can email a random attorney, but having that connection, like ‘I heard you speak at this event,’ makes it easier for both people,” she said. “Doors open that way.”

Baerga knows the pressure that comes with being the first. She felt it when she applied to college, again when she started law school and every exam season since.

“I have never worked so hard in my life,” she said. “People would say, some students get dismissed, and that terrified me. That was not an option for me. I had to see this through.”

At a doctor’s appointment just before she started law school, she mentioned she would soon begin classes. The doctor’s first question was whether she would be the first in her family.

“I said yes, and he told me he was the first doctor in his family,” she said. “He said, ‘You have no idea how impactful you are going to be, not just for your kids, but your nieces, nephews, your friends’ kids. You will be the person they look at and say, if she did it, I can do it too.’”

That perspective has stayed with her.

“I did not have someone like that in my life,” she said. “I just had to trust myself and figure it out. So, yes, there is pressure, but it is pressure in a good way. I think every first-gen law student has a bigger why.”

When she pictures herself walking across the stage at commencement, she imagines relief, pride and a moment that will feel “surreal” for her and her family.

Until then, Baerga will keep balancing finals, work at a medical malpractice firm, leadership roles in the Latin American Law Student Association and First Generation Society, and her role as a student ambassador.

And she will keep holding the door open for the students coming behind her.

“If I can help one or two people feel less alone or find a mentor, that would mean everything,” she said. “That is why First Gen Society matters. That is why I am here.”

Interview was conducted in Winter 2025.