Katie Delsandro ‘12, UVA Law’s new Director of Admissions
Interviewed by Jack Brown ‘23
This week is a special hot bench where we were lucky enough to get to know the new Director of Admissions, Katie Delsandro!
Where are you from?
So I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, most of my family is from there so that’s where I consider myself rooted and when I was eight we moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, where I lived until I went to undergrad. So I kind of claim both.
And where did you go to undergrad?
I went to Wake Forest for undergrad, where I majored in history. After I graduated, I moved to D.C. where I did consultation for a non-profit. Most of my work there was business management and fundraising management. When I graduated I knew I wanted to go work for a non-profit, and that position was a really great way of learning the internal workings of a non-profit without committing to one specific one.
How did you go from that to making the decision to go to Law School?
I realized that while the work of the non-profits and the underlying missions were really interesting to me, the actual functioning of a non-profit was less so. I couldn’t see myself working full time in a non-profit. I felt that going to law school would give me the ability to assist in a lot of different mission-driven organizations along with being something that was really intellectually stimulating.
And how did you end up choosing UVA?
When I was applying to law school, I remember it being really overwhelming because there were so many options. What sealed it for me with UVA Law, though, was coming to the Admitted Students Open House. I really could feel the collegiality they had advertised. So it was at that open house that I decided to come to Charlottesville.
What do you remember most about your Law School experience?
When I think back to my 1L year, I think back to getting close with my 1L section. Section C did everything together, all of our socializing, all of our studying and obviously all of our classes. And then my 1L summer I had an internship at the Department of Justice in their criminal tax division.
After that I was able to go through OGI and get a job with Paul Hastings in their D.C. office, which really opened up 2L for me. I was able to focus on classes that really interested me and get more involved with Libel, which I ended up being a director for my 3L year. This, along with my roles in SBA and PILA, helped me meet a ton of people in the school — which I'm very grateful for.
And what did you do after graduation?
My 2L summer associate experience was really good, so I started at Paul Hastings, where I worked in their employment law group. I got awesome training there, working directly with partners, which helped me build my skill set to get up and running as a lawyer. And I also really started to like the work I was doing in employment law because of the human element that is inherent in employment law. Everything is a personal story, it's really human focused law that really kept me with it.
After being at Paul Hastings for a few years I transitioned to doing employment law work at the Department of Commerce in the Office of General Counsel. Working in the government was rewarding because you really get ownership of your cases, which helped me take my skills to the next level after getting a great base in private practice.
At that point my husband and I were looking to move to New York for his job, and I started calling around to find work in something that was adjacent to employment law. I settled on higher ed at Columbia because my favorite part of my work at the Department of Commerce were the internal investigations — which was what I would be doing at the University.
I was at Columbia for three years when COVID happened and my family really wanted to look for a change. It was at that point that this job opened up, and since I wanted to stay in higher education, it seemed like a perfect fit. I’d get to use a lot of the skills I had built up over my career along with getting to live in Charlottesville, which is a great bonus!
Coming back to UVA, have you reconnected with any professors you had?
Once the new announcement came out that I got the job, several of my 1L professors sent me messages saying welcome back! You’re never sure how things are going to be when you come back, but it's been a very warm welcome.