Zoe Kiely ‘25
Hi Zoe, and welcome to the Hot Bench! Let’s start with everyone’s favorite interview question: Tell me about yourself. Who are you, where are you from, and—most importantly—how do you pronounce your last name?
My name is Zoe Kiely, and I am the sixth and final member of the Kiely (pronounced ky-lee) clan. I mainly grew up in San Bruno, California, whose only claim to fame (or, rather, infamy) is the 2010 explosion of a gas pipeline. The days of my youth were filled—at least the ones where post-explosion ash was not raining down from the sky—with soccer, Girl Scout trips, marching band practice, and the magic of Dungeons and Dragons. After high school, I moved a whopping thirty miles across the bay to attend Berkeley City College for two years, before transferring to UC Berkeley.
You’ve spent your whole life in the Bay Area. Why did you decide on the East Coast, and UVA Law specifically?
After twenty-five years in the Bay Area, I was itching to leave and try out a new place. Since law school is only three years, it felt like a good opportunity to branch out for a bit while keeping the option to return home open. Initially, during the application process, UVA felt like a great option because 1) the weather wasn’t terrible for a poor California girl who has never experienced a “real” winter, and 2) returning to the West Coast after graduation seemed fairly attainable. As I learned more about the school through chatting with alumni and current students, I was charmed. It was clear that people not only enjoyed their experience but were also active participants in the Law School community. To put it simply, people cared, and I loved that. Plenty of schools have great academics, but the UVA community is its own unique blend of honesty, thoughtfulness, and joy that I truly love so much.
Did you have any reservations about moving cross-country, even if just temporarily?
I don’t think any reservations really set in until I got here. I’ve moved a lot in my life (this is my fifteenth move!), so the aspect of physically moving was not new—it was a known, albeit annoying, quantity. When I arrived at the start of August, however, I had a little bit of a freak-out, dealing with humidity and ninety-degree weather all of a sudden. It was kind of a WTF moment for me initially, but that feeling slowly faded when I realized AC is a thing. On the whole, the East Coast is still very new and shiny to me. I love seeing all the brick buildings around Grounds—we don’t really have any in California (because of earthquakes). Honestly, the biggest thing I miss about California is decent Mexican food. The Mexican food here unfortunately does not live up to California standards and is more akin to my dad’s loving, but paltry, “Mexican” cooking.
I tried to warn you about the humidity! Are you conceding that I, in my infinite wisdom, was right?
I am most definitely not conceding anything! My original thesis was that since I enjoyed vacationing in humidity, I was excited to try living in humidity. I completely recognized the difference (I’m usually not rushing to class on vacation). Unfortunately, living—and walking to school—in humidity is not for me. Nevertheless, it is absolutely fabulous to not spend the entire month of September stressing about wildfires.
UVA added a new question about resiliency to their admission application this year. How have you had to be resilient in your life?
I love that they added a resiliency question! Resilience is about what to do in the face of difficulties or failure, and learning how to be resilient and deal with failure is a critically important part of growth. In fact, my college career began with failure—my first college acceptance was rescinded when I failed a high school math class. I didn’t have a particularly stable living situation growing up, and I let my frustrations fester into poor coping mechanisms that impacted my personal and academic success. I carried the burdens of home with shame and in silence, worried that my speaking up would be viewed as an excuse, as if poverty were a failure of my own making.
The rescission gave me a moment of lucidity—the traumas of the past do not excuse continued bad habits. I had to speak up and create an environment for myself where I could succeed, and, while it wasn’t perfect right off the bat (I definitely had more failures along the way), I was able to move forward and not internalize situational pressures or setbacks as a moral failing of my character. Although I can’t say that the rescission was a good thing, it did have a good outcome.
My re-acceptance to Berkeley as a transfer student was a fitting acknowledgement of this perspective change. Now, I don’t love to fail—it’s not exactly a nice feeling—but I’m okay with it and take it in a forward-facing way. Things have gone wrong—now what? What went wrong, and where do we go now? It’s an outlook that has clearly helped me a lot, so (returning back to the original point) I understand why Admissions included it in the application.
What led you to law school, and what do you hope to do with your degree?
I first became interested in law school after taking a privacy class at Berkeley. It was structured like a law class, and I enjoyed the material so much that I decided to focus the rest of my undergraduate career on the intersection of law, technology, and identity. When I graduated, I felt like I’d only seen this focused, narrow area of the law, and I wanted to make sure that the law would be a good fit for me, beyond my interest in privacy. I ended up taking a job as a Legal Practice Assistant at Morgan Lewis, and the experience helped me better see myself working within the legal world. I like the legal profession as a lens to look at particular subjects and examine the relationships between people, both on an institutional and an individual level. That’s what ultimately pushed me to go to law school. While I haven’t fully decided where I’d like my legal career to go, I’m hoping to use my time at UVA to find my niche.
As a Big Law “veteran,” what advice would you give to someone who is considering it?
For any job, remember to keep an open mind and that fit is critical. I worked in private equity during my time as a legal practice assistant, and coming into the job, I was really worried about the practice area. I wasn’t a “finance” person in any way, shape, or form, and I felt some imposter syndrome when starting out. The concerns I had faded pretty quickly because the partners and associates with whom I worked were absolutely fantastic people. They taught me the language of private equity, and I found that I actually enjoyed the practice area and its quirks. In thinking about my career after law school, I’ll focus on finding bosses and colleagues that complement my personality and working styles.
So when you, dear reader, are interviewing with a firm, it’s not just them evaluating you—you also need to be evaluating whether this is a group of people you want to spend time with and whether a specific group’s workflow works for you.
Let’s do a Lighting Round!
Favorite word?
Gobsmacked.
Greatest celebrity encounter?
I unknowingly, but quite loudly, told Danny DeVito to screw off while walking into a bar in London. I didn’t realize until after we’d gotten inside and my sister told me.
Philosophy of life?
If you can’t blow them away with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit.
Worst Halloween candy?
Almond Joy or Mounds.
Most embarrassing haircut?
In third grade, I had a habit of trying to color my hair using mascara. Right before picture day, I used my sister’s mascara to color my hair electric blue. Because I didn’t understand how makeup worked (or that makeup remover existed), I thought I’d permanently ruined my hair. Naturally, I decided to cut off the blue parts of my hair. I ended up with about an inch of hair left in front of my face. I tried to hide the damage, but when my mom saw it, she took me to get a proper haircut that left me with a bob and microbangs. It was awful. And yet, I have since experimented with bangs and short haircuts (although not mascara hair painting) multiple times because apparently, I cannot learn my lesson.
Where’s a place you’ve never been, but would like to go?
New Zealand.
If you could make one rule that everyone had to follow, what would it be?
When you’re walking on the sidewalk, walk on the right-hand side and pass on the left! I do not understand why this is such a hard concept for people to understand.
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Interviewed by Elizabeth Patten '25
wys2pb@virginia.edu