Elizabeth Dobbins is the first female graduate of the Virginia Military Institute to attend UVA Law, from which she just graduated. She served in the Marine Corps, where she is a 1st Lieutenant, before and during law school. “You think if you have a tolerance for difficulty, then you can do anything difficult,” Dobbins said recently. “But law school’s difficult in a different way.” That may be in part because Dobbins was busy: working on a lawsuit challenging the DoD’s former policy of barring women in combat, writing for the Charlottesville newspaper The Daily Progress, co-chairing the Feminist Legal Forum, serving in various roles in the JAG School, and working in the Special Collections division of the UVA Law Library. While in school, she was awarded the Mary Claiborne and Roy H. Ritter Prize, given to students exemplifying the values of honor, integrity and character. Just before her graduation from law school this summer, Dobbins signed on for a five-year commitment to serve as a Judge Advocate with the Marine JAG Corps.
