James McQuaid didn’t plan to go to law school. He planned to write science fiction novels. Courses like “Bureaucracy and its Discontents” with Charles Westerberg, professor of sociology, and “Philosophy of Law” combined with a fateful after dinner walk to show him this path. One Monday evening in his sophomore year a friend convinced McQuaid to attend the student government meeting on the day they handed out committee assignments.

McQuaid signed in as the representative for his floor, standing in for the appointed but absent representative, and joined the election and campaign committee. “It was spring 2009, and the first major task we had was to rewrite our bylaws to accommodate online voting,” McQuaid said. “It wound up being my first real experience with any legal process.”

After graduation, McQuaid worked for the Illinois Policy Institute doing factual research. He enjoyed working with laws and bureaucracy. The Liberty Justice Center, for which McQuaid interned and then returned to after passing the bar, was an opportunity he believed in to hold his government accountable.

“Beloit College was a part of my desire to dedicate my time to that purpose,” he says. Law school reprograms how you think, to focus on what’s legal, and it really helps to ignore your opinion of the policy,” McQuaid says, and he intentionally chooses cases that may contradict his opinions. “Being able to step back and see the big picture is an important skill. Having principles and sticking to them even when it takes you in a direction you’re not enthusiastic about.”

McQuaid’s visit to campus took exactly the turn that Laura Grube, associate professor of economics and business, was enthusiastic about. “I was reading up on the Supreme Court decision when it came out last month. I scrolled through the Center for Law and Justice staff and saw James McQuaid listed,” she said. The School of Business organized a working lunch for economists, future law school applicants, and everyone interested in hearing from a Beloit College alum who submitted a brief that went to the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Tariffs are an important topic in economics. Most economists agree that tariffs are a tax on imports that will reduce the benefits from trade and raise prices for consumers. Of course, James comes at it from a different perspective - the legal one. My goal for the event was to share this important, evolving issue with our students and college community and to talk about law as a potential career path.”

Students and staff in attendance asked nuanced questions about the detailed concepts and arguments at the foundation of the tariff decision, as well as its local and global impacts and paid close attention to the strengths of his team’s legal arguments to those defending the tariffs. They asked for his hypothesis about future implications for the brief, which he held in his hand.

“I hope there will be more events like this in the future,” said Landon Adams ’29, a quantitative economics major and law and justice minor. “Based on the strong turnout, many other students felt the same way.”

McQuaid’s experience is reflected in the School of Business mission hung on the wall behind him. We empower students to discover their passions and transform them into impactful businesses or careers that solve meaningful problems and build thriving communities.

And in the students who attended. McQuaid’s success inspired Adams to consider constitutional law as a career. Elliot Ave-Lallemant ’27, expressed the same admiration. “It’s always great to see alumni that do impactful work, especially when it has real-world implications like tariffs,” Elliot Ave-Lallemant ’27 said. “This also applies to the work I do in my political science major, and the impact caused by these cases can last for many years to come.” 

McQuaid shared he would be happy to finish his career with the Liberty Justice Center, where he has worked for a decade. Relationships with professors and peers started him on this path and relationships still guide him. “Someday I may argue in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, but everyday I wake up and work with a wonderful group of people,” says McQuaid, who is motivated to contribute his research and writing to help the team arrive wherever it needs to go.