Distinguished Alumni Award

JURIST, of course, engages law students while they are in law school, but law students graduate and go on to other things. Or at least that’s what usually happens in most other organizations. JURIST is different, however, in that many of our former law student staffers tend to stick around. In fact, several members of our professional staff and most members of our Board of directors are JURIST alumni. Some alumni continue to write and report for JURIST after they’ve graduated, and others continue to contribute in other ways. Each year, JURIST will recognize a member of our alumni who has gone above and beyond in contributing to JURIST even after leaving law school.

The 2023 recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award are:

Erin Holliday

Ryan Olden

Erin Holliday is an associate attorney for Trellis Legal, LLC, a small, woman-owned transactional law firm in Pittsburgh. She loves working with small businesses and non-profits on their ongoing needs, from those getting started to longstanding operations. Erin graduated from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and wrote advertising before attending the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and serving as JURIST’s Chief of Staff from 2019-2020. Erin is passionate about connecting future, current, and former JURIST staff from all over the world, and is proud to have begun JURIST’s quarterly newsletter with Ryan Olden. She is so excited to continue to invigorate the organization through networking, educational, and many other opportunities.

Ryan Olden served as JURIST’s Chief of Staff until his graduation from Pitt Law in 2010. Since that time, he has been living in Washington, DC, working in the civil service and building a career in trade policy. Despite the time and distance, however, he never lost interest in JURIST. Today, he is excited to be working with Erin Holliday to further develop the JURIST alumni network and keep all of JURIST’s great talent connected.

JURIST is honored to acknowledge past recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award.

2022
Maeve McDermott