Krista (Crider) McCormack
May 5, 2020
Krista (Crider) McCormack (2020)
Krista (Crider) McCormack is a Career Staff Attorney at the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. After graduating from Washington University School of Law, she also worked as a litigation associate at Lewis Rice LLC and then as a law clerk for a United States district court. At Wash U Law, she served as Editor in Chief of Washington University Jurisprudence Review. In her free time, Krista enjoys traveling, attending concerts, hiking, and playing board and video games with her husband Garrett. She also loves hanging out with her dog (Athena) and two cats (Loki and Agni).
What year did you graduate and what was your concentration?
I graduated in 2012 with a BA in Communication (Public Communication concentration), with minors in English and Spanish.
Krista (2nd fr left) and her Bullets teammates in CO during a rugby tournament (2009).
What extra-/co-curricular activities did you do?
My freshman year, I played on the Bullets Rugby team and worked as a sports reporter for The Index. That summer, I studied abroad in Costa Rica. I was a student advisor in the dorms my sophomore year and part of my junior year, and in my remaining summers, I worked as an Upward Bound residential mentor, and then as a journalism instructor and yearbook advisor.
During the fall of my junior year, I did the Missouri Government Internship in Jefferson City. I was also an officer with Lambda Pi Eta for a couple of years, and I presented a project–a Feminist and Aesthetic Analysis of Twilight–in the 2010 TSU Undergraduate Research Conference.
Did you go to grad school? If so, where? Was it immediately after you left Truman or did you wait? Why?
Yes – Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. I started the fall after I graduated from Truman. I knew by the end of junior year that I wanted to be a lawyer, so going straight through was an easy choice.
What was your first job after graduation?
After I graduated law school, I worked at Lewis Rice, a law firm in downtown St. Louis. Some of my favorite work was in the Advertising, Promotions & Social Media, and Intellectual Property practice groups.
What work do you do/What are you doing now?
I now work as a Career Staff Attorney for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. I primarily review habeas corpus cases involving state and federal prisoners challenging their sentences and/or convictions, research the legal issues involved, and draft memoranda to the judges summarizing the cases and making recommendations about how they might be resolved.
How has your Liberal Arts/COMM education helped you?
My COMM education taught me how to put together cogent arguments; work well with other people; and be succinct when writing, thorough when researching, and articulate when speaking.
My liberal arts education taught me to comfortably pivot between very different subject matters in my work. It also helped me realize that I love branching out and learning new things, which was part of what inspired me to continue my education and go to law school.
Which class did you dislike at the time you took it, but now you’re grateful you took it?
I remember COMM Theory was super interesting, but it really stressed me out because of how hard it was to get an A (nerd alert 🤓). I’m so glad I took it, though, because it taught me to work super hard and, probably more than any other class, how to study. That really helped me in law school.
Krista and her husband Garrett hiking in CO (2019).
What was your greatest accomplishment at Truman?
I was proud to present a research paper that I wrote in Media Criticism (which I loved) at the Student Research Conference. I was also really honored to be selected as the Outstanding Student in Public Communication in 2012.
Why is Truman a good place for a student to study?
I loved the campus, the student/professor ratio, and the people. Because it is not a huge school, you get to know the professors and other students very well, and you get a lot of unique opportunities. For example, along with all the activities I listed above, I also did a stand-up comedy routine at a bar for my JINS (junior interdisciplinary seminar) class, which was about rhetoric and humor. I also was able to take a “Readings” course, with me and maybe six other students, where we got together at various restaurants and bars in Kirksville and had what amounted to a professor-led book club every week.
What would you say a COMM student should absolutely do while at Truman?
Whatever strikes their fancy! Doing the Missouri Government Internship was not originally part of the plan for me. I wasn’t a political science minor or anything, but I went for it because it sounded fun, and while I was there, I decided I wanted to go to law school.
What do you miss most about campus/Kirksville?
I miss how peaceful and collegiate it was on campus, with students walking or riding bikes between classes, or playing ultimate frisbee, LARPing, or slacklining on the quad. It was particularly pretty in the spring–after the winter broke–and in the fall after the trees changed colors.
Krista (strangling the teddy bear for some reason) and the BNB staff during Truman Week (2010).
What advice would you give someone who wants to go into the same line of work as you?
Talk to a lot of attorneys about what they do to make sure it’s what you want, because law school is a huge commitment, and being a lawyer isn’t all “Suits” and “Law and Order.” I love it, because Wash U was amazing, I enjoy legal reasoning, research, and writing, and I found a fulfilling job, but being a lawyer definitely isn’t for everyone.
What tag line would you create for the COMM department at Truman?
Advancement Through Communication™ …or something like that :).
If you could come back to Truman and teach a class for a semester, what would be its title and what would it be about?
Communication and the Law. I would explore the different ways the communication concentrations intersect with the legal profession, specifically looking at rhetorical theory in practice in litigation, how the FTC and consumer protection laws affect advertising, and the protections afforded to the media from the First Amendment.
What did we not ask that you think is important for people to know?
Best restaurant in Kirksville? Trick question: for dinner, it’s AJ’s in Macon. For breakfast, I haven’t found French toast ANYWHERE that can beat the French toast at Rosie’s Northtown Cafe.
Krista (right) and her friend Jessica at graduation (2012).
If you would like to learn more of Krista’s story, you can follow her on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram.