REBEKAH LUTTRELL ’12
ASSISTANT SOLICITOR, SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT AT SOLICITOR'S OFFICE, 14TH CIRCUIT OF SOUTH CAROLINA
“Law school is not only academics—there are so many other outlets in law school, and it is important to take advantage of those.”
When Rebekah Luttrell’s husband accepted a new job that moved their family from South Carolina to Virginia last year, Luttrell figured she would take the bar exam in July and have a new job soon after. Then the pandemic hit, and, like so many well-laid plans in 2020, Luttrell’s had to be redrawn.
Instead, she took the bar in February 2021 after six months at home with her three children, helping them navigate virtual school. Now, with in-person school back in session, Luttrell looks forward to continuing her focus on victim services. In South Carolina, she helped start a first-of-its-kind victim services program, building partnerships between victim advocacy groups, law enforcement, and the solicitor’s office, where she prosecuted child abuse and sex crimes.
“Among other things, we used a grant to hire a nurse to do in-house sexual assault exams instead of having to send victims to the emergency room where they had to wait,” said Luttrell. She credits her semester in Washington, D.C., during Law School with crystalizing her career goals. While she had wanted to be a prosecutor since high school, her interest in victim crimes grew out of her work on cases involving gang-related killings.
“I was really lucky I was put on the homicide team for my assignment at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. It focused my interest in helping victims and their families,” said Luttrell. That was one of many Dickinson Law experiences, such as going to Vienna for an international moot court and participating in the Women’s Law Caucus, that she appreciates even more now, as she searches for her next challenge in Virginia.