The outgoing Student Bar Association president earned the Distinguished Service Award for leadership and dedication to her classmates and community.
Is there anything that happens at Elon Law that Rebecca “Becca” Bailey L’25 doesn’t have a hand in?
She’s closing out a year as Student Bar Association president, representing Elon Law’s student body at events and fielding constant requests from classmates and organizations. She welcomes future students as an admissions ambassador and leads peers as a Moot Court Board member. Bailey is an official student mentor (and an unofficial mentor for any classmate seeking support). As a Leadership Fellow and active member to the First-Generation Society, Women’s Law Association, and Fellowship of Christian Lawyers, she continues to give time and talent to Elon Law and peers.
Whether she’s the one energizing a room from the front or quietly ensuring the details behind the scenes help everyone shine, Bailey is there. Her service reflects a simple belief: When the community thrives, everyone does.
“She upholds all of the values of Elon in her everyday life because she is willing to call out problems and find solutions, and has strong ethics,” said a fellow student in nominating Bailey for Elon Law’s Distinguished Service Award, given annually to a third-year law student who strengthens the life of the school through leadership, engagement and commitment to the school’s mission. Bailey claimed the award in the weeks leading up to the school’s Dec. 12 Commencement.
Ask Bailey why she invests so much of herself into the life of the law school, and her answer is simple: gratitude.
“I consider being in law school the biggest privilege in the world. So many people have invested in me, and I’ve been given so much by this community: mentors who believed in me, classmates who encouraged me, opportunities I never imagined,” Bailey said. “If I can make one person’s day better or one person’s experience easier, that’s an easy yes.”
A native of the Charlotte area, Bailey graduated from Queens University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology before enrolling at Elon Law. She gives her time and talent back to classmates and programs that enriched her experiences.
“Becca embodies what it means to be dedicated to a community,” said Dean Zak Kramer. “She shows up, she serves, and she makes the people around her better. Elon Law is stronger because of her, and she has set a standard of engagement and care that future students will aspire to.”
“Becca embodies what it means to be dedicated to a community. She shows up, she serves, and she makes the people around her better.”
Zak Kramer, dean of Elon Law
That ethos has powered Bailey’s work in every corner of Elon Law. In addition to her work as a Moot Court Board co-chair of the committee organizing the 16th annual Billings, Exum, & Frye National Moot Court Competition this fall in Greensboro, she supported Charlotte students in the Flex Program as they launched their own SBA and organized the first Intramural Moot Court Competition this fall.
Peers have felt that support.
“Becca pours her all into her community and her desire to help others is reflected in everything she does,” said Taylor Rockwood L’25, vice president of the Student Bar Association. “She never shies away from a challenge and never tries to take the easy way out. She puts in the work to make a difference for her peers because she genuinely wants to see everyone succeed. She is a tremendous leader and a light in the lives of everyone around her.”
Bailey’s proactive approach to building her career mirrors the drive that fuels her service to Elon Law. In her first year, she cold-emailed female attorneys in Charlotte to seek mentorship and hands-on experience — outreach that led her to two summer internships with Shankle Law Firm in workers’ compensation and personal injury law.
Bailey knew immediately that she had found the right role model in attorney Maggie Shankle, who built her Charlotte firm from the ground up. Bailey admires the compassionate way Shankle practices law — putting clients, their families, and the struggles that bring them to her door first.
“Everything I want to be as an attorney, she embodies,” Bailey said.
“She puts in the work to make a difference for her peers because she genuinely wants to see everyone succeed. She is a tremendous leader and a light in the lives of everyone around her.”
Taylor Rockwood L’25, SBA vice president
After graduation, Bailey will return to Shankle Law Firm as the practice’s first associate attorney, ready to bring service-driven advocacy into her next chapter.
As she prepares to leave the classroom and step into professional life, Bailey plans to remain closely connected to Elon Law — judging future competitions, mentoring incoming students, and opening doors in the same way others opened them for her.
“Serving and leading just feels like the natural way to give back, to make sure other students feel supported and valued the way I have,” Bailey said. “I want students to feel like they belong here, like they are seen and valued. That’s what people at Elon did for me, and that’s what I want for others.”