When Adenike Tijani (J.D. ‘23) started her first semester at Georgia State University College of Law, she already knew she would be balancing her classes with not only a job but a toddler and a new baby at home. She didn’t know that soon the whole family would all be working, learning, and living together during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adenike Tijani (J.D. ’23) and her niece are all smiles at the College of Law Commencement and Hooding reception.
Working With Children
“The reason I chose Georgia State Law over all the other schools was because of the flexibility Georgia State gives you with a part-time program,” said Tijani. “When you have children, you never know what could happen, so I needed to have that flexibility.” Her conversations with other students who were also parents gave her confidence that she could be successful, and everything she was hoping for was confirmed on her first day of class.
Professor Tanya Washington started her Civil Procedure I course with compassion. She acknowledged the fact that children, an illness, or other obligations make life unpredictable and urged her students not to be anxious about missing classes for those reasons. “That just really put me at ease,” Tijani said. “It was the first class on my first day, and I had the professor confirming everything I heard from the students I spoke to.”
Tijani completed her undergraduate degree in social work and social policy at the University of Western Australia, where she is originally from. For the first eight years of her career, she was a social worker specializing in child protection both in Australia and in the U.S.
“When I immigrated to America in 2015, I quickly realized that the child protection system here is legally driven and not policy-driven like in Australia.” Tijani wanted to make more of an impact for the children and families she worked with and since she was unable to use her background in social policy to its full effect, she decided to go to law school.
Adenike Tijani (J.D. ’23) walks in front of the College of Law.
Discovering Tax Law
Here, Tijani’s pathway took an unexpected turn.
“While in law school, the tax clinic opened my eyes to the impact I could make by supporting people through overcoming their tax matters, and then I fell in love with tax law.” She is the first to admit that a shift from social work into tax law may not make much sense on paper, but her guiding principle has always been to support people through their most challenging struggles.
Tijani sees a direct connection between economic hardship and the domino effect it can have in other areas of people’s lives, and she knows first-hand how financial struggles can put families in contact with child protective services. “Most people involved are proactively looking for support,” she explains. “Whether they need access to medical services or access to nutritious foods, the vast majority of prevention work is in collaboration with families who are trying to prevent harm to their children.”
For families already struggling financially, small issues become magnified. A tax credit or tax return withheld, or an amount sent to collections can mean the difference in a child having food to eat or a roof over their head. “Not a lot of people know that they have access to relief options,” she says, noting that the landscape is littered with predatory companies, promising money in return for burdensome fees for their services.
She credits Professor Samuel Donaldson with helping her realize that this could be her path forward. “His advanced taxation process class was very eye-opening in terms of how the system is convoluted but can work for the benefit of an individual if they have access to justice.”
Representation Matters
Access to justice for her fellow students is what led her to become the inaugural Outreach and Inclusion Editor of the Georgia State Law Review in 2022, increasing their overall applications from students who otherwise may not have considered participating by 40 percent.
And access to justice for her clients is what drives Tijani into her new role as an associate with Fox Rothschild, a national law firm ranked among the world’s largest. “Associate Dean Tameka Lester helped me understand that I didn’t have to choose between working for a ‘Big Law’ law firm and public service,” she said. “You can do great work in a larger firm and still support people through pro bono work in your sector.” In addition to this new role, Tijani will also begin an LL.M. program with the University of Florida after graduation.
Tijani also expressed her appreciation for the community of mentors, attorneys, and professors she found at Georgia State. “I think it’s important for me as a Black woman to say that the faculty, staff, and student body at Georgia State are representative of the community of Atlanta. I see myself; I see my daughters; I see diversity, and I think it’s important for the institution to be reflective of the community.”
-Written by Lauren Allred