Alumni Spotlight: Micaela Owens ’19L Micaela Owens is a partner at Cruser Mitchell in New Jersey and focuses her practice on litigation in a variety of civil law contexts.

By Law Communications
January 29, 2026

Micaela Owens ‘19L is a first-generation attorney who grew up in a small town in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. She graduated from the University of Miami in 2016 and double majored in political science and sports administration. During her time at “The U,” Micaela was a four-year student athlete and three-year team captain on the Sunsations Dance Team.

As a law student, Micaela enjoyed being involved in the many activities, clubs, and extracurriculars W&L Law has to offer. She served as Lead Articles Editor on the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, Chair of Spring Competitions on the Moot Court Executive Board, Kirgis Fellow mentor to first year and transfer law students, a Student Attorney in the Immigrant Rights Clinic, Marketing Editor of The Law News, and worked part-time at the Information Technology Help Desk. After graduating W&L Law in 2019, Micaela served as Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Mark P. Ciarrocca, Presiding Judge of the Civil Part, Law Division, in the Superior Court of New Jersey (Union Vicinage).

Micaela is now a partner in the New Jersey office of Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston & Zimet, LLP, where she devotes 100% of her practice to litigation, focusing primarily in the areas of professional liability, transportation liability, premises liability, employment litigation, and commercial litigation. Outside of work, Micaela enjoys staying physically active and takes various HIIT, Pilates, and cycling classes. She also frequents Broadway and stand-up comedy shows, as well as attends various professional sports games, with some of her favorites being the NY Yankees, NJ Devils, and NY Knicks.

Discuss your career path and how it led you to Cruser Mitchell?

Following my judicial clerkship, I interviewed with various civil defense firms and ultimately felt most at home at Cruser Mitchell. I approached interviewing for a law firm position with long-term placement in mind. I now thoroughly enjoy my time in the office, where I am surrounded by other attorneys and staff who are not only highly competent, intelligent, experienced, and dependable, but also genuine, trustworthy, and pleasant to be around.

What sort of legal issues do you handle on a day-to-day basis?

As I am sure any other litigator will tell you, there is no typical ‘day in the life’ for me. My time is generally split between defending high-exposure personal injury cases in the transportation liability and premises liability practice areas, particularly those involving rideshare platforms, public entities, and claims brought against commercial landowners and vendor tenants. Additionally, I advise and defend companies and individuals in the employment law arena, often against claims of discrimination and retaliation. In the professional liability arena, I handle a variety of malpractice actions, including the defense of lawyers and real estate and insurance professionals. On any particular day, I am defending against these various types of claims throughout all phases of litigation: whether that be drafting pleadings, tailored discovery demands, or discovery responses, taking or defending depositions, drafting or arguing dispositive and discovery-related motions in State and Federal Court, attending mediation or arbitration, negotiating with opposing counsel, or advising clients about mitigating risk.

What are some practices you have in your daily life as an attorney to maintain wellness?

I very much prioritize sleep and staying physically active. I make sure to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, and I wake up around 5:30 each morning to work out for about an hour before starting my workday. Beginning my workdays early has proven to be extremely beneficial for me in terms of productivity and responsiveness to client needs.

Looking back, what do you think is the most formative experience you had in law school?

The most formative experience I had in law school was my time serving as a Student Attorney in the Immigrant Rights Clinic, where I provided legal services to detained and non-detained persons in removal proceedings, with a focus on refugees and unaccompanied minors. My clinical experience was not only humbling and rewarding, but it also provided ample opportunities for me to communicate face-to-face with clients and advise about next steps, research and brief various legal issues, many of which were novel, and appear before various administrative bodies and courts under the supervision of highly regarded professionals in the immigration law arena. I started developing many of the necessary skills for litigation while I was still a law student, and I would encourage every law student to seriously consider joining a clinic as a 3L. Trying something new or outside my comfort zone in law school often felt daunting, primarily because of the fear of failure during a period of life when failure seemed unacceptable. As a result, it was tempting to “play it safe” by enrolling in classes or participating in extracurricular activities within areas where I already had prior experience or foundational knowledge. However, the practice of law requires that we dive confidently into unfamiliar territory daily; we might as well take our first dive as early-on as possible. Clinical work offers law students a platform to do just that because it demands what I believe to be some of the most crucial skills for successful lawyering, including adaptability, dependability, organizational skills, collaboration, persuasion and zealous advocacy, and effective written and oral communication.

Which W&L classes and/or experiences do you think were most helpful in preparing you for this job? 

I took advantage of the wide variety of classes W&L Law has to offer. Doing so ultimately provided me with a well-rounded legal education and strong foundation for successfully navigating the world of insurance defense and the defense of legal malpractice matters, specifically, which recurrently demand at least familiarity with a wide array of legal topics and practice areas. Of course, Civil Procedure and Trial Advocacy proved to be very beneficial courses for me because they offered early and invaluable insight into court rules and taught me how to navigate general court procedures and advocate on behalf of mock-clients in various mock-court appearances. To this day, I carry with me all of the feedback I received from those experiences.

What advice do you have for prospective law students?

First, be yourself. There is no “one size fits all” to the practice of law. You do not need to fit into any box or mold yourself into anyone other than you to be successful in the legal industry. Play on your uniqueness and reflect on your own experiences when approaching issues that arise, both in your every-day practice and during law school.

Second, do not hesitate to ask questions. Chances are, someone else had the same question, too. Even if that is not the case, then aside from displaying confidence and curiosity when asking your question, you ultimately learn something new once you get an answer. Often, the free flow of ideas and broader discussions follow, leading to better proposed resolutions and an increased level of thinking about any particular issue or topic.

Third, try to find a trusted mentor to help guide you along your career path. Then, when you do, try to make yourself available to others who may need mentoring in the future. I am very hopeful we can all find someone to relate to, especially given the abundance of resources and networking opportunities W&L Law has to offer. Use them! Mentorship proved to be extremely helpful to me in terms of navigating the legal arena as a first-generation lawyer, and I am forever grateful to those who helped me (and continue to help me) along the way—many of whom are W&L Law alumni.

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