Jennifer Coatsworth, GVPT '00

Jennifer Coatsworth isn’t your ordinary lawyer, much like the character who sparked her initial interest in the field

Jennifer Coatsworth knew from an early age the kind of person she wanted to be when she grew up. Now, thanks in part to her University of Maryland B.A. in Government and Politics, she’s becoming exactly that.

“I read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in sixth or seventh grade, and I wanted to be Atticus Finch, so that’s when I decided I wanted to be a lawyer,” recalled Coatsworth, a Partner at Margolis Edelstein, a law firm with offices in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

Coatsworth knew that the first step toward becoming a lawyer would be earning a bachelor’s degree in government and politics. She also knew she wanted a college experience that would take her between two and three hours away from her hometown of Bensalem, Pa., that would have a strong sports culture, and that was close to a major metro area.

UMD checked all of Coatsworth’s boxes, but what ultimately made her decide to attend UMD over her other top contender, Pennsylvania State University, was her admission into the UMD Department of Government and Politics’ (GVPT) Honors Program; a program that went on to give Coatsworth some of her fondest college memories.

“I loved my honors government 100 professor, Linda Williams, so I went back and served as a teaching assistant for her my senior year. Because I was able to do that, she invited me to participate when she brought her students to the 2000 Democratic Convention in L.A. for a special two-week program,” said Coatsworth. “The first week of the program took place before the convention and featured a lot of speakers including many elected politicians and scholars from government think tanks. Then the second week, during the actual convention, we had additional visits from speakers, as well as an opportunity to volunteer at convention events and attend parties. It was such a cool, incredible experience.”

Coatsworth loved the less glamorous parts of the honors program too.

“I actually enjoyed writing my honors program thesis, which was comparing and contrasting the conservative and liberal parties in the United States and the United Kingdom,” continued Coatsworth, mentioning how she studied abroad in London during her junior year. “My thesis and, more broadly, my time in the program, has definitely stuck with me in that I feel I am more informed about current events and am a more informed citizen.”

In addition to juggling hundreds of motor vehicle, dealer fraud and lemon law cases over the years—plus cases involving the defense of real estate agents, home inspectors, accountants and physicians—Coatsworth has been an active member of the Philadelphia Bar Association. There, she has served as a Parliamentarian of the Board of Governors, an Assistant Secretary, Secretary, Vice Chancellor, and Chancellor.

Around 2017, Coatsworth played a lead role in drafting and presenting a resolution to the governing bodies of both the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia bar associations that encouraged the state legislature to pass legislation that would change regulations and provide additional funding for the testing of rape kits in order to cut down on the state’s monthslong testing backlog. 

It’s work like this that makes Coatsworth, and especially her inner child, most proud.

“The work that I do on a daily basis isn't what Atticus did, and I feel like my bar association work gives me the opportunity to make a more significant change to help the community; be it the legal community or the community at large,” said Coatsworth.

Reflecting on how far she’s come since those early days of simply dreaming about becoming a lawyer—including meeting her now-husband during her junior year at UMD, naming their first dog “Bentley” in honor of where they met, becoming a mother of two boys, and settling down in New Jersey—Coatsworth offers this advice to current BSOS students: “Find your passion, figure out where you want to spend your time, then do everything you can to find people who are doing what you want to do and reach out to them and ask for some guidance.”