When Notre Dame High School senior McKinna Wiles first stepped into the federal courthouse in Chattanooga, she expected to spend her internship doing what she’d seen interns do in movies – fetching coffee, shuffling papers and observing the real work from a distance.
Instead, she found herself immersed in the practice of law under the mentorship of Senior U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier, a jurist whose long career on the federal bench has shaped both the region’s legal landscape and its future legal talent.
For Wiles, who plans to become a lawyer, the internship was more than a line on a college application. It became a defining glimpse into her future.
“I thought I’d be at the bottom of the totem pole,” she laughs. “But Judge Collier and his law clerk, Carrie Stafaniak, don’t believe in that. I didn’t dilly-dally; I drafted actual court papers, interacted with lawyers and talked with Judge Collier about cases. It was a great opportunity.”
A seed planted early
Wiles’ interest in the law began in eighth grade and was sparked by a simple thought: “How can I make the most money?”
Medicine was out because she’s squeamish about needles and blood, leaving the law.
But the idea soon grew into something deeper. Through her family, she’d been exposed to the complexities of divorce, prompting an early interest in family law. She also developed a passion for adoption, which she sees as “such a beautiful thing.”
When Wiles entered high school, she sought out experiences that would either confirm or challenge her career path. That led her to the mock trial team, where she served as timekeeper her freshman year due to conflicts with volleyball.
Even from the sidelines, the courtroom reenactments captivated her.
“Just seeing everyone actually do it – I loved it,” she says. She became one of the team’s attorneys the following year and has remained one ever since, generally gravitating toward the defense side.
An unexpected mentor
The turning point came not in a classroom but at the Supreme Court Historical Society’s summer program in Chattanooga, a two-week camp exploring constitutional history through the Ed Johnson case. (Johnson was a Black man convicted and lynched in Chattanooga in 1906 for a crime he did not commit, sparking a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established federal oversight of state-level civil rights issues.)
Collier played a central role in the program, meeting with students, answering questions and engaging them in discussion.
“I asked him so many questions,” Wiles says. “He seemed to have all the answers. It was a lot of fun.”
At the end of the camp, Wiles took a chance: She asked Collier for his contact information so she could follow up with more questions during the school year. He gave it to her without hesitation.
“I kept in contact with him throughout the year. And toward the end, I thought, ‘Why not take a shot?’ So I emailed him asking if I could intern under him – and he said yes.”
The law, up close
What followed was a summer unlike anything Wiles had imagined. She didn’t observe the work – she participated in it.
She drafted court documents, toured the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the federal defender’s office, visited bankruptcy court and sat in on proceedings across the judicial system. She talked with lawyers from multiple disciplines, absorbing perspectives on how the law functions in practice.
Even more surprising was the structured way Collier introduced her and another student to judicial reasoning. Each day, he assigned them a section of the federal rules to read – “Rules 36 to 45 or something like that,” she recalls – and then arranged sessions with district or magistrate judges to walk through the material.
“They’d explain the rules and discuss the history or the significance of them,” she remembers. “It was helpful because I hadn’t had any legal classes yet. It gave me a taste of my future.”
A question worth asking
One moment in particular tied Wiles’ experiences together. The previous summer, she’d asked Collier about a legal concept she and her father had debated but couldn’t quite grasp: the Alford plea.
“I asked him, ‘What exactly is an Alford plea?’” she says. (An Alford plea is a guilty plea entered by a defendant who maintains their innocence but acknowledges there’s enough evidence for a jury to likely convict them.) “He gave such a well-thought-out answer. He didn’t just read out of a book – he explained how judges view it and the morality of it.”
During the internship a year later, one of the rules she studied dealt with pleas. Collier asked her about the drawbacks of accepting an Alford plea. That simple question triggered a vivid flashback.
“I remembered asking him about that the year before,” she says. “It felt like everything had clicked.”
Learning to think like a lawyer
Wiles describes Collier as a “deep thinker,” someone who values not just knowledge but the pursuit of knowledge.
“He loves to ask questions,” she says. “He really values digging deeper and not taking things at face value.”
That mindset – question everything, explore the why, seek the history behind the rule – is something she plans to carry into law school and beyond.
Through the internship, she also learned that experiences matter.
“I’m at a point in my life where the decisions I make will have a humongous impact on my future,” she says.
Gaining real-world exposure, meeting legal professionals, hearing their stories – these have guided Wiles more than any textbook could.
The relationships she built have informed her college decisions as well. She hopes to attend East Tennessee State University, drawn by the campus environment, opportunities and proximity to her family in Chattanooga.
Investing in future legal minds
Wiles is quick to emphasize the role Collier played not just in her internship but in encouraging her generation.
“He really wants to inspire people,” she says. “He recognizes that we’re the next generation, and he wants to help guide us.”
For a teenager exploring her future, the opportunity to work closely with a federal judge – someone with nearly three decades on the bench – was both eye-opening and affirming. It showed Wiles not only what the law is but what it can be when practiced with curiosity and purpose.
And for Collier, it was another chance to invest in the future lawyers who will one day carry the profession forward.
As Wiles puts it, “He’s just so great.”