A juris doctor candidate at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Dedman School of Law, Ephraim Ayil has a background in political theory and historical linguistics. Ephraim Ayil’s language skills include fluency in Hebrew and proficiency in French, and his research on religious texts have appeared in two series published by Brill. His prior professional development also includes short-term roles in political research and governmental affairs.
Mr. Ayil most recently served as a research assistant at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center, where he assisted professors with research on various constitutional issues. His duties also involved real-time monitoring of education developments, from recent legislation to cultural trends. Previously, he worked as an Fellow for American Statecraft Fellow in the Office of Representative Jim Banks. In this capacity, Mr. Ayil worked alongside Congressional Research Services and legislative counsel to draft language for two bills. He also authored an op-ed regarding universities and upholding free speech that was published in The American Mind.
Mr. Ayil began his career as an intern at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life, where he helped with research on trends in American academia and compiled data on state-funded universities in Florida. Prior to this, Mr. Ayil earned his bachelor of arts in political science from Touro University.
Ephraim Ayil expects to graduate from the SMU Dedman School of Law in 2027. He is an active member of the Jewish Law Students Association and the Federalist Society, and belongs to the Dallas Bar Association as a student member.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
No day is quite typical! I set out that day’s To-Do list on a sticky note over morning coffee. It is important to write this as a physical list from which items can gradually be crossed-out through the day. Since starting law school, my class schedule has dictated where and how I spend my daylight hours. The routine question is whether to read cases, outline, and study at school or to return home between classes. A moment wasted is time that cannot be recovered. I find that the more intentional I am with every moment, word, and action, the more I can enjoy the day.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Ideas are corrected through the push-and-pull of debate and subsequently refined. Surround yourself with great friends and colleagues who are ready partners in this activity. And then, you have to start writing. Write. A lot of writing. And take a walk while thinking about writing. And then write.
What’s one trend that excites you?
The easy answer here is LLMs with the potential to vastly improve the quality of quick research. But an older trend which we are still just starting to see bear fruit is far more exciting. These organic social networks are forming online between people with shared interests, regardless of location or social class. This is not so much lowering the bar to entry as it is democratizing it. You can learn any field and connect with experts the world over. It’s never been easier to master something.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
Loose-leaf tea. Totally different experience from teabags, try it once and you’ll be a convert too. Total focus potion.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Patience! Embrace the learning curve; remember that setbacks are often the best teachers. An adage often heard in finance circles is Shilling’s refrain that “markets can remain irrational a lot longer than you and I can remain solvent.” That may be true – but if you’re correct that a status quo is unsustainable, you should position yourself to benefit from the inevitable correction when it comes.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
Risk mitigation is itself risky. People and businesses try to lower their downside-risk. But we often fail to comprehend how lowering downside-risk lessens upside-potential – causing stagnation. In a competitive area, like law or industry, stagnation is a death-sentence in the long term.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
I read outside of the legal field – history, philosophy, linguistics, timeless literature. There is no better path towards becoming well-rounded. All the best attorneys I’ve ever met share this trait in common: a deep understanding of human nature, persuasion, and the broader forces that shape society. There is no better way to maximize the development of these qualities.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
It’s far too easy to skip a meal when you’re overwhelmed. Take a meal break while focusing on the serenity of food preparation and presentation as a meditative activity itself. Total reset.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
In my experience working in politics prior to law school, I noticed that careers are built of relationships, not words. Proactively build relationships; reach out to people with the particular expertise of which you share an interest. Most of my closest professional relationship started from cold calls.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
When I was a college freshman during COVID, I wasn’t doing well in Chem 102. Classes were pass/fail, and days before the final, I received a well-deserved D+ on the midterm. I knew there was no way I was going to pass the final, so I didn’t even bother to show up. It turned out a lot of my peers also didn’t do too well either, because the professor refused to fail any student given the exigencies of the pandemic. That is, anyone who showed up to the final!
That was the last time I ever quit just because I was down. A perusal of the biographies of highly successful people reveals a certain stubbornness in the face of adversity; I think they call that quality “grit.” I always recommend young people develop this quality as early as possible.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Any lawyer sleeping on Lexis+ AI is doing a real disservice to themselves. While the technology can still hallucinate outputs, as the starting point for a given point of legal analysis, it is invaluable. That’s huge – how often does anything completely transform the starting place for an activity? It’s Google for lawyers.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
The late and great Justice Antonin Scalia teamed up with SMU Dedman School of Law’s Professor Bryan A. Garner to write Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts. It’s a one-book reference to everything you ever wanted to know (and more) on how to think about reading texts, especially legal texts. Flip to a random page and find a fascinating legal problem you can chew on for weeks. The best part of this book is its broad applicability within and beyond law. I gave a copy to a friend—a real literature buff—who came back claiming it changed his whole perception of literary interpretation!
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I just watched Interstellar for the first time. What really struck me was its core theme: the interplay between reason and human connection. People unfamiliar with the legal system make the mistake of imagining law as a mechanical system of rules, of inputs and outputs – like math. But to the extent that law has its mechanical rules, its teleology (ultimate purpose) is about addressing the human condition in societal terms. Our deepest motivations are not just intellectual, but profoundly personal. The film resonates with what I consider the heart of good lawyering – maintaining our humanity even while dealing with complex technical processes.
Key learnings
- Improving ideas is accomplished through the push-and-pull of debate and subsequently refined.
- Democratizing access to information and expertise is occurring through organic online social networks between people with shared interests.
- Researching law starts with using Lexis+ AI to its potential.
- Applying Justice Scalia’s Reading Law in and beyond the legal field will reshape how you think about texts.