Pageant competitions teach Rutgers Law 2L lessons for court
Competing in pageants is not just sequins and glamour, says Portia Muehlbauer, a Rutgers Law School student who was crowned Miss New Jersey US International, but it’s also great training for a career in law and advocating for people with disabilities.
“A huge part of prepping for a pageant is preparing to be on stage and strategy,” says the 2L aiming to go into tax law. “To be a litigator, thinking about presenting the best aspects of a case and how to best frame the weak spots of an argument, is particularly good for preparing for oral arguments.”
Muehlbauer, a first-generation law student, became interested in the law during her undergraduate days at Long Island University—Global after she was diagnosed with dysautonomia/postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, an autonomic nervous system disorder that causes rapid heartbeat, headaches, brain fog and fainting.
She says she had to fight for her service dog, a golden retriever named Biscuit trained to alert her when her symptoms first present, to join her in her dormitory.
She worked with the school on enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act, learning laws regarding service animals, she says.
“There was no policy in place, and I had to go to a hotel room until I could eventually get approval,” she says. “It was months and months in the works.”
After the school newspaper did an article about her fight, another student contacted Muehlbauer, thanking her for blazing the trail that allowed support animals on campus.
“Actually, it was the reason I wanted to go to law school,” she says. “If I accomplished this just advocating for myself and it affected others in such an impactful way, what else could I accomplish?”
Muehlbauer, serving as a judicial intern for Judge Michael Duffy in the New Jersey Tax Court this spring and aiming to graduate in May 2027, says her dog comes to court with her. “He is a godsend,” she says.
She will represent the state at the national competition in Philadelphia in July, but Biscuit will not join her on stage, she says.
“It’s a little difficult to teach him how to do all the turns required for, say, the swimsuit competition,” she adds. “But he is backstage waiting for me when I get off.”
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