OAKLAND (AP) — Nick Walrath, 31, was recently hired as an attorney with the San Francisco law firm Durie Tangri.
He texted his girlfriend, Alexis Abrams-Bourke, from inside the burning structure, saying there was a fire and that he loved her.
She spoke between sobs as she described him as a wonderful person who was open and vulnerable and goofy and generous.
“I feel like my future has been ripped from me,” she said.
The two moved together from New York City several years ago after Walrath got a job as a clerk for the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He spent a year working as a judicial law clerk for the federal district court in San Francisco. District Judge Jon Tigar said in a statement that Walrath was an “exceptional” law clerk in his chambers.
His ultimate goal was to work for the American Civil Liberties Union, according to Abrams-Bourke. Helping people is what drove him.
“He could really step outside of himself and care and listen to other people and feel their struggles, and want to help,” Abrams-Bourke said.