While attending the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Emma served as Editor in Chief of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal and a judicial extern for the Honorable Susan Y. Illston in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Emma was a clinic student at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, where she prepared an amicus brief on behalf of various library coalitions for the U.S. Supreme Court copyright case Georgia v. PublicResource.Org, Inc. and a forthcoming guide to privacy law for nonfiction authors. Emma also served as a patent examining extern in the Business Methods Unit of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

While attending the Georgia Institute of Technology, Emma worked as a summer patent engineer intern in the patent prosecution group of a national law firm in its Milwaukee, Wisconsin office. Emma conducted simulation, computational, and experimental research in a variety of subject areas, including materials science and engineering and chemistry. Emma also served as a teaching assistant for the School of Physics, where she guided students through coding exercises and simulation experiments.