One Interesting Thing

Leaves are falling, the air is crisp and UW Law students at William H. Gates Hall have been in class for six weeks now. With autumn quarter past its midpoint and finals just over a month away, we were curious about what has piqued students’ interest so far this academic year. As we wandered the halls, we gathered answers spanning the spectrum of legal education, with many reflecting on the impact their coursework will have on their ability to promote positive change in the world.


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What's one interesting thing you've learned so far this quarter?

La Sheena Taft, M.J.: So this quarter, I'm studying mediation, which I thought was a subset of negotiation. And it's really not. The process of mediation is all about facilitating, whereas in a lot of law school, you're learning about negotiation, advocacy, persuasion, and this was the process of standing in the middle and holding this open ground, with open ended questions, learning from practitioners, from professors all in the same space. And practicing that in the room was incredible.

Erick Quezada, Tax LL.M.: So, something interesting that I've learned is from my Federal Tax Clinic course, just learning about how many resources there are out there, not just for individuals, but also for practitioners that are working in tax law. So, even after I leave the school, I know I'll still have access to these and be able to help people.

Luke Pfister, 2L: One interesting thing that I’ve covered this year is using pictures, animations and cartoons in pleadings from the plaintiff or defendant to try and prove facts more easily that learning that, you know, images and animations more digestible to the jury or to a judge. And this is a new common practice used in civil litigation to, sort of, get the point across.

Kim Alzenki, 1L: In torts, we've been learning about intentional torts and the difference between the intentional torts like between battery and assault. And Professor Calo also mentioned that once you learn torts you go throughout life just trying to identify torts. And I've definitely been noticing quite a bit of that recently.

A.J. Panganiban, 2L: In my administrative law class, I'm currently learning about, kind of, agency adjudication and figuring out how agencies kind of work within the Constitution and within statutes, and especially being part of the law school and kind of learning that it's been really, really wonderful.

Sam Ogden, 1L: The most Interesting thing I've learned so far is probably intentional torts. The thing I like the most is intentional infliction of emotional distress just because it's not commonly used. And it's something I never knew about.

Maili Barber, IP LL.M.: One of the things I learned about this quarter that I never really thought about was how, with international contracts different cultures do play a role in negotiation styles. And that was interesting to learn and talk about in practice.

Archana Prabhakar, 1L: So, in my torts class this semester, we've been looking at social justice as the goal of the law. And so a lot of our cases that we've been working through have social policy implications that have been really important to figure out where we want the evolution of our law to go to.

Ewan Cameron, 2L: Well, I had the opportunity to take Washington constitutional law. And it's been really interesting learning about this whole legal system that we kind of forget about, and you'll probably learn a lot about in the first year. But it's amazing just to see the differences between different state systems and how the Constitution of the state kind of picks up the things that we kind of forgot about in the federal constitution. That's been really interesting. And since I want to do a appellate law it's been a really great class to cover.

James McLean, 1L: We just did a case last week in civ pro called Christian v. Mattel where a lawyer was sanctioned by the bar association for disrespecting and throwing a Barbie doll across the room during a deposition hearing. And I find that to be a fascinating display as an attorney.

Dania Quezada, 1L: So far, civil procedure has been the most interesting to me personally, because of my background in immigration litigation. It's especially fascinating to see issues of civil litigation applied to everyday practice, and incredibly rewarding to go over examples of how attorneys are using issues of civil procedure to raise valid questions and essentially move cases alone that have already had, for example, final order applied to them .

Debbie Lee, 1L: The courts are very much concerned about making the plaintiff whole. And they're very careful about how to apply the law and what the intent is behind the law, so that future cases will be able to correctly apply it.

Zack Packer, 3L: I've been taking Professor Spitzer's Washington constitutional law course this quarter. It's been both interesting to learn about provisions in the state constitution I didn’t know about. Some specific provisions, especially this week, we learned about Article One, Section 12, which is the state Privileges and Immunities Clause and learning about the ways in which it has been used and it’s continuing to be used by the state Supreme Court to protect fundamental rights.

Ema Smith, 1L: I really enjoyed learning about negligence in torts class because it's something that you see all over your life and in the real world. So, it's been fun to learn about it legally.