One Year Wrapped, Another Begins
Winter quarter is off to a fresh start with students, staff and faculty at William H. Gates Hall. With the start of the new year just behind us, we wanted to know what their highlights were for 2025 and what they have on the horizon for 2026.
Crystal Alberthal, Head of Collections, Resources and Information Management
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: I was really proud of this chapter in a book that I co-authored with Pearl McCrea, my colleague. The book is published by Bloomsbury and is edited by Ellyssa Kroski. It's called Law Librarianship Practice, and my colleague Pearl and I co-authored a chapter on vendor relations. So, I was really proud of that. It's my first published work.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: In May, I'm going to Scotland with a good friend of mine, and we're going to walk the West Highland Way. It's a 93-mile trek in mostly rural parts of Scotland. We're going to spend 10 days on the walk, and then a couple days bookending that in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Union Carter, 1L
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: The summer before I started my 1L year I got engaged. So, that was really exciting. I wasn't super surprised that it happened but am very happy that it did.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: I'm excited to do my first summer internship as a legal intern and put to work some of the skills and things I've learned so far as a 1L.
Eleanor Dudley, 1L
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: Starting law school, for sure. It was something I wanted to do for a long time, so I was really excited. And then also right at the end of the year, after finals, I went to London where I had studied abroad and was with a bunch of friends and had a big reunion.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: I'm really looking forward to getting into the swing of things again and getting into routines and all of that. My boyfriend and I have World Cup tickets in June, so I'm very excited about that too.
Liddy Grossman, 1L
Q: What's a highlight for you in 2025?
A: Starting law school. It's been a very challenging but fantastic experience so far. I think the best part has been the community here at UW Law. The students are wonderful and supportive, and it's very collaborative and collegial, and, honestly, not what I was expecting from law school, which has been a wonderful surprise.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: I'm looking forward to spending more time in Washington state. I moved out here from the East Coast two years ago and decided to stay out here for law school because I love the nature out here, and I love Seattle, and I'm excited to continue exploring my new home.
Jeannine Lemker, Professor and Associate Dean for the Center for Career Development
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: With so much great stuff in 2025, I would probably pick being able to join the Center for Career Development and being part of the students' journeys now in both Career as well as in the classroom and getting to do it alongside a phenomenal staff of people.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: So much, but in particular, the Global Business Law Institute. We are forging some amazing partnerships with sister universities like Northwestern that will bring students together, both studying here in Gates Hall and at other schools. It’s a new and exciting partnership we are launching this year.
Phil Lentz, Mental Health Therapist
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: In 2025, I had my second child, so that's been a big highlight. But as it pertains to the law school, my paternity leave did this interesting thing where it let me step out of the work and reassess what I want the job to look like and how I think UW Law needs to adjust for mental health, and how the legal field is approaching mental health in general.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: In spring and fall, I'm hoping to have a much more vamped up and thorough programming schedule, which will be kind of cool.
Srinandan Ramachandran, 3L
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: The highlight for me was getting my journal comment published in December. I had spent quite a long time working on it and I'm incredibly grateful towards the Washington Journal of Social Environmental Justice for helping me publish this piece.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: I look forward to getting a full-time job and finally making some money because I've been in school for many, many years now, living loan to loan each year. Ideally, I would like to pursue a career in environmental litigation.
Kelly Ruhlig, Interim Executive Director, Graduate Law Programs
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: Ooh, my highlight is that I foster failed, which meant I adopted a dog named Magpie who was secretly pregnant, and had one single, sweet puppy that we named Uno and we kept.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: I am looking forward to visiting my stepdaughter, Alexandra, who is doing a Ph.D. program in policy studies in Tokyo.
Emma Shearer, 2L
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: Honestly, just getting through my first year of school. I think that was a big achievement for me. It was very challenging, but very worthwhile.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: Getting more experience with environmental law. I came in with a completely different background and then changed my mind on what I wanted to do in the middle of last year. So, I spent a little time scrambling, trying to figure out how to get where I wanted to go. Now, I'm finally on the road there, so I'm looking forward to continuing that.
Jude Sullenszino, 1L
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: My highlight was my classes. They were stressful, but I really appreciated my professors and liked getting to know them. I had Professor Knudsen, Professor Porter and Professor Hotchkiss, and all three of them were just fantastic. I looked forward to going to class each day and I think that was a great relief. I was nervous about law school, but having professors that were friendly, knowledgeable and just great people to talk with was amazing.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: I'm looking forward to meeting new people, meeting my professors and whatever the summer may bring. I like that I've gotten to go into the new year not knowing what my summer is going to look like, not knowing what my classes are going to look like, not knowing how I'll feel and all of that. I think it's great.
Lanjun Yang, M.J. student
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: I studied in San Francisco last year in another master’s degree program focused on marketing analysis, but with many AI technologies. So, my personal highlight was that I learned a lot of presentation skills, because I was really shy and not as good of a speaker.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: I'm looking forward to getting a good GPA, and also — because I have no law or legal background — to getting some basic legal understanding because I want to do consulting work after graduation.
David J.S. Ziff, Teaching Professor
Q: What’s a highlight for you in 2025?
A: I have a five-year-old kid, and he started kindergarten at the neighborhood school, so I get to walk him to school in the morning.
Q: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
A: I am the co-chair of the programming committee for the biennial Legal Writing Institute Conference, and so, with the rest of the committee, I've been putting together some panels and presentations, and I'm looking forward to going to the University of Minnesota and participating in that conference.