Last week, we discovered that Evan Skinner, our new summer intern, loves comedies, music, politics, and sports.  Also, he plays piano pretty well.  This week ask him about law school and other fun stuff . . . 

1. 1) Why did you decide to go to law school?

I wanted to go to law school because I felt like it provided a good balance between things I enjoyed doing, like keeping up with politics and public policy, and things that would help me eventually find a stable career. As much as I love politics, it’s not necessarily easy to find a job with solid long-term prospects in that field, especially straight out of college. Law school was an opportunity to continue learning about things I enjoyed learning about while also setting myself up for success in an industry with a lot more long-term stability.

1. 2) What is your favorite part of law school?

The thing I’ve enjoyed most about UT Law specifically is how high-quality all the instruction is. In undergrad, I had a lot of good professors but also more than a few that were just sort of O.K. At UT Law, every professor I’ve had would have been in my top five undergraduate professors. It’s really excellent and I didn’t expect it to be such a change.

1. 3) What is your least favorite part of law school?

I expected this going in, and I don’t think anyone would say they especially like it, but the amount of stress law school can put on you is no joke. For as much as I’ve enjoyed my classes and professors, there can also be a lot of pressure, especially at the end of the semester and in exam season. Ultimately, I think I’m going to look back and be glad about that, but it’s not always awesome to experience in the moment.

1. 4) Why do you want to work for a Plaintiff’s employment litigation firm this summer?

I’m very much about helping people, both in terms of policy preferences and in life in general. I think working to help workers, and helping people who don’t necessarily have a lot of resources or legal training against companies that have both of those things, is a really admirable thing to do. It’s something that makes me feel like I’m doing something to tangibly make people’s lives better.

1. 5) Who is your favorite Supreme Court Justice, living or dead, and why?

Surprisingly enough, I’ve never really thought about who my favorite justice is. Out of the current Court, I probably like Sonia Sotomayor the most. As far as historical justices, Louis Brandeis, William Brennan, and Thurgood Marshall all did lots of good work and I have a lot of respect for all three of them. 

1. 6) Who is the law?

I think that everybody has to be the law in some way, because there’s no way to separate the people that enforce the laws from the people who make the laws, and there’s no way to detach the people that make the laws from the people that choose the lawmakers. I think that’s good. Laws are a basic part of every functioning society and every member of that society needs to have some input, even if it’s indirect.

[Editor’s note – We also would have accepted “Judge Dredd” for question 6]

Thanks, Evan, for your insightful answers.  We hope you enjoy working at the firm this summer!