Leandra Ebreo

My name is Leandra Ebreo. I am originally from the Seattle area and very proud to be a local. In 2012, I graduated from Santa Clara University near San Francisco, California. I majored in Political Science with an emphasis in Pre-Law. While I loved the sun and warm weather in California, I am very happy to be back in Seattle! I first became interested in law after watching famous criminal trials on TV with my grandmother. This interest has followed me since then and ultimately led me to law school. I am so blessed to say that I am a 1L at Seattle University. Even though the first year is just as challenging as people warned me, the professors at SU are amazing and have made the transition from undergrad a smooth one. Keeping an open mind, I am looking forward to learning about the different areas of law and finding one that suits me best. I love swimming, art, and especially food!

September

Summer was awesome! After graduation my family took me to Disneyland and I remembered how much I loved "The Happiest Place on Earth." The weather in Anaheim was an amazing 80 degrees, and I was happily surprised to return to Seattle with the weather just as sunny and warm. I love being back in Seattle, especially with all the local food. Some of the first places I visited when I got back in town (and which I highly suggest trying) were Dick's Drive-In, Pagliacci's Pizza, and Ezell's Chicken. All of these eateries are only in the Seattle area and I've missed them so much while I was in Santa Clara! By the way, the Seattle Center has some really great attractions right now. If you love history and art like me, I would really suggest checking out the King Tut exhibit at the Pacific Science Center or grabbing a bite at the new Chihuly Garden and Glass Café. Otherwise, just enjoy seeing the "Galaxy Orange" on the Space Needle in commemoration of the Icon's 50th anniversary. All the excitement from these events and the great weather this summer helped me remember how much I love this City. I really enjoyed pigging out, hanging out with friends, and letting my brain mush in the summer sun (even though it was only for 2 months), but I was ready to get back in the grind of school.

I'm two weeks into my 1L year of law school (WOW!), and I have to say that law school is definitely as hard as people say. But, what has given me relief is realizing that it is definitely not as hard as Legally Blonde made it out to be. My professors are really personable and seem to honestly love the subjects they are teaching which makes the classes much more interesting than I anticipated. I am currently taking the normal 1L load: Criminal Law, Torts, Civil Procedure, Contracts, and Legal Writing. Things are difficult, but manageable. Hopefully, I will figure out a system that works best for me soon. On another note, everyone I've met so far is so friendly. It is so interesting to meet people with such a wide range of life experiences. I am excited to start getting involved in some student organizations, but I am also trying to limit the number of organizations I join. I don't want to overwhelm myself.

Until my next entry.  Enjoy the wonderful sunny weather!

October

Yay! October is almost over! Since my last entry I have completed more than half of a semester, taken a midterm, and turned in Memo 1...all in law school! Though this doesn't sound like much, I really feel accomplished.

Now that I've taken a midterm, I understand how fast an hour can pass. The hour that we had to complete the midterm honestly seemed to fly by. At first I was panicked, but then I realized that other people probably felt the pressure too. While the midterm was scary, I thought that it was really helpful to have. Preparing for the midterm taught me how to outline and how to use examsoft. Overall, I'm not too concerned with what my grade ends up being, I'm just happy that I'll finally be able to see the things that I'm doing right and what areas I need to improve on.

Since the midterm, I feel like I'm getting into the groove of things now. I give myself enough time to finish the assigned readings and I can somewhat have more of a social life than previously thought. I'm involved in two on campus clubs: The Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Association (APILSA) and the Black Law Student Association (BLSA). At the end of the month, BLSA will be having their annual Halloween party. I'm excited to go and I even invited some of my friends from high school. Plus, it will be interesting to see my fellow law students dressed up and not nose deep in their books.

Finally, one of my friends invited me to go to the Filipino Lawyers of Washington's (FLOW) annual Barrio Fiesta on the 26th. The night was a dinner full of performances, great food, and fascinating people. Our keynote speaker was Ron Sims! He is an amazing public speaker, and hearing about his life made me optimistic and ready to face the challenges of law school. I met a lot of people at the dinner and I was really happy to meet other Filipinos in the law community, including some Seattle U alum. The night was a great opportunity, and I plan to attend next year.

Between reading, working, and trying to spend some me time, the weeks are just passing by.  See you in November!

November

November is going to be a fast month. Not only do we have time off for Thanksgiving break, but everyone is starting to feel the pressure of finals. As finals approach, I find myself becoming much more anxious about everything I'm learning. Amidst all the anxiety, I found that actually reading the weekly announcements from the law school can open the door to many interesting opportunities. Although I find myself in the library a lot more, I made time to volunteer for the Washington State Bar Association's Trial Advocacy Program.

The weekend of the mock trial was so much fun! I originally signed up to be a juror, but the night before the event I received an email from the Washington State Bar Association looking for more witnesses. The morning of the mock trial was really a blur. I was handed a fake deposition to memorize and then I talked to the attorney who was going to use me as a witness. While I've seen a mock trial before, this was on a completely different level. While one of the attorneys on the plaintiff's side had been practicing for 15 years and was obviously well practiced in the courtroom, but his partner was still learning the details of objections. Even with the inconsistencies, watching the process was so exciting and now I can't wait to participate in mock trial. After both sides presented their cases, the judge let me accompany the jurors into the jury room to observe deliberations. Listening to the jurors' arguments for either side was one of the most interesting situations of the day. It was fascinating to see what the jurors saw as important. Finally, after the trial was over, I was able to tour the Downtown Seattle Courthouse (which actually had an awesome view from the top). I am very happy that I volunteered for the event and now I will be sure to always read my emails!

See you in December!

December

Happy finals month! December is more about finals and less about everything else. By this point, most of my classes are reviewing, but some professor think that it is a good idea to keep learning (which is concerning to me). I don't know how I'm going to memorize everything, but I am definitely going to try!

Something negative: It was really difficult to rest during Thanksgiving Break, especially knowing that finals were only three weeks away. I found that I brought my laptop to my family's Thanksgiving get together so that I could finish Memo 2 before school started up again.

Something positive: I was able to finish Memo 2 on Thanksgiving Day while waiting for four pies to bake! Also, in a month from now I will have completed my first semester of law school!

I have to get back to the library now, so see you on the other side (of finals :)

January

Happy New Year! 2013 has started off a little rocky for me, but not too bad. Once finals were over I had surgery on my foot, so I've been on crutches for the past three weeks. Also, now that Spring Semester has started, I've been crutching all over the law school with pounds and pounds of books on my back. Other than that, it's really nice to know that I have one semester under my belt. Knowing how to outline, what finals are like, and finally having grades is such a great feeling! I feel a lot less anxious about my classes now that I know what to expect.

Aside from crutching around, summer internship/externship applications have been a rude awakening coming back from break. The deadlines have been sneaking up on me, but I've been knocking them down! CPD and 2Ls have been so helpful. Hopefully, I will be doing something interesting this summer.

Lastly, I was so blessed to attend the King County Bar Association's Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Luncheon at the Sheraton in downtown. As an undergrad I focused on minority politics in America and read excerpts from Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. I was so excited to learn that the key note speaker at the lunch was Michelle Alexander. She was such an amazing and inspirational speaker! Listening to her key note address made me really think about what I can do to improve the criminal justice system once I become an attorney. I strongly recommend her book :)

Well time to get some rest now. Until next month, my dears!

February

All of my internship applications have been turned in...FINALLY! For me, February has been the month of interviews. I have been lucky enough to receive a number of interviews and although interviewing is fun, it has also been really exhausting. On one hand, I've enjoyed meeting such a wide variety of people through the interview process and I'm excited to see where I'll end up.  And on the other hand, the travel time to the different locations has been wearing me out since I still have to go to class afterward. Between traveling to the interviews and meeting with CPD, it almost seems like I'm taking another class!

On the bright side, finishing February means that I can start March which means that I will soon know what internship opportunities I'll have for the summer, and more importantly, SPRING BREAK! As much as second semester has been better than first semester, I'm really excited to take one week off in March.

I'll let you know how it goes. :) Until next time!

March

March was an amazing month. Maybe I've been lucky because of St. Patrick's Day, or maybe my hard work is finally paying off :). Not only did I get my summer internship set up, but I also got to spend a week in San Jose de los Cabos, Mexico!

Now time to rewind for a bit: last entry I completely forgot to mention that February was the month of the 1L Mock Trial Competition. Since I'm interested in litigation, I thought that the competition would be a great way to get my feet wet. Preparing for and participating in mock trial as a 1L was a lot of fun and extremely useful for the future. Thanks our hard work, my amazing partner (Eric Reutter) and I made it to the Semi-Finals! Anyways, I really encourage anyone and everyone to give mock trial a try (even if it's only your 1L year).

The reason I mentioned mock trial is because I believe that it helped me in all of my interviews. Mock trial was not only helpful in building skills applicable to my summer internship, but is also a great conversation starter. Speaking of my internship, I am really happy to say that I will be at criminal law internship (my first choice!). 

Finally, to be completely honest, the rest of March was focused on enjoying the sun in Mexico. It was my first time in Mexico, but definitely not my last. Now getting back into the swing of school, I realize that spring break was a great time to recharge and get ready for the final push until summer.

Cheers to a little more than a month of school left!

April

I can't believe that my 1L year is almost over! I'm really happy that it's almost the end of the year and that I'm still alive ?. April has gone by so fast and I can't believe that I'm about to get into finals again. 

Most of this month has been focused on final projects/papers and trying to prepare for finals. Even though the workload has stayed the same, since I have gone through one round of finals I feel much more prepared this time around.

In other news, I recently got elected as the Diversity Rep. for the Student Bar Association (SBA/law school student government) and am just starting to transition into my new position. It has been great meeting new people through the SBA that I don't think I would have met otherwise.

Other than preparing for the upcoming weeks the only other thing to talk about is Barrister's Ball. Barrister's Ball is more commonly referred to as "law school prom," and I have to admit that it really seemed like prom. Although the event was not what I expected it to be, I had a great time spending some time outside of the classroom with people from my section. It definitely was an experience...

Off to go study some more!