Heather Shallenberger (JD and Honors Lawyering Program 09)

Sailing with dad.

Tell me something special or interesting about your background before you went to law school.

I grew up in the Bay Area and started college at San Francisco State. I took the opportunity to do an exchange program in Tubingen, Germany that was to last for one year. At the end of that year, however, I decided that I hadn't gotten enough of Germany. I really didn't know yet what I wanted to do when I grew up, so I just stayed.

I eventually got a job as a flight attendant on a charter airline affiliated with Lufthansa, and I stayed at that job for eight years. I had the opportunity to travel all over-essentially anywhere there was a beach and palm trees is where we flew. I traveled throughout Europe, to Turkey, the Mediterranean, North Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cuba, Antigua, and lot's of other places-it was a great experience!

Why did you decide to go to law school?

After being in Germany for thirteen years total, it was time to come home. I finished my B.A. in journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. It had been a longstanding desire of mine to go to law school, although I had some trepidation about starting law school as an "older" student, not a 22-year-old. But my Dad encouraged me to go. I had always been interested in criminal law, and now on the eve of graduating, I am convinced that I want to start my career as a criminal defense lawyer.

Tell me something interesting about your law school experience.

I just completed a fascinating internship over the summer with the First Amendment Project. We had extremely interesting legal and constitutional issues to deal with, and the work and my colleagues were great.

What is your greatest source of motivation/support as you work towards your JD?

My family: my dad, my stepmother, my boyfriend-he's put up with a lot! My first semester was very difficult for me, but once I finally got into it, law school was much easier. The support I got from family and friends convinced me that I could succeed. It's been fun since.

What is your favorite thing to do when you are not in school-although, as a professor, I will say that I hope your answer is "study in the law library"--is that it?

No, no! I travel whenever I can. That's what I like to do the most. Hang out with friends and family. I also love to go sailing on the Bay with my Dad. In fact, we just went out last week all the way out to the Golden Gate Bridge, and we even saw dolphins. Sailing's a lot of fun.

What message/advice do you have for your fellow law students?

Go with your own gut feelings. I remember that in the first semester of law school you get all sorts of advice about everything-from what supplements to buy, to how to brief a case, to how to study. I think you need to try a lot of this and just figure out what works best for you, since there is no single way to do it right.

Professor Gallagher is Co-Director of the Intellectual Property Law Program at GGU. For the record, he encourages all law students to spend their free time studying in the law library.