Fiske Legal Series at SDSU Gives Students Insight Into the Law Profession
Aspiring law students have an opportunity to meet law professionals to learn about career pathways thanks to alumnus John Fiske
When John Fiske (‘04) decided he wanted to go to law school in the fall of 2003, he had minimal understanding of what lay ahead for him.
A political science student, Fiske won a spot in the Panetta Institute Congressional Internship Program to study for two weeks with Leon Panetta and other CSU awardees at CSU Monterey. It was there that Panetta told students, “Go to law school, you’ll learn to think properly.”
During Fiske’s semester-long internship in Washington, D.C. he worked for Congresswoman Susan Davis. He had just turned 20 and decided to take Panetta’s advice and look at the prospect of law school. It was September and he had to fast-track preparation for the December LSAT test. His test score was high enough for a full-ride scholarship to California Western in San Diego.
Without mentorship or information to help guide him through the process, he began the tough journey through law school. He said it was a shock to his system. As a young first-generation law school student, he learned to “thrive and survive.”
Fast forward 15+ years and Fiske, partner at Baron & Budd, and environmental (public entity as plaintiff) expert, wants to give back — to help undergraduate students prepare for what lies ahead in law school. He wants to provide a resource for students considering law school by helping them answer questions about debt, competition, happiness, and stress. He wants to help students determine the right fit and to discover what can become a fulfilling life.
The advice Fiske wished he had known before entering law school was “to be mentally and psychologically prepared to do something that very likely is more difficult and intense than you’ve ever done before — in terms of focus and concentration.”
He wants new law students to learn how to manage health, relationships, and one of the biggest challenges — the financials. Students have to decide how they will manage all these factors. Fiske said that “one of the best decisions in my life” was the decision to go debtless by accepting a scholarship, rather than taking on student loans in order to attend one of many prestigious law schools.
“I think the most fulfilling life someone can lead is when they find service and they seek out service unique to them,” Fiske said.“The best I’ve ever felt is when I’m meaningfully serving the community.”
Fiske and his wife Courtney (through an endowment from the Fiske Family Foundation) created the Fiske Legal Series at SDSU to help aspiring law students make the jump from undergraduate to graduate school by demystifying the law profession and the process.
The first event in the education and networking series took place in April and featured two practicing lawyers who attended SDSU as CAL undergraduates — Jennifer Stone (English ‘96), sr. deputy county counsel, Office of County Counsel, County of San Diego Office and Rodney Cruz Pizarro (sociology ‘03), lead counsel, Airbnb Host Community. Fiske was ecstatic about the focused and engaged responses from student attendees from across campus disciplines.
The goal of the series is to offer insights about the law school experience — “to peel back the layers and have time for some real talk from the panelists,” Fiske said. The Fiske Legal Series helps answer questions about how to prepare and uncovers how to fail. “You will fail — and how will you react after that? How will you recover?” Fiske said. “One of my favorite questions to ask guests is: tell me about a failure.”
At the debut event, both Stone and Pizarro opened up genuinely to share their career experiences with students and alumni in the audience. Attendees had a chance to network and ask questions of the panelists afterward. Watch the inaugural Fiske Legal Series video to learn more.
The College of Arts and Letters dean’s office, Department of Political Science, the Pre-Law Society and Mock Trial student groups, the Alumni Association, Aztec Law Alumni group, and Pre Law Advisory Board are significant contributors to the series.
The Fiske Legal Series offers open access to all SDSU students. Since there are so many areas of law including education, immigration, sports and entertainment, tax, real estate, municipal, animal law and more, students studying in any of these fields may find the series a valuable resource. “We plan to broaden the scope of the next event by including panelists working in intellectual property, sciences, and engineering fields,” Fiske said.