Summer Series: What Art can Teach Us about the Law

Our Summer Series continues! This series highlights different Latina students and law grads as they embark in their summer jobs and/or bar prep all across the country. We hope to provide a variety of work experiences, options for a healthy work-life balance, and general motivation through different guest contributors to help you to take charge of your summer and professional goals!  Today, we hear from Roxanne, a rising 3L who is studying in Europe, and describes the intersection between Art and the Law.

I’m Roxanne, rising 3L at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. I decided to study law because I realized that many people who are being taken advantage of don’t realize they have any recourse. There is a fundamental lack of legal education in the community, at a national level, and it is essential for attorneys from all areas to offer pro bono services. Public interest doesn’t have to be something you practice daily, but an attorney’s work should benefit the public in some way. In undergrad I studied Fine Art, Literature, and Philosophy, so finding a way to combine all the things I love into one profession has been a little difficult to say the least. The last two years have been a constant search for the right area of law for me to practice. I’ve volunteered with veterans and the indigent, I’ve externed at highly respected not for profit organizations like Bet Tzedek House of Justice, and was a clerk at Southwestern’s Immigration Law Clinic where I assisted clients in applying for U-Visas, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and Deferred Action for Childhood.

Currently I’m studying in London with a summer abroad program hosted by Southwestern. It is an entertainment law program (Southwestern Law School is in the top 5 best entertainment law schools in America), and I’m taking International Art Law and Intellectual Property Licensing. The latter is a bit of a snooze, but the former, well let’s just say I found the area I intend to practice in. There is no such thing as international art law. Art is not regulated like most other commodities. It’s the Wild West out there and the industry needs attorneys to protect artists, agents, auction houses, museums, galleries, and the art itself. Under the instruction of my professor Henry Lydiate, a (if not the) leading Art lawyer in England, I am enriching my mind and going to as many museums as possible to learn about art, the different periods, and various artists. No matter what area of law you choose to practice, you need to know the context and stay informed. So far the National Gallery has been my favorite which houses works from Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and so many other masters.

Here’s what I noticed while admiring Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”, with the exception of myself and two others, most of the people who saw “Sunflowers” glanced at it momentarily, took a strategically angled selfie and went on their way to the next masterpiece. With art, as in with law, a majority of people don’t know what they are looking at. They understand the concept they are told to understand. “Sunflowers” is an important work of fine art in color and technique. It was painted by a great master who we are told was great, but many may not inquire as to why. On the 26th of June the Supreme Court decided that the marriage is a right protected by the Constitution and is afforded to all people of America. Many people understand that this is the law of the land now, but few are taking the time to read the opinion and understand the reasoning. I personally have never read a more beautiful opinion, bravo Justice Kennedy!

So if you take one thing from reading this short musing on my studies in England, take this: As a law student you’re just trying to find your way through the jungle that is law school. As an attorney you will try to find your place in the world and perfect your practice. As a person that happens to be an attorney though, please always remember that you have a specialized knowledge that can do a lot of good in this world. Pick what is important to you; be it finding an end to starvation, more representation for the middle class, the preservation of bees, anything. Everyone needs a lawyer and regardless of your personal views, you have the power and knowledge to do good.