Andreas Andrews

Experience Prior to Law School

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. After high school, I attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. While at Holy Cross, I captained the soccer team in the 2008-2009 season. After college, I played professional soccer in Greece and England for Asteras Tripolis FC (Greece) and Gillingham FC (England). I returned to the states in January 2010 to begin preparing for a career in law.

Student Groups

During my 1L year, I participated in the Student Bar Association (SBA) as a senator. I also served on SPIN’s corporate outreach committee. These experiences helped me meet students from outside my section and learn more about what the law school community had to offer. In my 2L year I was a staff member on the Temple Journal of Science, Technology, and Environmental Law (TJSTEL). I also became President of the Business Law Society, and served as a counselor for the Academic Core Enrichment program (ACE). These experiences allowed me to demonstrate my leadership skills as well as help first-year students with guidance, direction, and support. In my 3L year, I was named Editor-in-Chief of TJSTEL; served as a 3L counselor for ACE; and continued leading the Business Law Society (advised by Professor Lipson).

Any student’s goal—aside from getting good grades—should be to take full advantage of every opportunity that the law school provides them. All three years, the experiences I had helped ensure that I was maximizing every opportunity and avenue that the law school provided.

Clinical Experience

I enrolled in the Federal Judicial Clerkship Clinical in my 3L year. I served as a law clerk for the Honorable Joel H. Slomsky of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. I was assigned one large project: assisting the judge in writing a habeas corpus opinion.

This experience taught me that what you learn in law school is not just subject specific. We are taught a skill. Lawyers should be able to enter any legal arena and perform the tasks that are required. Aside from the substantive knowledge I gathered, I was able to grow more confident in my analytical and writing skills, which will undoubtedly serve me well in the future.

Favorite Faculty Member

Professor Andrea Monroe, who served as our faculty advisor when a classmate and I decided to enter the ABA Tax Challenge. Challenge participants had to read a mock client file and write a memorandum to a partner in a law firm as well as a letter to the client addressing several issues. Despite her own heavy teaching load and scholarship responsibilities, Professor Monroe found time to advise our team, which included, for example, reading and commenting on every single paragraph of our 15 page outline.

Professor Monroe did not stop there. On the last day of the competition, six hours before the submission deadline, I went to her office with a draft of the partner memo. Professor Monroe had a deadline for her own paper submission that was much earlier in the day than our Tax Challenge, but put aside her own work and went over our memorandum in detail, and then showed us where in the tax section of the law library we could find the answers to some of our remaining questions. She even noticed my flagging confidence and managed to find time for a much-needed pep talk.

This event was memorable for me because Professor Monroe did not just give me the answer or tell me to go away because I came in asking for help at the “eleventh-hour.” Instead, she mentored me and showed me how to be a better student. I am extremely grateful and appreciative that I stepped into Professor Monroe’s office that morning of the last day of the competition.

Law School Memory

One of my favorite memories was walking into Dean Epps’ office at the beginning of 1L year. I was very nervous about an impending test in our Litigation Basics course. Dean Epps looked at me and said, “You are going to be fine,” and then proceeded to talk to me about my family, my life, and how I was liking Temple so far. She made me feel as though I was not a number; that she really cared about me as a person and individual. Dean Epps has continuously checked on my progress throughout each year and has always made me feel over and over again that Temple was the best choice for me.