Sean Carlson

J.D. Candidate, 2019

Sean Carlson is currently a third-year student at the law school. In 2013, he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he majored in History and Russian Studies. Before coming to law school, Sean worked in three different AmeriCorps service positions focusing on environmental conservation, disaster preparedness, and youth at risk of homelessness. Sean is a member of the Public Service Advisory Board (PSAB), and is part of PSAB’s Public Service Committee.

Joshua Katz

J.D. Candidate, 2019

Joshua Katz is a third-year law student. He attended college at SUNY Geneseo, where he majored in math and philosophy. After college, he took graduate coursework and attended paramedic school at Texas A&M University. He is the former Chief of Emergency Medical Services for the Department of Parks and Recreation for the Town of Hempstead, a municipality with almost 800,000 residents on Long Island. Mr. Katz oversaw emergency response to the Town’s park district, which is the largest suburban park district in the United States. After working as a paramedic, he taught high school at a small boarding school in Westbrook, Connecticut, for seven years. In addition to overseeing health and safety and emergency preparedness, he chaired the math department and served as a dorm master. At the same time, he earned his master’s degree in mathematics at the University of Connecticut. He then spent several years teaching mathematics and statistics courses at Connecticut College and the University of Hartford. During that time, he also served as the Connecticut state director for Gary Johnson’s 2012 Presidential campaign, a member of Westbrook’s Zoning Board of Appeals, and a publicly elected commissioner on Westbrook’s Planning Commission. He continues to serve as a national board member for his political party, where his expertise as a Registered Parliamentarian and member of the National Association of Parliamentarians is heavily utilized. More locally, he is Vice President of Outreach of the Federalist Society and is President of the Jewish Law Society at Washington University Law. He also helped found, as serves as Vice-President of, the Arch Metro Unit of the National Association of Parliamentarians. Throughout his life, Joshua has volunteered as a firefighter and paramedic whenever possible and holds numerous certifications in emergency services.

Mr. Katz spent his 1L summer at Cunningham, Vogel & Rost, P.C., in Kirkwood, Missouri. The firm exclusively represents municipal governments. He is spending his 2L summer at Schlichter, Bogard & Denton in downtown St. Louis, a plaintiff’s firm specializing in breach of fiduciary duty and public-interest litigation against corporate defendants. After graduation, he will clerk for The Honorable Clint Bolick on the Arizona Supreme Court.

Jiyeon Kim

J.D. Candidate, 2019

Jiyeon graduated from Yale University with a B.S. and M.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. During undergrad, she was not only involved in many activities on campus but also in the New Haven community through teaching English as a second language and volunteering at the Yale-New Haven Hospital. This led her to pursue training in medicine through the MD-PhD program at University of Pennsylvania. During medical school, Jiyeon started working with a global non-profit organization helping rare-disease patients who underwent whole-genome sequencing by connecting them to experts around the world and through crowdfunding. Experiencing and recognizing issues in the healthcare system and governance of genomics and new technology, she found a deeper passion in health law and policy fueled by experiences in Europe including a Medical Ethics and Law program at King’s College London, which ultimately led her to study law at Washington University School of Law.

Jung-Hyun (Sandy) Lee

J.D. Candidate, 2019

Jung-Hyun (Sandy) Lee is from South Korea. She graduated from Boston College in 2014, majoring in political science and psychology. While at Boston College, she was a college student group leader at her church for three years. She organized numerous volunteer trips to alcoholics’ shelters and impoverished outer Boston area. After graduating from Boston College, for about two years, she worked in two NGOs on North Korean human rights. She was an English teacher at Heavenly Dream School in South Korea, which was a school for North Korean adolescents and adults refugees. Also, she worked as an intern at International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity (ICNK), which is an umbrella NGO made up of 50 member NGOs on North Korean human rights worldwide. This organization’s main goal is the referral of North Korea to the International Criminal Court.

Tim Parrington

J.D. Candidate, 2019

Tim Parrington is currently a third-year student at the law school. He received a master’s of education, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado. During his undergraduate career, Tim worked on several campaigns that sought to make the campus a more inclusive environment for undocumented students and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Additionally, he volunteered for a youth center that provided after school programming for at risk students. After graduation, he joined Teach For America, a two-year service program that strives to place highly motivated teachers in low-income communities. Through TFA, Tim taught middle school science and sponsored several after school programs in Colorado Springs. Following completion of his term, Tim taught for three years at the American International School of Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh City. Currently, Tim serves as a co-chair for OUTLaw’s annual Midwest LGBTQ+ Law Conference. The Conference is designed to build community involvement in the fight for equality and justice.

Matt Tharp

J.D. Candidate, 2019

Matt Tharp is a third-year law student from Round Rock, Texas. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 2014 with University Honors, majoring in Political Science. Prior to law school, Matt worked for two and a half years at Democracy Works, a Brooklyn-based technology start-up working to break down the logistical and practical barriers to voting. During law school, Matt was co-chair of the 2017 Midwest LGBTQ+ Law Conference and co-instructor of an undergraduate class on the intersection of law, gender, and justice. During the summer of 2017, Matt was a summer associate in the Washington D.C. office of Steptoe & Johnson. During the summer of 2018, Matt was a summer associate in Kirkland & Ellis’ New York City office. Matt will spend his final semester of law school as a full-time judicial extern to The Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. After graduation, Matt will clerk for the Honorable Gabriel W. Gorenstein, also of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Spencer Bailey

J.D. Candidate, 2020

Spencer Bailey graduated in 2015 from the Institute for Law, Justice and Society at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN. While in college he volunteered, interned, and worked for various organizations promoting human rights, fighting human trafficking, providing legal aid, conducting SNAP outreach, and more. Following graduation he served as an AmeriCorps City Year member in Boston, working in an under-resourced urban school. After City Year, he was the Nashville Community Engagement Fellow with UNICEF USA in the Global Citizenship Fellowship.

Hopey Fink

J.D. Candidate, 2020

Hopey Fink is a second-year law student who graduated from Georgetown University in 2015 with majors in anthropology and linguistics. As an undergraduate, she studied abroad in Senegal, where she interned at a children’s rights NGO. She also worked at a research center in Washington, DC, on projects covering vulnerable children and international development. After graduation, she spent two years teaching in rural Montana on the Ft. Belknap Indian Reservation through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest/AmeriCorps, which led to her interest in tribal law, child advocacy, environmental justice, and the intersections of these practice areas. Hopey spent the summer after her 1L year interning with the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, through the American Indian Law Summer Program, focusing on policy initiatives affecting tribal education and families. As a 2L, she is a co-chair of the Public Service Advisory Board’s Careers Committee and a staff editor for the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy. She is also a student attorney for the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic.

Megan Ferguson

J.D. Candidate, 2020

Megan Ferguson is currently a second-year law student. Although she grew up outside of Portland, Oregon, she went to college at Seton Hall University, in South Orange, New Jersey, where she graduated with honors and majored in Diplomacy and Philosophy. While in undergrad, Megan tutored adult English language learners and taught an English club for underserved middle schoolers while studying in Taipei. After graduation, she taught elementary English in Kinmen, Taiwan, through the Fulbright program. She is now excited to begin exploring options for her legal career.

Jake Villarreal

J.D. Candidate, 2020

Jake Villarreal is a 2L from Monterey, California. Before coming to WashU Law, he earned his bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in Connecticut, then worked as a labor organizer for the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union in New York City. He loves documentaries, snakes, and contemporary fashion. After law school, Jake plans to either work in criminal defense or provide legal services to nonprofits, and to remain politically active.

Ryan Schultheis

J.D. Candidate, 2021

Ryan Schultheis is a first-year law student from Evansville, Indiana. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2015 with majors in Political Science and International Economics. Before coming to Washington University Law, Ryan spent a year in Oaxaca, Mexico on a Fulbright scholarship teaching English in a public high school and volunteering at a shelter for unaccompanied migrant children from Central America. After his Fulbright year, Ryan interned with the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in Washington D.C., where he published research on return migration to Mexico. He then spent two years working as a program assistant and paralegal for Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) in Houston, Texas, a non-profit legal organization that represents unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in their deportation proceedings.

Rachel Mattingly Phillips

J.D. Candidate, 2021

Rachel Mattingly Phillips grew up in Indiana and spent a year in Dresden, Germany before attending Denison University in Granville, OH. There she majored in International Studies and Environmental Studies, focusing her senior research on sustainable development in rural Thailand. Rachel was a leader in the campus interfaith discussion group and the fair trade alliance, as well as a founding member of the venture philanthropy club. After graduating in 2011, Rachel returned to Indianapolis to work for a neighborhood-based community development corporation, where she managed a program that provided energy efficiency upgrades to aging homes and businesses in a low-income area. After the completion of that program, Rachel worked for a statewide association of nonprofit organizations. In that role she developed and led training, conducted organizational assessments, provided technical assistance, and planned educational events for the association. In addition, Rachel served on the boards of directors for a neighborhood community center and neighborhood-based school in Indianapolis. She looks forward to using her law degree to continue serving her community, with a particular interest in supporting small businesses and cooperatives.