Zachary Ryan Crawford
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Juris Doctor, Graduate Diploma in Comparative Law
- summa cum laude graduate
- Paul M. Hebert Scholar
- Louisiana Law Review Senior Associate
- Undergraduate: LSU, Bachelor of Science, Finance
What are your immediate career plans?
I will be joining Phelps Dunbar as an associate at the firm’s Baton Rouge Office.
What are your long-term career aspirations?
I am excited to begin my career, and I can’t wait to start learning as much as I can from all the brilliant lawyers surrounding me at my firm. I hope to one day become a partner and establish an interesting practice where I can regularly help my clients and continue to learn more about the law. Additionally, I hope to be an active member in the Baton Rouge community. I love my hometown, and I want to use my legal knowledge to make it a better place, whether through pro bono work or other initiatives.
Please tell us about the organizations and activities you participated in at LSU Law, including any awards or honors you received.
During law school, I was primarily involved with Louisiana Law Review. As a Junior Associate, my comment was published in the fall edition of Volume 84 and received the Outstanding Law Review Comment Award. As a Senior Associate, my casenote received the Best Blog Post Award. In between semesters at LSU Law, I worked as a summer associate for firms in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and New York. Additionally, I interned for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. I graduated summa cum laude and received eleven Cali Awards. I was also named a Paul M. Hebert Scholar in each of my six semesters at LSU Law.
Please tell us about any LSU Law faculty, classes, or other experiences that were particularly impactful on your legal education.
The professor that probably had the biggest impact on my LSU Law experience was Professor Heidi Thompson. From my first day at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Center, Professor Thompson taught me how to think, act, and write like a lawyer in her Legal Research and Writing Class. With an entire year of classes and several office-hour visits, Professor Thompson gave me the knowledge and confidence to pursue all my LSU Law goals. The skills she taught me as a 1L will serve me well for my entire career.
My favorite class at LSU was probably Sports Law, taught by Adjunct Professors David Fleshman (’11) and Will McGuffey (’11). With all the real-world examples, interesting discussions, hands-on training, and weekly guest lectures, I thoroughly enjoyed each and every class.
I would also like to thank Professor Elizabeth Carter for serving as the Faculty Advisor for my Law Review comment. She was absolutely instrumental in my journal experience, and I am incredibly grateful for her guidance.
What are your fondest memories from your time at LSU Law?
Some of my fondest memories from LSU Law involve walking over to City Slice Pizza with a big group of friends after taking the last exam of each semester. Whenever I was braindead, sleep-deprived, and struggling to get through my final exam, the thought of a great meal and even better friends always got me through to the end.
What advice would you give to students entering law school who aspire to become Order of the Coif members when they graduate?
Above all, I would tell a rising 1L to get comfortable with the fact that they will never know everything there is to know about the law. Always keep looking for answers, because there will always be new questions popping up. My best exam scores were the ones that I felt the worst about the night before. I believe this was because I studied enough to realize how complex (and sometimes unanswerable) the issues really were. Never stop reaching out to your professors, tutors, and classmates because they will ALWAYS be able to explain something you didn’t know, misunderstood, or maybe hadn’t considered at all.
