Monica Sandu '24
Production Editor Emerita
Two weeks ago, I invoked 3L privilege to avoid being assigned an article by Editor-in-Chief Andrew Allard ’25, in what can only be described as a Law Weekly cold call. However, rather than feeling relieved to avoid an additional responsibility for the week, I was struck by a profound sense of bittersweet melancholy, an almost nostalgic yearning for a time not yet gone. “I’m a 3L,” I realized. “I’m graduating in May. This is my last chance to write for the Law Weekly.” But what was I to write about?
My first thought was something to do with graduation regalia, why we wear it in the first place, what its colors mean, and so on. In fact, I had even come up with a glorious title: “Pomp and Circumstance: A History of Law School Regalia.” But did I really want my last hurrah to be a well-cited summary of Wikipedia?[1] “No,” I thought, “I want to make something special.” So, I thought I’d share with you all my Law Weekly journey and explain just how much this paper has come to mean to me.
Perhaps the most striking thing to me about my time on the Law Weekly is how close it came to never happening at all. I was but a wide-eyed 1L wandering the wilds of Spies Garden[2] during the Fall Activity Fair. It was there that I naïvely signed up for as many mailing lists as I thought sounded interesting.[3] But one table in particular drew me in. A table surrounded by surprisingly athletic and energetic students in too-short gym shorts who were extremely eager to talk to me as soon as I glanced their way. The first person I spoke with from the Law Weekly was then-Editor-in-Chief Phil Tonseth ’22, whose promises of pizza and light copy-editing had me intrigued. More than anything, however, I was eager to meet new people and to join a social group on Grounds. Even though I was only two and a half hours away from my hometown, it may as well have been on the other side of the world for how out of my depth I felt those first few weeks—and I was grateful for any sort of guidance my 2L and 3L elders could give me. And so, although I’d never worked on a newspaper before, I attended that Monday’s Law Weekly meeting. Although I still felt like some stranger who had barged in on a group of friends, my worries were eased by the presence of other Section A 1Ls, including future Editor-in-Chief Nikolai Morse ’24. Using gel pens, we got to work manually checking printed out articles for spelling errors, bolstered by fresh Dominos. The meeting ended around 6:00 pm that evening, and I walked away from it a mixture of disappointed and anxious. “It’s such a huge time commitment,” I thought. “If I join, I’m scared I’ll fail 1L.” At that moment, I decided that the Law Weekly wasn’t for me.
But something got me to come back the next week. At some point in my discussion with other editors, I learned that the Law Weekly no longer had a cartoonist. I’d always loved to draw, and I figured that drawing something every week wouldn’t take nearly as much time as writing a full article. I came up with a cartoon entitled “Spies Garden,” featuring spy figures in trench coats and dark sunglasses popping out of flowers. I attended the meeting that week to submit my cartoon. And then I attended the next week. And the next week. And the week after that. The first event I ever wrote about was a panel of lawyers who spoke to 1Ls about what a career in government would look like. I had brought my laptop and was taking copious notes, making sure not to miss a thing. There was a sense of pride in being there as a journalist, in getting the scoop on events at the Law School. All I was missing was my press badge.
Come spring elections, I knew that I wanted to get more involved in the paper, and so I, as a rising 2L, became a co-executive editor of the Law Weekly, shifting my role from a more writing (and cartooning) intensive one to a more editorial role. Nevertheless, during 2L, I would use my platform at the Law Weekly to write different articles I was passionate about, from how to start a student organization to a history of Romanian folk dancing and an in-depth review of Eurovision every year. I took pride every week when I saw my name printed in the colophon. Whenever I had an article published, I would take pictures of it and send it to my family group chat.[4] And I never had to worry about cooking Monday night dinner.
By the time I was a rising 3L, I was full of ambition. Although I initially planned to run for Editor-in-Chief, it came up in my discussion with then-Editor-in-Chief Dana Lake ’23 that I had taken a graphic design class in high school where I had actually learned InDesign. Because of this experience, Dana suggested instead that I run for Production Editor. The rest is history.[5] The new Law Weekly executive board, headed by Nikolai Morse ’24 with current Editor-in-Chief Andrew Allard ’25 (then Executive Editor) and me as Production Editor, got off to an (understandably) slow start as we tried to get our bearings. If I thought hanging around until 6:00pm was late, imagine my worries when, on that first evening, we didn’t finish putting together the paper until nearly 10:00 pm. The old anxiety returned; what had I gotten myself into? But with every week, we became an increasingly better-oiled machine. At first we were done at 9:30 pm, then 9:00 pm, then 8:00 pm, and so on. Sometimes, we’d even finish before sunset if we were extra efficient (and when the time change was in our favor). I got to know InDesign’s quirks, learned to laugh when it inevitably crashed (which it does at least once a meeting), and memorized all the tools and shortcuts I needed. And I got to do it all while surrounded by my wonderful friends.[6]
Reflecting now on my legacy at the Law Weekly, it doesn’t feel real that this is the last time I’ll be writing an article as a student. Even after the elections and the installation of the new executive board, I’ve hung around to train our new Production Editor Nicky Demitry ’26 and help out where I can. To think that in a few weeks I’ll be leaving this all behind, I can’t help but feel emotional. In the Law Weekly, I found an opportunity to explore events I never would have attended otherwise, an outlet for my creativity, and a family that is unparalleled here at UVA Law. Thank you, Law Weekly, for being one of the best things in law school. It’s been an honor and a privilege to be here all three years. I’ll always cherish my time with you.
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ms7mn@virginia.edu
[1] In case you are curious, here you go: Academic dress in the United States, Wikipedia (last accessed Apr. 2, 2024). See also https://www.academicapparel.com/caps/Academic-Hood-Development.html.
[2] Back when I was still pronouncing it to rhyme with “eyes.”
[3] Some of these lists still send me emails to this day.
[4] I always grab multiple copies of the paper to give my family whenever I can.
[5] You’d be surprised how effective “graphic design is my passion” can be as a campaign slogan!
[6] And the occasional enemy ☺