Jonathan Peterson ‘23. Photo courtesy of Camille Boler ‘23.
First things first, what do you like to be called? I hear people call you Jon, Jonathan, and JP.
Honestly, this is one of the hardest questions for me. I actually flubbed this one in an OGI interview. To people who don’t know me well, I usually introduce myself as Jon, but JP is also great. Mostly only family and friends from high school call me Jonathan.
Tell me about yourself. Where are you from?
I’m from here in Charlottesville!
What’s it like being from around the Charlottesville area? What are your favorite and least favorite things about Charlottesville?
I’m lucky enough to love the outdoors, so growing up here was great for me. This dovetails with my favorite thing about Charlottesville; its location is great. If you like hiking, camping, biking, and most other outdoors activities (at least those you would do in the woods), Charlottesville is a wonderful area to grow up in. Least favorite? Probably that there isn’t much to do other than what I just talked about. Especially when you’re not legally allowed to drink. Kind of felt like I was stuck going outside or doing nothing in high school.
What led you to come to law school?
I was considering going for my PhD in philosophy and, full disclosure, I had a professor tell me that “if there was anything else” that could possibly make me happy, I should do that instead. So I came to law school! The brighter side of that story is that I figured that if I wanted to do good things (which, despite my BigLaw future, I still intend on) I might be able to make a larger impact with a law degree and applying my own personal philosophy than just doing philosophy.
What’s your favorite pre-law school job you had? Any formative experiences that you have drawn on during law school?
Ooohh this is a fun one. This is hard to apply to law school, but I was a camp counselor for five- to six-year-olds after my first year of undergrad. I absolutely love kids, and getting to spend five days a week hanging out outside with them was a blast. I also interned at the Public Defender Service in D.C. during undergrad as an investigator in the juvenile division, and that was incredibly formative. I already had pretty strong views on the criminal justice system in our country, but that experience definitely helped to solidify them.
What are your post-law school plans?
This summer I’ll be heading to work for a firm in San Francisco. I’ve been saying this lately, but I think long-long term I could see myself doing something with animals. I don’t know how far down the road that really is, and plans change. But I’ve always had a passion for the outdoors and animals. I also have no idea what that would really look like in practice. Maybe it’s just a dream job sort of situation.
What do you like to do for fun? Any hobbies?
So I recently got a new game, Elden Ring, that has been taking up some of my time. I also absolutely love playing softball here at the law school. I really enjoy surfing and skateboarding, as well as hiking, running, and when I’m not forced to read hundreds of textbook pages a week, reading for pleasure. Oh, and writing for pleasure too–both creative and like, journaling.
What’s your favorite game and why?
I’m gonna treat this as my favorite video game. It’s got to be Dark Souls. The game is pretty widely held to be one of the harder games to get the hang of, but I invested a lot (too much) time into it in high school, so now it’s a breeze for me. Because I know it pretty much from front to back, the game is actually quite relaxing for me now. It can be good to destress by just playing some.
Time for a lightning round. If you could be an expert in anything, what would it be?
Can I say languages generally? I would love it if I could speak a ton of different languages. I would hate to be an expert in one of my hobbies, because half the fun of a hobby for me is seeing progress. Suddenly being an expert would ruin it.
Pet peeve?
When people put the Brita back in the fridge completely empty or with like, only a mouthful of water. Absolutely infuriating.
Favorite Charlottesville Restaurant?
Oh this one’s tough. It’s a toss-up between Roots and Vivace. Roots because, come on. The El Jefe is top tier. Vivace is a wonderful sit-down restaurant though. Or my mom’s house.
What is the best advantage to being really tall? Biggest disadvantage?
Definitely concerts and other crowd events. I can see everything. It’s like being an omniscient being. Biggest disadvantage is hitting your head on things and the fact that airplane discomfort is directly proportional to height. There just isn’t enough leg room and I’m too cheap to shell out the money for exit row seats.
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Interviewed by Jeffrey Horn '23
jtp4bw@virginia.edu