Willamette Law’s Student Bar Association held elections this week and elected new officers for each class. Initial votes resulted in runoff elections for the first-year president and secretary/treasurer positions. Final winners were announced Tuesday evening.
SBA is the student governing body of the College of Law, and all law students are members. Class officers represent the interests of their respective classes.
Katherine Gipson McLean was re-elected as third-year president. Last year, she also served as president for her class.
“My main goals in continuing on as our class president are to continue to field concerns and suggestions from my classmates and channel them to the proper places of authority, continue to promote class camaraderie, and to accomplish whatever tasks are needed to host some great graduation festivities,” McLean said.
McLean has an undergraduate degree in secondary education social studies from Arizona State University. Originally from Phoenix, she said she hopes to take the Arizona bar exam after graduating in May of 2017. She plans on working in criminal defense.
James Sullivan is the newly elected second-year president. He said his mission as president is to encourage his classmates to take an active role in their education and future. He has an undergraduate degree in business administration from DeVry University and is interested in pursuing business, construction, or construction-defect law.
Following Wednesday’s runoff elections, Thomas Ybarra was named first-year president. Ybarra said he plans on using the position to follow through on campaign promises. He ran with Emily Lohman as his vice president on a platform called “Unite.”
“We promoted uniting our class with the community through service projects, uniting each other through engaging social activities and events for everyone in our class, and uniting each individual personally with Willamette by listening to student ideas and concerns,” Ybarra said.
He is originally from Boulder City, Nevada, and has an undergraduate degree in political science from Southern Utah University. For now, he said he would eventually like to work in poverty law or develop and lobby legislation for issue-specific nonprofits.
Students also elected other class officers, including: Lauren Barnes as third-year vice president, Collin Edmonds as third-year secretary/treasurer, Carlotta Alverson as second-year vice president, Brittany Sumner as second-year secretary/treasurer, Emily Lohman as first-year vice president, and Natasha Torres as first-year secretary/treasurer.
SBA meets on Mondays, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., in room 219. The meetings are open to all law students.
About Willamette University College of Law
Opened in 1883, Willamette University College of Law is the first law school in the Pacific Northwest. The college has a long tradition at the forefront of legal education and is committed to the advancement of knowledge through excellent teaching, scholarship, mentoring and experience. Leading faculty, thriving externship and clinical law programs, ample practical skills courses, and a proactive career placement office prepare Willamette law students for today's legal job market. According to statistics compiled by the American Bar Association, Willamette ranks first in the Pacific Northwest for job placement for full-time, long-term, JD-preferred/JD-required jobs for the class of 2014 and first in Oregon for the classes of 2012, 2013 and 2014. Located across the street from the state capitol complex and the Oregon Supreme Court in downtown Salem, the college specializes in law and government, law and business, and dispute resolution.