Meet Erick Rhoan, a San Joaquin College of Law alumnus and Deputy Attorney General for the Correctional Law Section of the California Department of Justice in Sacramento. Learn more about Erick, the advice he has for maintaining a healthy balance in law school and why he believes the SJCL culture makes the legal community stronger.
Tell us about your journey to SJCL
I was a history major at Fresno State and a lot of people were going into the master’s degree program. I initially decided to go as well, but ultimately, I realized I wasn’t really interested in going that route. I wanted to use my mind a little bit differently, and I felt that law school was the most appealing decision because it’s focused on analysis and applying rules in various situations. It just seemed like the most logical choice for me to get everything I wanted out of a career that would be mentally stimulating. Going to San Joaquin College of Law was very fortuitous because it was the local law school and I didn’t have to travel out of state or move to the Bay Area or Los Angeles in order to go. I applied to several schools including SJCL because of its convenience and the lower cost of tuition. Despite being a non-ABA accredited school, it was convenient for people wanting to stay in the area, obtain a Juris Doctor, and take the Bar Exam without having to jump through any additional hurdles.
What do you do now and how did SJCL help prepare you for your career?
I work for the California Attorney General’s Office in Sacramento as a Deputy Attorney General, in the Correctional Law Section (CLS). We are defendant-side attorneys who represent correctional officers and correctional officials. Every once and a great while, we also represent the Secretary of the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (CDCR), the appointed person who presides over the entire agency. Very rarely, we also represent the Governor, who is sometimes sued.
The vast majority of CLS’ litigation is geared towards constitutional law, so we litigate claims brought under the First, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments and most of our cases are brought by inmates serving as their own attorney. Because our litigation is constitutional in nature, we mostly try our case in the Eastern District of California, either in Sacramento, Fresno, or once in a great while, Bakersfield. Our plaintiffs sometimes bring their claims in state courts too, so wherever there’s a county that has a prison we’ll see a case come from there.
The law changes every so often, so we try to keep on top of these changes while continuing to do what we’ve learned in law school, which is studying the law and applying it. SJCL does a great job of training students to know and apply the law in order to come to a conclusion. The things you do in law school and how you study, prepare and learn are the exact same things you do everyday as an attorney.
Did you always know you wanted to practice constitutional law?
It’s something that developed while I was in law school. My first year at SJCL, I didn’t really have a plan as to what kind of law I wanted to practice. I just thought I’d dive in and see what appealed to me the most and that usually ended up being torts. If you litigate constitutional law, you’ll realize that it’s really just another way of litigating constitutional torts because an analysis of whether or not a constitutional amendment was violated tends to borrow a lot of tort concepts, and the analysis is similar as well.
While I was working and going to SJCL, my internships and law clerking positions kind of set me on the path to where I am now because I got a work-study position at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Fresno and they were civil defense. That’s similar to what I do but instead of just being limited to inmate litigation under the Eighth amendment, we had a wide range of contractual, real property, torts and many other areas of law, and all over California. While I worked there I was very impressed by the litigators who represented the United States as well as their professional acumen. When I left that office, I realized that type of law was something I wanted to do. If I hadn’t gone to SJCL I never would have clerked there or be working where I am now, so I was very fortunate.
What was the culture like at SJCL while you were in school?
It was collegiate and there’s no competition amongst students there, it’s only the competition you have against yourself. There’s no real rivalry and no one is graded based on how well the next person does or doesn’t do, which I liked.
You don’t think about it at the time, but the people you go to law school with will be your colleagues once you graduate. The same people you may have shared a study group with, traded outlines with, or sat in class with are going to be same people that are going to call you asking for an extension on discovery, or maybe even be your opposing counsel. If you have that relationship that goes all the way back to law school, you know what that person is like and you’ve seen them under pressure. That helps you to evaluate the situation, what’s best for your client, and you can decide how you can leverage that relationship to help your client. Also, you figure out how you can act accordingly as members of the legal profession together because you have that shared experience in law school and it wasn’t born out of some petty rivalry over grades. It definitely helps having that same origin when dealing with people outside of law school and the atmosphere at SJCL fosters that and makes the legal community better as a result.
What were your classes and professors like at SJCL?
Your curriculum is pretty much set from day one. Whatever is going to be tested on the Bar Exam, those are your required courses and there are very few electives. As a result, the Bar Exam presents fewer surprises. The professors were great and they know you’re coming into this blind and that you’ve never been to law school before. They were very good about ushering you slowly into the world of law and teaching you how to analyze things like a lawyer. It was very welcoming on their part and while they were firm and the material was difficult, I never felt like I was at odds with the professors or that I was on my own without any help.
What was your favorite part of law school?
Getting to know the people there was probably my favorite part because all the internship opportunities that I had came from SJCL. My first law firm job while I was a law student was staffed almost entirely by SJCL graduates, so it shows that there were so many opportunities that the school afforded.
What advice do you have for maintaining a healthy work/school/life balance?
You have to take opportunities where you can get them. Don’t overburden yourself with all these tasks and responsibilities if you know you’re barely going to have time to complete them on top of your schoolwork and your job, if you have one. In litigation, as in law school, no vacation goes unpunished, but you still need to take them.
My situation was unique because I was in a long-term relationship and it was also a long distance one. My then-girlfriend (now wife) went to law school in Nevada, and we didn’t see each other for long periods of time while we were both in school. I tried to spend as much time as I could with her so I flew out to see her every few weeks, but that required a lot of scheduling. Also, if you’re going to mix yourself up in law school and try to work part time as well, you really need to manage your time but at the same time, if an opportunity to relax presents itself and doesn’t seriously impede your studies, then by all means take it because you’ll be better for it in the long run.
Someone once told me that how you live in law school is the way you’re going to live as an attorney and I found that to be more or less true. If you can’t manage your time juggling all these responsibilities, you will have a difficult time doing it once you graduate, study for the Bar, and become an attorney. At that point, your responsibilities and obligations as a lawyer are going to dramatically increase except now, you have your client’s needs, money, and expectations that need to be handled. And you have to provide good quality work on top of all that. So you’re better off learning that work/life balance while you’re in law school by scheduling your time and knowing when to work smarter versus harder.
What would you tell future students who are considering going to law school?
You need to sit down and really think about the type of endeavor you are entering in to. You need to be prepared to take on a lot of student loan debt and if you are, then the next step is to have a plan to pay it off within the next five to ten years. If you can’t stomach the idea of doing that, then maybe law isn’t a career for you. Law school is an enormous financial obligation to tackle, and fortunately, I’m in a place where I can get these loans paid off in 10 years.
It’s important to really know what you’re getting yourself into up front and really think about it. Talk to lawyers you know and ask them what they think and what they would of done differently. Intern at law offices so you can get a feel for it and decide if this is what you’re going to devote the next few years and a substantial amount of money into. If you’re really into the work, it does pay for itself. I like the work that I do and I’m very fortunate for that. I’ve put in 40-plus-hour weeks and I’ve worked weekends, but I’m living the life and this is what I wanted to do.
What tips do you have for preparing for and passing the bar?
Make sure that the Bar Exam is your number one priority in life. Make sure your friends and family understand this, but that it’s only going to be that way for a couple months. Do not neglect the MBEs, which is the multiple-choice section of the Bar Exam. I think the MBEs are more beneficial to studying for the bar than actually doing practice essays or the performance evaluation portion.
With MBEs, you pick up the black letter law that you have to memorize as well as being able to apply it in the multiple-choice setting. Eliminate any distractions because you have to be a monk for those months leading up to the exam and do not peak too early. You want to peak just as you take the exam and there is no shame in buying supplemental materials. Also, allow yourself one to two days a week to just vent off steam and don’t study at all on those days. It’s law school condensed into three months so you need to focus and be diligent, but you also have to find that balance. If you do it right, you’ll be ready to go when you take the exam and you’ll have the endurance to tough it out for two days for the exam.
If you had to do law school all over again, what would you do differently?
I don’t think I would do anything differently. I had the option of doing the three-year program and I chose to do the four-year instead and if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have been an officer in SBA or Delta Theta Phi. I also wouldn’t have been an editor for the Law Review if I had to condense my law school time into three years. So I wouldn’t change a thing.
Want to learn more about San Joaquin College of Law and hear more of our alumni’s stories? Attend our upcoming Career Panel on Thursday, April 12!