Omar Vasquez feels fortunate to be working as a summer associate at Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle. But more than just good fortune, it was persistence, plus help from an Arizona Law grad, that got him the job.

Omar, originally from El Paso, Texas, earned his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania before moving to Arizona as a member of Teach for America. He taught high school math for five years with Teach for America in the Phoenix area, where he was chair of the math department at La Joya High School in the Tolleson Union High School District, and later in Tucson.

Both the experience with Teach for America and a broad interest in politics, economics, and society led Omar to law school. With his partner attending the University's College of Medicine, Arizona Law was "a natural fit," he says.

As a 1L, Omar was determined to land a summer job in Seattle. He made several trips there for career fairs and spent the summer working at the US Attorney's Office. He attended more Seattle career fairs as a 2L and cultivated more contacts, including Arizona Law alum Matthew Clark ('07), formerly of Davis Wright Tremaine and now with Faegre Baker Daniels in Boulder, Colorado.

"I emailed Matt on a Wednesday and asked if he could meet for coffee before I left town on Sunday," Omar says. "He wrote back and said he was busy, but he would need to take a dinner break that Friday and we could meet then. Matt was incredibly informative about the Seattle legal market, and to this day I continue to speak to him about balancing big-firm life and raising a family."

Omar is grateful to Davis Wright Tremaine for letting him work pro bono. "Pro bono work and community engagement are important to me" he says, "so I feel fortunate that the firm lets me bill up to 144 hours per year for pro bono efforts."

In our own community, Omar is an active member of the Latino Law Student Association and volunteers with the Pima County Teen Court as a magistrate. He will serve as Case Notes Editor for the Arizona Law Review this year.

While he's enjoyed "every single course and every single faculty member" at Arizona Law, he makes special mention of Toni Massaro's Constitutional Law II course, which helped him win the oral argument competition and be recognized as best oral advocate at the American Bar Association's First Amendment and Media Law Diversity Moot Court Competition earlier this year,

From left, Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck, client Thomas McGowan, and Jason Kreag celebrate reversal of McGowan's wrongful conviction

Jason Kreag joined our faculty August 1 as a Visiting Assistant Professor (VAP). The VAP program brings promising young teachers and scholars to Arizona Law for two years, during which they serve as members of the faculty--teaching, doing research, and writing articles. He will teach Criminal Law.

Originally from Indiana, Jason earned his BA in economics from DePauw University, where he was a star on the basketball team. He went on to earn an MA in philanthropic studies, conducting coursework and research focused on poverty and homelessness issues, before earning his JD from Harvard Law in 2003.

He'd set his sights on public interest law and was to start work for a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals judge in St. Louis after law school, but health problems forced the judge to step down. Jason then worked for six months as an associate at King & Spaulding in Atlanta before joining the Southern Center for Human Rights as a staff attorney. After two years there, he joined the Innocence Project in New York City, working as a staff attorney and adjunct clinical professor from 2007 to 2012 and making headlines for his team's successes in overturning several wrongful convictions.

Most recently he was a law clerk for the Hon. Jon O. Newman on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, while simultaneously teaching Wrongful Convictions at Cardozo and Columbia Law Schools. He began seeking a full-time teaching position last year.

"One of my mentors, Bernard Harcourt of the University of Chicago Law School, spent his early years teaching at Arizona Law and encouraged me to apply for the two-year position," Jason says.

Jason believes his clinical and advocacy experiences will be useful in his teaching.

"The way I think about criminal law is this: When we decide someone needs to be prosecuted or punished criminally, that's an extreme step we take as a society," Jason says, "so we want to minimize the need to take that step. Having experienced firsthand how the system can fail dramatically for several individuals has given me an interesting perspective on the power of the criminal justice system--and, therefore, on how careful we need to be when using it to punish people."

Jason recently relocated to Arizona with his wife, Vanessa Buch, a fellow Harvard Law alum and civil rights and criminal lawyer, and their two little girls. "I'm excited and pleased that the law school is giving me this opportunity," he says.

You can learn more about Jason at his faculty web page. 

Deborah Sliz (MA, '74) is a powerhouse in Washington, DC. As president and CEO of the lobbying firm Morgan MeGuire, she is in high demand for her expertise on issues affecting the US electric utility industry.

Originally from Massachusetts, she earned her BA in Spanish at Emory University and her MA in linguistics at the U of A and was teaching English as a Second Language before enrolling in law school, where she was an Ares Fellow. 

"My relationship with Dean Charles Ares ('52) literally changed my life," she says. "Even though I got a C in Civil Procedure, he saw something in me and offered the opportunity to come to DC to be an intern on the House Interior Committee, then chaired by the late Rep. Mo Udall ('49)."

Dean Ares obviously understood something we all appreciate--a grade in a particular course doesn't tell us much about a person; talking with them, and seeing how they analyze problems and work with others, tells us a lot more.

Deborah worked as counsel for Rep. Udall for five years. "The last issue I worked on for Mo was the 1984 reallocation of power from the Hoover Dam among customers in Arizona, Nevada, and California," she says. "Passage of the bill was a big victory for the three states, and it led to a job for me with the American Public Power Association."

She adds, "Working for Mo Udall was a privilege. As Chairman of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, he had a lot of power and could get things done. He was fair, well respected, and a thoughtful legislator whom I loved working for. He also had a delightful, self-deprecating sense of humor that made it possible for him to work collaboratively with Democrats and Republicans."

Deborah went on to work as Senior Vice President and Director of Legislative Services for the global public relations firm APCO Associates, now APCO Worldwide, and joined Morgan MeGuire as a partner in 1999.

When not meeting with clients or others on their behalf in Washington, DC, Deborah is a member of our Board of Visitors and works to advance our mission and help our students and graduates find jobs in the DC area. She has been an "Arizona Law Ambassador" since the program began in 2007 and has hosted several alumni gatherings. "There is a very large U of A alumni group here in DC, and it's always fun to get together when the Dean or other faculty come to town," she says.

"It's a pleasure to continue to be involved with the U of A law school and its students," Deborah says. "I had a great education there, and it led to a more exciting career than I ever imagined. Being on the Board of Visitors, and involved in other ways with the school, gives me a chance to step out of my day-to-day work and think about the job the school does to prepare students to make a contribution in the world, whether as attorneys or in other jobs." 

Deborah lives with her husband in Arlington, Virginia.

You can connect with her on LinkedIn.