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Tulane Law Students Benefit from Alum's Nor'easter Grounding

March 26, 2018 3:15 AM

The East Coast’s latest Nor’easter this week brought snow and headaches to Philadelphia, but a gift to Tulane Law students: Judge Felipe Restrepo (L ’86), in town to preside over Tulane’s Moot Court Honorary Round and  grounded in sunny New Orleans for two days, volunteered to help teach oral-argument basics to first-year law students in five legal writing classes.Upon learning that he would be spending an extra two days in sunny New Orleans, Restrepo, who sits on the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, offered to pitch in the classroom.  Over the next two days, he helped co-teach Legal Research & Writing classes and an undergraduate introductory law course taught by Tulane Law Prof. Amy Gajda.“The timing was perfect because our 1Ls submitted their appellate briefs on Monday and are currently preparing for their own oral arguments,” said Prof. Erin Donelon, who directs Tulane’s Legal Research and Writing program. “Judge Restrepo echoed many points we’ve been covering in class this week. We could not have planned it better!”Restrepo was a seasoned trial lawyer before being appointed to the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, first as a Magistrate Judge, then as a District Judge, and finally as a U.S. Circuit Judge on the 3rd Circuit in 2016.  He was President Obama’s last appointment to the appellate courts.Restrepo was recently nominated, along with fellow Tulane Law classmate Judge William Pryor (L ’87), to the non-partisan United States Sentencing Commission.