On Tuesday, members of the Andover community gathered in Kemper Auditorium-turned-courthouse to attend “Appeals on Wheels,” an event organized by the Massachusetts Court of Appeals.
“Appeals on Wheels” are traveling hearings that usually occur on law school campuses to broaden public awareness and understanding of the Massachusetts court system, and this was the first time that the event was hosted by a secondary school. Andover welcomed Alumni Justices Gabrielle Wolohojian ’78, Eric Neyman ’86 P’22, and Sookyoung Shin ’92 to conduct oral arguments for three cases following the procedure of deliberations held in the John Adams Courthouse in Boston.
Julia Sprague, Teaching Fellow in English, described the hearings as a chance to witness firsthand the workings of the judicial process. She noted the significance of precedence in proceedings and the importance of educating conscientious students who might one day create legal precedents.
“I’d never really heard any appeals cases or appellate court before. I’d really only seen media representations of the proceedings, so it was really fascinating about how grounded it was in precedent and the legally determined definitions and making sure that the situations either met the criteria or didn’t meet the criteria, it seemed really logical,” she said. “I hope some students walk away thinking they want to be lawyers now because that seems really fascinating and also important work, especially given how important precedent is for that system. The people setting precedent have to do quite a lot of work to really make sure they’re doing the right sort of thing while looking back on all the other things as well,” said Sprague.
Taking place during the advising block and fourth period, some advising groups and English classes excused students so they could sit in and listen to the cases. One such student, Ethan Oder ’25, highlighted how the hearings offered an introduction to law and the court process to people who have less exposure to the field.
“The event felt very accessible to people like me who lack much familiarity with the appeal process or court process at large. This experience would be very helpful for students interested in law. There aren’t many advertised and available opportunities to engage with the system in such a close way. Watching the experience, I could draw many connections to the work we do in History, [Religion and Philosophy], and English classes. Seeing the lawyers often struggle to craft responses and the frequent critiques of their statements felt valuable. The lack of perfection demystified and humanized the appeal process in my eyes,” wrote Oder in an email to The Phillipian.
Following the oral arguments, the Office of Alumni Engagement hosted a panel discussion titled “Blue Runs Deep: Judges in Massachusetts,” where the three judges on the Massachusetts Court of Appeals were joined by three alumni judges serving in the Commonwealth to answer questions. Jennifer Savino, Director of Alumni Engagement, commented on the role of Student Alumni Representatives (STARs) in the discussion.
“There was an additional element of today’s program called Blue Runs Deep, which is an opportunity of our STARs (student alumni reps) to interact with our alumni to discover their professional paths and how they stem from Andover. During this portion, our STARs uncovered meaningful paths from Andover through clerkships, private practices and on to their appointments to the bench. The students were so creative in writing the questions, they were respectful in asking the questions and the judges were candid in their answers,” wrote Savino in an email to The Phillipian.
Lena Ciganer-Albeniz ’25, a Student Alumni Representative (STAR) who helped facilitate the discussion, drew connections between skills the judges described and skills students aquire through classes. She spoke about the significance of having Andover alumni that students could connect to and learn from.
“One thing that was common amongst all these judges was that none of them thought that they were going to do law at the stage of Andover, but they all talked about how writing and reading and their English classes and history classes really prepared them to be strong advocates,” said Ciganer-Albeniz. “Being able to create connections with alumni is a really good way for students to determine what they might be interested in the future or providing them opportunities.”
Sprague pointed to the research and information processing abilities that the judges displayed, which is a key skill in their occupation. She emphasized the role of Andover’s classes and the opportunity presented by the hearings in understanding how the content and practices students learn can impact their future careers.
“Noticing how much research and how much reading the lawyers, the judges, all their assistants, and all their clerks have to do just to prepare for this moment is just an incredible amount of reading, synthesizing, being able to summarize, and [understanding] this complex thing that is happening… I think that’s a really important part of high schools, to show students different ways that adults carry about their lives and to see how the skills that you’re learning will transfer to your adult lives which sometimes makes it easier to learn those skills,” said Sprague.
