Whether delivering oral argument before a panel of distinguished appellate judges in the law school’s Rothgerber Moot Court Competition or serving as editor-in-chief of the University of Colorado Law Review, Hannah Regan-Smith (JD '19) has approached challenges head-on during her time as a law student.
Regan-Smith grew up in Boulder, but attended college in Ohio and then spent a few years on the East Coast. After so much time away, she was homesick for the mountains and decided to move back West to be closer to family. Knowing that she wanted to stay in Colorado after graduation, she chose the University of Colorado Law School for her legal studies.
Her time here has taught her to think differently about challenges and reshaped her way of assessing critical issues.
"The faculty really teach us how to think critically about the legal process and legal issues. I thought I knew how to do that before coming to law school, but quickly found out just how challenging it is to evaluate an issue with fairness, integrity, and analytical rigor," she said. "Learning how to do so has changed my perception of contemporary society, making the world feel like a more complicated, textured, and nuanced place."
As editor-in-chief of the University of Colorado Law Review her 3L year, Regan-Smith put in long hours alongside student editors to ensure a great product, an experience she said has been fulfilling but with its fair share of challenges.
"Publishing each volume of the law review starts with selecting articles from among hundreds that are submitted, and requires editing multiple drafts of each article to ensure that every issue we send to the printer is of professional quality," she said.
"Luckily, the students on the law review are incredibly competent, hard-working, and generous. I couldn't be more proud of the scholarship that we've published, or more proud to have had such fantastic colleagues on the journal for the past few years."
In spring 2018, Regan-Smith was one of four law students selected to compete in the final round of the Rothgerber Moot Court Competition, the school’s foremost internal appellate advocacy competition.
Standing before the Hon. Melissa Hart of the Colorado Supreme Court, the Hon. Harris L. Hartz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and the Hon. William W. Hood of the Colorado Supreme Court—in a packed Wittemyer Courtroom—Regan-Smith and her teammate flawlessly delivered their arguments, and were named the winning team.
Regan-Smith was also honored with the coveted Austin W. Scott Jr. Award for best oralist.
She credits the competition as among the most rewarding experiences she’s had in law school, in addition to the relationships she’s formed with classmates and professors.
With her JD in hand, her law school experience will come full circle when she begins her postgraduate clerkship with Judge Harris Hartz of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals—one of the judges she appeared before at the Rothgerber Moot Court Competition.