Earl Martin on Gonzaga Law, Law School Admissions, and Legal Career Success

Last Updated: September 2026

Choosing a law school involves much more than comparing rankings and admissions statistics. Applicants must consider their career objectives, finances, preferred location, academic interests, learning environment, and the kind of lawyer they ultimately hope to become.

Former Gonzaga University School of Law Dean Earl Martin addressed many of these considerations in an interview with Top-Law-Schools.com. Although the original conversation took place in 2009 and some of the programs and statistics discussed at the time have since changed, Martin's broader observations about legal education, professionalism, experiential learning, and career preparation continue to provide useful perspective for prospective and current law students.

Students researching the school today should consult current information in the Gonzaga University School of Law profile in addition to considering the broader principles Martin discusses below.

What Makes a Strong Law School Candidate?

According to Martin, a strong candidate for legal education needs both the desire and the capacity to succeed in a demanding academic environment.

Academic ability matters, but Martin's description of an ideal law student went beyond grades and test scores. He emphasized students who could succeed individually while also contributing positively to their classmates and the broader law school community.

He also placed importance on students who were willing to develop practical legal skills and a sense of professionalism rather than seeing law school solely as an academic exercise.

At Gonzaga in particular, Martin highlighted the university's longstanding emphasis on public service and social justice. Those values were closely connected to the school's Jesuit tradition and helped shape the type of educational environment the law school sought to create.

For applicants, the broader lesson remains relevant: understand the mission and culture of the law schools to which you apply. A school may be attractive statistically, but applicants should also determine whether its educational priorities align with their own.

Before Applying to Law School, Understand Why You Want to Attend

One of Martin's most important recommendations for prospective students was deceptively simple: determine why you want to attend law school.

A legal education represents a substantial commitment of money, time, and effort. Applicants should therefore think seriously about what they expect to gain from earning a J.D.

Questions worth considering include:

What kind of professional opportunities do I hope law school will create?
Where do I eventually want to practice?
Am I interested in a particular practice area?
How important are school size, location, cost, and academic specialization?
What employment outcomes would make the cost of attendance worthwhile?
What type of law school environment will allow me to perform at my best?

Answering these questions can make the process of researching and comparing schools far more focused.

Applicants who are still developing their school lists can also explore the TLS Law School Admissions Forum and Choosing a Law School Forum to see the types of factors other applicants consider.

How Should Applicants Choose Between Law Schools?

Martin encouraged applicants to approach law school selection as an individual decision rather than automatically following rankings.

Among the characteristics applicants should investigate are:

School size
Student-to-faculty interaction
Faculty strength
Academic programs
Clinical and experiential opportunities
Areas of specialization
Geographic placement
Institutional mission
School culture
Career opportunities

Applicants should also consider where graduates actually work.

For many students, geography can have significant career implications, particularly when comparing schools whose graduates tend to practice in regional markets. An applicant hoping to build a career in a particular state or city should investigate how effectively each school places graduates in that market.

Cost should receive equally serious attention. Tuition, scholarships, living expenses, debt, and realistic employment outcomes should be considered together rather than independently.

The goal is not necessarily to identify the school with the most recognizable name. It is to determine which school provides the best combination of education, opportunity, affordability, location, and professional fit for the individual student.

Think About the Kind of Lawyer You Want to Become

Martin offered another useful piece of advice for students preparing to begin law school: think not only about what kind of law you want to practice, but what kind of lawyer you want to be.

Students understandably devote considerable attention to practice areas. They may envision themselves as litigators, corporate attorneys, prosecutors, public defenders, intellectual property lawyers, or public-interest attorneys.

Martin's point reaches beyond specialization.

Professionalism, judgment, ethics, reliability, communication, and relationships with clients and colleagues ultimately shape a lawyer's professional identity.

Students therefore can use law school not merely to acquire legal knowledge but also to establish habits they intend to carry into practice.

That includes how they prepare for assignments, treat classmates, respond to criticism, manage responsibilities, communicate, and make difficult decisions.

Gonzaga's Jesuit Tradition and the Role of Public Service

During Martin's tenure, Gonzaga Law's Jesuit identity strongly influenced the school's educational philosophy.

Martin described that tradition in terms of public service, social justice, leadership, community responsibility, and educating the whole person.

For prospective students evaluating any law school with a defined institutional mission—religious or otherwise—the lesson is to investigate what that mission means in practice.

Does it affect the school's clinics?

Its public-interest programs?

Pro bono opportunities?

Academic offerings?

Student organizations?

Campus culture?

Professional expectations?

Understanding those elements can reveal far more about the student experience than rankings alone.

Public Service as Part of Legal Education

Public service was another significant theme in Martin's discussion of Gonzaga Law.

At the time of the original interview, he described scholarship and service initiatives designed to encourage students to serve disadvantaged communities and pursue public-interest legal work.

The specific requirements and programs discussed in the historical interview should not be assumed to describe Gonzaga's current policies. Prospective students should verify current scholarship, service, and graduation requirements directly with the law school.

The broader principle, however, remains important.

Law students interested in government, nonprofit organizations, legal services, advocacy, prosecution, public defense, or other service-oriented careers should investigate whether a prospective school provides:

Public-interest scholarships
Clinics
Externships
Pro bono opportunities
Faculty mentorship
Summer funding
Public-interest career counseling
Alumni networks

Students should look beyond whether such programs merely exist and determine how accessible and well-supported they are.

Why Experiential Legal Education Matters

One of the more forward-looking elements of Martin's interview was his emphasis on practical legal skills.

He argued that the legal market increasingly required graduates to possess more than the ability to analyze cases and identify legal issues. New attorneys also needed experience with the actual work lawyers perform.

That could include:

Legal research and writing
Drafting pleadings
Preparing motions
Negotiating transactions
Drafting agreements
Working with clients
Handling factual records
Developing professional judgment

During Martin's tenure, Gonzaga was integrating more practical and professionalism-focused instruction into its curriculum, including clinics and externships.

Although individual curricula continue to evolve, experiential learning has become an important consideration for applicants comparing law schools.

A school with strong clinics, externships, simulations, practical courses, and legal writing opportunities can give students valuable exposure to the responsibilities they will eventually face in practice.

Clinics and Externships Can Connect Classroom Learning to Practice

Martin viewed clinics and externships as particularly valuable because they require students to apply classroom knowledge in realistic professional situations.

Traditional courses teach students how to identify rules, analyze precedent, and construct legal arguments. Experiential programs can add another dimension by asking students to work through the practical consequences of legal problems.

Depending on the school and program, clinical students may work on matters involving family law, business law, environmental issues, civil rights, criminal law, consumer matters, or other areas.

Externships may place students with courts, prosecutors, public defenders, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, or other legal employers.

These experiences can also help students determine which types of legal work genuinely interest them before committing to a particular career path.

How Much Should Law School Rankings Matter?

Martin acknowledged that rankings can provide useful information by collecting data about law schools in one place. However, he cautioned against allowing rankings to become the sole measure of a school's quality.

No numerical ranking can completely capture the educational experience inside a law school.

Among the factors that may be difficult to represent through a single ranking are:

Teaching quality
Faculty accessibility
Mentoring
School culture
Practical training
Individual attention
Student satisfaction
Fit with particular professional goals

That does not mean applicants should ignore rankings or quantitative information.

Instead, rankings should be one source of information among many.

Applicants should compare employment outcomes, bar passage results, scholarships, debt, geographic reach, faculty, academic programs, class environment, and career services alongside ranking data.

Martin's larger point remains useful: applicants should evaluate whether a school can actually provide the education and opportunities they need rather than choosing solely because of a number attached to its name.

Law Review, Journals, and Legal Writing

Martin also discussed journal participation and legal writing as components of a student's professional development.

Legal writing remains one of the foundational skills lawyers use throughout their careers. Students interested in litigation, judicial clerkships, academia, appellate work, or other writing-intensive careers may particularly benefit from developing this skill during law school.

Law review and other journals can provide opportunities to strengthen:

Legal research
Citation skills
Editing
Analytical writing
Attention to detail
Long-term project management

Students interested in judicial careers can supplement their research with LawCrossing's guide to judicial clerkships and its discussion of finding a clerkship outside the T14.

Summers Should Be Used to Build Legal Experience

Law students' summers can play an important role in developing both skills and professional direction.

Martin described Gonzaga students of his era working in law firms, government agencies, public service organizations, clinics, and externships.

For today's students, the specific employer or program may vary, but the strategic principle is similar: use summers to gain exposure to legal work.

Students can benefit from opportunities that allow them to:

Produce substantive legal work
Improve research and writing
Observe attorneys
Develop professional references
Build relationships
Learn about practice areas
Explore geographic markets
Test potential career paths

Students preparing for the transition from law school into employment may also find LawCrossing's career-focused guide to navigating law school useful.

Personal Statements and Recommendations Still Matter

Martin stressed that applicants should present the strongest application they reasonably can.

Academic performance and admissions-test results traditionally play an important role in law school admissions, but an application is more than its numerical components.

Martin encouraged applicants to pay particular attention to their personal statements and letters of recommendation.

A strong personal statement should be technically polished while helping an admissions committee understand the applicant's motivations and experiences.

Applicants should avoid treating it simply as another version of their résumé. Instead, it should add meaningful information about who they are and why they are pursuing legal education.

Recommendations should ideally come from individuals who know the applicant sufficiently well to discuss their abilities, character, work, and potential for success.

Applicants who want to discuss application strategies with other prospective students can visit the TLS Law School Admissions Forum.

Work Ethic Is Fundamental to Success in Law School

Asked for general advice about succeeding in law school and a legal career, Martin emphasized work ethic.

Legal education requires students to absorb large amounts of material, understand complicated concepts, improve analytical skills, and meet demanding deadlines.

Practice requires many of the same habits.

Natural academic ability can help, but sustained professional success generally requires preparation and consistency.

Students can begin developing those habits during law school by learning to:

Prepare thoroughly
Manage their time
Meet deadlines
Ask for help when needed
Accept constructive criticism
Improve weak areas
Complete difficult assignments consistently

These habits can remain valuable long after grades and examinations have ended.

Successful Lawyers Must Continue Learning

Martin also identified lifelong learning as an essential professional habit.

The law does not remain static.

Statutes change. Courts issue new decisions. Regulations evolve. Technologies create new questions. Industries transform. Client expectations shift.

Law school therefore cannot teach attorneys everything they will need for an entire career.

Instead, one of the most important abilities students can develop is learning how to continue learning.

Successful attorneys regularly research unfamiliar issues, monitor developments affecting their clients, develop new skills, and deepen their substantive expertise.

Law school should be viewed as the beginning of that process rather than its conclusion.

Building a Sustainable Legal Career

Martin's final theme concerned managing the pressures inherent in legal education and practice.

Law students and attorneys may face demanding workloads, uncertainty, deadlines, competition, and significant professional responsibility.

Long-term success therefore involves more than working harder. Students and lawyers need sustainable ways to manage professional demands while maintaining perspective outside their work.

Building those habits early can help students enter practice with a healthier and more realistic understanding of the profession.

For additional guidance on developing a legal career while still in school, see LawCrossing's Essential Strategies for U.S. Law Students to Navigate Law School and Launch a Successful Legal Career.

Key Lessons from Earl Martin's Advice

Although the original Earl Martin interview reflects Gonzaga Law at a particular moment in its history, many of its central ideas remain relevant.

Prospective law students should understand why they want a legal education before deciding where to apply. They should compare schools according to their own career goals rather than rankings alone. They should examine institutional culture, faculty, practical training, cost, location, and employment opportunities.

Once enrolled, students should use law school to develop more than substantive legal knowledge. Professionalism, writing, practical experience, work ethic, judgment, and a willingness to continue learning can all contribute to long-term career development.

Perhaps most importantly, Martin's perspective encourages students to think beyond the question, "What type of law will I practice?"

They should also ask:

"What type of lawyer do I want to become?"

That question can influence everything from the law school a student chooses to the professional reputation they eventually build.

Related Top-Law-Schools.com Resources

Related LawCrossing Resources

Relevant Top-Law-Schools.com Forum Discussions

Choosing a Law School Forum – Discussions about rankings, tuition, student life, employment prospects, and selecting among law schools.
Law School Admissions Forum – Application advice, recommendations, admissions strategy, and school-selection discussions.
What Schools Should I Apply To? – Discussion of geography, career goals, costs, and other factors applicants can use to build a law school list.
Forum for Law School Students – Discussions covering academic success, internships, careers, stress, and other issues affecting current law students.
Gonzaga University School of Law Class Discussion – An archived TLS discussion specifically focused on Gonzaga Law.

Editor's Note: This article is based on Top-Law-Schools.com's original 2009 interview with former Gonzaga University School of Law Dean Earl Martin. References to specific programs, curricula, enrollment figures, scholarships, placement statistics, or institutional policies discussed in the original interview reflect the school at that time and should not be interpreted as current data. Prospective students should consult Gonzaga University School of Law directly for current information.