Hessick follows indirect path to teaching

After serving as a visiting professor last year, Andy Hessick joins the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law this year as a permanent faculty member and will be teaching Civil Procedure, Remedies, Administrative Law, and Law and the Regulatory State.

Hessick's path to the law was indirect.  About 10 years ago, he was desperate to leave his job as a government contractor for the Uniform Health Service, and the two options that presented themselves were law school and the Air Force. He chose law, and graduated from Yale Law School in 2002.

After law school, Hessick served two clerkships, practiced at a Washington, D.C., law firm, and worked for the Solicitor General’s Office in the U.S. Department of Justice. He then taught as a visiting associate professor at Boston University School of Law and as a guest lecturer at Harvard Law School.

Hessick said his approach to Civil Procedure will be doctrine-heavy, with some discussion of the reasons behind the laws.

“I do a lot of cold calling in class,” he said. “It keeps people focused and I think it’s useful for students to get used to being asked questions and having to respond on the spot.

“That’s what you do as a junior attorney, answer questions. You’ve done the research, you’re prepared, and the more you do it, the faster you get over the stage fright.”

Hessick, who plays golf and racquetball to relax, confessed that the best part of law school was meeting his wife, Carissa, who also is a faculty member at the College of Law. The couple has two cats, Oscar and Hobbes.

Judy Nichols, Judith.Nichols@asu.edu
(480) 727-7895
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law