Gabriel BellmanIn the first Creative Commons workshop of the school year, on September 17, 2020, Gabriel Bellman, ’05 (Director of Graduate Advising, CDO), and co-host Mattie Robertson, ’10 (Deputy Director, CNDR) led students in an exploration of the connection between poetry and the law. The topics have been intertwined since ancient Greeks and Romans wrote their laws as poetry, and many modern poets have also been lawyers or used legal concepts and cases in their writing.

Mattie RobertsonMany of the students in attendance had experience with poetry in the past and were excited for the opportunity to write again. To help strengthen cognitive thinking, students wrote several different poems and discussed how each allowed them to fire up different parts of the brains in new ways. The creativity of the students’ writing was inspiring, and by the end, everyone reported feeling more present in the moment and refreshed.

The Creative Commons team encourages you to open up your creative pursuits, because this kind of practice can support gaining focus, stress reduction, and is very useful in prepping for exams!

Creative Commons is collaboration between the Career Development Office (CDO) and the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (CNDR). Creative Commons is a regular series of events designed for current UC Law SF students that focus on using creative tools to develop lawyer skills through experiential learning.

Learn more about Creative Commons