Honorable D. Zeke Zeidler reminiscence - October 20, 2022

All right. Ready when you are. My name is Zeke Siler. I went to Loyola Law School from 1988 to 1991.

Graduated in 1991. I. So that over. My name is Zeke Zeigler.

I'm a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. I went to Loyola Law School from 1988 to 1991, graduated in 1991. My pronouns are he, him and they.

I am a gay, cisgender man and I can't think of anything else I would want open with. Well, that's great. And so my years at Loyola Law School were very

formative and transformative. I went to Loyola when the outlier group was kind of getting reinvigorated. And for me, it was an opportunity to inject some

awareness into the campus. I showed up at law school my first day with my long feather earrings and figured whoever wanted to get to know me would.

And ended up meeting other LGBT back then lesbian and gay students. And we worked together to reinvigorate the organization. During my time at Loyola, we did programing for National

Coming Out Day. Got the Student Bar Association to fund anti homophobia buttons that we distribute on campus. We distributed brochures busting myths about LGBT people.

We brought what might have been the first band on campus at lunchtime as part of that program. So we really worked with the other student groups as well to form coalitions and to support each other's programs,

which I think was very important to. And. Being at Loyola Law School for me was a mixed experience.

It was a time of going to law school, excited about the law, excited about civil rights, constitutional rights, but then sitting in constitutional law classes and seeing how much those have been chipped away at over the years.

But eventually I found my place at Loyola and the programs that were there that I was able to gain so much from. A lot of the things I did on campus didn't

necessarily relate to the LGBT issues, but doing the Hobbs Criminal Trial Advocacy program with Professor Hobbs before he passed away and being put into the DA's office and into a certified law student doing a misdemeanor jury trial, my

first week there because they knew that his students were ready to go. Gave me opportunities. I don't know that I would have had it any

other law school. My most memorable experience at Loyola Law School may have been being in the first sexual orientation in the law class there was offered at Loyola.

John Davidson, who at the time I think was at the ACLU of Southern California. I did a sexual orientation in the law class, and it was such an incredible opportunity to learn about the

law as it was being shaped. I had some incredible seminars at Loyola I Sandy View High Pond. I took her first time teaching the disability rights class

where she had to. Each of us teach a portion of the class. Professor Benson I took a legislative writing class where one of the other students in the class was actually a

past president of the Screen Actors Guild. So there were just so many opportunities with the seminars that really made a difference for me. What else, if anything, would you think that you would

like to hear about? Actually, I'm going to do the one thing. As a Superior Court judge. One of the highlights of my career has been to

my husband and I every year for about 14 years, have hosted the LGBT Law Association in Los Angeles, ran for greater law student reception, where we host all of the LGBT law students from around the Southern California area

at our home. And it's special for me because I attended that at Translator's House. But I really enjoy the opportunity to speak with law

students, find out why they're in law school and make connections for them. If they tell me they're interested in going into juvenile law, inviting them to come and watch in my courtroom,

if they tell me they're interested in going into criminal law, finding someone to to host them in their courtroom. Finding mentors and internships for them. So I think one of the one of my highlights

being on the bench is being able to use being on the bench to be there to help law students find their way. And on that note, that's me in a nutshell.

That's awesome.