UW Law Student Selected to Editorial Board for Harvard Journal of Law and Policy Issue

A University of Wyoming College of Law student has been selected for the editorial board of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy (HJLPP) Annual Federalist Society National Student Symposium Issue.

Ethan Drewes, of Longmont, Colo., is the third UW student to be selected for the board.

HJLPP is one of 15 scholarly journals at Harvard Law School and is published three times a year by the Harvard Society for Law and Public Policy Inc., an organization of Harvard Law School students. A leading periodical for conservative and libertarian legal scholarship, HJLPP often explores issues and hotly debated topics related to the Constitution.

For the symposium edition, students from other law schools were invited to apply for a board position. Drewes submitted a resume, writing sample and academic transcript and was selected based on editing skill, attention to detail and knowledge of Bluebook citations.

Drewes is a research assistant for UW Professor of Law George Mocsary, who encouraged him to apply.

“Ethan’s initiative and commitment have been exceptional, especially for a first-year law student,” Mocsary says.

The special issue will feature the 43rd annual Federalist Society National Student Symposium, which took place March 8-9 at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass. Symposium panels addressed fundamental questions about the U.S. constitutional structure and the separation of powers among the three branches of government.

As part of Drewes’ role this fall with the HJLPP, he has worked as an editor and assigned an article written by Ernest Young, a professor at Duke Law School. The article focused on the concept of separation of powers and how the separation is more of a system of checks and balances -- with a substantial overlap between branches -- than a true separation, or isolation, of the branches.

Drewes also works as an editor for the Wyoming Law Review.

Drewes graduated from UW with a Bachelor of Science in accounting in 2023 and played Wyoming Cowboy football in 2021-22. In the 2022 season, he earned a full athletic scholarship, varsity letter, academic all-conference recognition and membership to the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society.

After law school, he plans to work for Cline Williams in Fort Collins, Colo., where he was an intern this past summer. He aims to focus on estate planning and business law. Before settling down in private practice, however, he plans to apply for judicial clerkships in either the Wyoming Supreme Court, state District Court or the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 2020, Nathan Cowper, of Laramie, and Elizabeth “Lizzy” Stephani, of Centennial, Colo., were the first students from the UW College of Law to be selected as editors for the journal. Cowper now serves as chief human resources officer for Albany County School Board 1. Stephani is a research fellow at University of Pau and the Adour Region, conducting research on transnational legal issues, such as human rights, climate change and trade.