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Law making

Senators leave politics out of the classroom

While most students at Seattle University School of Law are learning about the law, State Sen. Cheryl Pflug is doing so while also making law. And coincidentally, the 3L was in a course this fall taught by a former state senator: Adjunct Professor Randy Gordon.

It's believed to be the first time at the law school that a professor and student shared Senate experience. Pflug and Gordon served together in 2010 - on opposite sides of the aisle.

State Senator Cheryl Pflug with Adjunct Professor Randy Gordon.

"The one deal we have made is in the classroom: she calls me 'professor' and I call her 'Cheryl,'" Gordon said.  "I was pleased to see her in class. She's a good student."

They keep politics out of the classroom, but their shared experiences made for lively conversations.

"I think it's good for students to see that I'm a Republican and he's a Democrat, and we're really not so far apart in some of these issues," Pflug said.

Gordon is a principal in the Bellevue law firm of Gordon Edmunds Grelish PLLC with an active practice embracing complex commercial and tort litigation, products liability, personal injury, professional liability, mediation, arbitration and special master services. He has represented clients in forums ranging from a United States Senate subcommittee to litigation and mediation in federal and state trial and appellate courts including the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Washington State Supreme Court, the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, and other judicial and administrative bodies.

He is one of the many adjuncts the law school relies on to bring their practical experience and academic credentials to the classroom. He has taught Remedies and Product Liability since 1999. He was selected to give the December Commencement address three times and received the Outstanding Faculty Award in December 2003.  He was appointed to serve in the Senate in 2010.

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