Completing law school is no small feat, but doing so while becoming engaged and planning a wedding is another matter entirely.
That was the case for Seattle University School of Law 3L students Heather Selby Ingle and Will Ingle, who fell in love not only with the law, but with each other. Now, less than a year after getting married during law school, they are preparing to celebrate another milestone together — graduation.
Heather, who is from Gig Harbor, and Will, who is from North Carolina, met and began dating as undergraduates at the University of Richmond in Virginia. While Will knew since childhood that he wanted to study law, Heather — despite having parents who both graduated from Seattle U Law — was unsure of her future path. After the COVID pandemic spurred self-reflection, Heather decided the field of law was right for her after all.
As Will prepared to take the LSAT, Heather began studying, too.
“It was unbeknownst to me,” Will said.
After scoring the exact same, both were admitted to Seattle U Law. Although their relationship was solid, law school introduced a new set of challenges.
“Our 1L year, we hardly saw each other, despite living in the same apartment building,” Heather said. “We didn’t have a single class together.”
Heather did not know that Will was balancing his 1L courseload while planning an elaborate proposal. During a visit from Heather’s parents, Will devised a ruse to secretly ask their permission to marry their daughter.
“I said I had concerns about law school that I wanted to talk to them about, so I pulled them aside,” he said. “I ended up asking them in the car in the parking lot.”
With a yes in hand, Will invited friends and family from around the country to Washington to surprise Heather. The day he went to pick them up at the airport “was the only day I skipped a class 1L year,” he said.
“Professor Russell Powell told me I should,” he remembered, after disclosing the reason for his absence.
Will got down on one knee on a beach in Gig Harbor, as friends and relatives stepped out from hiding spots to surprise Heather.
“It was amazing — and this was two weeks before finals,” Heather said. “Poor, sweet Will had been dealing with this, and I had no idea.”
Planning for the big day consumed much of what little free time they had during their hectic 2L years, which were filled with coursework and internships.
“I treated wedding planning as a break from studying,” Heather said. “If I had been doing a bunch of reading from class and needed to clear my head, I’d shift to wedding planning.”
Their hard work paid off, and the two were married in a beautiful ceremony at Roche Harbor Resort on San Juan Island last summer, with 15 of their fellow Seattle U Law classmates among the guests.
While they both agreed that an engagement and a wedding are difficult to pull off while earning a law degree, they noted that it helps that they are both law students.
“Having that built-in support system, a person to turn to, someone who is there for you every day, is the best thing,” Heather said.
“It’s having someone who gets it, who knows what it is like to be in law school,” Will added.
After graduation, Heather will start a full-time job in commercial litigation at Tacoma’s Selby Morgan and Born, PLLC, while Will plans to work at Kampbell Legal Planning, PLLC in trusts and estates. Both law firms are run by Seattle U Law grads.
The legal lovebirds say they will always look back on their time at Seattle U Law fondly.
“We have met quality individuals and made great friendships here. We’ve had very supportive professors who know we’re married and take the time to reach out and talk about both school and life in general,” Heather said, mentioning Professor John Kirkwood in particular. “That has been really special, the support and kindness.”