Good afternoon, Gabe. Thanks for being willing to be Hot Benched. Would you mind introducing yourself?
Absolutely. My name is Gabe Armstrong. I come from a little former coal-mining town in Tennessee, population 13,000. It's called Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, a union of Soddy, Tennessee, and Daisy, Tennessee.
Was it 13,000 before or after you left?
I think they're sitting pretty at 12,999 right now. Hopefully they get those numbers up.
What brought you to UVA from Soddy-Daisy?
Long story. So I . . .
We don't have too much time.
I'll keep it quick. I went to Georgia Tech for undergrad, studied computer science, and really enjoyed the pre-law classes I took there. I took a class on privacy law and a class on cybersecurity law. I loved both of those so much that I wanted to keep that going in law school. UVA has Professor Citron, who is the leading privacy scholar. We have a great law tech center and a great law tech journal.
When it comes to top technology programs, it's us, Harvard, and Stanford, and UVA is a public institution, which matters a lot to me. It's in a great location, and it produces a lot of public servants.
For having taken privacy law, you don't seem very private.
I'm speaking with a journalist right now, so maybe that doesn't say too much about how much I care about my own privacy.
Do you find a lot of fellow computer scientists here in law school?
Not really. We're kind of an interesting bunch. You've got Aakash Talathi.
A great icon.
Yes, amen. President of Patent Law Society, maybe unsurprisingly.
What do you feel like UVA can do better to attract computer scientists to law school? How can we pitch the computer science program?
If you're looking for the average CS student, I think you have to make campus a little bit dirtier, maybe discourage students from showering. Maybe put AI in everything. Actually, I think the format of our computing IDs helps a lot because, if you think about it, it's perfect for a computer scientist. Only someone in IT actually understands how these things work. They're meaningless to everyone else.
Do you feel like you have a leg up on understanding the law IT systems compared to the rest of us?
Maybe sometimes a little bit, yeah. One thing I haven't figured out is why we have lawschool.virginia.edu and law.virginia.edu.
Do we also have to have plain virginia.edu?
That's a whole separate tenant, pretty sure.
So if you were in charge of IT for a day, what's one change you would make?
I don't want to criticize our IT. Our IT staff are actually nice. If you ever go, have you ever visited them?
I can vouch. They're very nice people.
I would have no more computing IDs. Everything can be the first initial, last name, and a number. Second order, no more lawschool.virginia.edu. Everyone's on law.virginia.edu. This also causes problems for SharePoint, because sometimes a file will be living in law SharePoint, but you're trying to sign in with your regular virginia.edu address, and you can't access the file. Super annoying.
Have you always been interested in computers and IT, or was that just once you got to Georgia Tech?
Well, I started as a, uh. . .
Also, do you prefer the acronym IT or CS?
Oh CS.
Okay, I apologize.
CS is like one very specific subdiscipline. An important one at that.
The most important one.
I started as an electrical engineer like my dad. Then I realized I wasn't smart enough for that. I took one look at one of my friends’ work assignments, and I was like, geez, I think if I had to do this for 4 years, I would drop out. So, uh, I made the cliché decision to switch into CS, which, in hindsight, was maybe a good decision, but if it had been a year later, career prospects would be down the toilet.
You’re at UVA Law, so I think you're plenty smart enough to do whatever you want to do.
I think taking an atypical path probably helped. Although maybe you could make the argument that being a double E would make me stand out even more.
Speaking of an atypical path, do you want to go the BigLaw route? Or what would be an out-of-left-field turn?
I still want to be a federal prosecutor. I want to prosecute cybercrime, which is what I did this summer. One of the defendants in a case that I'd worked on traveled to Georgia from Russia . . .
Georgia, the country?
Yeah, exactly.
We were talking about Georgia Tech, so I had to clarify.
Yes. I think the Russian ransomware distributors are afraid of rednecks. I think they could handle that. It'd just be too much for them.
So can we get more rednecks into national security then?
I think it would discourage Russians from messing with the United States.
I thought the Russians liked the Reds, but never mind.
If the red is in your heart, they're okay with it, but if it's on your neck, it's a bridge too far.
I trust you with interpretation. That's beyond my abilities.
Thank you.
We like to kind of wrap things up with a bit of a lightning round.
Okay. So I'm ready.
What is your favorite spot to eat lunch in the law school?
Probably wherever there are the fewest people. Is the library a bad answer? Oh, that's a bit of a faux pas, isn't it? I'm saying ScoCo. That's a little cliché, but you’re not disturbing other studiers.
What's the best free lunch-catered food that the Law School has?
Roots, and no to Ivy Provisions. If you order Ivy Provisions and I was on the edge about coming to your event, 0% chance I'm showing up to that. That's like flour with mayonnaise in the middle. Awful.
See, I'm an Ivy Provisions man myself.
Is Virginia Law Weekly ordering Ivy Provisions? Maybe you should stop.
The Virginia Law Weekly has Domino's Pizza. Where does Domino’s rank on the catered food list?
It's a tried and true classic.
Yeah, they've been good to us.
They catered like 300 pizzas to us at Foxfield last year. Domino's is ole reliable.
Where would you rank Domino’s in fast pizza chains?
I think my favorite is Jet’s, which is kind of a more obscure chain. That Detroit-style, deep dish is so good. Then followed probably a controversial answer, but I think Pizza Hut, just 'cause of the nostalgia, you know?
Back to the lightning round questions. What's one CS skill that you think law students should learn?
I think, maybe just . . .
Not very lightning-round right now.
I'm so sorry. I'm pulling a Matt right now. I'd say learning how encryption works. I think it's useful to understanding how digital technologies and privacy work in the modern age. At a basic level it is useful to have to understand how public key infrastructure works.
Favorite, favorite book?
For a long time, I would have said 1984, 'cause I was a middle schooler. When I read it, I thought it was the most interesting thing in the world, but these days I might say East of Eden. I am in the middle of it right now, and I think Steinbeck is just such a vivid writer.
Favorite movie?
Fantastic Mr. Fox. Wes Anderson. Can't beat that style.
It's a classic. Lastly, favorite TV show?
I just finished The Good Place with my girlfriend. So lighthearted. I might also say The Pitt. The Pitt is not lighthearted at all. Two different ends of the spectrum, but they both have their merits. If you're looking for something lighthearted or you're trying to get, like, if you're trying to unwind at the end of the day from class
The Pitt?
The Good Place.
Oh, my bad, my bad. Thank you very much for sitting down with us.
It's always a pleasure—no—delight.
It is a pleasure.
In exchange for me doing this, Andrew has agreed to go easy on me next time we play Catan.
For the record, I have not beaten Gabe at Catan. I don't know why he wants that. You're trying to make me lose even more, is what you're saying.
Yeah, it's more for inflating my own ego than anything else.
Great interview.
Author: Andrew Moore ’28, cwb5ex@virginia.edu