Hot Bench with John Lim ‘27

Hey, John! 

Hi, Donald. 

This is so fun! 

Yes, period. Yes, period. 

Are you excited to be here? Well, I'm so excited to finally get you on Hot Bench. I'm really excited. I've known you for a long time, twenty years, and it'll be nice to see who you are as a law student and as a person. But I'm mostly just excited to interview my best friend in the Law School. 

Well, I'm excited. I know you as a friend, as a coworker, and now as a journalist. 

Okay, let’s get started. Who is John Lim? 

I am a 3L. I grew up mostly in Virginia Beach. Although I spent a lot of the past few years in Massachusetts for college and teaching after college and before law school. 

Nice. I know you had quite a past. You did a lot of different things. So I'm curious, what was the throughline that led you to law school? 

Yes, well, I've always really loved reading and writing. I've always really admired people who knew how to convey their thoughts clearly and make arguments and convince people of the way that they see the world. I studied history and literature in college, which allowed me to hone those skills, and then taught history at the high school level. When I was teaching, I enjoyed explaining complicated things to my students, and I really like seeing them learn those things. I wanted a career where I could apply those same skills and those same perspectives to hopefully improve the world and give back to my communities in some way. 

Have you found that expectations have matched reality? Have you found that you've been able to do those things at the Law School? 

I think so. I think the professors here are really good at not just spoon-feeding you, and instead they leave you to think about the hard questions, right? They teach you the doctrine, but they also teach you where there are unresolved questions outside of the classroom for you to be able to grapple with. 

Amazing. I'm curious to hear about your experience outside of academics. I know you're incredibly brilliant, but you're also an incredibly fun person. And so what has life been like at the Law School? Like, what has stood out to you? What has been surprising? 

Well, first, thanks for saying that; you're making me blush. Period. I think what has been a really wonderful surprise has been the fact that everyone I've met in various different spaces and the different communities that I've been a part of has the willingness to go out there and to think about hard questions, to see where the law is going. They are really engaged intellectually, but they also have a silly side. I feel like I can switch between the academic debates and then the silly, interpersonal, goofy side of myself and feel comfortable. 

Amazing. Well, you're clearly a big deal. You are Big Dog in the Law Review. And so, aside from being my boss in the Law Review, what's been a highlight of your time as Editor-in-Chief? 

I think one highlight has been working with the notes department on student scholarship. I am a student who cares about what other students are thinking about and what they are curious about in the law, and the fact that we get amazing submissions showing that people are thinking about things that they learn in the classroom or outside of the classroom, and they take the time to put that into a neat thirty- to forty-page—however long it is, submission—and try to make their mark in the legal scholarly community is really impressive. I think that's, like, one of the true highlights of getting to work on the journal—seeing what other people are thinking about. It’s nice to play a role in uplifting student scholarship.  

What about your own personal scholarly interests? What are you interested in? 

I'm interested in local government and energy law. Also, I feel like I like to dabble in a lot of different things. I've really enjoyed my classes in, like, legislation and admin— 

He's a dabbler. 

And I'm enjoying fed courts right now 

So, I have no doubt that you're going to be a professor one day, and that you're going to be Dean, so I'm curious if you could teleport back in time and speak to John just before he started 1L, what advice would you give to little John? 

I would say that in the moment, a lot of things feel high-stakes. Like every time you go to class and maybe raise your hand and offer a question, or when you're on call, or even just doing a reading can feel like make-or-break. At least that's how I felt. And I think that is, one, not sustainable, and two, just not true.  

That's so kind of you. And very tender. 

I dabble, and I'm tender. 

You're a tender dabbler. 

Yes, make that the heading or the subheading for this. 

The tender dabbler. 

Don't do that. 

[laughter] 

Alright, let's move on to lightning round stuff. John, let's take this seriously now. These will be quick questions. First off, favorite class? 

This is not very fast for the lightning round. I'm thinking hard. Maybe legislation. With Gilbert? 

It’s because you sat next to me, huh? Okay, favorite restaurant or bakery in Charlottesville? 

Monsoon Siam. 

Favorite coffee shop, you coffeeholic? 

Lone Light for sure. 

Favorite professor? 

Professor Goluboff 

Big fan. Okay, two more. Favorite 1L memory? 

The end of exams. The end of 1L Spring, when I was done. 

Final question. What is your dream job? Short-term and long-term. So two questions. 

I guess short-term, being an academic, like being a professor or some kind of academic fellow. Long-term, and totally unrelated to the law, I want to be some sort of writer. Maybe a TV writer. 

I love that! It goes back to your reason for why you wanted to go to law school, because you like to write. Well, this has been such a pleasure, John. I hope it wasn't too painful. 

Why was I so nervous? 

You were a great interviewee. You did not seem nervous at all. I almost teared up. You were such a tender dabbler. 

That means a lot coming from you, Donald. 

Authors: Donald Serra cwu6gc@virgina.edu