When Gilroy High School graduate Tyler Park, 26, was at U.C. Davis studying political science, he wasn’t sure what he’d do with his life.
Then he went to a mock trial club run by his roommate, and fell in love with the law.
“For some reason, I got hooked on it,” said the 26-year-old. “It was fun. All these tricks to talk to people and convince them of things.”
That led him to his next stop, law school in Boulder, Colorado, where he became intrigued by telecommunications and technology law and had Neil Gorsuch as his anti-trust law professor, just before Gorsuch was appointed to the Supreme Court.
“He was really inspirational,” said Park. “Every day he showed up for class he expected us to prepare for class and to do our best. I would read the material and thought I understood it but he had a way of really showing the depths of it. I was disappointed when he left in the middle of class to go to the Supreme Court.”
When he passed his exam and was ready to be sworn into the Colorado Bar, Park wrote his former professor and asked him to do the honors, which he did in his new digs at the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Being sworn in at the Supreme Court, under a portrait of Chief Justice Taft, the only man to be President and Chief Justice, felt surreal,” he said. “It still feels surreal. It was very special and it is not something I will ever forget.”
Park grew up in Gilroy where he attended Luigi Aprea Elementary, Brownell Middle School and graduated from Gilroy High class of 2009. He graduated from U.C. Davis with honors, Phi Beta Kappa, with degrees in Political Science and Spanish. He graduated in May 2017 from the University of Colorado Law School. During Law School, Park interned with the Boulder District Attorney and Hogan Lovells law firm in Mexico City.
Park currently has a fellowship to work for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington D.C.
“I think that like in any area of law, there are good people on both sides of any debate in telecommunications who are working to strike the right balance and make good, thoughtful policy,” he said, looking toward his future goals. “However, it’s a process and it does take longer than it seems like it should.
“Telecommunications is fundamental to how we live our lives. It’s your phone, laptop, the internet, 911 services, satellites, WiFi, fiber optic cables, and even invisible electromagnetic waves constantly bouncing all over the world.
“I am excited to think deeply and carefully about the multitude of issues that we face like ensuring consumer privacy, artificial intelligence, connecting our cars to the internet, and fostering new technologies that we haven’t imagined yet. I will advocate for sound policy that helps people continue to communicate with each other.
“One piece of advice that Justice Gorsuch gave was to make sure that at the end of your career, you can look back at the work you have done and tell your kids about it and be proud,” said Park. “I mean to do just that.”
