May 2018

• Pedro Enrique Iniguez

  Pedro Enrique Iniguez is currently completing his second year at the University of West Los Angeles, School of Law. He is the son of two immigrant parents, from Mexico and El Salvador. His parents immigrated to the United States in the 1980s and Pedro was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.  Pedro completed his undergraduate program at California State University at Northridge, where he majored in Political Science.

  
  

  During his time in Cal State Northridge, Pedro was part of the award winning Model United Nations program, and he along with his team competed on a national level. The Model United Nations program helped shape Pedro’s leadership, team building and speech skills. In his final year of his undergraduate program, Pedro decided he wanted to attend law school, believing that it would be a natural and logical transition.

  
  

  In the course of researching law schools to attend, Pedro discovered the University of West Los Angeles School of Law. After attending legal boot camps at other schools, Pedro felt UWLA was the best fit for his scholastic needs. He saw the benefit in a smaller classroom setting and accessibility to professors for guidance regarding legal studies. During his first year Pedro was extremely appreciative of the faculties’ willingness to help, and in supplying the resources such as mentoring for students to be assisted in achieving their scholastic goals during law school.

  Pedro described his first year experience of law school as being hit with ice-cold water, where you have to hit the ground running and adjust to the law school format.  Fortunately, he adjusted and has assimilated to the law school format and is performing well. He believes law school consists of hard work, dedication and discipline.

  
  

  One of Pedro’s biggest influences has been his grandmother, who instilled in him the value of progress. As she has stated to him, ‘progress above all, is most important in life, progress from generation to generation, from year to year, or from day to day, progress is important in achieving ones ambitions and goals in life.’

  
  

  Pedro’s current ambitions and goals are to complete his legal studies at UWLA and be prepared to take the California State Bar examination by 2020. During his time in UWLA, he also hopes to take part in externship or internship programs to prepare him for a career in the legal field. Pedro has and interest in criminal law and ultimately would like to practice in that field.  

  
  

January 2018

• Narine Minasian

  Narine Minasian is in her last year as a J.D. candidate at UWLA, she is of an Armenian decent that was born in Iran during the revolution. She speaks four languages and lived in Germany with her family when she was a child, before permanently moving to the U.S. She is an exceptional entertainment legal professional with a strong transactional, interpersonal and communication skills. She holds a B.S. Degree in Legal Studies and is also certified as a paralegal. The majority of her well-rounded experience was gained while working at an entertainment law firm while she was still in undergrad. After graduation, she continued working full-time for many years and gained practical experience at the firm, before setting her heart to further her education in obtaining a law degree. "I've always loved to negotiate since I was a child and have passion to fight for justice". Narine, was fortunate to have the opportunity to transition into the studio side of entertainment law with Twentieth Century fox Television, where she worked in the Legal Affairs Department for eight years, as a transactional specialist, drafting and negotiating contracts for talent and staff for "Modern Family", "The Simpsons" and many more awards winning projects.
  
  During her first year of law school, Narine balanced her work/school schedule by also volunteering and completing an externship at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles in the eviction defense division, along with dedicated attorneys. Her experience at the Legal Aid was something that she will always value and appreciate. By augmenting funding provided by a variety of federal, state, and local grants, the voluntary support that is received enables legal aid to provide access to justice to thousands of poor and low-income families who otherwise would have nowhere else to turn for help with their legal crises — when domestic violence or slum housing conditions endanger their health and safety, unscrupulous landlords and scam artists threaten to turn them out of their homes, or bureaucratic error denies them their rightful access to medical care and supportive services, there is no greater feeling than helping the needy" says Narine. During the externship, under the supervision of an attorney, Narine interviewed underprivileged clients, gave them legal advice about their rights, worked on discovery, motions and trial preparations. Narine has always maintained her work balance along with a full schedule of law school classes and believes that the part-time program at UWLA really made it all possible. Also, while in law school, she worked alongside a highly prestigious entertainment law firm and for Bunnim Murray Productions, which allowed her to negotiate and draft contracts for actors, directors, producers and writers for major films, music and television. Recently, she accepted a position at Legendary Entertainment Studios and will be joining its Legal Affairs department.
  
  After graduation, she plans to stay in a studio environment as an entertainment in- house attorney and to also be part of pro-bono work. Narine says that, "Entertainment law can be especially rewarding if you are motivated by the opportunity to support creative work. However, spots in the field are limited and competitive; only a handful of opportunities exist at studios, production companies and entertainment law firms. Everybody knows everybody in the industry, networking will be essential to your career success as you build the authentic relationships necessary to succeed in this tight-knit industry". The highlight of law school has been thus far the intellectual atmosphere,” she says, “the chance to think about incredibly rich, fascinating legal issues, and, to have the luxury of devoting so much time to thinking about difficult legal questions. UWLA and its exceptional Professors give you all the tools you need to succeed, if you truly are dedicated and ready to work very hard”.