Alumni Profiles
Michele Storms Michele Storms (J.D., ’87) embodies the yogic phrase “skill in action.” “I came to public interest work because I was appalled at the disparities in the world—how can we as a just society have so many people who live unsheltered?” Storms felt that GU was a great pick because “there is a sense of social justice mission in the Jesuit tradition and also I was grateful and honored to be a Thomas More Scholar.” Through the Thomas More program, she volunteered for numerous community service projects. She also worked on the Gonzaga Law Review, competed in moot court competitions, and served real clients in the community through the law school’s clinic. “I had such great classmates and professors and felt I was always being challenged to learn and stretch my own limits. I’m incredibly grateful for my experience at GU Law.” After Gonzaga, Storms launched a career as a public interest lawyer. She taught at the University of Washington School of Law and founded the school’s Children and Youth Advocacy Clinic. Storms later became the assistant dean for public service and executive director of the William H. Gates Public Service Law Program at the University of Washington School of Law. In 2016, she became deputy director of the ACLU of Washington. In 2015, Storms received the Distinguished Service Award from the Washington State Bar Association’s Civil Rights Law Section. Her nomination cited her significant contributions as a practicing attorney, a leader in the legal community, and an educator training future generations of civil rights attorneys.
Cullen McGowan Cullen McGowan (J.D., ’15) knew what he wanted to do before he ever came to Gonzaga Law. On his law school résumé, he listed “traveling to baseball stadiums” as one of his personal interests. He came to Gonzaga with his bachelor’s in business from the University of Arizona, complete with a sports management certificate. So it wasn’t a surprise when he spent his 2L summer interning with the UFC—that’s right, the Ultimate Fighting Championship in Las Vegas. Throughout his 3L year, McGowan worked for Gonzaga’s Corporate Counsel and still found the time to compete in Tulane University’s International Baseball Arbitration Competition. All of these experiences—in the classroom and in practice—positioned him to take his first step to his ultimate goal: becoming a baseball executive. His first job after Gonzaga Law was with Baseball Prospectus, a website and publication that provides “cutting-edge baseball statistics” along with articles and information for MLB teams, industry executives, and fans. McGowan then enrolled in Columbia University’s master’s program in sports management with an emphasis on analytics. While in this program, he worked as an associate scout for the Brewster Whitecaps in the Cape Cod Baseball League from July 2016 through February 2017. As a master’s student, McGowan also interned with TrackMan, a leader in sports analytics that works with every MLB team, many top Japanese and Korean teams, and various NCAA teams and U.S. amateur baseball organizations. After starting as a baseball analytics intern, McGowan was promoted to baseball operations coordinator in December 2016 and to assistant manager of baseball operations and data acquisition in February 2018.
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Gonzaga Law Magazine | 2018