Law Schools

Pregnant Law Student Attends Class Via Robot Thanks To This Law School's Unique Tech Intervention

Robots may be coming for lawyers' jobs in the future, but for now, they're incredibly helpful.

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Thanks to the wonders of technology, a pregnant law student was able to virtually attend class via robot that she controlled from the comfort of her home.

Tess Messiha is a first-year student at the UC Irvine School of Law. As if being a 1L wasn’t already difficult enough, towards the end of her pregnancy, just before the start of spring semester, she was prescribed bed rest by her doctor. How on earth was she supposed to complete her studies when she was on bed rest? After all, class recordings work well for short absences, but Tess was going to be out of class for weeks.

She contacted Elizabeth Schroeder, Assistant Dean for Student Services, asking what she could do given the circumstances. Luckily for Tess, Dean Schroeder had a unique idea that the school was able to put into action just two days after learning that a first-year student was desperately in need of assistance.

Dean Schroeder, the mastermind of this plan, contacted UCI’s Disability Services Center and she learned that an ill student in another department had been able to successfully use a robot to attend class. Almost immediately thereafter, the robot was secured, Tess was given instructions on how to use it, and all of her professors were notified about the machine that would be attending class in her stead. Dean Schroeder then recruited a few of Tess’s classmates to move the robot from classroom to classroom and return it to its charging station each night.

Tess, of course, had her doubts at first, but she reports that it all worked out in the end. “I knew there wouldn’t be a way to completely replace being physically in class but this would be as close as possible. Once I was able to get some friends to agree to help get me around to class and I did a few test runs with the staff, I was confident it would be a successful experiment. It did not disappoint.”

Despite the fact that she was on bed rest, Tess was able to participate in all of her classes with the help of a 4-foot-tall robot. Not only could she hear all of her professors and classmates, but she could speak and even be called on. Being cold-called from bed probably isn’t a pleasant experience for anyone, but it was a real lifesaver for Tess. “I was able to participate in all of the regular lectures and keep up with the regular class materials,” she said. “My friends were eager to help get me from class to class and I rarely had any technical difficulties (audio or visual). More than 98 percent of the time I was able to see and hear my professors clearly, actively participate with questions and answers, and keep up with my other classmates who were physically in their seats.”

Tess Messiha

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Rick Hasen is Tess’s Torts professor, and he said that it was “surprisingly natural” to have a student in his classroom “via the [robot’s] mounted tablet.” Professor Hasen explained that he could make eye contact with Tess, call on her, and the entire class was able to hear her responses. “For someone unable to attend class physically, this was definitely the next best thing.”

Tess gave birth in early February, and thanks to UC Irvine Law’s early interventions, she didn’t miss a single day of class over the three-week period of her doctor-required bed rest. “You can imagine the special thrill I got when her husband emailed me at 11 p.m. on February 8 — an hour after Tess gave birth to a healthy baby,” Dean Schroeder said. Tess is very grateful that she was able to use the robot to start her semester off right. “I am so thankful we were able to use the robot for the first time in the law school, and hopefully it will benefit other future students as well!”

Robots may be coming for lawyers’ jobs in the future, but for now, they’re incredibly helpful. In this case, a robot was able to spare a student from missing three weeks of class and potentially being forced to sacrifice her first year of law school due to her absences. Congratulations to Tess on the new addition to her family, and congratulations to the UC Irvine School of Law for offering such a special solution to a law student who needed help. Almost anything is possible now thanks to technology.

Has your law school ever done something of this magnitude to help a student in need? Feel free to email us (subject line: “Robotic Help for Law Students”) or text us (646-820-8477) and tell us all about it. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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