Meet the Class: Danny Jacobs, ’27
UChicago Grad with a PhD from Harvard Goes from Lecturer to Law Student
Danny Jacobs, ’27, started his educational journey at UChicago, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in classics in 2015. Since then, he has earned an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in medieval law from Harvard University. His love for legal history inspired his desire to pursue law school and explore his interest in the law even further. After teaching at UChicago last year, he looks forward to being back in the classroom as a student.
Please describe your background and professional path.
After college, I got an MPhil [Master of Philosophy] from the University of Cambridge, and then a PhD in history at Harvard, where I studied medieval law. Some of my favorite work in grad school was teaching premodern legal history: Roman, Continental, and English law. Last year, I worked as a lecturer and writing advisor here at UChicago.
What key experiences have shaped you?
Teaching belongs at the top of this list. Speaking to a classroom forces you to boil down your thoughts about a topic to their essentials. The best version of my thinking is usually the one that makes the subject matter intelligible to a roomful of students.
What motivated your decision to go to law school?
I study parts of premodern law that are still with us. In grad school, I wrote about the history of a certain way of organizing private law, one that we still use today. So, law school feels like a natural next step for me.
Why did you select the University of Chicago Law School?
I’m already at home at UChicago, and it’s important to me to feel like a part of the Law School and a part of the University as a whole: to treat the law as both a profession and something studied for its own sake. This is a great place to do that.
What do you plan to do with your legal education?
I’m interested in tax, and in trusts and estates. Where I’ll take that interest, I’m not sure, but I’m open to lots of ideas as long as I don’t fall out of touch with history along the way.
What is the thing you are most looking forward to about being a law student?
I’m looking forward to being a student again. Being on the other side of the classroom for five years taught me a lot about how students help themselves to succeed. I’m hoping I’ll be able to put some of those lessons into practice.
What are some of your hobbies or interests?
In another life, I would be writing about baseball. Finding words for the beauty of the game without resorting to schmaltz isn’t easy. I think you need to love both writing and baseball to do it.
What is a “fun fact” about you?
If I haven’t made every pasta sauce in Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, I’ve come pretty close. That has to be one of my favorite books.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Chicago is my hometown, but Hamilton, New York, could just as easily be the place I call home. I grew up in Hamilton and I go back every summer, even though my family has moved away. Hamilton and Chicago are both home, in different senses of the word.