January 28, 2025

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Gonzaga University News Service

Learn more about Gonzaga's professors through our Faculty Features! In this installment, you’ll get to know School of Law professor Inga Laurent and her love of Spokane coffee shops.

Responses have been edited for length and clarity:

 

GONZAGA: Introduce yourself!

LAURENT: Hi, I'm Inga Laurent, and I work here at Gonzaga at the law school, which is way down the hill. My area is criminal law and procedure, evidence, and my true area of passion and study is restorative justice.

What inspired you to go into law?

I've always been inspired by the idea of fighting for what's right, and so, I figured a profession, a career, where you understood the structures of the world around you, and law impacts everything, would be a good start.

What is your favorite Gonzaga moment?

My absolute, all-time favorite moment at Gonzaga happened this semester. I had students in my restorative justice class and they put on a community workshop, a 101 building restorative communities workshop. There were over 60 people, and we ate Chicken-N-Mo, and we just learned and built community together and taught community and it was amazing.

What is your best piece of advice for students pursuing a career in law?

I think anyone who's looking to maybe come into the legal field, one of the things I would suggest more than anything, is to go meet up with a lawyer, shadow someone and find out what the day-to-day work of being a lawyer is really like.

What is a fact that people may not know about you?

I had the privilege and honor of doing a Fulbright in 2016-17 and I got to spend nine months in Kingston, Jamaica.

What is your favorite place in Spokane?

My favorite places in Spokane are every coffee shop that exists. I love Ladder and Indaba, and just so much good coffee, so many places.

What is your favorite holiday?

I love holiday time. I love going downtown and seeing the trees and the lights all downtown, and all the lights on the houses and Manito - its a great time to be in Spokane.