UH Law Students Bring Contract Law to Life with Halloween Costumes

UH Law Center Section C students and faculty pose in law-themed Halloween costumes. — University of Houston Law Center’s Section C brought the Halloween spirit to Contracts class with lineup of creative, law-themed costumes for students and faculty. Learning the law in a fun way!

Oct. 30, 2026 – University of Houston Law Center Contracts students and professors traded their casebooks for costumes this week at the yearly contracts-themed Halloween Costume Contest and Review. The lineup of costumed students included a salmon and two fishermen, a force majeure clause clutching a baguette and a chicken among other creative interpretations.

Now in its fifth year, the annual tradition turns one of the Law Center’s foundational courses, contract law, into a fun, interactive learning experience. “The costume contest is really a review of the contract law doctrines, rules, and principles we discussed throughout the semester,” said Assistant Professor Aman Gebru, who co-hosted this year’s event with Assistant Professor Leah Fowler. “It adds a fun, engaging twist to the review.”

Students from Gebru’s and Fowler’s 1L Contracts sections competed against each other. This year’s contest brought together 43 students and 13 costumes, ranging from rolling contracts to material breach to famous cases studied throughout the semester.

The winners:

First place: Karleen Wu and Ruth Thomas represented individuals involved in the famous Hamer vs. Sidway case from 1891. Thomas dressed as William Story, Sr., an elderly uncle, who promised to give $5,000 to his nephew, and Karleen represented William Story, II, the nephew, who promised to refrain from drinking alcohol, using tobacco, swearing, and playing cards until he turned 21 in exchange for the $5,000. The court found that the promise here was supported by consideration, because the nephew suffered a detriment for refraining from activities he was legally allowed to do.
Second place: Wyatt Ladd, who showed up in everyday clothes as “Material Breach of Contract,” a nod to failing to do what he promised as part of the participation in the contest. Participants appreciated the conceptual “costume” or lack thereof in voting him as the runner up.
Third place: Gabby Jarquin, Rebecca Lee and Camryn Alberigo dressed as fishermen and a salmon representing the 1902 Alaska Packers’ Association v. Domenico case. In it, a group of fishermen agreed to work for the Alaska Packers Association during salmon season for specified wages. After arriving in remote Alaska, where the employer had little practical ability to replace them, the fishermen refused to continue working unless promised additional compensation. A company representative agreed to increase, but the association later refused to pay it. The Ninth Circuit ruled the modification as unenforceable because the fishermen had offered no new consideration, only a promise to perform the work they were already contractually obligated to do.

Contracts costume contest winners pose with Professors Aman Gebru and Leah Fowler. — From L to R: Winners of UH Law’s contracts-inspired student costume contest Karleen Wu and Ruth Thomas, with Professor Aman Gebru and Professor Leah Fowler, next to Wyatt Ladd who nabbed second place, followed by third-place winners Rebecca Lee, Gabriela Jarquin and Camryn Alberigo.

Karleen Wu and Ruth Thomas explain their Hamer vs. Sidway costumes to the class. — First-place winners Karleen Wu and Ruth Thomas, who represented individuals involved in the 1891 *Hamer vs. Sidway* case, explain the details of the case to the class.

The professors joined in, using their costumes to reinforce lessons from some of contract law’s most memorable disputes.

Gebru appeared as both the doctor and the plaintiff from Hawkins v. McGee, the famous “hairy hand case,” wearing a white coat, a “100% perfect hand” T-shirt and a hairy glove. The case involved a surgeon who tried to repair a young man’s burned hand with experimental skin grafting procedure, by grafting skins from the patient’s chest but instead left him with hand covered in densely matted hair which impacted his employability. The case later became a classic example of how courts determine damages when a contract is not fulfilled as promised.

Professor Aman Gebru and first-year student Congcong Hu demonstrate a rolling contract costume. — Professor Gebru, dressed as both the doctor and the plaintiff from *Hawkins v. McGee*, helps first-year student Congcong Hu demonstrate her “rolling contract” costume.

Fowler’s fishy costume was inspired by Alaska Packers’ Association v. Domenico, the same case represented by the third-place costume. Fowler brought the case to life with a fishbone-detail dress, fish earrings, a fishing-net shawl decorated with rubber salmons and a toy boat perched on a headband.

UH Law student Ivan Zarate presents a force majeure costume while holding a baguette. — UHLC student Ivan Zarate shares his interpretation of the *force majeure* clause with his classmates.

Tutors in both sections coordinated the voting for the costume contest and a multiple-choice contracts quiz that followed. Participating tutors included Norah de Zwart, Madison Arora, Kylee Nichols, Erica Karki, Kate Werner, Abigail Alquiza, Brady Braun, Mackinley Brown, Julia Patterson and Madeline Reichel.

The students enjoyed “Offer. Acceptance. Cake.” Also, pizza, snacks, and, of course, candy.

Chocolate sheet cake decorated with a spider and web and the words Offer Acceptance Cake. — “Offer. Acceptance. Cake.”

For an hour, legal doctrines came to life in the classroom with imagination and creativity, proving that even contracts class can be part of Halloween fun.