Archive for October, 2009

Professionals from a variety of disciplines will be examining the possible social and economic benefits of implementing a four-day work week at the Connecticut Law Review’s Annual Symposium on Oct. 30 in the William R. Davis Courtroom at University of Connecticut’s School of Law. Benefits of a shortened week could potentially include: reducing unemployment, reducing energy use and costs, reducing commuting times—thereby improving the environment and quality of community life, improving workplace morale while reducing stress-based injury rates and absenteeism.

This year’s keynote speaker is Joanne Conaghan, a prominent scholar of the University of Kent at Canterbury. She will lead participants in examining how the modified, or family friendly, work weeks have been utilized in both the UK and EU.

Participants will examine different modified work weeks already in place, including reduction/flexibility measures that are being utilized in different sectors both in the U.S. and abroad. Special attention will be paid to the legal methods that may be used to promote working time restrictions, as well as the overall effect such restrictions will have on the work force.

Some believe that other democracies are ahead of the U.S. in developing these modified schedules that promote family and community life.

[Connecticut Plus]

Jokes about frustrating lecture-hall acoustics, low-slung blackboards and missing erasers are par for the course in many classrooms at the current location of Memphis’ only law school these days. Increasingly, they precede the quip: “I cannot wait for the move.”

In January, the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law will mark the start of its 48th year in what arguably will be the most exquisite and pride-inducing facility of its kind when classes begin in the newly renovated U.S. Customs House on Front Street.

I remember reading years ago about the school’s struggles to find a suitable home, to secure permission from the U.S. Postal Service to take over the building near the riverfront, and to corral funding.

At the time, it was simply another news story, another public construction project in Memphis. It dissolved into a handful of other stories about the Downtown area that would occasionally cross my radar, about projects that would start and stop, met by funding delays or political paralysis.

But this one would be different. Now, as a second-year law student watching the new facility prepare to open, I am rocked with perspective.

For students like me, the benefit of a Downtown presence is inestimable. Quick access to courtrooms, clerkships and jobs means the laboratory experience of law school is amplified exponentially. Alternatively, it creates an added inducement to members of the local legal community: Come visit with us. Come teach us. We’re just across the street.

Commercial Appeal

Marquette University Law School’s Restorative Justice Initiative will host a conference entitled “Bullying in Schools: Teaching Respect and Compassion Through Restorative Practices,” Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the Alumni Memorial Union. The conference is free and open to public, but registration is required.

The conference will feature several emotional and informative presentations on the powerful consequences of bullying, including:
• “I was a Student Bully,” a discussion featuring four MPS students telling their stories as either the victim or perpetrator of bullying;
• “Cyberbullying and Social Interaction with Technology: How to talk to your child,” with administrators from Waukesha West High School and New Berlin Eisenhower High School who have recently dealt with high profile cyberbullying incidents.
• Milwaukee Public Schools’ use of the Restorative Justice practices, in which students discuss openly with each other how bullying affects them and the larger school community; and
• Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm on the legal consequences of bullying.

Guests will also include Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent William G. Andrekopoulos, who will present awards to students who participated in an art and essay contest. Keynote speaker Dr. Brenda Morrison, co-director of the Centre for Restorative Justice and assistant professor of the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, will give a presentation entitled, “The Power Dynamics of Bullying: Negotiating the social and emotional work of the school community.” Janine P. Geske, distinguished professor of law and director of the Restorative Justice Initiative, Joseph D. Kearney, dean of Marquette Law School, and Jeffrey J. Altenburg, deputy district attorney in Milwaukee County, will give opening remarks.

[Media Newswire]

Add one more organization to the expansive list of student-run groups at Washington and Lee School of Law. The Middle East and North Africa Law Society (MENA) will bring together students, alumni, faculty and professionals dedicated to surveying and analyzing the economic, legal, political and cultural issues of the Middle East and North Africa.

Organization founder and president Fadil Bayyari, class of 2011, hopes the group will serve as a nexus for law students interested in the Arab world and the many areas of the law at play in the region, including international finance law, international human rights law, conflicts law, energy law, and U.S. intelligence law. The organization currently has sixty members including student officers Daniel Goldman (vice president), Simon Herr (treasurer), Mario Urizar and Jeremy Holt (public relations), and William Peacock (secretary).

“There really isn’t a professional organization like this at any Virginia law school,” says Bayyari. “Hopefully, over the coming years, as we expose the student body to the issues of the region, we will be able to develop a network of alumni to increase opportunities for students interested in working in the Middle East.”

Bayyari, who landed a highly competitive legal associate position with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) this past summer, is already doing a good job of representing W&L and the new organization. This summer he was named Best Oralist at the Second Annual Ibn Rushd Moot Court Competition, held at ADC National Headquarters and Heritage Center in Washington, D.C. The competition addressed the First Amendment and the level of constitutional protections afforded a Muslim woman wearing the Hijab, the religious veil of modesty, in a court of law.

[Rockbridge Weekly]

According to the results distributed on October 9 by the Committee on Bar Admissions in Louisiana, the bar passage rate of LSU Law students in July 2009 was 90.9 percent, the highest in the state. Tulane came in second with a rate of 75.7 percent passage rate.

“We are very proud of the strong showing of our graduates on this latest Bar Examination. Their preparation and hard work, coupled with the support of our faculty, have produced a talented group of young lawyers who are ready to hit the ground running,” said Jack M. Weiss, LSU Law Chancellor in a recent press release by the university. “The results confirm our belief that the demanding, yet personal legal education offered at LSU Law, prepares our students well for the competitive global marketplace.”

LSU Law student, Ryan Rivers, finds much contentment in the recent results.

“It feels great to be part of a law school with such a high bar passage rate,” Rivers stated. “It’s nice to know that the teaching methods of the faculty at LSU are effective in preparing students for the bar. This is just one of many features of the law school that sets it apart from other law schools.”

[LSU]

Ten New Haven residents intend to file a lawsuit today against federal immigration agents and officials, accusing them of violating constitutional rights during the raids in New Haven on June 6, 2007.

The 10 residents, who will be represented by Yale Law School students, claim that the raids were unconstitutional because federal agents lacked search warrants and arrested people solely on the basis of race and ethnicity. The residents are expected to sue not only the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who participated in the raid on the ground but also their supervisors, whose decisions the plaintiffs say led to the infringements of civil rights.

This is the first time lawyers have challenged the constitutionality of the New Haven raids in the federal judicial branch. Previous lawsuits have been filed in federal immigration court, the entity within the executive branch that deals with deportation.

The Yale lawyers say the raids were mounted in retaliation of the Board of Aldermen’s approval two days earlier of the Elm City Resident Card, an ID card provided to residents regardless of immigration status. ICE officials have said the raids were routine enforcement in full accordance with the law.

On June 6, 2007, ICE agents raided eight apartments and homes, detaining 29 New Haven residents — five of whom were the intended targets of the raids.

“ICE agents broke into my home without permission while I was still sleeping, pulled the covers from my bed, and arrested me for no reason,” said Jose Solano-Yangua, a plaintiff in the case, in a press release. “I was terrified and humiliated. We are bringing this suit, because we refuse to let our families and community live in fear.”

[Yale Daily News]

On November 13 the Jesuit University of San Francisco’s School of Law will hold its annual Public Interest Law Foundation gala. This year’s honoree will be California Supreme Court Associate Justice Carlos Moreno. Justice Moreno’s major claim to fame, and the reason USF is honoring him, is that he was the sole California justice who voted to overturn the will of the people in the Proposition 8 case.

Since its inception in 2004, USF’s Law School has made a nearly annual practice of honoring activists who support the homosexual agenda. The first PublicInterest Law gala took place in 2004, and the first honoree was San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. At the time USF chose to honor him, Newsom had been in office barely 10 months. His sole notable “accomplishment” was directing the county clerk of the City and County of San Francisco to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples–an action declared illegal four months later by the California Supreme Court.

At the time of Newsom‘s action, nationally-syndicated columnist George Will wrote that Newsom “…ordered the wholesale issuance of marriage licenses in defiance of state law. He thereby became the most flamboyant scofflaw in an American elective office since George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door.”

[California Catholic Daily]