| Originally published in Student
Lawyer magazine, December 2004 (Vol. 33, No. 4). All rights
reserved.
SBA Award
Duke Bar Association Follows Blueprint for Success
by Katherine Licup
The Duke Bar Association at Duke University School of Law, which
sponsored more than 170 student-initiated events last year, received
the ABA Law Student Division’s 2003-04 SBA Award.
The honor, announced in August at the ABA Annual Meeting in Atlanta,
went to DBA for its quality of leadership, programs within and outside
the law school, and interactions with students, faculty, administrators,
and legal and nonlegal communities.
“The award is a tribute to the efforts of the 2003-04 DBA
Executive Board, and especially past president Shireen Matthews,
past vice president Katy Soby, and Vikram Patel, the new DBA president
and its former community service chairperson,” says Jill Miller,
assistant dean for student affairs. “And given the efforts
of literally hundreds of students who participated in DBA-sponsored
organizations and events, this award is really a testament to the
leadership of the entire student body.”
Each week, the association publishes a one-page flier called the
“DBA Weekly InSTALLment,” which is placed in bathroom
stalls to update students on law school activities. A February edition,
for example, advertised clothing drives, public interest law auction
news, blood drives, bar association elections, intramural schedules,
and social events. The constant reminders work. More than 500 students
participated in community service events last year.
“DBA’s most important role is its representative capacity,”
Patel says. “We are the central, primary receptor for student
input. We have the best access to administrators, faculty, other
students, and funding, so we are best equipped to respond to student
concerns and desires.”
One thing that makes the school different from many is its cultivation
of a student leadership culture. The administration has instituted
the Duke Blueprint for Lawyer Education and Development (LEAD),
which contains seven main premises. It is introduced to new students
at orientation and referred to throughout the rest of the year.
(To read the document, visit www.law.duke.edu/studentAffairs/blueprint/blueprint.pdf.)
The blueprint offers pointers on how to succeed in law school
and the legal profession. It urges students to “Engage Intellectually,”
“Act Ethically,” “Lead Effectively,” “Build
Relationships,” “Serve the Community,” “Practice
Professionalism,” and “Live With Purpose.”
“They sound obvious,” Patel says, “but without
it floating around school, without the blueprint imprinted into
my head early in law school, I know I’d do things less well
and remember the right values less often. The reason it works so
well is that many people buy into it, whether they realize it or
not.”
Duke also hosts a retreat for current and aspiring law student
leaders at which the blueprint’s values are underscored. In
addition, Duke holds monthly community round-table meetings with
faculty and student organization leaders.
Patel and ABA representative Trent Shuping say Dean Miller is
one of the biggest reasons for DBA’s success.
“Her constant presence, her responsiveness, and her spirit
trickle down into the students who visit her office, the students
who ask for help, and especially into the student leaders on campus
who get regular doses of Dean Miller’s love for Duke Law School,”
Patel says.
The SBAs at Chapman University School of Law, Touro College Law
Center, and Widener University School of Law-Delaware were finalists
for the SBA Award.
Katherine Licup, a third-year evening student at Loyola University
Chicago School of Law, is Student Lawyer’s student editor.
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