To find out which ABA Law Student Division circuit your school is in, read about your circuit, and get contact info for your circuit governor, visit www. abanet.org/lsd/circuit.html. To report news from your school, e-mail your circuit governor and studentlawyer@abanet.org.
1st Circuit. Krum Chuchev , a second-year student at Franklin Pierce Law Center, recently won first place in the law practice category of the Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition. Chuchev’s law practice submission included an appellate brief regarding an Americans with Disabilities Act issue.
2nd Circuit. Fordham University School of Law students participating in the Stein Scholars Program for Public Interest produced a provocative and spirited discussion, “Jena 6: Race & the Criminal (In)justice System,” attended by nearly 100 law students and community activists. The panelists for the event included a professor, a New York assistant attorney general, a former judge, a reentry coordinator, and a supervising lawyer.
3rd Circuit. Temple University James E. Beasley Schoolof law third-year student Lila Slovak recently won first place in the 2007 Schwab Essay Contest sponsored by the ABA Section of Family Law. Slovak’s submission was entitled “Smoke Screens: Why State Laws Making It a Crime to Smoke in Cars Containing Children Are a Bad Idea.” Recent graduate Rebecca Emerson placed third in two writing competitions: the ABA Section of Business Law’s 2006–07 Mendes Hershman Student Writing Contest and the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section 2007 Law Student Writing Competition. Emerson’s paper was entitled “The Risks and Rewards of Corporate Blogging.”
4th Circuit. The Regent University School of Law ABA Law Student Division chapter recently held a seminar on human trafficking. It was a joint event with Concerned Women for America. Speakers Kathleen McKee and Janice Crouse presented a comprehensive look at sex trafficking/human trafficking, which has become a $10 billion-a-year business.
5th Circuit. On October 30, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown spoke to students at a University of Alabama School of Law event sponsored by the school’s Federalist Society. Brown spoke on her experience growing up in segregated rural Alabama and the difference between the federal intervention of the Civil Rights Act and the federal intervention of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society.”
6th Circuit. The University of Kentucky College of Law Black Law Students Association recently hosted a free legal fair. BLSA partnered with Booker T. Washington Academy’s Family Resource Center and UK College of Law professors to bring representatives from more than 20 local agencies and law firms to the community that the FRC serves. Lawyers and other professionals provided free information and assistance on various topics, including family and criminal law, juvenile issues, real estate, estate planning, credit and bankruptcy, personal injury, taxes, child support, Medicare, and immigration.
7th Circuit. On October 27, third-year law students participated in University of Wisconsin’s long-standing tradition, the “Cane Parade.” During the homecoming game, thousands of football fans watched as a herd of law students rushed across the football field wearing hats and carrying canes. When the students reached the north goalposts, they threw their canes into the air. The tradition holds that if the students catch their canes, they’ll win their first cases.
8th Circuit. The Student Bar Association of University of Nebraska College of Law organized Project Wishlist for underprivileged youth in the Lincoln, Nebraska, area. The SBA collected donations from students and faculty. On November 17, students met at a local department store and took nearly 40 children shopping for toys and winter clothes.
9th Circuit. California Western School of Law held their Annual Halloween Auction on October 31. The event hit a record high of $5,200 in proceeds, all of which were donated to the After-the-Fires Fund to benefit victims of recent California wildfires. Faculty and staff donated items such as lunch with a professor, round of golf with a professor, wine tastings, electronics, and baked goods.
10th Circuit. In December, the University of Oklahoma College of Law’s Military Law Society conducted a “Home for the Holidays” care-package drive. The items went to military personnel spending the holidays overseas.
11th Circuit.American University Washington College of Law and the American Constitution Society recently hosted “The American Prosecutor: Power, Discretion, and Accountability,” a conference including notable judges, states and district attorneys, prosecutors, and defense lawyers. The conference featured Innocence Project codirector and defense lawyer Barry Scheck, former Terry Nichols defense lawyer Michael Tigar, and the school’s professor Angela J. Davis.
12th Circuit. More than 150 University of Washington School of Law supporters ran or walked in the school’s second-annual Race Judicata 5K in October. The event, which was sponsored by the UW Student Bar Association, UW Student Health Law Organization, UW Public Interest Law Association, and Washington State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, raised $3,500, which will support a grant from the UW Public Interest Law Association to a student engaged in summer work that is geared toward public interest health law.
13th Circuit.St. Mary’s University School of Law students rolled up their sleeves and got a little dirty to serve their community during the fall 2007 semester. Students joined Culebra Community Clean-Up, a community effort to keep the neighborhood that surrounds the campus clean. More than 20 students cleared overgrown yards for elderly homeowners, cleaned vacant lots, and painted murals to cover graffiti in the school’s neighborhood.
14th Circuit. Stanford University Law School recently hosted its “Symposium on Education as a Civil Right,” which focused on education-related civil rights issues.
15th Circuit. In November, University of Colorado School of Law students in the Juvenile and Family Law Program partnered with Mile High United Way, Colorado State Court Administrator’s Office, Office of the Child’s Representative, and the National Association of Counsel for Children to host “Consulting with Children on Permanency: Developing Best Practices.” Attendees included approximately 65 judges, magistrates, legislators, practitioners, foster youth, academics, case workers, and Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteers who participated in a strategic planning workshop to address Colorado’s implementation of Senate Bill 226.
