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Beyond Criminal Cases, Making Campuses Safer for Students

Posted on: by James Langford
TACHA OPENING

Pepperdine Law Dean Deanell Tacha opens the conference on domestic violence.

Dana Bolger had consulted an Amherst College administrator to find out her options for dealing with the student who sexually assaulted and stalked her in 2011. The official’s advice was simple: Take some time off from school. Go home. Come back after your attacker graduates.

“I felt like a liability, not a student,” she said in the keynote address of a Pepperdine Law conference on domestic violence on U.S. campuses. “Later I would come to realize that the way my dean responded to me that day was part of a larger pattern of administrators seeking to downplay violence, sweep it aside and keep survivors quiet.” Continue reading →

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Law Student Limelight: Sarah Marie Draper, SUNY Buffalo Law

Posted on: by Margot Slade

SUNYBUffalo DRAPERStudent: Sarah Marie Draper

Law School: SUNY Buffalo Law School

Status: 2L

Undergraduate: B.A. in Political Science cum laude (minor: African-American Studies), SUNY at Buffalo

Home City/State: Buffalo, New York

This has already been a banner year for Sarah Marie Draper, a 2L at SUNY Buffalo Law School. The Buffalo native and single mother of 6-year-old Ashanti won a string of distinctions, among them the John L. Hargrave Law Student Award from the Minority Bar Association of Western New York; a position in the law school’s Pro Se Practicum, which provides free legal assistance to pro se litigants in Erie County Family Court and in federal District Court in the Western District of New York, and a place as a competitor in the Frederick Douglass Moot Court contest (2014-15). Continue reading →

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Pepperdine Conference Targets Domestic Violence on U.S. Campuses

Posted on: by James Langford

The arrest of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice in a domestic violence case didn’t prompt Pepperdine Law’s conference on intimate-partner abuse, but it has increased interest in the weekend event.

Baker

Baker

Public scrutiny of the case, and attention to a video of the attack, which occurred in an Atlantic City hotel elevator, “is an indicator that our culture and our society are becoming more aware of domestic violence and learning how to respond to it,” said Jeff Baker, Pepperdine’s director of clinical education, who’s organizing the conference. Continue reading →

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Law Student Limelight: Julie Cummings, Golden Gate University Law

Posted on: by Margot Slade

GoldenGate U Julie CummingsSTUDENT: Julie Cummings

LAW SCHOOL: Golden Gate University School of Law

STATUS: 2L (Dean’s List all semesters, recipient of multiple scholarships, Law Review staff writer)

UNDERGRADUATE: Bachelor of Arts, Liberal Studies, linguistics emphasis; California State University-Fresno (Stilwell Sabre recipient for Most Outstanding Cadet in California)

OTHER DEGREES/INSTITUTIONS: Master of Science, International Relations; Troy University, Troy, Alabama (4.0 GPA)

HOME: Walnut Creek, California

For former military pilot Julie Cummings, it was a short jump from advocating as a volunteer on behalf of military families to advocating as a lawyer for needy civilian clients.

“When I realized I had a passion for advocacy, I knew that practicing law would be a perfect fit for my next career,” said Cummings, a 2L at Golden Gate University School of Law whose first career was flying Blackhawk helicopters on search-and-rescue missions as a U.S. Army officer. Continue reading →

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For the Public Good: Harvard Grants Let Alums Fight for Outcasts

Posted on: by James Langford
ESSIE JUSTICE Gina114

Gina Clayton, left, and Crystalee Crain prepare for an Essie Justice Group session for women with loved ones behind bars. Clayton is one of three recipients of 2014 seed grants from Harvard’s Public Service Venture Fund.

For Alec Karakatsanis and Phil Telfeyan winning cases means getting justice for clients unable to fight for themselves. Clients like the hundreds of people locked up in a Montgomery, Ala., jail because they were too poor to pay their traffic tickets.

Equal Justice Under Law, the organization founded by the two Harvard Law alums to provide pro bono legal services, filed a federal lawsuit in March arguing that Montgomery’s system of requiring people who couldn’t pay fines to sit out their debts behind bars at a rate of $50 a day was unconstitutional.

In May, a federal judge barred the city from jailing three Equal Justice clients on that ground, and Montgomery subsequently released dozens of inmates incarcerated for the same reason.

Without the seed grant that Karakatsanis and Telfeyan won from Harvard Law’s Public Service Venture Fund in 2013, some of those inmates might still be in jail. The two were the first to benefit from a program designed to help Harvard Law graduates found startups that target unmet legal needs at a time when other sources of funding were drastically reduced by a recession and years of slower economic growth. Continue reading →

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Law Student Limelight: Arizona State Law’s David Medina

Posted on: by Margot Slade

David Medina, Arizona State Sandra Day O'Connor College of LawSTUDENT NAME: David Medina

LAW SCHOOL: Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law (Arizona State University)

STATUS:  3L

UNDERGRADUATE: Bachelor of Science/ Management Science and Engineering/ Stanford University

HOME CITY, STATE: Pico Rivera, California 

At the intersection of engineering and entrepreneurship, David Medina found the law.

As an undergraduate at Stanford University, Medina majored in what he described in an interview as “Startups 101″ – a broad education in all things engineering with a deep dive into the business management side of things. Continue reading →

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Dean Limelight: Southwestern Law’s Susan Westerberg Prager

Posted on: by James Langford

Southwestern Law Dean Susan PragerLOS ANGELES – Susan Westerberg Prager has vivid memories of the high school counselor who explained, before she graduated in 1960, the limited career paths available to her.

“You’re a good student, but because you’re a woman,” said the counselor, a woman herself, “there are really only two professions that you can go into: nursing or teaching.” Continue reading →

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Back to (Law) School, in the Windy City and the Big Easy

Posted on: by James Langford

From kindergarten through graduate-degree programs, millions of U.S. students went back to school in September. So did Lawdragon Campus.

We joined pre-law advisers in the Midwest and the South who visited six of the 200-plus American Bar Association-accredited law schools in the United States, rubbing shoulders with members of an entering class that likely continued to shrink on a nationwide basis this year, though initial enrollment tallies aren’t yet available. Continue reading →

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Law Student Limelight: Boston College Law’s Alejandra C. Salinas

Posted on: by Margot Slade

BC LAW SALINAS2STUDENT: Alejandra C. Salinas

LAW SCHOOL: Boston College Law School

STATUS: 3L

UNDERGRADUATE: BBA, Management; University of Texas at Austin

HOME CITY/STATE: Laredo, Texas

Anyone describing Alejandra C. Salinas, a 3L at Boston College Law School, better get used to using the word “first.” Salinas was the first Hispanic president of College Democrats of America, the youth arm of the Democratic Party. She then marked her tenure with membership growth, record-setting convention attendance and increased investments in state organizations. Continue reading →

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