Month: April 2015

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Dean Limelight: University of Hawai’i Law’s Aviam Soifer

Posted on: by Margot Slade

U HAWAII SoiferIt was the late 1960s and Aviam Soifer, an undergraduate at Yale, was a student activist protesting the war in Vietnam and promoting co-education at Yale.

“Even then, I knew I wanted to teach,” said Soifer, now dean of the University of Hawai‘i’s William S. Richardson School of Law. Precisely what and where he wanted to teach was another matter.

Law was one of several alternatives, including American Studies, as Soifer, like almost all young men of that era, would lose his exemption from the draft upon college graduation. “I realized that going into legal academia – as a student and then as a teacher – would allow me to stay involved in public interest work and social activism,” Soifer said in emails and an interview. Continue reading →

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Law Student Limelight: Jana Kovich, Duke School of Law

Posted on: by Margot Slade

DUKE KovichSTUDENT: Jana Kovich

LAW SCHOOL: Duke University School of Law

STATUS: 3L (Class of 2015)

UNDERGRADUATE: B.S., Public Affairs, Public Policy Analysis; University of Indiana, Bloomington

OTHER DEGREE: LL.M. in International & Comparative Law, Duke Law

HOMETOWN: Schererville, Indiana

For Jana Kovich, a 3L at Duke University School of Law, successfully tackling public policy issues is a matter of scale. Studying public affairs and public policy analysis as an undergraduate at the University of Indiana-Bloomington, she said that she often found the issues at hand too large to fully comprehend or decisively resolve.

“You could fashion legislation or regulations to fix one aspect and the issue would break apart somewhere else,” Kovich said in a telephone interview. “I felt so overwhelmed by the complexity of each problem and the realization that there were no perfect solutions — there weren’t even reasonably comprehensive solutions.”

Continue reading →

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From Mock Trial to Real World Court, GGU Center Preps Litigators

Posted on: by James Langford
MKThink-GGU-11-6-14210208

“We have chosen a way that works in most courts on most days” GGU litigation center director Wes Porter said, referring to the trial strategy taught to future courtroom attorneys.

It’s a bit like poker, the business of trial law.

For better or worse, players are rarely dealt the same cards. Nor do courtroom attorneys, whether in civil or criminal practice, encounter the same exact variables in their cases: witnesses, evidence, opposing counsel, judges and juries.

Since none of the participants can count on having the best hand, what separates the winners from the losers are the skills they bring to the contest. And those skills can be taught.

That’s where Wes Porter comes in. Teaching future lawyers a strategy that they can adapt to a variety of cases is his mission as director of the Golden Gate University School of Law’s litigation center. Although the San Francisco law school has emphasized litigation for decades, the center that began when Porter started six years ago brings under one umbrella a coordinated panorama of programs. They range from doctrinal courses to extracurricular opportunities such as mock trial competitions and real-world training to prepare future trial lawyers for the courtroom as soon as they start work. Continue reading →

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Dean Limelight: Steven J. Kaminshine, Georgia State Law

Posted on: by Margot Slade

GEORGIA STATE KAMINSHINEThere is a certain symmetry in the fact that Steven J. Kaminshine, dean of Georgia State University College of Law, entered law school to maintain his accreditation to teach, that he entered legal academia to sustain his love of law, and that the twining of the two strands have led to a career aimed at improving legal education.

Teaching came first. “I did the whole student-teacher program in college and then taught high school history right after graduating because I loved being in a classroom, working with students, making a difference in their lives,” Kaminshine said in a telephone interview.

To continue teaching, however, he needed a graduate degree, which meant he had to get a master’s degree in education or history, which he didn’t want. When he learned that a legal education would count, he chose law school. Continue reading →

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Law Student Limelight: Beatrice Barenboim, New York Law School

Posted on: by Margot Slade

STUDENT: Beatrice BarenboimNYLAw Beatrice Barenboim

LAW SCHOOL: New York Law School

STATUS: First-year student in new two-year J.D. Honors Program

UNDERGRADUATE: B.A. in Economics (Minor in Spanish), New York University — College of Arts and Sciences

OTHER GRADUATE DEGREE: M.B.A in Finance and Management, New York University – Stern School of Business

HOME: New York City

The law has long beckoned to Beatrice Barenboim, but business has, until recently, intervened. “Law is what I always wanted to do since I was a kid,”  Barenboim, a  student in New York Law School’s new two-year, J.D. honors program, said in a telephone interview. She loves the critical thinking, the logic and debate aspects of lawyering as well as the prospect of working with and for people.

Continue reading →

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