DePaul Law News

Paper by Professor Jacob recently listed on SSRN’s Top Ten download for Nonprofit Organizations eJournal

Professor Mike Jacob’s paper, “Anticompetitive Innovation and the Quality of Invention,” was recently listed on SSRN’s Top Ten download for Nonprofit Organizations eJournal.  

Professor and student discuss how the school-to-prison pipeline and "gang" classification laws create oppression

Clinical Professor of Law, Andrea Lyon, and law student, Katie Kizer ('12), spoke to a full classroom of students about how the school-to-prison pipeline and "gang" classification laws create oppression. Linda Uttal, from the Juvenile Justice Division of the Cook County Public Defender, also addressed the impact of the pipeline. The Center for Public Interest Law (CPIL) sponsored the discussion as part of its monthly panel series. The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the national trend of criminalizing, rather than educating, children in this country. The speakers related their own experience of how children are criminalized and suggested possible reforms.

Uttal illustrated the effect of the pipeline through arrest statistics. From 2003-2009, total arrests of juveniles by the Chicago Police Department decreased by 27%, while arrests of juveniles in Chicago Public Schools decreased only 1.3%. Of those arrested, African-Americans make up 84%. Zero-tolerance policies account for this discrepancy because school officials referred over 8000 students to law enforcement for simple assaults and battery.

Professor Lyon argued that we need to have more forgiveness for youthful indiscretion instead of instantly criminalizing these youth. “The public view of juveniles is that they are born bad,” said Lyon. “We need to change our language in how we talk about juveniles. When people hear ‘juvenile,’ they hear ‘criminal.’” Professor Lyon pointed out that while crime is generally down, crime reporting is up 600%. Thus, people perceive more crime to be occurring when, in fact, less crime is occurring. Professor Lyon spoke about how the juvenile justice system used to hold transfer hearings on whether it was in the best interest of the juvenile to transfer them to an adult facility. Now, automatic transfer laws eliminated these hearings, resulting in many juveniles being automatically transferred to adult facilities. Professor Lyon believes that many juveniles learn how to be criminals from their experience in adult detention facilities. Thus, we should only transfer a very small percentage of juveniles, instead of automatically transferring them.

Professor Lyon also argued that race plays into this system, which creates an underclass of black youth. People view black kids who misbehave as “criminals,” yet they view white kids who misbehave as just “screwing up.” Professor Lyon suggests that we need to recognize our own prejudice and how this affects the view of black teenagers who break the laws. She believes we should spend more money on health care and school lunch programs than the approximately $25,000 per year we spend on incarcerating children who break laws.

Finally, Katie Kizer (’12) spoke about her experience clerking with the Cook County Public Defender as a 711-licensed student last summer. During one of her cases, Kizer argued in court that a Chicago gang classification law was unconstitutional. She argued that the law violated an individual’s freedom of association and the Eighth Amendment status doctrine, which prohibits criminalization based on status. Kizer brought this experience into her senior writing seminar and is currently writing an article on the unconstitutionality of gang classification laws.

The Center for Public Interest Law will further explore the impact of race on incarceration in its upcoming symposium on February 29-March 1. The symposium is titled, “Neighborhoods and the Legacy of Segregation in Chicago: A Discussion about Historical and Present Racism in Housing, Education, and Incarceration.” Check the CPIL calendar for more details. CLE credit will be available for the event.

Field Placement Program (Externship) Changes for Spring 2012

(1)  Law students may now enroll in a Field Placement after completing 28 semester hours of credit (instead of the current 40 semester hours).  Twenty-eight semester hours are the number of credits a student completes in his or her first year at DePaul.

(2)  Law students may now enroll in up to three semesters of Field Placement instead of the current two semesters.  If a student chooses to enroll in three semesters of Field Placement, one of the three semesters must be a summer Field Placement. 

(3)  Law students may now enroll in Field Placement for 3 credits based on completing 180 hours of work or 2 credits based on completing 120 hours of work. 

Please contact Natalie Taylor, the Field Placement Program Coordinator, for more information.  She can be reached at (312) 362-8312, via email at ntaylor4@depaul.edu, or in her office in Room 312, Lewis Center.  Students have until January 24, 2012 at the latest to get registered for the spring 2012 semester.

College of Law participates in National Celebrate Pro Bono Week

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictured from left: Dean Gregory Mark, Liz Esfelt ('13), and Wally Ghuneim ('12)     

DePaul’s Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative (PBCSI) participated in the ABA’s National Celebrate Pro Bono Week, which took place October 23–29, 2011, with several pro bono projects and events aimed at getting DePaul law students, faculty and alumni engaged in pro bono work. PBCSI kicked off the week with a panel discussion about handling pro bono cases while working in a law firm. The panelists, all of whom have extensive pro bono records, included Marc Kadish, Director of Pro Bono Activities and Litigation Training at Mayer Brown, Erin McCloskey Maus, partner at Baker & McKenzie LLP, Donna Otis, founding partner of the Otis Law Group, Ltd, and Jim Irving, associate at DLA Piper. The panelists discussed some of their own pro bono projects and how to balance pro bono work and billable hours. The pro bono panel was co-sponsored by DePaul’s Business and Corporate Law Society and the Black Law Student Association.

Later in the week, PBCSI hosted a pro bono training with Illinois Legal Aid Online’s LiveHelp Project.  LiveHelp is an online chat service available on the public, legal-information website, www.IllinoisLegalAid.org. The goal of LiveHelp is to expand Illinois Legal Aid Online’s services and increase the ability of www.IllinoisLegalAid.org visitors to get legal information and assistance if they cannot find or afford a lawyer.  Law student volunteers staff this innovative chat service and provide direct, person-to-person, online help so that people in need of legal assistance can obtain more positive outcomes to their legal problems. LiveHelp was launched in 2009 and is currently assisting over 70 website visitors per day. DePaul law students have volunteered 692 hours since LiveHelp was started. 

The College of Law’s new dean, Gregory Mark, also participated in pro bono week.  He visited A.N. Pritzker Elementary School and taught two lessons on the U.S. Constitution to a 7th and 8th grade class.  The dean co-taught the lessons with DePaul law students, Wally Ghuneim, class of 2012, and Lizz Esfelt, class of 2013. Dean Mark also toured the school and then had lunch with Dr. Joenile Albert-Reese and discussed Chicago Public Schools and programming and curriculum at Pritzker, which is one of PBCSI’s partner organizations. DePaul law students volunteer at Pritzker on a regular basis and assist with tutoring, school beautification projects, a school supply drive, and the Science and History Fairs.     

Dean Gregory Mark participates in Pro Bono Week

The College of Law’s new dean, Gregory Mark, visited A.N. Pritzker Elementary School on Thursday, October 27 to teach lessons on the U.S. Constitution to a 7th and 8th grade class. Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative Director, Cheryl Price and Law School Chaplain Tom Judge also visited the school with the dean. The dean started his morning at Pritzker with a tour of the school, led by a group of students who showed Dean Mark the science lab, recently painted by law student volunteers. After his tour, the dean and DePaul law students, Wally Ghuneim, class of 2012, and Lizz Esfelt, class of 2013, taught two lessons on a hypothetical school board ordinance that prohibited any “weapons” inside a school.  This lesson was created by the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago’s Lawyers in the Classroom program.  After working with the students, Dean Mark, Cheryl Price and Tom Judge had lunch with Dr. Joenile Albert-Reese and a member of Pritzker’s Local School Council and discussed Chicago Public Schools and programming and curriculum at Pritzker. 

Pritzker Elementary School is one of the Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative’s partner organizations. DePaul law students volunteer at Pritzker on a regular basis and assist with tutoring, school beautification projects, a school supply drive, and the Science and History Fairs.     

College of Law celebrates the 2011 LRAP recipients

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictured from left to right: Professor Len Cavise, Tracy Walsh, Susan DeCostanza, Keri McGuire, Geoff Burkhart, Ann Krasuski, Jessica Schneider, A. Delmar Vouziers, Jed Untereker, Dean Gregory Mark.

On October 27, the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) Committee, in cooperation with the Center for Public Interest Law, hosted a reception to honor the 2011 LRAP recipients and to celebrate the growth of the LRAP at DePaul. The LRAP recipients include alumni with outstanding qualifications and proven dedication to public interest law. The awards are made in the form of a forgivable loan from the law school in the amount of $5,000 to be used toward the payment of law school educational debt. Thanks to the generous support of the faculty and staff, this year there will again be a second named award in honor of the late Professor Jim Colliton. 

Many public interest alumni attended to support a friend or colleague who was receiving an award. The 2011 LRAP recipients are:

Rocio Armendariz ‘07

Geoff Burkhart ‘08

Susan DeCostanza ‘08

Ann Krasuski ‘05

Keri McGuire ‘03

Nora Phillips ‘07

Jessica Schneider ‘10

Jed Untereker ‘06

Delmar Vouziers ‘06

Tracy Walsh ‘08 

For more details, please visit the LRAP website: www.law.depaul.edu/lrap.

Students Shadow Cook County Circuit Court Judges

As part of the College of Law’s Institute for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, fifteen students shadowed judges at the Juvenile Justice Division and Second Municipal Division (Skokie) of the Cook County Circuit Court in late October and early November. All students, who were assigned to judges based on their area of interest and legal experience, spoke highly of the practical skills experience.

“The experience was fantastic,” says Jennifer Gates (’13). “The judges were so open to giving advice and answering questions.”

Students also observed a variety of civil and criminal trials or hearings and met with representatives from the Offices of the State's Attorney and Public Defender.

Additionally, students at the Juvenile Justice Division toured the Child Detention Center.

“I had a great experience and am so happy I was told by a friend to go. It was definitely worth taking a day off of work to attend,” says Cynthia Mazariegos (’12). “The judges were all friendly and informative. I was able to see some civil, family, criminal cases, which were really interesting.”

Events take place every semester. Please contact Natalie Taylor at ntaylor4@depaul.edu or (312) 362-8312 if you are interested in participating in spring 2012.