DePaul Law News

Aviation law institute showcases student and faculty research in action

Thomas Wangard knew he wanted to combine his love for aviation with his passion for the law when he considered taking the law school plunge.

That is why it was an easy decision to choose DePaul’s College of Law when he discovered its International Aviation Law Institute (IALI).

“I realized studying with the institute was the perfect route for me,” says Wangard, who is now a third-year law student. “The institute has exposed me to substantive aviation law, government policy and some of the individuals who were instrumental in enacting both. I have had the great opportunity to learn directly from the aviation industry’s titans.”

IALI is just a single example of the College of Law’s investment in experiential learning and faculty enrichment through clinics and institutes.

 

International aviation law students (from left) Thomas Wangard, Alex Bashinsky and Brian Khan listen as former Virginia Governor Gerald L. Baliles answers a question. Baliles chaired the 1993 Presidential Airline Commission and visited the College of Law to participate in the institute’s “Conversations with Aviation Leaders” oral history program.

The law school boasts 15 centers and institutes focusing on a range of issues from criminal defense and family law to intellectual property and cultural heritage law. Each has helped students parlay classroom learning into hands-on experience, while offering faculty a forum to spotlight their academic acumen.

 

Established in 2004 by distinguished research professor of law and international aviation scholar Brian F. Havel, IALI is the only international aviation law institute in the United States. IALI quickly embraced its mission of educating the next generation of aviation law and policy experts, and has become a valuable resource to help students gain practical experience in international law. The institute also is a sought-after source of information for academics and policymakers around the world, and has given faculty and students the opportunity to consider cutting-edge aviation law issues as they come to the fore.

“The institute allows students to put their legal skills to work in real-life settings that enrich them beyond the typical law school classroom experience,” says Steve Rudolph, executive director.

College of Law partners with Chicago's first legal-themed high school

Rebecca Birger (3L) discusses closing statements with academy students.

In September, DePaul College of Law’s Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative partnered with Legal Prep Charter Academy as part of a large-scale initiative to improve the diversity of Chicago's future legal community.

Legal Prep is Chicago's first and only legal-themed public high school. Located in West Garfield Park, the academy prepares students for college and career challenges by teaching logical, analytical and critical thinking skills. The school opened its doors to 240 inner-city students on August 20, 2012.

As part of its curriculum, Legal Prep also creates opportunities for students to learn from business and legal professionals.

To meet these challenges, DePaul is participating in a series of structured lessons and activities designed to provide students with a basic understanding of legal reasoning skills. College of Law volunteers, from law students, faculty, alumni and staff, have quickly assembled, meeting with students approximately once a month to focus on the various components of a trial, including witness preparation, opening and closing statements, and direct and cross examinations. 

Bid-by-Bid, Raising $100,000 for Public Interest Internship Stipends

By Robin Wagner (’14)

Save the date! Thursday, January 24, the DePaul law community will gather at the Chicago Cultural Center to raise funds for public interest law summer internship stipends.

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the College of Law, the Public Interest Law Association has a formidable challenge—raising $100,000 for summer internship stipends. The challenge came from Dean Gregory Mark, and the student auction team took one collective gulp at the height of the bar, and then launched into action.

When professors Howard Rubin and Wayne Lewis start the bidding on January 24, they will be presiding over the 17th annual DePaul Law Auction. The auction proceeds will provide funding for students who devote at least 400 hours in the summer to public interest law agencies and organizations. Grants range from $1,000 to $5,000 and play an essential role in allowing students to gain practical experience in volunteer capacities without having to rack up further debt or dilute their experience by finding paid work.

This year the auction planning team hopes to have strong participation from College of Law alumni and community friends. The students have been coordinating with alumni affairs and Dean for Strategic and Community Alliances Francine Soliunas to ensure the event attracts a broad and diverse cross-section of the DePaul Law community. Special attention has been paid to acquiring auction items that will appeal to this larger audience.

Of course, there will be the standard faculty donation items that attract exciting bidding wars among students and alumni alike—wine tasting at Dean Mark’s home, movie night with Professor Lewis, a Sox game with Professor David Franklin—but there are also great gift and experience options like a behind-the-scenes tour of the Art Institute and two nights at Chicago’s famous Fairmont Hotel.

With the fundraising goal set so high this year, the student planning team has been working hard to innovate and pull out all the stops on the event. In addition to competitions for turnout among the 1L sections, the team has been developing an online auction to attract participation from those DePaul law supporters who can’t attend in person. The auction website features video introductions from 2012 stipend recipients, updates on new auction items added, and other details about the event.

Past auctions have raised as much as $40,000—mostly with only student, faculty and staff participation. This year’s ambitious undertaking would not be possible without the extraordinary dedication of the 2013 DePaul Law Auction Team. The team especially appreciates the support of Dean Mark and faculty advisors, Professors Allison Tirres and Bruce Ottley.

Brown Bag Lunch Series: Bringing students and attorneys together

The Center for Public Interest Law hosted a series of "brown bag" lunch events this semester, partnering students and attorneys in a small and informal setting to promote mentorship in the legal community.

The series consisted of three lunches, each focusing on a different area of law tailored to students interested in the respective fields. The first lunch centered on immigration law, featuring attorneys from the National Immigration Justice Center and the Legal Assistance Foundation. Part two revolved around criminal defense, with public, appellate, and federal defenders attending.

The third and final installment in the series, held on November 14, featured practitioners from distinct Civil Legal Aid organizations, such as the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Illinois Legal Aid Online, the Legal Assistance Foundation, the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing and the Legal Aid Society.

All three lunches allowed students to ask questions, gain the insight and knowledge of people with experience, and find the resources necessary to get a foot in the proverbial door. While this is the very first time CPIL has run the series, the positive response bodes well for future plans.

DePaul Alum Receives Prestigious Sun-Times Fellowship

Sarah Baum ('08) receives the CBF Sun-Times fellowship award from Bob and David Mann, Chair of the Sun-Times Fellowship Selection Committee.

Sarah Baum ('08) was selected as one of five attorneys to receive the 2012 Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF) Sun-Times Fellowship.  Each year, CBF receives about 25 applications for the fellowship, but can select only five recipients. CBF began giving the award in 2007 after receiving a $2 million cy pres award related to a class-action lawsuit involving the Chicago Sun-Times. 

Sarah is a staff attorney at Legal Assistance Foundation (LAF) in the Immigrants and Workers' Rights Practice Group.  Because of Baum's dedication to helping people in need, she will receive $50,000 in loan repayment assistance over the next five years to help her continue this important work.  Sarah brings claims in federal and state court on behalf of individuals who have been subjected to discrimination or retaliation in the workplace or whose employers have violated laws governing the workplace, such as the Wage Payment and Collection Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.  Particularly in this difficult economy, Sarah is providing critical services to help her clients maintain employment and obtain the vital benefits and compensation to which they are entitled.

DePaul Legal Clinic named one of National Law Journal's 2012 Best of Chicago

The DePaul Legal Clinic was recently spotlighted as one of the city’s best. Earlier this month, the National Law Journal included the College of Law's clinical programs in its Best of Chicago 2012 awards, reader’s choice recognition of the top legal programs in Chicago. The award follows DePaul's recent unveiling of the Housing & Community Development Legal Clinic.

Established in spring 2012, the Housing & Community Development Legal clinic aids in the preservation and expansion of affordable housing in Chicago. It was developed and directed by Assistant Clinical Professor Julie Lawton, former senior supervising attorney to Georgetown’s housing law clinic.

The new clinic offers students opportunities to provide transactional legal assistance to small for-profit and nonprofit organizations engaged in affordable housing and community development work. Law students work with the institute to provide legal perspective in the development of policy initiatives to support the creation and preservation of affordable rental housing in the city. The Housing & Community Development clinic is aligned with the Institute for Housing Studies, an affordable housing research center in DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business.

DePaul University has a long tradition of community-based service learning, and the College of Law continues to exemplify this practice through its legal clinics. In the DePaul Legal Clinic, students have worked to defend copyright and trademark issues, represented clients in immigration court, drafted and negotiated housing contracts, and represented clients convicted of felony offenses in the appellate court.

 

DePaul College of Law Celebrates Pro Bono Week 2012

Dean Gregory Mark and law student volunteers Sam Keen('14) and Brittani King ('15) teach a lesson on the U.S. Constitution with law student volunteers to a class of 8th grade students at A.N. Pritzker Elementary School.

DePaul’s Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative (PBCSI) participated in the Chicago Bar Association’s Annual Pro Bono Week and the ABA’s National Celebration of Pro Bono, which took place October 22-27 and 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 Peter Hah, Senior Associate at Reed Smith, Linda Bryceland, Of Counsel at Law Offices of Donald G. Olsen, Colby Kingsbury, Partner at Faeger Baker & Daniels LLP, and Folarin Dosunmu, Senior Associate at Neal Wolf & Associates, LLC

LRAP Reception Honors Alumni Practicing Public Interest Law

Dean Gregory Mark with the 2012 LRAP Recipients.

The Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) Committee, in cooperation with the Center for Public Interest Law, hosted a reception to honor the 2012 LRAP recipients and to celebrate the growth of the LRAP at DePaul. The reception was held in the Rinn Law Library Rare Book Room on on Thursday, October 18th.  Despite their busy schedules and various employment locations, eight of the ten honored alumni were able to attend the reception, including one alum all the way from Los Angeles, California! Reception attendees were able to hear each LRAP recipient present briefly on the work they do, and the struggle they endure to make it possible.  The 2012 LRAP recipients are:

• Rocio Alcantar ‘10
• Cinthya Lee Bassig ‘10
• Delmar Flynn ‘06
• Jarrett Knox ‘08
• Caroline Manley ‘11
• Nora Phillips ‘07
• Jessica Schreiber ‘09
• Robert Simmons ‘06
• Mallory Strunk ‘08
• John Untereker ‘06

These alumni have 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. 

The Center for Public Interest Law and the LRAP Committee would like to extend a special acknowledgment and gratitude to the College of Law Faculty and Staff for their generous personal financial support of the LRAP. CPIL would also like to thank Ms. Jan Colliton, Professor Wayne Lewis, LRAP Committee Chair, and the Class of 1981 for their substantial contributions as well as all of the alumni and friends whose donations have made DePaul’s LRAP possible.   For more details, please visit the LRAP website: http://www.law.depaul.edu/lrap

 

 

 

Launch of "Lost in Translation" Juvenile Justice Project

Phi Alpha Delta, the Black Law Student Association, and DePaul’s Diversity Committee have partnered with attorneys Heidi Lambros, Assistant Defender a the Office of the State Appellate Defender, and Maya Szilak, Director of the John Howard Association’s Prison Monitor Project, to create the "first ever" legal dictionary/library or "law book" specifically aimed at teens in the juvenile justice system.  "It is our hope that DePaul students can help educate and support the minors, both those kids charged as juveniles and those charged as adults; automatic transfer kids or “AT” kids, housed in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center."  The goal is to help detained kids through this confusing and challenging time. 

At the launch of this project, Lambrose, Szilak, and Dr. Robyn Inaba, Lead Clinical Psychologist with the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, presented to DePaul students, who were then able to ask questions and gain a better understanding of the situation.  Following the panel, students volunteered to assist with the larger goal of creating easy to understand and age- appropriate written materials describing legal terms and concepts.  Translating "legalese" into plain language helps serve a population with a great need, and creates an opportunity for law students to give back on their own time, all while developing the skills necessary to grow as a legal writer. Each project volunteer is being emailed five (5) terms and given two weeks to translate the terms into simple non-patronizing explanation. 

As examples:

"State's Attorney"  - this is the lawyer who will try your case for the State.  He or she is not your lawyer and you should not speak to this person without your lawyer with you.  Think of them as your opponent.

"Bench trial" -- this means a trial before a judge only, no jury will listen to your case.  The judge will decide whether the State has proved you guilty. The choice to have a bench trial (or a jury trial) is yours alone.  Your lawyer can give you advice about what type of trial to have, but the decision is yours.

For those interested, this project will be ongoing and will allow those interested in juvenile law to continue working to create new, understandable documentation for the juvenile facilities, the kids, and the parents involved.  Moreover, there may be opportunities in the future to visit one or more of the JTDC's in Illinois.  Ultimately, these terms will be compiled into a "law book," which students will help create and then present to the kids and families at JTDC facilities. This project will immeasurably help the kids at the Juvenile Justice Detention Centers, as well as their families. Questions can be emailed to: LeahFarmer@gmail.com. 

 

Examining Human Rights in Chiapas

Natalie Long ('12) presents to engaged students and community members.   
On Friday, September 14, the Next Gen Committee of the National Lawyers’ Guild hosted a presentation by Natalie Long (’12) on her inspiring human rights work in Chiapas, Mexico.  Long’s presentation gave an overview of five cases currently handled by the organization Servicios de Apoyo Intercultural (Intercultural Support Services), a non-profit organization based in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. 

Her talk focused primarily on the existing state of impunity in Mexico, which allows for human rights violations in the State of Chiapas.  Throughout the evening, Long highlighted case-specific facts to illustrate the collusion between heavy industry, business corporations, and corrupt officials in the Mexican government.

 Of particular note were the egregious violations of communities’ rights to health, land, indigenous rights, and the environment.  The first case study examined an asphalt plant, currently operating within the city limits of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, which continues to function despite producing atmospheric emissions that include arsenic, benzene, and hydrogen sulfide.  These chemicals in turn engulf nearby townspeople in their homes and schools, creating severe respiratory problems and other health conditions.