DePaul Law News

Summer Scholarship Awards help students pursue public interest internships during the summer

Unfortunately, the number of students who wish to public interest internships during the summer exceeds the amount of scholarship money available to these students. To help alleviate this deficit, each year the Center for Public Interest Law and the Public Interest Law Association award summer scholarships to qualified students seeking public interest work. These awards of between $1000 and $5000 help defray the costs that students incur from working at unpaid internships during the summer. On April 24, 2012 the CPIL and PILA celebrated the award recipients at a luncheon in the DePaul Club. 

For more information on Summer Scholarship Awards, please contact Shaye Loughlin, Executive Director of DePaul Center for Public Interest Law, at sloughli@depaul.edu. Below is a list of the award recipients from both PILA and CPIL:

Panel discusses Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law and what it means for Midwest

What is Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law and what does it mean for the Midwest? A panel sought to answer this question on April 19, which was especially timely because of the Supreme Court oral argument in the Arizona v. U.S. case this week. The panel (pictured right) included moderator Chuck Roth, director of litigation at Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC); Brian Murray, partner at Jones Day who represented NIJC as amicus curaie in Arizona v. U.S.; Maricela Garcia, CEO of Gads Hill Center; and Daniel Morales, assistant professor of law at DePaul University.

Professor Morales began the panel discussion by mentioning some of the controversial aspects of the Arizona immigration law SB 1070 that the Supreme Court would consider. He described how section 2b of the law requires law enforcement officers to verify a person’s immigration status if the officer has a “reasonable suspicion” that the person may be an undocumented immigrant. The concern with this provision is that it opens up too much discretion for officers, and people will be targeted based on the way they look. Professor Morales pointed out that section 3, which the 9th Circuit enjoined, criminalizes being undocumented. Section 5 criminalizes applying or soliciting work if you are undocumented, which is unprecedented for state law. Finally, section 6 authorizes warrantless arrests and deportation based on probable cause. Additionally, citizens can sue local law enforcement for “failing to enforce the law to maximum extent.”

Garcia pointed out that 36 states have filed similar “copycat” laws since Arizona’s, but 31 of those states have rejected those laws. She spoke of a strong pushback in communities across the nation to reject this anti-immigrant sentiment, despite the economic fear-mongering that undocumented immigrants will take our jobs. Garcia illustrated how SB 1070 represents an attack on the Latino community and an invitation to racial profiling. However, Arizona has suffered $740 million in economic loss since SB 1070 was passed because of a significant loss of tax base from people who left the state. Arizona has paid $1.5 million alone in legal fees to defend the bill.

Pritzker Elementary School sixth graders visit College of Law

(Pictured: 6th grade Pritzker Elementary School teacher Jerry Weissbuch and Professor Len Cavise)

On March 30, 2012, almost 60 sixth-grade students from A.N. Pritzker Elementary School visited the College of Law to experience a day in the life of a law student. The field trip was the Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative’s March Donate-A-Day service event. The Pritzker students were greeted by a group of 20 law students, as well as Dean Gregory Mark and Dean Francine Soliunas. The Pritzker students talked with Dean Mark and Dean Soliunas about lawyers and law school. 

(Pictured: Dean Howard Rubin) During their visit, the students received a tour of the school, attended a mock class, and participated in a mock trial.  On their tour, which was led by DePaul law students, the Pritzker students visited all of the important areas in College of Law, such as the student lounge and the library.  Professor Len Cavise and Dean Howard Rubin taught the mock classes and had the students engaged and excited about criminal law topics.  During the mock trial, the students learned about the varying aspects of a trial, such as opening statements and cross-examinations.   Law students put on the mock trial, and the Pritzker kids were allowed to sit in the mock trial room and act as the jury for a shoplifting case. 

(Pictured from left to right: students Paulina Muñoz, Zaria Udeh, Goli Rahimi, Courtney Shelton, David Gerald, Amanda Noble, Michelle Cass, Timothy Richards)

The students at Pritzker are always highly engaged and interested in learning and exploring, and the group clearly included some future lawyers!  It was a great day for law students and faculty to share why they chose the legal profession and share their love of the law with the next generation.  

For more information about the Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative and its work with Pritzker Elementary School, please contact Cheryl Price, Director of PBCSI, at cprice13@depaul.edu.

Students help the homeless through a new volunteer legal clinic

(Pictured: Damon Ritenhouse ('11) and students Emily Mannix-Slobig and Goli Rahimi)

 Students and staff started a new program to assist homeless individuals get state identification cards and expunge or seal minor criminal records. The program, Neighborhood Legal Assistance Project (NLAP), takes place every other Saturday at Grace Episcopal Church on 637 S. Dearborn St. Students meet homeless clients at the free breakfast program run by volunteers from The First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple. By helping homeless clients get state identification cards, NLAP helps homeless clients receive public benefits. With their record sealed or expunged, homeless individuals can get housing or employment.  

(Pictured: students Nick Gutierrez and Sam Keen)

NLAP collaborates with several other agencies to make the program work. Franciscan Outreach through St. Peter's Church trained students on getting state IDs. Cabrini Green Legal Aid trained students in expungement and sealing of minor criminal records. The program began on March 17 and will continue every other Saturday. Alumnus Damon Ritenhouse ('11) supervises the clinic. For more information, contact Cheryl Price, Director of the DePaul Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative, at cprice13@depaul.edu

Click here to view the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin's recent piece on NLAP (note that subscription is required to view the article).

The Journal for Social Justice Takes a Look at Occupy

The Journal for Social Justice's tradition of an annual symposium continued on March 28 with  New Battlefronts: Struggles for Economic Justice in the Year of Upheavals.  Over the past year, from Madison to Manhattan and beyond, hundreds of thousands of Americans have taken to the streets, squares and parks of their cities, clamoring against economic inequality, home foreclosures, the erosion of workers rights, and the seeming indifference of an unaccountable elite. The symposium featured a range of lawyers, activists, and organizers and addressed the social and economic grievances that produced Occupy Wall Street and other popular mobilizations.

The event opened with a panel examining intersections between economic injustice and race.  The panel  included Jose Luis Gallardo, an organizer with the Latino Union, Keeanga Taylor, a tenant rights activist and a researcher in the history of housing policy, and Kelli Dudley an attorney and adjunct professor of housing law at DePaul.  Gallardo spoke about the experience of being a day laborer.  Keeanga Taylor gave a historical overview of the racialized history of housing policy in urban America, and provided a background on the 20th-century policies that produced many of the racial disparities observed today in terms of foreclosures rates, loan servicing, etc. Kelli Dudley spoke about the minimal procedural protections extended to homeowners facing foreclosure; she also provided compelling evidence that sinister elements of the banking sector view housing precarity as socially desirable. "This is part of what the right has been fighting for for years," said Dudley.

DePaul’s Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative and Center for Public Interest Law launch Neighborhood Legal Assistance Project

At 7:45 a.m. on Saturday, March 17, seven DePaul law students arrived at Grace Episcopal Church (“Grace Place”) in Printer’s Row eager to volunteer. By 8:30 a.m. they were working directly with the homeless, and at 11:30 a.m. they conducted their last intake and reviewed their cases. 

Photo, from left: Law students Brandon Clark, Jonathan Williams and Nick Gutierrez assist a client through NLAP.

The students are among the first to volunteer for the College of Law’s new Neighborhood Legal Assistance Project (NLAP). NLAP, a legal help desk staffed by law student volunteers, assists the poor and homeless with criminal record expungements and obtaining state IDs, which are common barriers when seeking housing, employment and public benefits. DePaul’s Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative (PBCSI) and Center for Public Interest Law, with the assistance of DePaul’s Loop University Ministry, created NLAP after learning of the critical need for legal services by Chicago’s downtown homeless population.

NLAP takes place during Temple United Methodist Church’s homeless breakfast program. Due to space constraints, Temple runs the program at Grace Place and serves a hot breakfast and bag lunch to 150 to 170 homeless every Saturday morning. Temple’s Homeless Ministry has been integral to the planning and launch of NLAP, and the church has graciously donated funds to the project.

Photo, from left: NLAP supervisor Damon Ritenhouse and law students Emily Mannix-Slobig and Goli Rahimi work together to assist a client.

Law students volunteer at the breakfast twice a month, and DePaul law alumnus Damon Ritenhouse (JD '11) supervises the students. Ritenhouse was chosen because of his dedication to service and the expungement experience he gained through volunteer work with Cabrini Green Legal Aid.

NLAP is currently raising funds to cover the costs of obtaining RAP sheets for its clients. To learn more about or to donate to NLAP, please contact PBCSI director Cheryl Price at cprice13@depaul.edu.

Alumni support makes DePaul Law Auction a huge success

What do Bulls tickets, WhirlyBall games with professors, and Cubs rooftop tickets have in common? They all helped raise more than $30,000 at the DePaul Law Auction in February. The money raised at the auction helps fund public interest summer fellowships for students pursuing legal careers that benefit indigent individuals and disadvantaged communities. Events like the auction are critical to enabling students to continue the work they came to law school to pursue, as most public interest summer positions are unpaid.

This year, the 16th annual DePaul Law Auction, formerly known as the Public Interest Law Association (PILA) Auction, raised 65 percent more revenue than in 2011 and saw a marked increase in alumni attendance over previous years. Dean Gregory Mark generously hosted this year’s “Sweet 16 Auction” at the Union League Club of Chicago, which helped set the tone for the gala event. More than 150 alumni and students, along with a large number of professors and faculty, attended. 

The Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative is seeking nominations for its 2012 Pro Bono Alumni Award

Do you know a College of Law alumna/us who is devoted to pro bono work and service to the poor and underserved?

If so, then consider nominating him or her for the 2012 Pro Bono Alumni Award.

Nominations will be accepted between March 1, 2012 and March 29, 2012.  Click here to view or download the nomination form, which includes the nomination requirements.

The award winner will be announced in early April and will be the keynote speaker at the Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative’s Annual Service Awards Reception on Thursday, April 19, 2012 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the College of Law. 

Questions?  Please contact Cheryl Price at cprice13@depaul.edu..

Dean Mark visits A.N. Pritzker Elementary School to teach First Amendment to seventh graders

Must the government release its photos of Osama Bin Laden to the public? Can a magazine be liable for circulating a photo of Whitney Houston at her funeral? Can students march from school to city hall, carrying protest signs and blocking traffic during rush hour?

Seventh grade students from A.N. Pritzker Elementary School wrestled with these and other difficult First Amendment questions during a recent social studies class led by DePaul College of Law Dean, Gregory Mark and Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative Director, Cheryl Price.

Dean Mark and Ms. Price visited Pritzker on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. This was Dean Mark’s second visit to Pritzker this academic year. Dean Mark also taught constitutional law to Pritzker’s sixth and seventh graders in October 2011 as part of the Chicago Bar Association’s and American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Week. The Dean has found these teaching opportunities both rewarding and fun and enjoys working with middle school students. According to Dean Mark: “The students at Pritzker have an inspiring energy. Their questions about the legal issues we discuss speak to both their insight and their ability grasp some pretty nuanced problems. Being there is a pure joy for me.”

Center for Public Interest Law draws large crowd for symposium on race issues

(Pictured: Dr. Timuel Black, Adam Green, and Virginia Martinez at the Feb. 29 event)

Over 100 lawyers, law students, and activists attended each day of the Center for Public Interest Law's symposium on race issues. CPIL's annual symposium this year addressed the legacy of racial segregation in Chicago and its effect on housing, education, and incarceration. With recent studies showing Chicago as one of the most segregated cities in our nation, the symposium sought to promote awareness about Chicago’s history and current conditions with regard to people of color. This topic followed last year's symposium, which discussed integrating a human rights framework into legal aid work.

The conference this year began with a keynote discussion on February 29 at Holland & Knight. The discussion featured Dr. Timuel Black, Virginia Martinez, and Adam Green to lay the historical framework for the remainder of the symposium. The event continued on March 1 at DePaul University, with three panel discussions, each focusing on the issues of race and housing, education, and incarceration. Each panel offered action and volunteer opportunities, and the March 1 program also included tabling with community organizations fighting for racial justice in Chicago. 

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin featured the symposium in an article on February 28. Additionally, Chicago Public Radio will be publishing a story on the symposium this summer. For those that missed the event, video photo footage will be available soon here: http://tinyurl.com/DePaul2012, which also features electronic copies of the event materials.

For information about future CPIL events, please contact CPIL@depaul.edu.