In one of the last Lawyers & Leaders events of the semester, Michael Ratner will discuss his life as a human rights activist, with emphasis on the role that risk taking and litigation have in protecting and extending fundamental rights. The talk is this Friday, Nov. 13 at 12:40 in room 225. Mr. Ratner will be in Iowa City to receive the Iowa Center for Human Rights “Courage of Conviction” award and will also be giving a Lawyers and Leaders talk at the law school.
Ratner is President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, past president, National Lawyers Guild, a lawyer for Guantanamo prisoners, and author of The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld.
The Midwest Public Interest Law Career Conference will be held at the Northwestern University School of Law, Chicago, on Saturday, Feb. 6 and is open to first, second, and third year J.D. students. The conference offers students opportunities to interview with a variety of public interest and government employers for summer law clerk and entry-level attorney positions; to meet with employers during Table Talk, a morning session where employers and students informally share information; and to respond to employer job postings for internships and fellowships on the MPILCC Symplicity.com site throughout the school year (for students registered for the Conference).
Students cannot register directly on the MPILCC Symplicity site. You must register with Cymie Wehr in Career Services and provide the following information via e-mail to cymie-wehr@uiowa.edu by November 30, 2009:
- Last Name
- First Name
- E-mail Address
- Current Class Year (1L, 2L or 3L)
- Registered Last Year? (yes or no)
Students will be issued logins and passwords on December 14, 2009 and will use Symplicity to upload their resumes and make interview selections. Resume uploads and bidding will close on January 8, 2010. More information is available at http://mpilcc.uchicago.edu/schools.html. Any questions? E-mail cymie-wehr@uiowa.edu.
The American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law will offer 2010 summer fellowships to 20 L1 and L2 law students. The fellowships are for a minimum of eight weeks in the consumer protection department of the participating State Attorneys General in states such as Florida, New York, California, Texas, and Kansas. Each selected student receives a $5,000 stipend for the summer and a housing/travel allowance. Applications will be accepted from November 15 to February 5, 2010. The application form is available at www.abanet.org/antitrust.
In its second year, the Iowa Coalition against Domestic Violence’s Skylark Project was featured on Iowa Public Radio this week. Five female inmates of the women’s prison have been selected for assistance in preparing applications for commutation of their sentences. Clients were selected because of the connection between domestic violence and the crimes for which they were convicted. Iowa law students are currently working with three Skylark women. They interview them at the women’s prison, gather evidence in support of their application, and write a brief for presentation to the Project’s expert review panel.
Listen to the five-minute IPR presentation here: http://iowapublicradio.org/pmm-cms/NewsCMS/news/single_story.php?storyid=385
The Kenneth J. Cmiel Funded Human Rights Internship Program provides funding to selected students who have secured a summer internship with a local, national or international non-governmental organization or governmental agency engaged in human rights related advocacy, research or education. Meet the law students who received funding this past summer, learn about their experiences, and find out more about the program! The program will be held November 16 from 12:40-1:40, Room 125 BLB.
Two events sponsored by other groups have been designated as Lawyers & Leaders programs.
On Wednesday, Nov. 11, John Richmond will speak at the IMU ballroom at 7:30. Mr. Richmond currently works for the U.S. Department of Justice fighting domestic human trafficking. The program is part of a series called “Jesus, Justice & Poverty: Stop the Traffic.”
On Wednesday, Nov. 18, the College’s ADR Society is sponsoring a program with attorneys who currently work in alternative dispute resolution. The program will be held in room 225 from 5:00 to 6:30. Food will be provided.
Ed’s note: This is the first in a series of posts we will run about life as a public interest lawyer. Our first post is by Lauren Hansen, class of ‘10, who works as a legal aid lawyer in a rural community in California.
As a recent alumna who is now working in the public interest world, I thought I might write a blog entry about my experiences as a young legal aid attorney. Any questions or comments can be directed to lehansen@gmail.com.
I work in a branch office of Legal Services of Northern California. There are 15,000 people in the town I work and live in, and approximately 85,000 in the main county we serve. About 15% of the county’s population is poor, which means that my potential client base includes around 12,750 people. After a couple of weeks away at various trainings on substantive law, I started taking cases under the direction of more senior attorneys in the office. One of the clients we work with is a full-time community college student who works part time at a restaurant. She is also homeless. She applied for food stamps over nine weeks ago, and the agency still has not responded to her application. Another client is being evicted from his apartment for non-payment of rent. However, his employer—the housing complex from which he rents—hasn’t paid him his wages since late August. Although he tried to come up with a solution with the landlord, the landlord served him with unlawful detainer papers (fancy name for an eviction). Right now, I’m channeling Prof. Wetlaufer’s negotiations class and will try to negotiate an agreement with opposing counsel so that my client does not become homeless. However, I’ve run into a problem: opposing counsel won’t return my phone calls.
It’s been an interesting transition moving from Iowa City to a very rural area of California. On my first day at the local Mexican restaurant, some guy showed us his less-than-stellar breakdancing moves. The next day I went to a meeting on mental health services in the county. The guy sitting next to me told me how wonderful it is that they let women go to law school, and that I’m really lucky. He said that he hopes more women can go to law school because women really need to start learning about things. Then he told me that Reagan invented SSI in 1973 when he was president. I told him that Reagan wasn’t president in 1973. He told me I was wrong, and that it’s too bad I don’t know my history. He then informed me that Arabs are coming into the country and taking our jobs.
So far, the biggest challenge I’ve faced is trying to absorb law and procedure as quickly as possible so that I can help my clients. Another challenge I’m facing is getting people in the community to take me seriously. I have been called “young” or “young lady” by more than one individual. I’m exceedingly polite and friendly, but I’m looking for ways to establish myself as a force to be reckoned with…or at least a force that requires opposing counsel to return my phone calls.
Kyle Anson is a first-year law student at Iowa. He is an Iowa City native who mentors a thirteen-year-old boy through Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Johnson County (BBBS).
Kyle began his volunteer work with BBBS after he ended his wrestling career and found that he had some free time on his hands. Given his prior experience volunteering with kids, he thought that he may enjoy working with a child on a one-on-one basis. He wanted to act as a positive influence in the life of a local child.
It was very easy for Kyle to get involved with BBBS because BBBS is always looking for male volunteers. He participated in a short interview and completed some paperwork before BBBS matched him with his “Little.” Kyle and his Little try to get together every weekend to hang out. Typically, Kyle and his Little go to events around town, catch a movie, go to an arcade or the mall, or just simply hang out and play video games.
In reflecting upon his volunteer work with BBBS, Kyle shares that watching his Little become more “extroverted” and “comfortable” really makes his mentoring worth while. Even as a busy law student, Kyle continues to make time for his Little. He shares that he is easily able to juggle his commitments with school and volunteering because his Little and his Little’s mother are very understanding about his commitments with school. However, Kyle says that he usually has no problem making time for his Little because “the reading and homework will always be there tomorrow.”
When asked to share advice for current law students who are thinking about volunteering with BBBS or other local organizations, Kyle said, “remember that there’s more to life than the library and casebooks. Giving back to the community once or twice a week will give you a break from school, but most importantly, it will help someone besides yourself.”
Great work Kyle!
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