UofL President James Ramsey and law school dean James Chen announced plans to open the clinic during a news conference on Tuesday, April 8 at the Legal Aid Society.

The University of Louisville's Brandeis School of Law is preparing to open the first Law Clinic in the history of legal education in Louisville in fall 2008. This clinic will enable the law school to transform its entire program of education in a revolutionary fashion. It will refocus legal education as a primarily (or even exclusively) classroom-based endeavor into an active, hands-on enterprise of learning by doing.

The Law Clinic epitomizes the University of Louisville's commitment to preparing its graduates for instant and lasting impact in the workplace and the community at large. Dean Jim Chen remarks, "There simply is no better way to learn the law than handling real cases and representing real clients." The Law Clinic will assign students to individual clients and individual cases. Those students will handle those matters under the careful supervision of at least one faculty member who is responsible for overseeing the Clinic's operation and managing its case load. This faculty member will be Stallings Professor of Law Lars S. Smith.

Lars S. Smith will act as director of the University of Louisville's law clinic during the 2008-09 school year. "Lars Smith brings talent, experience, and vision to the University of Louisville Law Clinic. Throughout his academic career, he has maintained solid footing in the world of law practice. Professor Smith's experience in business and intellectual property law makes him uniquely well suited to supervise clinical operations that advance community development and assist lower-income individuals, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations," explains Dean Chen.

Dean Chen welcomes the addition of the clinic to the law school's educational arsenal, "At a time when American legal education is struggling mightily to find a way to become more relevant to the needs of the legal profession and the entire world's thirst for the administration of justice and the rule of law, the University of Louisville has the opportunity to lead the legal academy in placing clinical education at the very core of the law school experience."

 

 

Interviews for the Moot Court Board will be held this Friday, April 9. All students interested in becoming a part of the Moot Court Board must first complete an application and sign up for an interview.

Applications and the interview sign-up list are located on the door of the MCB office.

1Ls & 2Ls, sign-up sheets are now up on the SBA door for 2008-09 men's football and basketball season tickets. Due to the limited number of tickets reserved for law students, there will be a lottery held on Saturday, April 19th to determine the winners. You must sign up on the SBA door by Friday, April 18 at 5:00 P.M. to be eligible.

Prices for Basketball & Football Combo tickets will cost approximately $210 per student ($420 if providing a ticket for a guest). For Football only, tickets will cost approximately $72 per student ($144 if providing a ticket for a guest).

Also, please remember that no law students are allowed to attend the undergraduate ticket lottery. You will lose your tickets if you attend.

Lots of prizes for only 1,000 words!  The National Center for Nonsmokers Rights is sponsoring a writing competition. Students should submit a 1,000-word outline of a legal or law-related action designed to protect nonsmokers by May 16. There is a $5,000 first prize, a $3,000 second prize, a $1,000 third prize and thirty $1,000 travel grants to their June 7-8 conference in Washington, D.C.  See Dean Sealing for more details or go to http://nosmokingcontest.org.

Please join the externship supervisors from Legal Aid, the Public Defender's Office and the County Attorney's office to learn about externship opportunities on  Thursday, April 10th from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. in Room 060.

The 2008 Health Law Moot Court Competition will be held on November 7-8, 2008 at the Southern Illinois University School of Law in Carbondale, IL. Students interested in participating on our team must submit a cover letter and writing sample to Associate Dean Hall by April 18, 2008. Your writing sample can be your BLS brief or a brief or research paper prepared in another context. Writing samples may be submitted by email to hallt@louisville.edu, or in person to Dean Hall in Room 203 or Rita Siegwald in Room 204. Team members will earn academic credit for participation - all returning students are eligible for the team. If you have any questions, see Associate Dean Hall or email him at hallt@louisville.edu. For information about last year's competition, see the health law moot court website.

 

Students should note that the weekend of this competition is the same as the scheduled Fall administration of the MPRE and Professional Responsibility final exams. I have brought this to the attention of the moot court organizers, but they are unable to change the dates of the competition. Students interested in this competition should plan their Fall courseload accordingly.

 

 

Try-outs for the 2008-09 National Moot Court Team will be held on Thursday and Friday, April 17th and 18th. To compete, you must submit a brief to Professor Marcosson by Friday, April 11th, and be prepared to perform an oral argument of that brief on either the 17th or the 18th (a sign-up sheet with times will be posted on Prof. Marcosson's office door, Room 254). All returning students are eligible for the team -- you will be eligible for two hours of academic credit and have a great time representing the law school at the regional competition in Richmond, VA., next fall (and -- we hope -- the national finals in New York in January 2009). If you have any questions, see Prof. Marcosson or e-mail him at smarcosson@louisville.edu.

On April 2, sophomores from Louisville's Central High School visited the University of Louisville's Brandeis School of Law to learn more about the law school experience. Students toured the campus, talked with admissions counselors, and met with law students and law faculty. The students were able to sit in on Torts and Property Law classes and hear Oral Arguments from current law students.

Central High School Magnet Career Academy offers a law & government program, and students in this program have opportunities to visit courts, law offices and the Brandeis School of Law.

 

All materials needed for summer and fall 2008 registration are now available on the table outside the Registrar's office, room 206. You should obtain all necessary signatures and turn all forms in by Monday, April 7. See Dean Sealing if you have any questions.

Full instructions are available for download below.

The Law Review editorial body has reviewed a host of submissions for its upcoming edition. The final decisions have been made. Congratulations to the following people for being selected for publication in the Vol. 47 of the University of Louisville Law Review.

• Julia Riehm McGuffey,  Best Note
• A. Nicholas Nasier,  Honorable Mention
• Megan K. Reese,  Honorable Mention
• Matt Lynch
• Christopher Thomas McDavid
• Stephen J. Mattingly
• Matthew Piekarski
• Caroline Lynch Pieroni
• Megan D. Randolph
• Megan L. Renwick
• Dustin Thacker
• Maya R. Warrier
• Jennifer Kristen Weinhold
• Andrew Young