Posted by David
Logan
06/06/2011 at 09:02 AM
I am pleased to report that RWU Law was among the top schools in the Northeast when it comes to recognition of our excellence in public interest. Eight of our students recently learned that they would be receiving stipends from Equal Justice Works, the national organization "dedicated to creating a just society by mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice."
The stipends support summer jobs for a fascinating array of NGOs, from RI, Massachusetts, to Georgia and Alaska. This is quite an accomplishment, especially since there were almost 1,990 applicants and only...
Posted by David
Logan
05/25/2011 at 04:22 PM
We are very proud of the commitment of RWU Law Students to improving the world. I want to highlight just three of the examples, which had our students not only volunteering in RI and nearby Southeastern Massachusetts, but also in Maryland and Alabama.
Perhaps the most far-reaching example is our Alternative Spring Break Program. Evolved from the response of law students to the post-Katrina tragedy in the Gulf, the ASP program is now nation-wide and, as the title suggests, has law students devoting their spring breaks to public service rather than leisure. Our students,...
Posted by David
Logan
05/23/2011 at 10:38 AM
One objective measure of the quality of a law school is the ability of its graduates to land prestigious judicial clerkships upon graduation. US News recently reported the percentage of graduates who go on to be clerks and I am gratified that RWU placed well.
The methodology was simple: US News tallied the % of 2009 graduates of ABA-accredited law schools who secured judicial clerkships and then ranked them. An impressive 14.6% of the RWU Law class of 2009 secured clerkships with state judges. Here what the data showed:
The RWU rate is more than 4 times the rate of St. Johns,...
Posted by David
Logan
05/18/2011 at 12:24 PM
One of the pleasures of being the Dean at Roger Williams is the chance to mingle with alums in key places where our alums practice law. An earlier blog focused on the annual gathering in Washington, D.C., which we hold in conjunction with another Roger Williams tradition, the group swearing-in at the Supreme Court of the United States.
The spring also saw a stop in New York City, where we gathered in an incredible space, the New York Yacht Club. Perhaps the most prestigious such organization in the United States, the midtown headquarters is chock full of fascinating memorabilia from the...
Posted by David
Logan
05/10/2011 at 12:34 PM
In the run-up to the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, we used our in-house marine and tort law expertise to gather experts to explore the far-reaching legacy of the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Journalists, lawyers, scientists, Gulf of Mexico residents, and economists came to campus to ponder the lasting legacy of this tragedy. The law school community plus dozens more professionals in the audience were treated to expert speakers across disciplines examining complex questions such as how can we avoid another Deepwater? What tradeoffs we...
Posted by David
Logan
05/04/2011 at 11:50 AM
In recent years, the RWU Law community has had unparalleled access to the Supreme Court of the United States. At the top of the list has to be the extended visit to campus of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, and we look forward to a campus visit next year from Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. We also sponsor an annual visit to the Court so that groups of our alums can be sworn into membership in the Supreme Court bar and another trip that allows 2Ls to study cases on the Court’s docket and the travel to DC to hear counsel deliver their oral arguments. This year’s cases...
Posted by David
Logan
04/28/2011 at 01:49 PM
One of the challenges for junior lawyers at big firms is the chance to have real responsibility for important matters. I can report that one of RI’s leading firms breaks with the mold, as it assigned a case in front of the RI Supreme Court to Adam Ramos (RWU Law 2006). Adam was a star student here, and then he went on to serve as a law clerk for Associate Justice Frank Flaherty of the RI Supreme Court before signing on to Adler Polack & Sheehan. But if it wasn’t enough of a big deal to actually argue the case, Adam faced off against one of the leading lawyers in...
Posted by David
Logan
04/26/2011 at 10:46 AM
One of the great things about being the only law school in a state is the opportunity to develop deep and broad relationships with the judiciary. Leading federal judges Bruce Selya (US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit) and Will Smith (District Court of Rhode island) are popular members of our Adjunct Faculty who teach signature courses that they in whole or in part developed and deliver. Our students also get great access to leading state judges via externships (for example with Superior Court Judges Judy Savage and Dan Procaccini), or in courses (taught by Supreme Court Justice...
Posted by David
Logan
04/19/2011 at 02:09 PM
Our alums have been popping up all over the news lately: …from being elected to head the state GOP, to being appointed to fix the Rhode Island DMV, to representing high profile criminal defendants, to representing the ACLU and testifying before the legislature.
One of Rhode Island’s most experienced election tacticians is RWU Law grad Ken McKay ‘(96). Ken led the effort to elect Don Carcieri to two terms as Governor of RI and more recently helped another GOP businessman win the governorship of Florida. Ken was recently selected to head the Rhode Island Republican Party...
Posted by David
Logan
04/14/2011 at 11:44 AM
Fernando Bermudez was robbed of half his life, spending 18 years in prison – from age 22 to 40 – for a murder he didn’t commit.
He was finally freed in November 2009, when his conviction – for killing a teenager outside a New York City nightclub – was thrown out by New York State Supreme Court Justice John Cataldo. In a scathing 79-page decision, Cataldo ruled that Bermudez’s rights had been violated due to grievous police and prosecutorial misconduct.
“It’s been a very long, bitter struggle in which at times I lost hope and even questioned my own existence as a person,” says Bermudez...
