As the only law school in Rhode Island, the Roger Williams University Ralph R. Papitto School of Law enjoys a rare symbiosis with the larger, surrounding legal community. The institution has become an important resource for practitioners, judges, organizations, and educators across New England – and they return the favor by generously sharing their time and services to enhance the quality programs, resources and reputation of the School of Law and its students.

“Few institutions can offer its students and faculty opportunities to work with so many stimulating individuals and organizations outside the classroom as we can at Roger Williams,” said law school Dean David Logan. “In the past few years alone, the friends of Roger Williams University School of Law – judges, attorneys, and organizations – have brought their courtrooms to the School of Law, provided our students with opportunities to work for credit under expert supervision, funded exciting projects that shed light on racial and economic justice issues in Rhode Island, and worked with us to make the School of Law a genuinely comfortable place for students from all backgrounds.”

From mentors with decades of experience, to externships, to an ever-growing alumni base; from service partners to the judiciary, the local legal community has become an integral part of a Roger Williams education.

The Bar and the Bench
Local lawyers and judges have been great friends to students at the School of Law over the years, and continue to enhance the educational experience in many ways.

Civil Rights Defenders
Take for example Robert Mann, one of the more high-profile faces in the Rhode Island bar. A keen advocate for civil rights, Mann frequently appears on television news broadcasts as a result of representing particularly unpopular criminals, notable among them Craig Price and Joseph Mollicone – two of the more reviled defendants in recent memory. Mann also played a high profile role as lead attorney for Leisa Young, mother of black police officer Cornel Young Jr., who was slain by two white fellow officers who mistook him for a suspect.

Mann, who graduated from Yale Law School in the same class as President Bill Clinton, had flown solo for years – but when he finally decided to take on associates, he chose two Roger Williams graduates, first Dana Harrell ’98 and later Camille McKenna ’03. He also maintains a strong relationship with the law school by working with current students.

“Nearly every semester we have students work with Mr. Mann on court appointed criminal defense cases, through our Public Service Program,” said Lisa Richmond, program coordinator of the Feinstein Institute for Legal Service. “Students learn so much there. Mr. Mann has also been very supportive of our programs. Last year, he participated in our annual Public Service Forum and our Racial Justice Colloquium.”

McKenna said Mann hired her when she was still waiting for her bar results, and the Cornel Young case was being prepared for trial.

“He was looking for someone who was already in the bar and ready to practice,” McKenna said. But Mann was so impressed by her personality and credentials that he decided to let her do research and behind the- scenes work while waiting for her results – and his faith paid off.

“I found out I passed the bar in the middle of the trial!” she said.

McKenna said she hopes her experience is an example to Roger Williams students and the legal community at large.

“Roger Williams Law School is a resource the legal community should use,” she said. “Our best students could compete with anyone in the country. And as I see it, it’s up to the alumni to open the doors. Given a chance, Roger Williams law graduates can fulfill any expectation that’s placed upon them.”

Federal and State Judiciary
The exposure a Roger Williams law student receives to state and federal judiciary during his or her time here is nothing short of astonishing. Each year, for example, all of the justices of the Rhode Island Supreme Court come to Bristol to judge the finals of the intramural Clark Moot Court Competition.

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently heard oral arguments in five cases in the appellate courtroom, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces also held a session at the school. And, as reported in the last issue of Amicus, Judge Ernest W. Torres, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, recently made the School of Law the setting for a full-blown civil trial.

Many members of the Rhode Island judiciary have taught courses at the school, including Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia, associate justice of the Superior Court of Rhode Island, who taught the judicial externship seminar for six academic years (he’ll be succeeded this fall by former Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Flanders, Jr.).

“Judge Indeglia has been incredibly generous with his time and attention to students,” said Michael Yelnosky, professor of law and associate dean for Academic Affairs. “And he is just one of the many judges who have been supportive of this Law School and its work in many different ways over the years.”

Chief Justice Frank J. Williams of the Rhode Island Supreme Court often shares his insights with students while teaching Local Government Law, and approximately 20 other judges – in federal and state courts, at both trial and appellate levels – supervise law students for academic credit through the school’s judicial externship program.

The Rhode Island Foundation
For nearly a century, the Rhode Island Foundation has pursued a mission of connecting private philanthropy to the public good, guided by its solid values of permanence, integrity, vision, accessibility, and partnerships. According to Neal Severance, program associate at the Foundation, the law school at Roger Williams satisfies all of these criteria.

“We’ve come to recognize that the Law School is an extraordinarily significant and positive influence in Rhode Island,” Severance said.

“More than any other institution I’ve encountered, the Law School has thought in creative ways about what they can do to serve the state in which they reside,” Severance added. “They’ve always done their homework, and are very conscientious about interacting respectfully and building coalitions with existing efforts – they recognize the good work that is already going on, and then think in terms of how they can use their unique abilities to enhance these efforts.”

Two recent examples of Foundationsupported initiatives are:

The Racial Justice Colloquium
Last year’s Racial Justice Colloquium and the resulting Racial Justice Task Force reflect the synergy that is generated when the Law School reaches out to make a difference in its community.

The colloquium brought together more than 80 lawyers and representatives from community organizations to focus on issues of racial justice in the areas of criminal justice, education, housing, and immigration. Concrete recommendations were made in each of these four areas, and subcommittees were formed to work on the most pressing problems identified in these areas at the Colloquium.

“The Racial Justice Colloquium and the resulting work of the Racial Justice Task Force has engaged our students in real community issues while at the same time facilitating important dialogue and action in the Rhode Island community,” said Liz Tobin Tyler, director of Public Service and Community Partnerships at the Feinstein Institute for Legal Service.

The Pro Bono Project
To address one of the concerns raised at the Colloquium – the need for more pro bono legal assistance for communities of color – the Feinstein Institute received a second grant from the Rhode Island Foundation to survey Rhode Island lawyers about pro bono activity and interest.

“There was a strong feeling [arising from the colloquium] that there was not enough participation among local bar members, regarding pro bono activities in the racial justice area,” Tyler explained.

“That seemed to mean that the poor and minorities in the state had the least access to the justice system,” Severance said. “Thus they could become victims of improper actions taken by authorities in a way that wouldn’t happen if they were well-represented by legal counsel.”

Attorney Jennifer Modell worked with several law students to design, administer, and analyze the survey. The survey of 3,500 attorneys, mailed out in April 2005, yielded a small but useful response that provided important information about bar participation in pro bono work and the incentives and barriers to doing so. The results of the survey were presented at the Rhode Island Bar Association Annual Meeting in June 2005 in conjunction with a presentation by the Pro Bono Initiative in Chicago about innovative pro bono partnerships. The Feinstein Institute is now working with law firms to develop pro bono partnerships with community organizations, using law student assistance.

“The School of Law is playing an important role in the Rhode Island community by bringing together the legal community, law students, and community organizations to work together on behalf of underrepresented communities,” Tyler said.

MCLSA Mentor Program
The Multi-Cultural Law Students Association (MCLSA) provides mentors to Roger Williams law students, drawing chiefly upon members of the Rhode Island Bar Association Committee on Minority Involvement and the Thurgood Marshall Law Society.

“The lawyers in these two organizations – though most are not Roger Williams graduates – are tremendous supporters of the School of Law in general, and of MCLSA in particular,” said Lydia Hanhardt, coordinator of academic enrichment programs, who administers the program.

Also, Hanhardt said, “even those people who don’t serve as mentors participate in other ways,” noting the example of Superior Court Judge Edward Clifton who regularly attends MCLSA events and encourages his professional colleagues to participate.

Lawyers and judges who do choose to mentor enjoy the assistance of energetic, enthusiastic students, eager to learn from a professional matched to their specific areas of interest.

“All of the people involved in the program collectively form a community of support and a valuable networking opportunity for the students,” Hanhardt said.

California native Olayinka Oredugba ’00 – who headed the MCLSA for three years during her time at Roger Williams and now serves as a mentor with the program – said her experience as a student in the program (under Rhode Island Superior Court Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson and later Judge Clifton) actually made her decide to stay in Rhode Island.

“I was fully intent on going back to California after graduation,” Oredugba said. But her exposure to the Rhode Island legal landscape changed all that – having worked a few years with Rhode Island Legal Services, she now oversees Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action compliance for the City of Providence.

“I think these sorts of connections are one of the best aspects of the School of Law,” Oredugba said. “They allow you to take what you learned in the classroom, and put it to work in the community.”

Externship Programs
The Feinstein Institute for Legal Service offers law students public interest externships in a range of interesting settings. Students might, for example, provide immigration assistance to low-income clients at the Immigration Law, Education, and Advocacy Project in Fall River, Mass., help prosecute misdemeanors, housing code violations, and juvenile offenses for the Providence Law Department, or assist in family law and child support cases at Rhode Island Legal Services – to name just a few of the many opportunities available.

“These programs provide a nice complement to our in-house clinical programs. Externships get students out in the community, where they can see what it’s really like to work in the trenches with a non-profit organization. Students learn about the political and financial realities of public-interest practice and how to provide high-quality legal services with limited resources,” said Laurie Barron, director of the Feinstein Institute for Legal Service.

Barron explained that the programs provide students with valuable experience – usually tailored to the student’s specific areas of interest – and networking opportunities, while offering non-profit organizations additional resources.

“We can really plug students in to any non-profit organization they want to get involved with, assuming there’s an experienced attorney willing to teach, mentor, and supervise our students,” she said. A pair of interesting examples:

Conservation Law Foundation
The non-profit Conservation Law Foundation is the region’s leading environmental advocacy organization.

Since 1966, CLF – which maintains offices across New England – has worked to protect the region’s people and natural resources, focusing on four main program areas: Clean Energy & Climate Change, Clean Water & Healthy Forests, Healthy Oceans, and Smart Growth.

“Our program may be dealing with any one of these four areas at any given moment,” said Christopher D’Ovidio, who heads CLF’s Rhode Island office. “The students get a healthy dose of what it’s like to be a public-interest or environmental-law attorney.”

He says his relationship with the School of Law is invaluable – not only does his office use School of Law externs, D’Ovidio is an adjunct faculty member teaching Land Use Planning, and has participated in programs such as the school’s recent Ocean Symposium.

“The best thing about it is that this is a very symbiotic relationship,” D’Ovidio said. “Obviously, Roger Williams has been a great recruiting ground for CLF – I think it’s important to continue engaging the institution. Who knows, hopefully we’ll breed the next great rabble-rouser of Environmental Law!”

Defense Institute of InternationalLegal Studies
Perhaps one of the most unusual of these internships is with the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS), based in Newport, R.I., which focuses on the conduct of disciplined military operations. Its mobile education teams have offered programs and seminars on the rule of law, legal systems, human rights, and numerous related topics to more than 24,000 military and civilian personnel in 130 countries since the institute was founded in 1992.

“This is one of our most unique externship programs,” Barron said. “Students work under the supervision of an extremely talented legal team and help to research, plan, and prepare the educational curriculum for lawyers from other countries.”

“I enjoyed it very much,” said Alison Sonko, 2003 DIILS extern and currently an attorney and program director at Progreso Latino, Inc. “I learned a lot about international law, as well as the efforts of the U.S. at promoting democracy and the rule of law abroad – other than bombing. I also learned a lot from the students who came from other countries about how their legal systems work, as well as their perspectives on how, or whether, our system works.”

Considering the School of Law’s ever-expanding circle of friends, such developments would seem only natural.