Guide

Academic Calendars, Course Listings, and Examinations Schedulesare generated by the Associate Dean of Academic Affairsandcollected comprehensively. In addition, descriptions of the courses offered are provided. These items have been printed from the School of Law website as they are no longer being distributed in paper.

Collected are brochures about the joint degree programs and the Honors Program. There are two joint degree programs with the University of Rhode Island: JD/Master of MarineAffairs and JD/Master of Science in Labor Relations & Human Resources. There are currently three joint degree programs with Roger Williams University: JD/Master of Science in Criminal Justice; JD/Master of Science in Historic Preservation; and, JD/Master of Science in Cyber Security The Honors Program provides seminars, clinics, international training, and externships to qualified students.

Items are not collected comprehensively in this category. However, representative items from 2002 - 2005 have been collected to indicate the variety of programs and workshops offered by the Academic Support Program begun in 2002 by Dennis Tonsing as Dean of Students and Academic Support Program Director. Some of the topics include answering bar exam essays and multistate questions, creating the exam-targeted course summary, how to excel in law school, answering law school exam essays, time management, and stress management through meditation.

Collected extensively from the Office of Admissions are the School of Law catalogs and profiles of the entering classes. Also collected are additional marketing materials produced by the Office of Admissions. A handful of items in this category pertain to School of Law open houses and law school fairs.

The inaugural annual meeting of the Law Alumni Association was held on March 20, 1999. Its Constitution and Bylaws were approved at that meeting. The Board of Directors is the Law Alumni Association’s governing body. The Law Alumni Association sponsors and co-sponsors a variety of programs and events. These events include the annual golf tournament, class reunions, holiday parties, and breakfasts in conjunction with the Rhode Island Bar Association’s annual meeting. Funds for the Law Alumni Scholarship Fund are raised through their annual golf tournament. Items in this category pertain to the above mentioned events. There is a copy of the Constitution and Bylaws dated March 1999. Meeting minutes and rosters of the Law Alumni Association Board are collected. There is a full run of the Amicus (Volume 1, Spring 2002 – Volume 9, Summer 2010), the newsletter of the Law Alumni Association. Amicus was replaced by RWU Law: The Magazine of Roger Williams University School of Law which is also collected.

Collected are memos, press releases, and emails about individual Roger Williams University School of Lawalumni. There are significant items about Betty Anne Waters and the movie Conviction.

Collected are Alumni News & Notes (1996-1998), News from the Alumni Association (Fall 2001) and Amicus (Spring 2002 to Summer 2010), RWU Law, and the e-newsletter RWU Law Alumni Connection published by the RWU Law Office of Alumni Relations. Amicus has been uploaded to the RWU School of Law Digital Repository. Current issue of RWU Law have been uploaded to the RWU School of Law Digital Repository.

Materials consist of AALS Membership Application, Questionnaire and Exhibit and related correspondence from April, 2004 to January, 2006. The RWU School of Law was accepted into the American Association of Law Schools on January 4, 2006. A reception celebrating AALS membership was held on January 29, 2006 in Newport, Rhode Island.

Collected are correspondence, memorandum, news, announcements, and emails of congratulations from law librarians and vendors pertaining to provisional accreditation (February 14, 1995) and full approval (February 4, 1997) by the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association. The School of Law’s annual questionnaire to the American Bar Association is collected. Also collected are the self-study materials dated March 2000and January 2007 pursuant to the site visitations under the auspices of the American Bar Association.

There are items pertaining to the groundbreaking in May, 1992 and the dedications in May 12, 1994 and April 30, 1997. There are materials by Mancini Associates Architects and Sheehan’s Office Interiors. Additional materials include a 1993 May - December Schedule and designs for the law school seal as well as materials about the Ruth Rodman sculpture exhibit.

Christel L. Ertel, Associate Dean for Career Services and Kelly C. Shea, Assistant Director of Career Services were the first administrators to staff the Office of Career Services. Collected are items documenting the events sponsored by the Office of Career Services such as the annual Women in the Law speaker series, the annual Legal Career Options Day, and other programs with speakers. Not collected are generic notices about resume writing, interviewing, post-graduate clerkships, and job searching. Brochures for employers and handbooks for students are collected. (Not collected is the electronic newsletter Bridgelaw).

The Inaugural Commencement was held on May 18, 1996 on the R.W.U. campus with U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy as the Commencement Speaker. All subsequent commencements have been held on the R.W.U. campus. Collected are invitations to commencements and receptions honoring the graduating students, commencement programs; emails and memoranda about honorary degree recipients, and news articles about commencement in general, honorary degree recipients, and graduating students. (Not collected is the Commencement booklet on University and School of Law honorary degree recipients).

A variety of Continuing Legal Education Programs are offered under the sponsorship of the Roger Williams University School of Law Alumni Association. Collected are brochures and emails/press releases about the CLE programs.

Anthony J. Santoro served as consultant to the school of law beginning July, 1991. He was Vice President and Dean of the law school until his appointment as President of R.W.U. on August 23, 1993. He rejoined the faculty in Fall, 2001. John E. Ryan was appointed Vice President and Dean of the law school on September 7, 1993. He served until June 30, 1998. Bruce I. Kogan, formerly Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, served as Interim Dean from July 1, 1998 to June 30, 1999 and from July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2003. Harvey Rishikof served as Dean from July 1, 1999 to June 30, 2001. David A. Logan served as Dean from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2014. Michael J. Yelnosky currently serves as Dean. The materials are organized by the name of Dean and consist of news of appointment and resignation, biographical information, and interviews as published in newspapers such as the Providence Journal, Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly, and Providence Business News. There are also invitations to receptions honoring some of the Deans. There is some correspondence.

Published 2007-2014, materials consist of printouts of blog posts. 

Materials are printouts of issues beginning with the inaugural Fall 2003 issue.

Under the auspices of the Student Bar Association, The Docket is the student newsletter of the Roger Williams University School of Law. The first issue is dated January 18, 1994, with Stephen Maguire, Class of 1996, as the founding editor. Initially, issues were published monthly, while later issues were published quarterly during the academic year. The publication is now issued irregularly. Bound volumes of The Docket are shelved in the library’s periodical stacks.

There are memoranda and emails about newly hired staff, departing staff, staff promotions, and staff reassignments. There are also invitations to School of Law employee events such as the Welcome Back Reception, Holiday Open House, Holiday Luncheon, and Staff Appreciation events. Some University Service Awards programs are also included.  Service awards are issued in increments of five years.

The School of Law sponsors and co-sponsors numerous events for students, faculty, and the general public. Materials collected include news releases about events, invitations, flyers, programs, registration materials, brochures, and postcards. This series also includes some publications related to the Annual Open Government Summit sponsored by the Rhode Island Department of the Attorney General and the RWU Law Alumni Association. There are emails and news articles that provide information about the School of Law in general. This series includes a complete run of articles about the law school from the Rhode Island Law Tribune from February 12, 2001, to February 13, 2002. Articles about the founding of the School of Law, alumni, faculty, staff, students, and School of Law administrative offices are filed under their respective categories.

This series consists of emails and memoranda regarding appointments, promotions, and tenure; news of individual activities; full-text articles or links to articles in newspapers; biographical information; curriculum vitae; semester adjunct faculty listings; compiled bibliographies of faculty publications; and miscellaneous correspondence. This collection is not comprehensive.

Materials consist of offprints of law review and law journal articles. These are organized chronologically and alphabetically within the individual folders.

The Roger Williams University School of Law received a one-million-dollar donation from the Feinstein Foundation to establish the Feinstein Institute for Legal Service and the Feinstein "Enriching America" community service program. The Louis Feinstein Legal Clinic was set up at the RWU Metro Center, the home of the original clinics offering criminal defense and family law services.  The Clinic was dedicated March 5, 1997. Julia Rueschemeyer was first Director of the Feinstein Institute for Legal Service. 

Materials include news about events such as the Public Interest Brown Bag series. Additional items include a guide for students about the public interest law opportunities available at the School of Law and a guide to the public service program for students.

Materials include the draft and final Feasibility Study prepared by Anthony Santoro, news items, and related correspondence about the founding of the RWU School of Law.

This series includes three copies of each issue of the Roger Williams University Law Review beginning with the inaugural issue published Spring of 1996.The Law Review is currently published four times annually. It contains articles, essays, notes and comments and a survey that reviews recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Materials generated by the law library. Each series is listed in subsequent sections.

The law library published its first acquisitions list, "New Titles by Subject," for titles cataloged and added to the collection in July 1995. The title was changed to "Recent Acquisitions and Titles Catalogued" for the September 1995 acquisitions list.

From the 2000-2001 to the 2008-2009 academic year, Gail Winson, Associate Dean for Library and Information Services and Professor of Law, prepared an annual report. The annual report covered staff changes, professional activities of librarians and support staff, and other noteworthy activities of the Public Services and Collection Services departments. Budget and library statistics for the fiscal year (July 1 to June 30) are included in the annual report.

Compiled by the library leadership, these manuals are periodically updated.

The annually revised Library Guide served as a general introduction to the resources, services, and policies of the Law Library. A floor plan and locator and a listing of library staff were included in some editions the Guide. The Guidewas distributed to the incoming first-year students as part of their orientation package until August 2001. A one-page Law Library Highlights instead of the Guide was distributed to the incoming first-year students as part of their orientation package.  The Guide was distributed to the first-year students in conjunction with their librarian-conductedlibrary tour through the 2011-2012 academic year. Other miscellaneous library guides include Quick Facts and Law Library Rules and Regulations. The annually revised Faculty Library Guide informed faculty of the law library services and policies for them. There was also general information about the Law Library such as hours and staff. A map of the law library was included. The Faculty Library Guide was distributed to faculty in conjunction with the law library’s faculty liaison program until the 2011-2012 academic year. The library guides from 1994-2011 are in the RWU Law Digital Repository.

Attendees, planning, and speaker materials documenting the 1997 Spring Meeting of the Law Librarians of New England (LLNE)and the 2005 Fall Meeting of the Law Librarians of New England, hosted by the RWU Law Library.  The theme of the 1997 Spring Meeting, held at the Newport Harbor Hotel & Marina in Newport, R.I., was "Sailing the Seas of Change".  The 2005 Fall Meeting was held at the Bristol Harbor Inn in Bristol, R.I. with "Law, Nature & Gifts from the Sea" as the theme.

Articles about the law library were initially included in the SBA-sponsored student newsletter, The Docket. The law library published its newsletter Law Library Illuminations from Fall 1996 through Fall 2000. In August 2002, Law Library Briefs replaced Law Library Illuminations under the editorship of the Reader Services Librarian, Nan Balliot. Law Library Briefs was a one-page double-sided newsletter published generally every month during the academic year and posted to the law library’s website. In 2008, Law Library Briefs ceased publication and was replaced by the law library’s blog, the Legal Beagle. Law Library Illuminations and Law Library Briefs are available from the RWU Law Digital Repository and PDF captures of the Legal Beagle.

The Associate/Assistant Dean for Library and Information Services and the law library staff compile the self-studies for site visits under the auspices of the American Bar Association as part of the accreditation process. Topics in the self-studies include administration, staff, services, collection, physical facilities, and statistics. Appendices contain a variety of law library publications.

TimeSavers, the law library’s ongoing publication series of bibliographic guides, provides information about resources available on selected subjects and legal research techniques. Several were revised annually and distributed to first-year students and students taking the Advanced Legal Research course. From 2007 to 2010, only three copies of "retired" and new publications were maintained in the Archives. The TimeSavers publication moved to the library's online LawGuides in 2011.

The Marine Affairs Institute was established during the summer of 1996 with RWU Law faculty Jose L. Fernandez and Matthew P. Harrington as its co-directors. The Marine Affairs Institute explores the legal, economic, and policy aspects of ocean and coastal zone development. The School of Law in collaboration with the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Marine Affairs offers a Juris Doctor/Master of Marine Affairs. In partnership with the University of Rhode Island Department of Marine Affairs and the Rhode Island Sea Grant Program, the law school established the Sea Grant Legal Program in November 2003. The Marine Affairs Institute sponsors the biennial Maritime Law Symposium, the Maritime Law Society, the Admiralty Moot Court Team, seminars, workshops, and colloquia. This series includes materials documenting these events, news articles, and other materials about the Marine Affairs Institute.

Orientation for incoming first-year students is held before the beginning of classes. Materials from 1993 to 2001 are sporadic, consisting of correspondence to the students and schedules of speakers and events. Published orientation booklets and other items are collected starting with the Fall 2002 semester,

The Portuguese-American Comparative Law Center was established pursuant to a 1999 protocol between the University, the Portugal Minister of Justice, Portugal Procurador Generale, and Luso-American Foundation. Professor David A. Rice was appointed Director in March 2000.

The materials document the activities of the Portuguese-American Comparative Law Center which include symposia, conferences, seminars, and lectures. Materials also include emails about visiting research scholars, the Occasional Paper series, brochures, and press releases about the activities of the center.

This series collects directories of student contact information published by the Student Bar Association from 1995-1996 to 1999-2000 and pictorial directories of the entering first-year students beginning with the Fall 1997 semester.

The Student Handbook is updated annually and consists of three parts: university and law school regulations, the academic code, and the honor code.   

A Personal Computer Laboratory Guide from 1993/1994 is also among the student handbooks.

This series consists of events and news items generated by or about individual students, student teams (e.g. moot court, trial team), various student organizations, and the Student Bar Association.

The summer study abroad program in London was first offered in 1996 with the assistance of Robert Webster, a Barrister in Inner Temple. The summer study abroad program in Lisbon was initially offered the summer of 1999 in cooperation with Catholic University of Portugal in Lisbon. Collected are brochures describing the study abroad programs and application forms until the programs were discontinued.

The Honorable Joseph R. Weisberger, who was on the Rhode Island Supreme Court at the time, chaired the Law School Committee from the summer of 1990 to the winter of 1992 to study the feasibility of establishing a law school at Roger Williams College. In this collection are studies, reports, meeting minutes and agendas, site selection materials, correspondence, and petition materials to the Rhode Island Supreme Court from 1989 to 1993.