One of the most controversial topics raging on college campuses today concerns how to properly handle allegations of sexual misconduct. For decades, such matters have been governed by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. But opposing positions on the law taken by recent U.S. presidential administrations– playing out amid the seismic societal shifts of the #MeToo movement – have…, Roger Williams University Law Review., “Title IX has become a powerful, and often controversial, tool for promoting gender equality in colleges and universities,” explained RWU Law 3L Caitlyn Horbert, editor-in-chief of the, Law Review, . “But the statute has also yielded passionate debate about a number of issues, including whether student allegations of sexual misconduct should be resolved in the courts or on campuses – and, if on campuses, what processes colleges and universities should use to balance the interests of students.” “Ultimately, changes to Title IX enforcement will impact virtually every college and university in…, Law Review, is excited to provide the legal and educational community an opportunity to engage in a timely discussion about the many important issues raised by the statute.” Panel discussions at the symposium will touch on legal developments surrounding Title IX, as well as due process concerns and the issue of consent on campus. Each panel will be composed of practitioners and professionals who will…, New York Times, ,, Time, ,, USA Today, , and the, Washington Post, ., For further information on speakers and panelists, please visit the event page ., , Registration for the symposium is free for Roger Williams students, faculty and staff, and $50 for the public. Registration includes all symposium sessions plus lunch. All attendees must register. Members of the Rhode Island bar can earn 5.5 Rhode Island MCLE credits by attending the program.
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The Association of American Law Schools has chosen Laurie Barron, director of the Feinstein Center for Pro Bono & Experiential Education at Roger Williams University School of Law, to receive a major national award for her work expanding the availability of legal services for the neediest by “forwarding the ethic of pro bono service” in the legal community. Barron was selected from a wide…, ‘An Absolute Rock Star’, In a statement, the AALS Section on Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities explained the reasoning behind its choice of Barron for the award. “Laurie Barron has built one of the top public interest law programs in the nation,” the statement said. “When Laurie became the Director of RWU’s Feinstein Center in 2001, it was a tiny program and she was the only (part-time) attorney. Under her…, Passion and Compassion, A group of academic colleagues from across the country submitted a nomination observing that “Laurie is a thoughtful scholar. Her work is collaborative and pragmatic. She is always making sure others can pick it up and use it immediately. While Laurie’s writing is clear and accessible, she writes on topics intended to help us better support our students and ensure they are making meaningful…
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President John F. Kennedy was killed on November 22, 1963. Almost 30 years later, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 directed the National Archives and Records Administration to create a collection of U.S. government documents related to the assassination. Now available on HeinOnline, this collection contains an assortment of interesting documents, such…
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One of the library staff’s favorite holiday pastimes is finding the nexus between law and the holidays. While there are several ways that Thanksgiving is related to law, the one we are choosing to highlight this year is the invention of cranberry sauce. Americans purchase over 5 MILLION gallons of cranberry sauce every holiday season. While this side dish is considered a staple at Thanksgiving,…
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The Bravo Bistro in downtown Providence was packed as Professor Deborah Gonzalez – director of the Immigration Law Clinic at Roger Williams University School of Law – keynoted a Newsmaker Reception, warning of the increasingly acute crisis in asylum policy at the United States border with Mexico. Meanwhile, her colleagues praised Gonzalez's contributions to the field, for which the event sponsors…, Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly, , the Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association and the Hispanic National Bar Association – chose Gonzalez ( RWU ’04, RWU Law ’07) for the honor. “Professor Gonzalez is admired and respected not just within the confines of the law school, but throughout the legal community at large,” said Professor Andrew Horwitz, RWU Law’s Assistant Dean for Experiential Education. “She is widely recognized as one…, A System ‘in Shambles’, Upon taking the podium, Gonzalez minced no words. Referring to President Donald Trump only as “45” throughout her presentation, Gonzelez condemned his administration’s controversial immigration policies for helping create a humanitarian situation that she termed “dire,” and exacerbate the ills of an immigration system that is “in shambles.” Gonzalez began by summarizing the U.S.’s 50-year history…, An Artificial Crisis?, Gonzalez then rebutted Trump administration claims that record numbers of immigrants are flooding the southern border, offering a flurry of official statistics. “I know the numbers seem high, but the CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency] has reported that their highest numbers of immigrants coming in at the southern border came in the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s, with upwards of 1.7 million…
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In a small, late-afternoon ceremony in November, Roger Williams University School of Law dedicated Seminar Room 279 in Bristol as the Linn Foster Freedman Esq. Classroom. “I am thrilled that we were able to name this classroom in Linn’s honor,” said Dean Michael J. Yelnosky. “I hope that our students will draw some inspiration from her work and appreciate all that she has done for our law school…, An Influential Supporter, Linn Freedman has been a member of the RWU Law Board of Directors since 2008 (she’ll be terming off next spring). “I first got involved with RWU Law maybe 10 or 15 years ago, through Dean David Logan , when he and I were serving on the Touro Foundation board together,” she recalled. “He got me interested in the law school and eventually nominated me to be on the board. From that point on, of…, Nimbleness and Flexibility, Freedman is a partner at Robinson+Cole , where her practice focuses on data privacy and security. In that capacity, and in her previous role as a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP , she has encouraged the hiring of RWU Law alumni. She has also volunteered her time teaching Privacy Law as an adjunct for several years. Freedman notes that the story of how she came to fill those shoes says a lot about…
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The third annual Stonewall Lecture at Roger Williams University School of Law was unusual in that it played out more like a conversation, with a sizeable audience of students, faculty and staff driving the discussion through an engaging series of questions and answers, while the prepared remarks of this year’s speaker, Blake Liggio, Esq., served as more of a prologue. Liggio, a partner with…, ‘Just Showing Up’, Navigating the administrative aspects of integration with a large law firm, however, is just the beginning of the challenge for trans lawyers. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that today, as a trans person, you’re going to walk into that large of an organization, and everybody is going to understand you, or have experience working with or being exposed to a trans person,” Liggio said.…
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Once again, exam time is right around the corner. Be sure to caffeinate, meditate, and be polite to your fellow students! While studying in the library, please remember that sound travels across the library. Please be courteous by keeping conversations brief and as quiet as possible. If you enjoy background music or other sounds while you study, remember that you can borrow headphones at the…
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In November 2019, when a national array of experts converged at Roger Williams University School of Law to discuss Title IX and the adjudication of sexual misconduct on campus, one of the most authoritative voices on hand was that of, Amanda Walsh ’11, , who – as Senior Attorney at the Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC) in Boston – provides training and technical assistance in the field to colleges and universities across the country., Walsh made headlines a few years ago as the first Title IX Program Officer at Brown University, where she implemented the school’s sexual and gender-based harassment and violence policy and complaint procedures, built its flagship Title IX Office, and oversaw complaint investigations. We recently talked with Walsh about her work:, RWU Law: How did you first get drawn to your career path? “Title IX coordinator” wasn’t yet a common position in higher ed at the time you graduated, ., Amanda Walsh:, My first exposure to Title IX happened when I worked on a K-12 case at a civil rights firm out in Oregon in 2009, the summer after my first year at RWU Law – and that’s what sort of got me hooked. But you’re right, Title IX wasn’t really talked about anywhere at that time, and Title IX coordinators barely existed. It was usually just another hat that administrators wore in addition to their full-…, RWU Law: As I understand it, your first position out of law school was as a staff attorney at the VRLC in Boston – the same organization you’ve now returned to as Senior Attorney?, AW:, That’s right, though it wasn’t my original plan. For most of my time at RWU Law, I thought I’d probably end up working for a firm out in Oregon. Then I had a sort of “end-of-law-school change of heart” [while working on the Title IX case] and decided to take the Mass. Bar and pursue this career path instead. My first role was actually as an AmeriCorps attorney, a position I took in hopes of being…, RWU Law: It seems to have worked out., AW:, Yes, I got my placement at the VRLC, and stayed on there as a staff attorney from the end of the summer of 2011 through the beginning of 2015. My primary focus was on Ed. cases, both K-12 and campus., RWU Law: Then you moved on to Brown University – which didn’t really have a Title IX program yet. You were basically tasked with building it, is that right?, AW:, Yes, Brown had never had a dedicated Title IX program officer or coordinator up to that point. (Again, it was sort of an additional role that another senior administrator took on, in addition to being the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.) But the university had put together a task force that came up with a series of recommendations to improve the university’s response to…, RWU Law: Why did Brown choose you? What made you the right person for the job?, AW:, Brown was specifically looking for somebody with legal expertise, as opposed to any background that was victim-advocacy specific. The idea was to find a person who understood the needs of the students, reporting, , but balanced that with the need to implement a fair process for the students, responding, . It’s a delicate balance in cases involving campus sexual assault – really, in, all, cases involving two students in an adjudication on campus. But I think that the student activists at Brown really wanted to see a person in the role who understood the specific needs of the reporting parties., RWU Law: Were you happy to be back in Rhode Island?, AW:, Yes! Transitioning into an administrative role was sort of a natural fit for me at the time. My husband [, Kurt Rocha ’11, , whom Walsh met at RWU Law] practices in Rhode Island, and our family lives in Providence. So I was happy to get rid of the commute!, RWU Law: But now you’re back at the VRLC, this time as Senior Attorney. Does that mean you're back to commuting again?, AW: , No, I’m happy to say. I transitioned back as a Senior Attorney, but in a remote position – this was at a time when I had a toddler and knew I was going to have another child. So it was definitely a family-dynamic thing., RWU Law: But is your new job just as interesting as the others?, AW:, Oh yes, it kind of combines the best of both worlds. I get to work with more than 150 colleges and universities, doing a lot of the policy work and helping to implement some of what I did at Brown – but also some of what I did at the VRLC as a staff attorney. There are just so many different institutions with such a wide range of identities and cultures – community colleges, tribal institutions,…, RWU Law: What sort of interactions?, AW:, I continue to supervise the Ed. attorneys’ cases, that’s a part of it. But I also provide technical assistance and consulting expertise in the education realm, for colleges and universities. In fact, the main reason I came back to the VRLC was because they had received a Department of Justice grant as part of their Campus Grant program, to help student-conduct administrators, deans of students,…, RWU Law: So you’re now in a position where you can work with a large number of institutions rather than just one. Was that part of the appeal?, AW:, Very much so. The VRLC was transitioning to taking the lead on that grant and they needed somebody to spearhead those efforts. That allowed me to, as you said, impact a great number of institutions as opposed to one single institution – as well as, again, offering me a lot of work-life flexibility that I simply didn’t have in my role as an administrator. Title IX coordinators do not have easy…, RWU Law: You were a panelist at the Title IX conference that RWU Law’s Law Review held here in November. What did you perceive as the value of the symposium?, AW: , It was wonderful. It offered a lot of very high-level, nuanced conversation. There were really important speakers who had incredible things to say – and there was a lot of value added by the people who attended the symposium as well, through the thoughts and the comments they shared. The keynote address [by Professor Nancy Chi Cantalupo] was extremely nuanced, for example. Nancy talked a lot…, RWU Law: Does that state of affairs handicap your work?, AW:, Well, there’s definitely a lot of uncertainty about where things are headed, and how much flexibility individual institutions will have in implementing whatever regulations eventually do come out of the Department of Education. The RWU Law forum allowed people to raise those questions and talk in detail about the challenges that the unknown has brought to light on campus., RWU Law: Could you share an example?, AW:, Sure. Colleges and universities have, for example, traditionally responded to sexual assault incidents that occur between two students off-campus. That may be something that changes under the new regulations – will off-campus incidents, no longer, be considered under the purview of Title IX? We just don’t know yet. If it happens, that would be a huge shift for, say, community or predominantly commuter colleges. For institutions that are highly residential, on the other hand, there would be less impact. At the Roger Williams conference, there were administrators in the room representing both perspectives, which allowed for some very…, RWU Law: You mentioned an “end-of-law-school change of heart” that made you decide to practice in this area. Besides your time working on a Title IX case, were there any experiences at RWU Law that impacted your decision to practice in this area?, AW:, Yes, Liz Tobin Tyler’s Medical-Legal Collaborative program was a transformative experience for me, because it explored the idea that the law is not necessarily an adequate remedy all of the time. But instead of just dismissing it as, “Okay, so this is not a legal issue,” Liz's course brought in a medical partner and said, “Lawyers and doctors, can, collaborate in order to find a more holistic and adequate response to the problem.”, RWU Law: How did that impact your approach to Title IX cases?, AW:, It allowed me to see the value of an organization like the VRLC – which has a very similar mission of looking more holistically at a client, as opposed to just trying to fit them into whatever box happens to be within my legal expertise. Sticking with the example we just discussed, let’s say you’re a student at a university, but you’re off-campus and you’re sexually assaulted in your apartment…, RWU Law: That makes a lot of sense., AW:, I’d add that my RWU Law-related connections have been invaluable in this regard. I’ve never even practiced in Rhode Island, yet I’m lucky enough to know a lot of people in the community here. I still have the ability to get resources and support when I need it – because Rhode Island is small and someone I graduated with inevitably practices in the areas I need help with. Most of my VRLC…
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