Need to do research this summer? Do not worry, Bloomberg Law, Lexis, and Westlaw offer summer access to continuing students! Soon to be graduates, do not despair-an email will go out to you next week discussing your access and some other exciting news about library services for alumni. Our LawGuide, Bloomberg/Lexis/Westlaw @ RWU Law: Summer Access , explains the details of continuing your use…
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On Friday, May 15, 2020,, Dennis W. Nixon, Director, Rhode Island Sea Grant; Professor of Marine Affairs, URI, will be presented by Roger Williams University School of Law with the degree of, Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa., B.A. Xavier University M.M.A. University of Rhode Island J.D. University of Cincinnati College of Law Dennis Nixon has served as Director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant Program since 2013, leading a multimillion-dollar research and education program devoted to using scientific knowledge to improve the management of Rhode Island’s coastal waters. He is also a member of the…, Endeavor, ) and for the preceding eight years as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the College of the Environment and Life Sciences. A marine lawyer by training, Nixon is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States and the Rhode Island bar. He is Secretary and General Counsel for the Point Club, a fishing vessel insurance cooperative he helped found over 30 years ago; and co-founder…, Marine and Coastal Law, (1994), now entering its third edition. Nixon holds certificates in International Institutions from the University of Geneva, and Ocean Law from Harvard Law School. He is an avid sailor, and races weekly on Narragansett Bay. He holds a Coast Guard master’s license, and a PADI open-water diver certification.
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On Friday, May 15, 2020,, The Honorable Margaret H. Marshall, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (Ret.), will virtually address the Class of 2020, and be presented by Roger Williams University School of Law with the degree of, Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa., B.A. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg M.A. Harvard University J.D. Yale Law School Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall is the 35th Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, a position she held from 1999 until her retirement in December 2010. The Court, which dates from 1692, is the oldest in continuous existence in the United States, and Marshall is the only…, Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, , holding that Massachusetts could not deny same-sex couples the right to marry. That ruling made Massachusetts the first state in the nation to legalize gay marriage. Chief Justice Marshall was born and raised in South Africa. As an undergraduate, she was elected President of the National Union of South African Students, at the time a leading anti-apartheid organization. She later emigrated to…
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While every class of students that passes through the doors of Roger Williams University School of Law has been remarkable in many ways, this class holds an unenviable place in RWU law history, the first to not hold Commencement in May. You will have a Celebration of the Class of 2020 and a Commencement which is planned for later when the world begins to function more normally. You will be the…
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A cool, cloudy morning gave way to a sunny afternoon in Bristol Friday as a “virtual Commencement” observance was held to honor the 147 graduates of Roger Williams University School of Law’s Class of 2020 , pending an in-person event to be held when the COVID-19 pandemic has passed. The ceremony opened with a brief, live preamble on Zoom, which was hosted by Dean Michael J. Yelnosky and gave…, our, freedom,” she said. “I’m not speaking of threats from abroad. I am speaking of threats to liberty arising here at home, threats to the very structure of government, on which our freedom rests. Your intellect, energy and daring can contribute so much to the solutions for our breaking systems.” Marshall added, “Each of you must decide whether to protect our constitutional values or to repudiate…, are, acts of repudiation.” Honorary degrees were also presented to Dennis W. Nixon , the director of Rhode Island Sea Grant, a professor of marine affairs at the University of Rhode Island, and a member of the advisory board of the Marine Affairs Institute at RWU Law; and to Olin W. Thompson, III , a former and much-admired assistant federal public defender for the District of Rhode Island, who is…, in memoriam, to Professor Anthony J. Santoro, the founding dean of RWU Law (1992-1993) and President Emeritus of Roger Williams University (1993-2000), who died at 77 on September 9, 2019, following a short illness. Tribute was also paid to Yelnosky himself, who will step down on June 30, 2020, concluding an extraordinary six-year deanship at RWU Law. A visionary leader and champion of social justice in legal…
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Roger Williams University School of Law professors, Deborah Gonzalez, and, Jared Goldstein, , in cooperation with the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, and lawyers from the firm Morgan Lewis filed a class-action lawsuit Friday against federal immigration officials and the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. The suit, filed as a habeas corpus petition, seeks urgent relief for a class of over 70 immigration detainees at the facility by calling for their conditional…
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Roger Williams University School of Law is proud to announce that Deborah Gonzalez – director of the Immigration Law Clinic and Associate Clinical Professor of Law – will serve as the Bruce I. Kogan Distinguished Service Professor. The two-year appointment is effective July 1, 2020 and runs through June 30, 2022. “It is impossible for me to describe in any detail the many ways in which Debbie has…, Long Track Record, Gonzalez became the director of RWU Law’s Immigration Clinic after eight years in private immigration law practice. During those years, she founded an organization to assist recent immigrants from Brazil and Portugal adjust to life in the United States. “Even before becoming our clinic director, Debbie was recognized for her community service,” Dean Yelnosky noted, adding that this long…, Immigrant Advocate, Since joining RWU Law’s facult,y her work in the community has only increased. She was a lead author of a white paper for Governor Raimondo regarding the granting of driver’s licenses to undocumented Rhode Islanders. She has given countless ‘Know Your Rights’ presentations across the state, including inside the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, R.I. She has participated in training…, 'Go-To' Immigration Expert, “When President Trump burst on the scene and began to implement his immigration law agenda, Debbie became a go-to person for individuals and organizations, including media outlets, for analysis of the legal changes made by the administration and the legality of those changes,” Yelnosky said. “She was regularly quoted in the print media, and she became a regular on local television and radio.”…, all, detainees due to Wyatt and ICE’s deliberate indifference and unconstitutional confinement of the detainees, which places the detainees at risk of contracting COVID-19,” Gonzalez said. “I’m very excited to be part of this lawsuit and to help these detainees in any way I can.” Gonzalez notes that she could not have done any of this work alone. “No one lives in a bubble,” she said. “I have had lots…
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Roger Williams University School of Law is proud to announce that Raquel M. Ortiz – dean for Library & Information Services and associate professor of law – is this year’s recipient of the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award. In announcing the award, Dean Michael J. Yelnosky focused on Ortiz’s extraordinary contributions in helping the School of Law prepare for March’s sudden shift from in-…, 'Truly Exceptional', Dean Yelnosky marveled at the sheer amount of ground Ortiz and her team were able to cover in such a short amount of time. “I don’t remember asking her to do anything,” he said. “She just stepped in where she saw the need. Everyone rose to this challenge, and that work continues – but Raquel’s contributions were truly exceptional.” And the effort is ongoing. “I continue to update the resources…, RWU Law Dean David A. Logan created the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award in 2012 to recognize individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the law school community. It is awarded during Commencement in most, but not all years. Past recipients include Tony Bastone, Chief Justice Joseph R. Weisberger (posthumously), Kathy Massa, Cecily Banks, and Chelsie Horne.
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Roger Williams University School of Law is proud to announce that Professor John Chung has been appointed as its Distinguished Research Professor. The two-year appointment is effective July 1, 2020 and runs through June 30, 2022. “Since joining the faculty in 2006, John has written 15 articles by my count – an average of one per year,” said Dean Michael J. Yelnosky. “They have appeared in…, Roger Williams University Law Review, , including one that celebrated alumni on the occasion of the school’s 20th anniversary, and another analyzing the role of oral statements in the making of municipal contracts, in particular contracts entered into by the City of Providence. “John’s scholarship focuses on commercial law, including bankruptcy and international commercial law; public international law; and, most recently,…, Money as Simulacrum: The Legal Nature and Reality of Money, , 5 Hastings Bus. L.J. 109 (2009). ‘I expected that piece to be about payment systems and banking law,” Yelnosky said. “Instead, John writes about the history of money and about how the work of two French postmodernist literary theorists is relevant to the questions whether our current conception of money as a pure abstraction is sustainable and whether it is responsible for the dramatic increase…, Wealth Inequality as Explained by Quantitative Easing and Law’s Inertia, , 85 UMKC L. Rev. 275 (2017), where Chung considers wealth inequality head on and argues, by reference to, Dred Scott, ,, Lochner, , and, Citizen’s United, that, because of its tendency to favor and reflect the preferences of the powerful, law cannot be relied on to provide a solution. Chung’s most recent articles have focused on cybersecurity, with one piece arguing that it’s unwise to rely on voluntary efforts by private sector actors to protect critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks, while another examines whether international law prohibits…
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