Author: Liz Sauders

Dear Law Students:

We are here for you!    Did you know that you are most welcome to consult with ANY law faculty member as your advisor?   Rather than have rigid formal assignments of one law faculty advisor, we want you to know that ALL Akron Law faculty members are available for you to contact and schedule an appointment for consultation.   

For your convenience, the law school’s faculty webpage contains all of our faculty bios to help you determine which faculty share an interest, etc.  We hope you will take opportunities to contact faculty in your areas of interest.  

 And when it comes to technical help of program requirements and mapping strategies that might be more helpful to your particular situation, please feel free to contact specific advisors as follows:

 Academic Advising for JD degrees, joint JD/GRAD degrees

• • o   Use DARS (Degree Audit Reporting System) in Zipline (available after your first semester grades have posted)
    • Lauri Thorpe, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Financial Aid and Student Affairs
    • Ivy Washington-Marshall, Assistant Director of Admissions and Student Affairrs
    • Elizabeth Sauders, Student Affairs College Program Specialist – Law School Registrar

  Academic Advising for joint JD/LLM degrees, JD/LLM/GRAD degrees

• o   Use DARS (Degree Audit Reporting System) in Zipline (expected to be available after your first semester grades have posted)
  • Contact Lauri Thorpe, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Financial Aid and Student Affairs
  • Contact Jeffrey Samuels, Professor of Law and Director of IP Law and Technology Center

 Advising for the Intellectual Property (IP) Certificate

• • Use DARS (Degree Audit Reporting System) in Zipline (available after your first semester grades have posted)
    • Contact Jeffrey Samuels, Professor of Law and Director of IP Law and Technology Center
    • Contact Samuel Oddi , Professor of IP
    • Contact Ryan Vacca, Professor of IP
    • Contact William Jordan, Associate Dean

  Advising for the Litigation (IP) Certificate

• Use DARS (Degree Audit Reporting System) in Zipline (available after your first semester grades have posted)
• Contact J. Dean Carro, Professor of Law and Director of Legal Clinic and Appellate Review
• Contact Dana Cole, Associate Professor of Law
• Contact William Jordan, Associate Dean

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact College Program Specialist and Law School Registrar, Elizabeth Sauders by email (sauders@uakron.edu) or phone at 330.972.6346.  We wish you the very best for a successful year!

ATTENTION:  POTENTIAL MAY 2012 DEGREE CANDIDATES

 FRIENDLY REMINDER . . . 91 credits required (instead of 88 credits) if GPA requires enrollment in 9200:673 Advanced Legal Applications, 3 credits, for Spring 2012. 

 SCENARIO #1:    Present accumulative GPA before this fall 2011 semester is 2.5 or lower, then 91 credits are required to graduate which will include 9200:673 Advanced Legal Applications, 3 credits, spring 2012.

Course Requirements Based Upon UPPER DIVISION (Nearing Completion) Students

        Effective with Fall 2008 Class:

             Bar Preparation Course (9200:673), Advanced Legal Applications

*Mandatory enrollment in the Bar Preparation Course, 9200:673, Advanced Legal Applications applies to:

(a)       Any student planning to graduate in December of a given year, who had a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or lower at the beginning of the fall semester of the year immediately preceding the year in which they intend to graduate, and

 (b)       any student planning to graduate in May of a given year, who had a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or lower at the beginning of the immediately preceding fall semester, must enroll in the Bar Preparation Course, beginning with the class entering in 2008.

 In addition, such enrollment is recommended for students in classes entering prior to 2008.

 *This restriction shall end if the student achieves an accumulative law GPA of 2.7 or higher.

  SCENARIO #2:     GPA end First Semester is 2.0 or lower:

 Course Requirements Based Upon First SEMESTER Grades

 Effective with Fall 2008 Entering Class:

 A student with an accumulative law grade point average of 2.0 or below (or 2.3 or below effective with the Fall 2009 entering class and subsequent entering classes) at the end of the first semester of law studies is subject to the following requirements:

 1. The student will be assigned to a two-credit Criminal Law Lab in addition to Criminal Law.

 2. The student will be withdrawn from LARW II during the spring semester. The student will take LARW II during the summer after the first year of law school. If the student is in the part-time program, the student will also take Property I & II during the summer of the first year of law school. Students may not be employed if enrolled in Property I, Property II and LARW II.

 3. The student may be required to take additional not for credit Lab courses prior to graduation.*

 4. The student will be required to take the Bar Exam Preparation Course (3 credits) during the final semester prior to graduation. As a result, the student will be required to successfully complete 91 credits (rather than 88 credits) in order to graduate.*

 5.  The student will be required to enroll in the Academic Success Program.*

 *This restriction shall end if the student achieves an accumulative law GPA of 2.7 or higher.

 Students required to earn 91 credits must plan to achieve those 91 credits WITHOUT EXCEEDING the absolute maximum number of 17 credits in fall 2011 or spring 2012.     The maximum load = 16 credits in a fall or spring semester.  

Overload permission may be granted to enroll in 17 credits rather than 16 credits if a student achieves a 2.5 or higher accumulative GPA.  At this point, the next opportunity to be considered for overload would be end of Fall 2011 if your accumulative GPA is 2.50 or higher.    Overload request form may be found at http://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/1837513.pdf.

 See Fall 2009 Entering Class Graduation Audit Checklist at:  http://www.uakron.edu/law/students/studentservices/docs/Prelim_Grad_Audit_Eff_Fall_2008.pdf

 See Law Student Handbook at:  http://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/2080997.pdf  

 Questions regarding Graduation Requirements?   Please contact Assistant Dean Thorpe at LThorpe@uakron.edu.

 Questions regarding Advanced Legal Applications?   Please contact Director of Academic Success Programs Katherine Silver Kelly at ksk10@uakron.edu.

This is information for all those first year, part time students who would like to join Akron Law Review. 

 Here is a reminder of how the process works:  The top 15% of the class automatically earns an invitation to the  Akron Law Review.  The administration will do an internal ranking of the first year part time students after summer grades are submitted.  Those students who are in the top 15% of the part time students will receive an invitation to join the Akron Law Review before the Write On Competition begins.  These rankings are unofficial, so they will not be released or published aside from the invitation to join the Akron Law Review.  If you grade on to the Akron Law Review, you are not required to participate in the Write On Competition. 

All students who have at least a 2.6 cumulative GPA after completing their summer courses, and who have completed at least the first-year program as defined by the School of Law Administration are eligible to participate in the Write On Competition.

 The August Write On Competition will begin August 12 at 8 AM.  It will end at August 19 at 8 AM.

To participate in the Write On Competition, you must enroll in the TWEN Write On Competition- Akron Law Review course available through Westlaw.  Make sure you enroll in the proper course, as there are several Akron Law Review courses on TWEN.  The proper course is the Summer 2011 course listing John Wetmore as the instructor.  If you plan on participating in the August competition, you may enroll in the course immediately and the material will become available on August 11 at 8 AM.

The Write On involves writing a case note from a limited set of references.  Detailed instructions will be available on the TWEN site when the materials are available.  The Akron Law Review looks for students that demonstrate the ability to write and reason well while working on a deadline.  The entire process is anonymous, and no one knows who graded or wrote-on. 

If you have any questions, contact me at jbw27@zips.uakron.edu and I will respond as soon as possible.  Enjoy the rest of your summer.

John Wetmore

Executive Editor

Akron Law Review