Expungement Clinic seeking student volunteers

The Expungement Clinic helps low-income Akron residents seal the record of their criminal convictions.  A sealed record enables many people better access to jobs, housing, and volunteer opportunities.  Students will learn integral skills in the legal field including filing paperwork with the court, drafting motions, interviewing real clients, and communicating with clients both through the mail and over the phone. Students who are eligible for a legal intern certificate will have ample opportunities to appear in court and present an oral argument.

A student commitment to the Expungement Clinic can be for as few or as many hours as the student pleases.  The only requirement is that you devote enough time to attempt to contact your clients at least twice a week.  These hours qualify as Pro Bono Limited Means.

There will be three training sessions this week.  Students only need to attend one meeting  These sessions are informational only, and students are welcome to attend simply for a brief overview of the law surrounding sealing of a conviction.  The trainings will be Wednesday the 15th at 3:00 PM, Thursday the 16th at 2:30 PM, Friday the 17th at 12:30 PM, and Tuesday the 21st at 12:30 PM.  Sessions will be in Room 134 and will be expected to last 30 minutes.  The training session on Tuesday the 21st should last about an hour.

Students with any questions please contact Russel Nichols at russel.nichols@gmail.com.

The Eleventh Annual Law Student Writing Competition

The Eleventh Annual Law Student Writing Competition

Law students are invited to submit articles addressing domestic violence and the law from a national or international perspective.

Awards
1st Place:
Publication in the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law
Resolution from the ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence and honorarium

2nd Place:
Resolution from the ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence and national publicity

3rd Place:
Resolution from the ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence and national publicity

All past and present winners’ names and papers appear on the ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence website at www.americanbar.org/cdsv

Deadline

Deadline for submissions is May 30, 2014 5:00 p.m. EST.
Send as a Microsoft Word document to
dvwriting@americanbar.org
No exceptions. Winners will be notified in August 2014.

Guidelines
• Submissions must further the legal needs of victims of domestic violence or domestic violence victims and their children, or advance efforts to address the incidence, causes and effects of intimate partner violence.
• Submissions may be no longer than 7500 words (typically 20-25 pages), including footnotes and other text but excluding author identifying information, and must be double-spaced with one-inch margins. Any paper exceeding the 7500 word limit WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. Students are free to submit papers of shorter length as we are most concerned with quality and originality.
• Authors must be enrolled in an ABA-accredited law school at the date of their submission or may have graduated in December 2013 or May 2014.
• Submissions may not have been previously accepted for publication and, if they have been submitted elsewhere for publication, the first place winner must certify that the first publication of the article will be in the Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law.
• The ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence reserves the right not to name a winner of the competition if it determines that none of the submissions are of appropriate quality.

Group Study Room Reservation System

In the fall semester we piloted a program for reserving the group study rooms online.  Over the course of the semester we ran into a number of problems with it.  We have discontinued using the online system.  We will make the group study room reservations for you at the Circulation Desk.  We will continue to look into other options for an online reservation system.  Please see a member of the library staff if you have any questions.  Thank you.

Attention May 2014 Graduates

ATTENTION May 2014 GRADUATES
Are you taking the July Ohio Bar Exam?*
If yes, then here is your opportunity to begin to prepare.

Akron Law is offering a free workshop called ESSENTIAL LEGAL CONCEPTS (ELC) to help prepare you for the upcoming July bar exam. The workshop is available to students not currently taking Advanced Legal Applications. The workshop will focus on your understanding of the bar exam and provide you with essential skills needed to effectively study for the Ohio Bar exam.  Akron Law strongly encourages your enrollment in this workshop, although it is not designed to replace any bar exam preparation course you are taking, but rather to be a supplement.

The workshops will be held on the following days from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Law School (Room L-152):

Saturday, February 8 – Introduction to the Ohio Bar Exam

Saturday, February 15 – Focus on the Ohio Essay Exam

Saturday, February 22 – Focus on the Multistate Bar Exam

Saturday, March 1 – Focus on the Multistate Performance Test

Enrollment is on a first come, first served basis and open to the first 25 current students to enroll.  Any past students wishing to take the workshop are also welcome to enroll, but their request to enroll will be placed on a waiting list and considered only after current student enrollment has occurred.

*If you are a current student and not taking the Ohio bar, the course may not be catered to your specific bar exam, but you are still welcome to participate.

ENROLLMENT:
To enroll, please contact Misty Franklin at misty@uakron.edu no later than Monday, January 20, 2014.  Please provide Misty with your name, which state’s bar exam you are taking and when, and whether you are a current student.  Please indicate that you wish to enroll in the Spring ELC course taught by Prof. Walsh.  Please register even if you might have to miss one session.  You will still benefit from attending as many of the classes as possible.

If you contact Misty seeking to enroll, we will advise you no later than Friday, January 24, 2014, as to whether we can accommodate you in the workshop.

QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions regarding the workshop in general, please contact Adjunct Professor Michael Walsh at walsh@uakron.edu.

 

Deadline: January 22 – Shirley E. Howes Educational Award

The Shirley E. Howes Educational Award

The Shirley E. Howes Educational Award is specific to Soroptimist International of Canton/Stark County, and honors the effort and scholarship of a woman attending a college or university to earn a certification, baccalaureate, masters or doctoral degree in Accounting, Finance, or Law-related fields. Women from the Northeast Ohio area ages 18 and older of all income levels are eligible to apply. Judging is based on four areas: effort toward education, scholarship, extracurricular activities and financial need.  Neither Soroptimists nor family members of Soroptimists may apply.

When Shirley became a Certified Public Accountant in 1953, she was the first female CPA in Stark County, Ohio.  The personification of a Soroptimist—a woman dedicated to helping make life better for other women—Shirley Edwards Howes has left a wonderful legacy through her leadership of the Canton/Stark County club’s cash awards program.  Shirley chaired the Awards Committee for much of her 26‐year membership with Soroptimist, hosting meetings and using her home‐based CPA and law facilities to distribute the award materials and oversee judging each year.  Memorial donations in Shirley’s name, following her death in March of 2012, came from numerous award recipients, fellow club members, and others touched by this outstanding lady’s community service and her passionate example for “making a difference” in their lives and the lives of others in the Stark County community.

Applicants are judged according to several criteria, with an emphasis on effort toward education, as follows:

  • Effort toward education – candidate’s efforts to ensure she obtains an education; use of savings; work while attending school; sacrifices made.
  • Scholarship – based on cumulative grade point average.
  • Extra-Curricular Activities – community and school activities; level of interest and personal effort required; leadership demonstration.
  • Financial Need
  • General Impression – thought given to vocational goal; aspirations and attitudes towards education, community, and self; overall impression.

Soroptimist programs are funded by charitable contributions.  To learn more, or to make a donation, visit www.bestforwomencanton.org, or email sicanton.starkcounty@soroptimist.net.

Mail completed applications by January 22, 2014 to:

Shirley E. Howes Educational Award
Soroptimist International of Canton/Stark County
PO Box 2336
North Canton, OH 44720