Thomas D. Morgan, Oppenheim Professor of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law at The George Washington University Law School will speak at the School of Law this Friday, Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. as part of the Joseph G. Miller and Willliam C. Becker Center for Professional Responsibility Distinguished Lecturer Series. Morgan’s lecture, titled “The Changing Face of Legal Education: Its Impact on What it Means to Be a Lawyer,” will focus on the changes the ABA has proposed in accreditation rules, what difference can be predicted in the kind of graduates produced, and what those differences may make to potential clients and to others who became lawyers under different standards. One hour of free CLE (continuing legal education) credit will be offered. A reception will immediately follow the lecture. This lecture is free and open to the public, however registration is required. To register, call ext. 6363, e-mail manovac@uakron.edu or visit online at http://www.uakron.edu/law/millerbecker/distinguishedlecturerseries.dot . This event is offered with support from the Joseph G. and Sally A. Miller Foundation, Jones Day Foundation and Kenneth L. Calhoun Charitable Trust.
Trial Team News
Landskroner Foundation for Children 13th Annual Law Student Closing Argument Competition
On October 13, 2011, Daniel Bray won first place in the Annual Landskroner Closing Argument Competition. Daniel Leister finished in second place. Third place went to Scott Lippert, from Case Western Reserve University. Mr. Bray and Mr. Leister continue Akron’s winning tradition at this competition.
National Trial Advocacy Competition
Trial Team Members Daniel Leister, Dan Bray, Greg Thompson and Sharece Miller traveled to Michigan State University to participate in the National Trial Advocacy Competition. After a hard fought battle in East Lansing, the team failed to advance to the final rounds. The team did take home two individual awards. In a field of more than 100 advocates, Daniel Leister won Best Closing Argument and Best Advocate.
Congratulations to our trial team members!
Dean’s October Message
The Future
A number of students have asked me what is causing all the faculty buzzing and meetings. Well, simply, a number of individuals are being interviewed for open faculty positions.
The process for appointment involves a special faculty committee that reports to the full faculty for the faculty’s decision. The process starts with an identification of one or more vacancies. The appointments committee advertises the open slot in various media and sometimes by letters to or notices in various legal newsletters and web-sites. They can also solicit recommendations from faculty at other schools or interested parties. In addition, the Association of American Law Schools [AALS] has an elaborate process to assist in recruiting.
The AALS process includes a periodic newsletter with job openings, and job requests and individuals and schools can respond to those notices. There is also an AALS two day meeting to help faculty and prospective faculty meet. Prior to this session, the AALS also distributes the resumes of numerous individuals who desire teaching positions. Appointment committees at law schools review those lists and can either contact someone directly or select a number of them to meet with appointment committee members at this two day event usually held in Washington, D.C. , and affectionately called the “Meet [Meat] Market.”
This two day session is a marathon. Appointment committees can scheduled numerous interviews over the two days and the prospective law teachers can go to numerous interviews over the two day period.
After the event, the appointment committee for the law school may invite a few prospects to campus to meet with more faculty and students and staff and the Dean. Prospective faculty members decide which of these on campus visit offers to accept. Once this match occurs, the candidates come to campus for the interview. Other candidates may, of course, come to campus, through processes other than the AALS process [direct solicitation, responses to advertising, word of mouth].
The appointments committee then meets and prepares a recommendation to the faculty, which then votes and sends the recommendations onto the Dean. The Dean’s job is then to recruit in priority order the candidates the faculty recommended.
Whew! So you should be seeing a number of prospective faculty member candidates over the next weeks. You should also hear more faculty hallways discussions about candidates. The end result will be great new colleagues for us and great new teachers for you.
Community Service for Limited Means Volunteer Opportunity!
The garden club at Belcher Apartments is looking for a couple of volunteers to help with the garden clean up. Belcher Apartments is an AMHA apartment building that houses low-income senior and disabled tenants. The garden clean up will take 2-3 hours for 2-3 people. They would like to schedule it sometime in the next 2-3 weeks. If you are interested, please contact Amy Marsteller at 330-608-9256. Thank you!
Akron Bar Women in Law Section Meeting Today – See below
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Please join us for the next Women in Law Section Meeting |
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011 11:45am Akron Bar Association
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| Topic: You Write Like a Girl: Do Gender Differences Exist in Persuasive Legal Writing?
Speaker: Professors Ann Schiavone and Sarah Morath Description: In this one hour presentation, the presenters will be discussing their on-going research evaluating whether noticeable differences exist in the persuasive writing of male and female first year law students. The presentation will include discussion of the foundational research that prompted out legal-writing specific study, as well as the quantitative and qualitative research methods being employed. First, they will discuss their evaluation of the actual word use in the briefs of first year students, focusing on those areas in which studies have shown men and women vary including: word length, sentence length, use of conjunctions, articles, auxiliary verbs, reference to emotion, etc. Second, they will discuss their survey of legal writing professors about gender differences they notice in legal writing. Lastly, they will discuss their use of student interviews as a source for possible explanations for such gender differences.
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