Akron Law Announcements

Please join The Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society on 4/17 for a debate on Religious Freedom. The Honorable Peter Kirsanow and Professor Martin Belsky will be debating the tension between religious freedom and non-discrimination.

Members of the Student Bar Association:

Elections for the 2019-2020 Student Bar Association Leadership will begin soon! As students at Akron Law you are automatically members of the Student Bar Association (SBA). Therefore, you are all responsible for electing who will serve on the executive board for SBA and, also, who you would like to represent your respective class. This means that ALL students may nominate and vote for the executive board positions; however, students may only nominate and vote for their own class representatives (i.e., a 1L may only vote for 1L class representatives, not any other class). Failure to follow this rule is an honor code violation!

The executive board is composed of the president, vice-president, treasurer, and secretary. To be eligible to run for an executive board position you MUST have completed two full semesters of law school prior to the time you will take office (not including the summer semester). Further, each class (1L, 2L, 3L) will elect 4 class representatives. The person who receives the most votes will be appointed the class president. Please note, elections for part-time and spring-start representatives will be held in the spring.

SBA elections are a three-step process:

First, all those who hope to be nominated for an executive board or class representative position on SBA must get at least two nominations (you are able to nominate yourself). NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN NOW and will close on Thursday, April 18th at 6 p.m. You may only nominate representatives from your representative class. However, all classes can nominate qualified individuals for the executive board positions. Please visit the appropriate link below to place your nominations.

• 2L Nominations: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9878979
• 3L Nominations: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9VJ5CL5
• Executive Board Nomination: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/99YJY5H

Second, each individual who receives at least two nominations for a position will receive an email asking if they would like to accept their nomination and run for the position. If nominated for both a class representative and executive board position, you may choose to run for both.  That way, if you do not win the executive board position, you remain in the running as a class representative. However, you may NOT run for two executive board positions. If nominated for more than one executive board position, you will have to choose which one to accept. A student must accept his or her nomination for a position via email or the student will not be on the ballot.  

Third, all nominees for President will be invited to participate in an open forum with your classmates on Monday, April 22nd at 12:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. in room 180 to briefly discuss why you would like the position and answer any questions from your classmates. The final poll with all of the candidates that have accepted their nominations will open on Monday, April 22nd. The final poll will close on Thursday, April 25th at 6 p.m. Each student may only vote for a position once. Voting more than once is an honor code violation!

The person with the most votes for each position will win. Each elected individual will receive an email notification and their names and position will be displayed on the announcement blog. The newly elected executive board will be contacted by the current executive board that coming week regarding leadership succession. 

Below are the current executive board members and their emails.  Please feel free to reach out to any of us if you would like to learn more about what our position entails:

President: Ashlee James – asm116@zips.uakron.edu

Vice President: Sarah Blank – skb73@zips.uakron.edu       

Treasurer: Cole Blakeley – cb209@zips.akron.edu  

Secretary: Kale Anderson – kda39@zips.uakron.edu

Best, 

Sarah Blank

SBA Vice-President

Akron Press Club immigration panel April 24

Immigration and Northeast Ohio will be the topic of an Akron Press Club panel discussion on Wednesday, April 24, at The Tangier. There will be the opportunity for questions from the audience.
The broad national debate about the impact of immigration – legal and undocumented – plays out in Northeast Ohio as well. Akron and Summit County have adopted a “welcoming community” plan for refugees and immigrants, and much of the limited population growth here has been spurred by the legal migration. Yet Ohio has four Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities detaining people in raids across the country.
The Akron Press Club panel will take a closer look at the issues and impact.

The panel members are:

• Madhu Sharma, executive director of the International Institute of Akron.
• Elizabeth Knowles, director of the University of Akron School of Law’s Immigration and Human Rights Clinic.
• Utomhin Okoh, a community relations officer with the Akron Police Department.
• Damber Subba, the first Bhutanese refugee to be sworn into the Akron Police Department.
• The panel will be moderated by Akron Press Club board member M.L. Schultze.

Please join us for a deeper exploration of the issues facing immigrants and the communities they’re part of.

Program: Immigration panel.
Date: Wednesday, April 24, 2019.
Time: Buffet luncheon starting at 11:30 a.m. Program begins at noon.
Place: The Tangier, 532 W. Market Street, Akron
Cost: $20 for Akron Press Club Members; $25 Non-Members.
Reservations requested: Click here for easy online reservations. Or contact Lianne Fowler, Press Club administrator, at 330-552-8860 or akronpressclub@gmail.com. Cash or check only accepted day of luncheon.
Reservation deadline: Noon, Monday, April 22.
Cancellations: Cancellation requests must be received no later than 48 hours before the event. After that time, there will be no refunds and an invoice will be issued for payment.