- The Iraqi Refugee Assistance Program, now a nonprofit with student chapters at nine schools, began in 2008 by some devoted Yale Law students, New York Lawyer reports. This project “appears to be the only organization in the United States devoted to assisting Iraqis seeking to resettle in other countries.” Chapters have been established at Duke Law, Penn Law, Columbia Law, UC Irvine Law, Berkeley Law, Stanford Law, NYU Law, and the University of Jordan, and three more chapters are expected to form at Northeastern Law, USC Law, and Harvard Law. As of now, the project is a pro bono course at the schools, other than at Yale, where it’s offered as a seminar course, and the University of Jordan, where it’s offered as a clinic. The group is funded through grants, fellowships, and private donations.
- As reported by New York Lawyer, Fordham University School of Law has promoted interim dean Michael Martin to dean. Martin has taught at the law school since 1972, served three times as associate dean, and headed the law school since last summer. He has also been the “lead faculty member of the committee planning the construction of a $250 million, 22-story building to house the law school and an undergraduate student residence at the Lincoln Center campus.” Projected completion of the building is by fall 2014.
- For all those planning to go to law school, Most Strongly Supported urges you to consider how much time you should take off beforehand. Taking a break between college and law school is crucial, but the amount of time you take off should correlate to how you spend that time. For instance, taking off a year or more can help prevent school burnout, but it is still important to “keep your mind sharp” in the interim. Plus, doing something productive or valuable can reveal a “certain maturity that many admission committees [find] attractive.” If you’re taking off several months, make sure to relax and take advantage of that time, perhaps by traveling, which can only be conducive to your mental health before starting law school. Finally, if you only have a summer off between college and law school, MSS advises to “do something spontaneous” and ideally outdoors, in preparation for your imminent long, structured hours “under fluorescent lights.”
- Paul Schiff Berman will be the new dean of George Washington University Law School, New York Lawyer reports. Berman has served as dean of Arizona State University Sandra Day O’ Connor College of Law since 2008, where he made news when he “unveiled a preliminary plan to eliminate the school’s dependence on state funding, which has been shrinking for some time.” Berman hopes to implement similar curriculum changes that he had made at ASU, which allow students more flexibility to specialize and take hands-on courses.
- It looks like a congressional clerkship program may finally be in the works, according to New York Lawyer. Through the potential program, “young lawyers would spend a year researching and drafting laws before moving on to other legal endeavors.” The plan is to start out small, with a pilot program consisting of 12 clerks—six to the House and six to the Senate, and split between the parties. Then, “legislators and committee would compete for the clerks by offering the most attractive type of work. The clerks would choose where they want to spend their year.” If all goes well, the program will expand eventually, but keeping it small initially will create competition and potential prestige similar to federal court clerkships. However, it may be difficult to get the bill passed now while Congress is in “budget-cutting mode.” Meanwhile, Georgetown Law has taken matters into its own hands and will “independently finance two year-long congressional clerk positions for recent graduates at a cost of about $100,000.” Dean Treanor encourages other schools to follow his lead and fund congressional clerkships to bolster the objective of a more formalized program.
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