COL Newsletter
University of La Verne College of Law
Vol. 7, No. 4
May 2009
NEWS
*** Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley is the keynote speaker for the 2009 College of Law Commencement Ceremony. Scheduled on Sunday, May 17, the event will be held in the Sports Science & Athletics Pavilion on the main campus. Since being elected Los Angeles County District Attorney in 2000, Steve Cooley has overseen a large-scale reorganization of the nation's largest prosecutorial agency. His efforts have resulted in the creation of the Justice System Integrity Division, the Forensic Science Section, the Public Integrity Division and the Victim Impact Program. Through it all, he has charged his staff to “Show no fear in pursuing the criminal element, but also be fearless in the pursuit of justice.” Due to space restrictions, entry to the 2009 ULV College of Law Commencement is limited to participants and invited guests.
*** Congratulations to the newly elected officers of the following student organizations:
American Constitution Society 2009-2010 Board
President: Ariadna Tajoya
Vice-President: Curtis Wright,
Treasurer: Natasha Paserrello
Public Relations Chairperson: Rob Schmalzbach
Activities Co-Chairpersons: Miguel Tovar and Candice Brenner
Hispanic National Bar Association 2009-2010 Executive Board
Co-Presidents: Jonathan Mendoza and John Castillo
President Elect (Full Time Day): Danny Benavidez
President Elect (Part Time Evening): Vacant
Secretary: Cecilia Pulido
Treasurer: Ariadna Tajoya
Historian: Lesly Mendoza
Pride Law Alliance 2009-2010 Board
President: Shannon Perez
Vice President #1: Kelly Klinko
Vice President #2: Bisan Shehadeh
Secretary: Philip Stutzman
Treasurer: Michael Hulshof
Women’s Legal Society 2009-2010 Board
President: Angel Braach
Executive Vice President: Sofia Ahmed
Vice President of Society Affairs: Nalida Aboud
Secretary: Elaine Le
Treasurer: Kristin Johnson
*** Justice Douglas Miller of the California Court of Appeal, 4th District, spoke on April 29 about why developing trial skills “is an integral part of a legal education.” Discussing the topic from both the perspective of a practicing attorney and a jurist, Justice Miller provided the students an opportunity to ask questions after his talk. The event was cosponsored by the Society for Legal Studies and Business and the Center for Excellence in Advocacy.
*** The Student Bar Association, led by SBA President Reza Akef, held a Meet & Greet Town Hall Event on April 22. All students were invited to talk with the newly elected SBA officers and to tell them their concerns and ideas on improving the campus and the quality of student life.
*** Dean Allen Easley held an Open Forum for part-time students on April 20 and 22. Issues discussed during the April 20 Open Forum included the part-time students’ desire to be able to attend the SBA social events, the scheduling of classes, and priority given for registering for the summer session. During the April 22 Open Forum the students asked Dean Easley about summer registration priority, the number of days allotted for the Study Period preceding the final exams, the scheduling of SBA meetings, and the availability of PASS volunteers and administration for students in the Part-Time Program. The rest of the time was spent discussing students’ faculty concerns.
*** On April 30 Cindy Gaytan, Communications/Special Events Coordinator, announced the various Appellate Advocacy award winners:
Section One – Professor Garcia
Best Oralist: Nalida Abboud
Best Appellant Brief: Fredrick Biedermann
Best Appellee Brief: Krystal Rodriguez
Section Two – Professor Thomas
Best Oralist: John Berletich
Best Appellant Brief: Jonathan Mendoza
Best Appellee Brief: John Berletich
Section Three – Professor Stull
Best Oralist: Ayinde Jones
At press time, the names of the winners of the Best Appellant Brief and Best Appellee
Brief in Professor Stull’s class were not available.
*** CONGRATULATIONS to the Fall 2008 CALI Excellence for the Future Award winners. The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction Future Awards program recognizes “excellence achievement” by law students in their studies and the award is “given to the student with the highest grade in the class as determined by the instructor or registrar.”
CALI Excellence for the Future award winners:
| Bankruptcy | Danica Dougherty |
| Business Organizations I | Melissa Pratt, Kristin Johnson and Yunna Mirolyan |
| Community Property | Jordan Gilbertson |
| Constitutional Law | Adam Larson, Andrew Kim, Olen-Keith Guiab, and Youguang Mona Guo |
| Corporate Tax | Taylor Anderson |
| Criminal Procedure: Trial | Andrew Amara |
| Death Penalty Seminar | Scott Stotz |
| Employment Relations | Yunna Mirolyan |
| Evidence | Curtis Wright, Sandra Chung, Melissa Pratt, and Joy Thomas |
| Family Law Practicum | Tamara Rogers |
| Federal Income Taxation | David Foate |
| Immigration Law | Suzanne Johnson |
| Insurance Law | Graham Miller |
| Intellectual Property Overview | Jordan Gilbertson |
| International Law Seminar | Daniel Abebe |
| Justice & Immigration Clinic | Danielle Duval |
| Law & Economics Seminar | Patrick Santos |
| Law Review Seminar | Olen-Keith Guaib |
| Lawyering Skills Practicum | Melanie Blackmer, Heather Brandt, Aaron Castleton, Jason Rose, Chester Sant, and Andrew Lind |
| Legal Analysis & Writing I | Sean Carpenter, Jorge Pineda, Adam Hussein, Michael De La Garza, Alan Krause, Ernest Cardenas, Shannon Whitman, and Leonard Chang |
| Mediation | Aaron Castleton |
| Professional Responsibility | Sofia Ahmed, Kristin Coble, Briseida Luna, and Charles Mayr |
| Remedies | Chad Van Hook |
| Sales | Heather Brandt |
| Video Game Law | Charles Mayr |
| Wills & Trusts | Donna Gephart and Leslie Riley |
Belated congratulations to Curtis Wright, the recipient of a CALI Award for Summer 2008. According to Colleen Murray, college registrar, the “award had been inadvertently omitted from the summer list.”
*** Pride Law Alliance is sponsoring a T-shirt design contest for the 2009-2010 academic year. According to Professor Victoria J. Haneman, the organization’s faculty adviser, “the contest is open to all staff, faculty, and students at La Verne, not simply members of Pride Law Alliance. The artist of the winning design will be given a year’s free membership in Pride Law Alliance (for 2009-2010), as well as a free T-shirt with the winning design. . .The T-shirt must incorporate (1) a design on the front and the back of the shirt, (2) the university’s name, and (3) the club’s name. Contest deadline will be September 2009.”
Members of the Pride Law Alliance, along with Professors Victoria J. Haneman and Megan Chaney, attended a taping of the television show, “The Price is Right,” at CBS Studios on April 29. One of the members, Mae-Elaine Ednalaga, was selected to "COME ON DOWN!" but unfortunately was not the day's big winner. Watch the episode when it airs on May 14 at 10:00 a.m. on local CBS stations and see Ms. Ednalaga and the show’s host Drew Carey chat about the university.
On April 14 Professor Victoria J. Haneman sent a thank-you email to everyone who “contributed to and supported Pride Law Alliance’s fundraising bake sale.” Proceeds will be used for future PLA events and functions.
*** Monday, May 18, 2009 is the deadline for students to submit the form detailing activities that qualified, and were performed, under the college’s previous pro bono policy. Part E of the current pro bono policy states that "Activities performed before May 18, 2009 that would have qualified for recognition under the previous policy but no longer qualify under this policy may be considered if the appropriate form is completed and submitted no later than May 18, 2009."
On April 30 all students were emailed this reminder along with copies of the current Pro Bono and Public Service Policy and the Time Log form. The documents have also been available on the SBA’s TWEN site, under General Information, since February.
*** According to Shannon Perez, Law Review Chief Notes and Comments Editor, the “University of La Verne Law Review is seeking student submissions for . . . Volume 31 Juvenile Law Issue, which will be published in November, 2009. . .[The] submission deadline is May 16, 2009.”
The University of La Verne Law Review will also be holding its write-on competition between July 30 and August 4, 2009. If you have any questions, contact Shannon Perez at msshafron@yahoo.com.
All students who make it on to The University of La Verne Law Review this summer are required to attend a new student orientation and training on August 13 and 14. Please plan accordingly. Kindly contact Danielle Dube, Senior Staff Training Editor, at dndube@gmail.com if you have any questions.
*** Professor Charles Doskow was the May 1 Law Day speaker at the San Gabriel Valley Bar Association’s monthly meeting. He discussed the origins of Law Day (as a response to the Soviet bloc in the Cold War) and efforts to spread the rule of law abroad, through the ABA's Rule of Law Initiative. Professor Doskow cited the work of The Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan, which sponsored the January 2009 visit to the U.S. of Afghan women lawyers and judges, as an example of the American bar reaching out to assist other nations in establishing viable legal institutions.
Professor Doskow also recorded two segments of constitutional commentary on Time Warner's “Local Edition” on April 24. The discussions covered two cases before the current term of the Supreme Court; the constitutionality of the extension of the Voting Rights Act and the propriety of a strip search of a junior high school student. “Local Edition” recorded interviews are inserted in news broadcasts on cable television in areas served by Time Warner. Professor Doskow is scheduled to record three further segments on May 21.
His feature piece, “Court Will Decide Whether Stadiums Have Security Down Pat,” was published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal’s April 22, 2009 issue.
*** Professor Diane Klein asks everyone to extend congratulations to Olen Guiab. His Comment, "Justice for War Crimes, or Just 'Monday Morning Quarterbacking'?: U.S. Civilian Courts Trying Former U.S. Military Members for Crimes Committed Abroad During Combat," with the addition of appropriate comparative material drawing on the law of other nations, has been offered publication by the peer-reviewed New Zealand Armed Forces Law Review.
*** Professor Victoria J. Haneman extends congratulations to Taylor Andersen who “received an acceptance . . . to the University of Denver Sturm College of Law LL.M. (Taxation) program. This is the same program that Kyle Claussen was accepted to a couple of weeks ago.”
*** Alden Reimonenq, university Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, announced on April 27 that “[t]he University of La Verne's Psy.D. program has been reaccredited by the American Psychological Association for another five-year period and will be re-visited in 2013. APA accreditation is a significant achievement, and the entire department is to be congratulated. Accreditation is designed to protect public interest, improve the quality of programs, foster innovation in education and training, and publically recognize quality programs. The program began in 1997 and received its initial five-year accreditation in 2003.”
*** The university’s Student Health Center asks students to visit the following web site for the most current information regarding the H1N1 flu (swine influenza): www.cdc.gov/swineflu/general_info.htm. According to Cindy Denne, Director of Student Health Services and Services for Students with Disabilities, “[i]f you are a staff or faculty member and concerned that you might have been exposed to this virus or [are] exhibiting symptoms please call your private medical provider for further evaluation. If you are a student please contact the Student Health Center at ext. 4254 for assistance. As always, remember that good hand washing and covering your mouth when coughing will be your first line of defense [to prevent] either spreading or contracting a communicable disease.”
*** The University of La Verne Communications Department will host two, free, endof-the- year video screenings on May 16, 2009.
The Communications Department screening will take place at 3:00 p.m. in the Arts and Communications Building, Room 212. The screening will include the best work produced by students at the university during the last year. Videos to be screened include dramas, comedies, documentaries, news and experimental videos.
The senior video screening will take place at 7:00 p.m. in La Fetra Auditorium and will include “What You Don’t See,” a comic mock documentary; “Mind Running,” a drama; “Wish You Were Here,” a travel show; and “Choppin' It Up,” a youth oriented talk show.
For more information, call 909-593-3511, ext. 2713.