The University of St. Thomas
Perspectives from Law Admissions and Current Students

AALS Clinical Legal Education Association’s Outstanding Student Award

By: UST Law Admissions

Published on: Monday, May 14th, 2012

Tisidra Jones

The faculty and staff of the Interprofessional Center for Counseling and Legal Services are pleased to recognize Ms. Tisidra Jones as the 2012 AALS Clinical Legal Education Association’s Outstanding Student Award for the University of St. Thomas. This award recognizes a clinical law student who demonstrates academic excellence, service to the community and leadership.  One student per law school is chosen for this award.

Ms. Jones has worked diligently to support the work of Brotherhood, Inc. (reintegration program) and empower Brotherhood participants.  She has drawn upon her gifts and talents as an artist, educator, community advocate, and future attorney. Her work focused primarily on developing an arts-based cultural development curriculum and creating tools to share the stories of the participants through the creative arts as a medium. This curriculum has aided Brotherhood participants in using their creative arts to share their stories. Participants authored poetry and wrote about their personal experiences. The culmination of their work was presented at the production of “The Forgotten: A Look at the Lives of Young Black Men” a play that looks at the lives of four young black men as they face trials and tribulations within their communities. This production was directed and produced by Ms. Jones.

Please join the IPC in recognizing Ms. Jones for serving as a change agent.  The fruits of her labor will continue to bear fruit for years to come as community members become informed and engaged about the plight of African American males who are seeking to transform their lives and their communities.

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Free Speech Variety Show

By: UST Law Admissions

Published on: Thursday, May 10th, 2012

Adrienne G., rising 3L

Just in case you thought law students were boring… well, we’re not! In the past, the St. Thomas student body has showcased its talents to the public at large at the end of the spring semester. “Talent,” of course, is a relative term, especially for people who spend 90% of their time in self-imposed imprisonment in a law library. Luckily for us, Tommies are amazing even by normal standards… or at least entertaining. This year, to accommodate the wide variety of our (occasionally unorthodox) talents, we hosted the First Annual Free Speech Variety Show at Whiskey Junction. Read the rest of this entry »

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Women’s Advocacy Award

By: UST Law Admissions

Published on: Monday, April 23rd, 2012

Cari Haaland, Assistant Dean for Admissions and International Studies 

Alex (center), is pictured with classmates who also worked to form the nonprofit, Katie Wertheim and McKinzie Hopkins. Other students involved were Mike Biver and Kathryn Short, not pictured.

Alex (center), is pictured with classmates who also worked to form the nonprofit, Katie Wertheim and McKinzie Hopkins. Other students involved were Mike Biver and Kathryn Short, not pictured.

I attended an award ceremony on Thursday, April 19th where one of our current 3L students, Alex Campion, and one of our incoming law students, Lisa Johnson, both won the Pauline Lambert Women’s Advocacy Award for taking initiative in challenging problems that exist around gender issues. The awards were presented by the University Advocates for Women and Equity.  Our 3L, Alex, worked with a group of other law students to create the Center for Girl’s Leadership. www.centerforgirlsleadership.org

The mission statement reads, “Inspiring Girls Today to Lead Tomorrow” with a vision statement of “Leaders are not just defined by their titles or positions, but also by their actions. The Center for Girls’ Leadership believes any girl can be a leader at home, at school, and in her community.  We seek to empower girls today to pave a strong pathway to equality in leadership.  Girls are encouraged to create something extraordinary and to inspire others to do the same.”   The nonprofit organization hosted their first event on Saturday, February 25th at UST.  They invited high school and college women to the leadership workshop.  Read the rest of this entry »

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2012 Polar Plunge

By: UST Law Admissions

Published on: Friday, March 30th, 2012

Adrienne G. (2L)

As I write this I’m sitting poolside in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida for Spring Break, so a concept like jumping into a frozen lake for charity is even more completely foreign and insane to me than it was when I actually attended the Minneapolis Polar Plunge just a few weekends ago. However, there were some very brave souls from the University St. Thomas School of Law who took the plunge hosted at Lake Calhoun in Uptown to benefit the Special Olympics. Team St. Thomas Cat-Cicles included Read the rest of this entry »

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Annual UST Law/MBA Hockey Game

By: UST Law Admissions

Published on: Monday, March 26th, 2012

Adrienne G. (2L)

Early March saw the meeting of two historic rivals of Yankees-Red Sox, Axis-Allies caliber, minus the bombs and World Series titles. The UST MBAers met UST Law Fighting Apostles on the ice at the Augsberg Ice Arena for a game of historic proportions. I won’t talk about the score, because, well… it’s not important and the MBA team was probably cheating anyway.* Suffice it to say that the arena was full of energy, White Castle, and high spirits, possibly Miller Lite-induced. Read the rest of this entry »

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2012 MJF Chili Cook-off

By: Kate Snowdon, Assistant Director of Admissions for Recruitment

Published on: Monday, March 19th, 2012

2012 MJF Chili Cook-off winners, Debbie and Josh

2012 MJF Chili Cook-off winners, Debbie and Josh

Last Thursday afternoon the Minnesota Justice Foundation held its annual chili cook-off in the UST law atirum.  Students, staff and faculty cooked chili and judged the competition.   There were around 15 crockpots with unique chili and many hungry UST Law community members who attended the event.  The judges were Professor Organ, Professor Berg and one MJF student representative.

The winner of the Golden Ladle for 2012 was the Irish Chili made by Debbie and Josh (both 1L students).  The secret ingredient was potato pieces, which Debbie told us before the judging began that she added them by mistake!

All proceeds help fund the Minnesota Justice Foundation summer clerkship. Some of the chili names were Rummy in your Tummy, Dante’s Inferno and Chili James.  Chili ingredients ranged from vegan to pheasant meat.

Next year is sure to be a great competition as many of the chilies that placed in the top 3 were made by 1L students.

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Minnesota Women Lawyers: Hot Topics in Criminal Law

By: UST Law Admissions

Published on: Monday, March 12th, 2012

Adrienne G., (2L)

In lieu of their February general meeting, the Women Law Students Association (WLSA) recently helped sponsor and host the Minnesota Women Lawyers event Hot Topics in Criminal Law, featuring a distinguished panel of female attorneys who have practiced and made great strides in the criminal law field. Read the rest of this entry »

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Welcome to the second week of Lent

By: UST Law Admissions

Published on: Friday, March 9th, 2012

YouTube Preview ImageAdrienne G., (2L)

As a child, I hated Lent. I hated it with a fiery passion that burned with the stench of broiled fish sticks on Friday nights without even the cooling, creamy reward of Ben & Jerry’s for dessert. Because I had to give up ice cream, and for no good reason except that Jesus was mad about the whole crucifixion thing.

Since, then, however… and people tend to give me weird looks when I admit this… I’ve grown particularly fond of Lent. I know what it is now. Lent is a season of preparation. It’s still difficult, especially in law school. In addition to Lent, this is also the season of midterms, briefs, papers, job hunts, interviews, applications, class registration, and million other deadlines that must be constantly monitored and attended to. Amidst all of this, trying to keep track of what I do and don’t, am and am not supposed to eat or drink or do and when to do it or not should be complete overkill. Yet I like the focus that comes from a purposeful sacrifice. Read the rest of this entry »

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MN’s Maxiumum Security Institution offers tour to Criminal Law Association

By: UST Law Admissions

Published on: Thursday, March 8th, 2012

Kimberly S., Guest Blogger, Current UST Law student (2L) 

Members of the UST Law Criminal Law Association

Members of the UST Law Criminal Law Association

For the second year in a row, the UST Criminal Law Association secured a much sought-after tour of Minnesota’s only level five, maximum-security institution.  The prison opened in 1982 and primarily receives male offenders being transferred from other institutions.  These male offenders are classified as maximum custody or extreme risks to the public.  There are roughly 440 offenders currently housed within nine units: six of the units house 52 inmates each, and the other three contain the mental health, transitional health care, and the administrative control units.

The facility is a G.E.D. learning and testing center, and also offers an adult basic education program.  We had the opportunity to tour the educational part of the prison, various units, offender cells, and recreational rooms.  We also toured the segregation unit where inmates are held in their cells for 23 of 24 hours of the day. It was fascinating to learn that the guards treat these inmates like everyone else.  We were asked to be respectful and not stare into the cells.  The rehabilitative goal of this particular facility is to attempt to move the inmates through their five levels and transfer them to a lower-level custody institution.  Read the rest of this entry »

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On The Docket: UST Law’s “Free Speech Variety Show”

By: UST Law Admissions

Published on: Monday, March 5th, 2012

John S., Guest Blogger, 1L Student Government Representative

UST Law’s spring talent show is one month away. This year’s event is called the “Free Speech Variety Show.”

Presented by The People of The University of St. Thomas School of Law, the “Free Speech Variety Show” brings together all people of the School of Law to celebrate the expressive, impressive, and varied talents of our law school community.

Last Friday, Student Government officially put out its call for artists of all performing varieties to participate in the Show. The types of acts we would like to recruit include (but are not limited to) those who perform: Dance, theater, music, magic, puppetry, spoken-word poetry, impersonation, and stand-up, sketch, improvisational, or musical comedy.

For more event info, please see: http://www.facebook.com/events/363211463702119/?context=create.

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