Law School Updates

UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law

Bowen implemented some exciting programing in the last quarter of 2019.

In October, Bowen and Philander Smith College created a 4+3 pipeline for Philander Smith students who wish to attend law school at Bowen. In November, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Bowen created a 4+3 program for UAPB’s students. Students who graduate from these schools with at least a 3.4 GPA and 154 LSAT are automatically admitted to Bowen as long as they meet character and fitness requirements.

These partnerships recognize each college’s commitment to preparing students who aspire to law school and ensure that highly motivated graduates have spots at Bowen. Bowen professor andré cummings has been teaching an LSAT preparation class at Philander Smith College to students interested in attending law school. These programs, along with Professor cummings’s efforts, reinforce Bowen’s commitment to these colleges and to Arkansas communities.

In addition to these programs and other scholarship opportunities, Bowen offers a 25 percent tuition scholarship to accepted students who earned a bachelor’s degree from an Arkansas historically black college or university.

Bowen and the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts also have created the Arkansas State Court Fellows Program. This program, a collaboration between Bowen and the National Center for State Courts, recognizes the essential nature of court administrators in the administration of justice.

The program is open to all students with the exception of those expected to graduate in May 2020. Students selected for this program will receive additional training, certification as national court managers, and paid internships in the office of circuit court judges. The program is designed as a pipeline for law students interested in court administration, a position that increasingly requires successful applicants to have a J.D.

In addition to this Fellowship, Bowen’s Career Services Office will actively search, compile, and share job postings for court administrators in state and federal courts, particularly those requiring completion of a law degree, and assist interested students in their pursuit of a career in court administration. Dean Beiner

26 The Arkansas Lawyer l to r: Philander Smith College President Dr. Roderick L. Smothers, Sr. and Dean Beiner; Right, UAPB Chancellor Dr. Laurence B. Alexander and Dean Beiner

University of Arkansas School of Law

In spring 2019, we launched the University of Arkansas School of Law Summer Public Service Fellowship Program, which provides paid public service fellowships to promising law students interested in public service careers.

The students spent 10 weeks working for nonprofit, non-governmental, and government entities that could not otherwise afford summer interns. Through these partnerships, our students perform meaningful legal work while making significant contributions to the community, reinforcing the law school’s broader effort to fulfill the university’s land-grant mission.

Our eight inaugural fellows had diverse and meaningful experiences across a broad array of legal services:

Lexi Acello worked directly with low-income clients to help them gain access to quality civil legal services at the Center for Arkansas Legal Services in Fort Smith. Maria Baez de Hicks helped Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in Springdale study the barriers to access for those attempting to use government programs intended to address food insecurity. Derick Dillard attended hearings and client interviews and helped with writing and research on the proper application of U.S. Sentencing Guidelines as part of his work for the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Fayetteville.

Badria Mryyan helped create, research, edit, and share resources on human trafficking, the rights of undocumented immigrants, and public policy changes affecting immigrant families for the YMCA in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Clinton Summers observed hearings, did research, and drafted two opinions, one civil and one criminal, for U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush in Springfield, Missouri.

Mitchell Dowden served as the Tyson Summer Public Service Fellow while working at the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic in Boston, where he assisted on projects dealing with hemp, sugar, USDA grass-fed standards, bill tracking, and international date labeling. Marion Humphrey worked at the Center for Youth Justice in Washington, D.C., as the Squire Patton Boggs Public Service Fellow, where he tracked legislation and case law regarding the transfer and sentencing of youth under 18 in the adult criminal justice system and contributed to a joint policy brief on Latinx youth in the adult criminal justice system. Nick Linn, the Raffaelli-Lineberger Public Service Fellow, assisted trial attorneys with determining whether a variety of individual actions violated federal civil rights statutes while working at the U.S. Department of Justice – Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section in Washington, D.C.

I hope you will go to law.uark.edu/probono to learn more about these students and read about their experiences in their own words. Dean McCabe

(clockwise from top left) Nick Linn, Badria Mryyan, Marion Humphrey, Derick Dillard, Clinton Summers, Lexi Acello, Mitchell Dowden and Maria Baez de Hicks.

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