DAYTON Lawyer U N I V E R S I T Y O F D AY T O N S C H O O L O F L AW | W I N T E R 2 0 1 1 – 1 2
FAMILY AFFAIR
DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVES
PRACTICE L A W Y E R S TOMORROW’S
LEARNING
GRAD TO TOP VIRGINIA COURT
Banners hanging in the Keller Hall atrium express the Marianist characteristics of mission, inclusivity, community, faith and Mary.
In This Issue 2 Dean’s Message 3 conversation pieces Not enough room for all those candles
4 BRIEFS Comings, goings and — always — innovation
7 expert instruction Getting attention with a cover letter and making use of the skills of a lawyer for nonprofit service organizations
8 WHY
DO PRACTItiONERS TEACH? They say they themselves learn as they help bridge the worlds of education and practice.
12 A DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVE
Students in Dayton’s unusual two-year program are also out of the ordinary.
16 ROUNDTABLE A first: UD law grad chosen as state supreme court justice
20 good works Blessed to be successful
The Dayton Lawyer is published by the University of Dayton School of Law in cooperation with the office of University communications. Send comments, letters to the editor and class notes to: Dayton Lawyer University of Dayton 300 College Park Dayton, OH 45469-2963 Fax: 937-229-3063 Email: lawyer@udayton.edu
Editor: Thomas M. Columbus columbus@udayton.edu Graphic designer: Jeff Ohl Photographer: Larry Burgess Graduate assistant: Maggie Malach ’11 Student assistant: Meredith Hirt ’13 School of Law communications specialist: Bob Mihalek Cover photo by Larry Burgess
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dEAN’S MESSAGE
Making law school worth it Today, law schools face very serious challenges. Some people — posing tough questions about jobs, starting salaries and the cost of legal education — openly wonder whether traditional legal education offers a good return on investment. The University of Dayton School of Law is addressing these challenges. Our faculty members consider new ideas and new approaches to legal education. We remain open to change, and we’re doing everything reasonably within our power to prepare our students to take the bar exam and be successful in their job searches. As technology changes the nature of law practice and higher education, creating new demands on how schools prepare students, we will work to ensure that we update how and what we teach to meet these demands. Change is inevitable, but we must also celebrate what we value and preserve. We have dedicated faculty members working very hard on bar passage, as well as a career services staff working tirelessly with individual students on job placement. Indeed, according to employment data published in a recent issue of The Ohio Lawyer magazine, we rank ahead of six of Ohio’s seven public law schools when it comes to placement of grads in full-time law jobs. In addition, our externship program continues to provide students with practical work experiences and opportunities to network with potential employers. As I have worked with students, staff and faculty, and met with alumni in Dayton and across the country, I have witnessed a commitment to community. Last year, when I arrived on campus
Happy birthday 222 CANDLES DON’T FIT An enthusiastic chorus of “Happy Birthday,” led by Paul McGreal, dean of the School of Law, rang out of the Mathias H. Heck Courtroom in Keller Hall. The singers were guests at Constitution Day, a celebration of the Constitution’s 222nd birthday. McGreal, in speaking about constitutional law, made use of the archives of former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. While on the bench, Blackmun, whom McGreal called “a tremendous pack rat,” saved much of his correspondence, now a great resource for scholars.
as a candidate for the dean’s position, I was impressed by how the idea of community is lived out among faculty, staff, alumni and the student body. So when I was deciding not just where I would work, but where my family and I would live, it was important to find a place rich in community, a place where we felt comfortable and welcomed. The University of Dayton School of Law is just that place.
CONVERSATION PIECES Not enough room for all those candles
Paul McGreal Dean, School of Law
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CONVERSATION PIECES
Birthing the law review
Traditions Another opening A “Red Mass” (red being a color associated with the Holy Spirit) is celebrated in conjunction with the opening of the U.S. Supreme Court. When the tradition, dating to medieval France and England, started in the United States, no Supreme Court justices were Catholic. Now six are. This year’s Mass in Washington’s St. Matthew’s Cathedral was attended, continuing a UD tradition, by Dean Paul McGreal and a contingent of UD law alumni.
Run Conte 5K vs. cancer
NOT TWO CENTURIES OLD YET This issue of the Dayton Lawyer reveals what happened to the editors of the first two volumes of the University of Dayton Law Review. Tom Whelley ’77, the first editor, is featured in our story on adjunct faculty. For what happened to the second editor, Jerry Madden ’78, see the inside back cover.
“We were all stressed.” —KRYSTAL MOORE ’10, NOW A STAFF ATTORNEY FOR JUDGE GAIL TUSON, FULTON COUNTY (GA.) SUPERIOR COURT, AFTER BEING ASKED IF THERE WERE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE EXPERIENCE OF SUMMER STARTS, LIKE HER, AT UD AND THAT OF STUDENTS PURSUING THE TRADITIONAL THREE-YEAR SCHEDULE
“To believe that the next step in dealing with the death penalty has to be a fair and honest reckoning with the legal system.” —BENJAMIN FLEURY-STEINER, A UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, WHEN ASKED WHAT HE BELIEVED TO BE THE TOP THING STUDENTS SHOULD TAKE AWAY FROM HIS OCT. 17 KELLER HALL LECTURE ON THE DEATH PENALTY
More than 150 people participated Oct. 9 in the Inaugural Conte 5K Classic, organized by the Student Bar Association in honor of the late Dean Francis J. Conte. The $3,000 raised will benefit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and help fund a memorial garden on the Keller Hall east lawn honoring Conte.
“The kind of education and service the law school offers is in the best tradition of the Marianists or of any religion that stresses service.” —JUDGE WALTER RICE, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO
“I’m Buddhist. The Marianist thing skipped me by; but I’d bet not many law schools teach you to the degree that Dayton does to remember you are representing people who only have this one case and it matters so very much to them.” —LAURIA LYNCH-GERMAN ’08, AN ATTORNEY WITH HODAN, DOSTER AND GANZER IN MILWAUKEE
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briefs News from Keller Hall
Alumni Weekend — awards, reunions and fun Four individuals in the School of Law community were honored Thomas Hurney Jr. ’83 2012 at Alumni Weekend, May 13 and 14, 2011. received the Francis J. Conte Alumni Terry Miller ’77 received the Distinguished Alumni Special Service Award, which weekend Award. Miller, the general counsel of the London 2012 Organizing recognizes an individual’s Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympics Games,
dedication to Marianist values
oversees the legal team that provides guidance for the operations
and community service. Since his
of the games. The Distinguished Alumni Award is given annually
graduation, Hurney has remained
to a graduate who exemplifies both professional integrity and a
involved with the School of Law and
commitment to community service.
regularly interviews students on
Helenka Marculewicz, the executive director of the Greater Dayton Volunteer Lawyers Project, received the Walter H. Rice Honorary Alumni Award. Since the organization’s founding,
4
May
18 & 19
behalf of his law firm, Jackson Kelly in Charleston, W.Va. Jeff Rezabek ’97 was the recipient of the Steven E. Yuhas
Marculewicz, who graduated from Boston University in 1967, has
Alumni Special Service Award. Rezabek, an active member of the
helped to provide service to more than 1,600 cases a year. The
School of Law’s Alumni Association, was commended by association
Honorable Walter H. Rice Honorary Alumni Award is presented to
president Judge Mary Kate Huffman ’90: “He is always there for his
an individual who has not graduated from the University of Dayton
community, for the law school and for the students.” The Steven E.
School of Law but who advocates the ideals of the School while
Yuhas Alumni Special Service Award is presented to a School of Law
contributing to the legal community.
graduate for exceptional involvement in the Alumni Association.
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Foley, Cole retire
Foley
Between them, campus minister Sister Mary Louise Foley, F.M.I., and registrar Linda Cole had compiled nearly half a century of service to the School of Law when they retired this summer. Of the students she served, Foley said, “They help people have a voice.” Cole, who sometimes referred to her job as herding cats or counting chickens, said as retirement approached, “This chick is getting ready to leave the nest.”
By the
numbers Cole
Student successes Students Jonathan Hall and DJ Swearingen earned the title of North American champions of international space law in a moot court competition in March. … Becky Boright McClennen ’11, who was chosen to be a student member of the American Bankruptcy Law Forum, received a Certificate of Excellence in Bankruptcy from the American Bankruptcy Institute for excelling in the study of bankruptcy law.
Tomorrow’s lawyers The University of Dayton School of Law has joined with 14 other law schools to participate
in a new consortium aimed at changing the way lawyers are educated in the United States. The
16: Books published by School
initiative, Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers, creates a platform for law schools to develop and share
of Law faculty, 2008-11
McGreal said that UD was attracted to the new consortium because it will provide a platform to
75: Articles published by law
innovative approaches to education focused on producing practice-ready lawyers. Dean Paul
conduct empirical research on the effectiveness of the new teaching methods and help develop assessment models.
“The University of Dayton School of Law,” he said, “has a longstanding commitment to
excellence and innovation in legal education.”
faculty, 2008-11
22: Articles published by law faculty 2011
In the news Thaddeus Hoffmeister, associate professor of law, explained whether the “CSI effect” swayed jurors in the Casey Anthony trial in an opinion article published on CNN.com. He wrote that programs such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation are thought by many prosecutors and legal analysts to create unreasonable expectations for jurors deciding fates in the real world. Within the first six hours of being posted, the article received more than 290 comments and nearly 400 Facebook recommendations.
Kloppenberg Award The School of Law renamed its Public Interest Award the Lisa A. Kloppenberg Award in honor of Kloppenberg, who stepped down June 30 after 10 years as dean. The award’s stipend helps support summer internships for law students — eight this past summer — working in the public interest.
Dean Paul E. McGreal was interviewed by Voice of America and on Comics and Gaming Monthly’s website about the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, which struck down a California law that criminalized the sale of violent video games to minors. Jeff Morris, the Samuel A. McCray Chair in Law, was extensively quoted in an article on ESPN.com analyzing the status of a $1 billion lawsuit against New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon and family in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.
Conte Fund to promote international studies
Jeannette Cox, associate professor of law, was quoted in an Associated Press article, “Supreme Court bars mass sex bias case vs. Wal-Mart,” analyzing the court’s decision to halt a class-action lawsuit against the retail giant in June.
The Francis J. Conte Fund for Interna-
tional Studies has been created to aid law students in international studies and to
bring scholars and practitioners to campus to make presentations. Conte, dean from
1987 to 2001 and professor of law until his death in 2011, spent the last decade of his career focused on issues of international
law, including immigration, human rights
Morris
Thomas Hagel, professor of law, was quoted in a Dayton Daily News article reporting on a controversial billboard People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, wanted to put up around Dayton. Hagel commented on the organization’s right to post the billboard, though he described the intended message as being in “incredibly bad taste.” Cox
Hagel
and European Union law.
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Faculty notes Susan Brenner, NCR Distinguished Professor of Law and
Sheila Miller, Susan
Legal and Ethical Issues of ‘Enhancing’ the Standards for
VanZandt presented,
University of Edinburgh School of Law.
of Buffalo Law School,
Technology, spoke at a workshop, “Implanted Smart Technologies: ‘Normal,’” June 9 in Prague. The workshop was sponsored by the Eric Chaffee cohosted the Midwest Corporate Law Scholars
Conference at The Ohio State University Mortiz College of Law June 15. During the conference, Chaffee also presented “The
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: A
Failed Vision for International Financial Regulatory Reform” and moderated a discussion on “Current Topics in Comparative and
Wawrose and Victoria
with Johanna Oreskovic “Guidance from the Bench and Bar” at the Second
Wawrose
Colonial Frontier Legal
Writing Conference “The Arc of Advanced Legal Writing: From
Theory through Teaching to Practice” March 5 at Duquesne School of Law.
International Business Regulation.” Chaffee and his colleagues
Vipal Patel was featured in a Dayton Daily News article commenting
Steven Davidoff of OSU plan to recast the event as the National
Patel, federal prosecutor and the chief of the criminal division
Barbara Black of the University of Cincinnati College of Law and Business Law Scholars Conference at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, tentatively scheduled for June 27, 2012.
Maria Crist presented
“Leadership in a Rocky Boat:
Strategies in Changing Times”
for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, was in Afghanistan this year as part of the U.S. Department
of Justice’s Rule of Law program. He served as an adviser to the
Afghan Ministry of Justice, Judiciary and other governmental and educational institutions.
at the Association of Legal
Denise Platfoot-Lacey presented “Self-Assessment, Millenni-
Sacramento in June.
Learning’s 2011 Summer Conference “Engaging and Assessing Our
Writing Directors Conference in James Durham and other
als & Learning Portfolios” at the Institute for Law Teaching and Students” June 2 at New York Law School.
members of the ABA Commis-
Vernellia Randall is organizing a yearlong series of webinars
a set of proposals for model
of 2011 being the United Nations’ International Year of People
sion on Ethics 20/20 finalized
standards on recognizing and Crist
on reaction in Afghanistan to the death of Osama bin Laden.
regulating practice by foreignlicensed lawyers in the United States. The commission also
recommended that the ABA encourage states to adopt the ABA’s
model rule dealing with lawyers’ admission to a state’s bar. Durham also represented the ABA’s Real Property, Trust and Estates Section on the Commission on Ethics 20/20.
Sam Han discussed “Man v. Nature: Monsanto and Genetically Modified Soy Beans” at CincyBIO 2011: The
Bioscience Event for Innovators and
Intellectual Property Professionals, sponsored by the Cincinnati
Intellectual Property Law Association March 8 in Cincinnati.
Pamela Laufer-Ukeles presented
relating to law as a social determinant of health, in recognition of African Descent. Each webinar includes perspectives from a health disparities professional, an expert in the particular
determinant (such as wealth) and a legal scholar in race and the determinant.
Tim Swensen published an
article, “How to Avoid Taking Another Bar Exam When
Relocating,” in the American Bar Association’s December/January edition of The Young Lawyer. Adam G. Todd discussed
“Effective Advocacy in an Era of
‘Truthiness’: An Examination of Recent Studies Demonstrating
That Facts Do Not Always Persuade” at the second annual Empire
State Legal Writing Conference on Teaching Legal Writing
“Cross-Dressers With Benefits: The
Effectively to Prepare Students
Role of Women in Combat Units in
for Practice at St. John’s School
the United States and Israel” at the
Han
Swensen
of Law May 13.
University of Baltimore’s fourth annual Feminist Legal Theory
Julie Zink has been named
Conference March 31. Laufer-Ukeles examined the topic of
president of the Dayton
women in the military.
Intellectual Property Law
Association, a position she will hold until June 2013.
Zink
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Getting a job or switching employers in this economy is hard. Just getting an interview is hard. An applicant needs a cover letter that helps persuade the employer to grant an interview. Carrie Cope ’90, a regulatory attorney in Park Ridge, Ill., who provides insurance counsel for companies, writes a monthly column, “Coping Skills,” for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. With a Cope perspective of what firms are looking for, she summarized for the Dayton Lawyer’s readers what makes an attractive cover letter.
1.
Tailor your cover letter to the job you’re applying for. Don’t use a generic letter
for every application; specialize it for that specific firm or practice area.
2.
“It interests me if you mention
something I’m familiar with,” Cope
said, “if you’re a UD grad or have done
something that involves my practice area.”
3.
Have someone else proofread for you. Cope sees many cover letters with
misspellings and typos or ones that are just
poorly written. “It gives the impression you won’t put in effort.”
4.
“It would catch my attention if someone
indicated awareness of the bigger picture
or mentioned business development,” Cope
said. “That has sophistication. Nobody’s ever done that; I would think, ‘I have to meet this person.’”
Lawyers have a distinct set of skills and knowledge. They work as members of a community that is both professional and committed to service. Graduates of the University of Dayton come from an institution where a sense of community and service runs deep. One of those graduates, Wayne Waite ’82, has applied his skills and knowledge — with his commitment to community and service — to the development of a nonprofit nongovernmental organization, Shoulder to Shoulder. Shoulder to Shoulder now serves more than 35,000 people in Honduras through a mission “to develop educational and health programs to help poor rural communities achieve sustainable development and improve the overall health and well being of their residents.” Waite offers insight on how the knowledge and skills of a UDSL lawyer can be brought to serve others:
EXPERT INSTRUCTION
Covering the cover letter
Creating real change
w Lawyers understand how things work. They also know what has to happen to create meaningful change. “Where children live on less than a dollar per day, poverty is urgent and the poor deserve an advocate. Our job is to demonstrably reduce poverty in a meaningful and measureable way.” Lawyers — and UD grads — have a sense of community and how a community works. “Unless you work with communities, you are not able to create meaningful change. Doctors can heal a patient, but lawyers who work with doctors can clear the way to create a health care delivery system.” Lawyers are at ease with controversy and can handle the uncertainty that comes with international development. “We have to constantly recall that if this work were easy, someone else would have already done it.” Smart lawyers recognize that serving others benefits them. “I encourage all my friends to join me on a trip. Each volunteer who experiences the face of poverty is changed forever.”
w w w
Wayne Waite ’82 is a managing partner at Freund Freeze & Arnold and has been volunteer president of Shoulder to Shoulder since its founding in 1996. Shoulder to Shoulder now operates two small hospitals and 10 remote medical centers in Honduras, providing primary care to more than 35,000 patients who live in extreme poverty. The organization hosts volunteers from Dayton and a number of other universities and is conducting research with the Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition. More information about the work may be found at www.shouldertoshoulder.org.
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When Thomas P. Whelley II ’77 and Judge Barbara Gorman ’77 take on their roles of adjunct faculty members, Gorman’s courtroom becomes a classroom where law students practice how to practice law.
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Why do practitioners teach? To give back. To help the next generation of lawyers. But also, many adjunct faculty say, because in their teaching, they learn. By Thomas M. Columbus photography by larry burgess
O
n Thursday evenings during the fall 2011 term, Montgomery
County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara Gorman ’77 could be found in her
courtroom with earnest advocates, unusual
juries and a serious matter to be determined.
The serious matter was the education of a group of men and
women who this year are law students and next year will likely be practicing attorneys. On these Thursdays in this section of
Civil Trial Practice, they were learning what it means to practice law. They were learning by doing. And as they were doing, they benefited from having what they did seen from three perspectives.
One was the perspective of Thomas P. Whelley II ’77, who
has team-taught the class with Gorman for more than two
decades. A partner in Dayton with Dinsmore & Shohl in its
litigation department, Whelley brings to class the perspective
of a trial lawyer, an advocate whose goal is to use his knowledge and skills to persuade the jury. So he advised these students, as
he does each year, “You can do anything in the courtroom that is not illegal, immoral or unethical.”
He also each year points out to them that Gorman brings
a different perspective, that of gatekeeper, of protector of the jury. “I care who wins,” he told them. “She doesn’t.”
And the students, as they practiced their future roles as
lawyers, had a jury of their peers, of sorts. The jury box housed other students in the class, so they were definitely peers. But
they were not functioning as a jury in deciding who won or lost but rather helping their classmates learn.
In the first week of class, the students make what Gorman
called “a sort of opening statement.” Besides gaining information about the students they will be teaching, the two profes-
sors learn something of the state of the class members’ skills at the beginning of the term. The last class simulates a trial.
“The transformation is amazing,” Gorman said. As the
course develops, students progress beyond their opening statements to direct examination, cross examination, examination
of expert witnesses, etc. Other practitioners bring their experience to add to Gorman and Whelley’s.
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“There’s not much lecturing,” Gorman
said. “We tell them what to read. They do the exercises.
“And the next year, they are in court.”
But this year they were in class, trying
Gorman and Whelley stress positive
also establish their own credibility in front
“Question No. 1 to our ‘jury,’” Gorman
of today’s culture, are likely to see the
criticism.
said, “is ‘What did you find persuasive?’” Whelley’s experience in practicing
to come up with an answer to the question
law has impressed him with “the genius
of a jury,” Whelley said.
of juries in making decisions in line with
of “how do you do this persuasively in front They pursued that answer each week,
step by step, doing individual exercises —
presenting evidence, examining witnesses, using experts. Students not involved in the exercise of a particular week sat in the jury
of the jury system,” with the competence the quality of persuasion they encounter.
“I’ve never won or lost a case I couldn’t
explain,” he said. “Runaway juries are the vast exception.”
The burden is on the lawyer to argue
box.
clearly and persuasively. “The lawyer’s re-
them, “they differ dramatically from a real
complex legal issues in layman’s terms.
With years of studying law behind
jury,” Whelley said. “So I tell them to re-
member what it was like before they started to study law.”
In addition to not having the same level
of legal knowledge as a real jury, they do not function as a jury does but rather give input on what may or may not be successful.
sponsibility,” Whelley said, “is to explain I haven’t encountered many legal issues that can’t be explained.”
What a lawyer must not do, he said, is
of a jury, who, influenced by the biases profession as not credible.
‘There’s not much lecturing. We tell them what to read. They do the exercises. ‘And the next year, they are in court.’ “Juries not only decide who wins,”
to talk down to a jury by saying, “This is
Whelley said, “they can tell who is not
intelligence: “This may sound complicated,
become credible.”
complicated.” He should give them credit for but you can figure it out.” Lawyers must
genuine. You have to be yourself and
“We tell them,” Gorman said, “‘Your
courtroom style should be based on your
personality. Don’t try to be what you’re not. If somebody else is flamboyant and you are quiet and logical, be yourself.’”
This can be difficult for beginning law-
yers who may be focusing on trying to banish the anxiety of facing a jury. And most are apprehensive about the experience,
Whelley said. An exception that proves the rule was a former student, a theater major
as an undergraduate, who had no problem with nerves and no difficulty assuming a
role. He had to work, however, on who he was himself as he faced the jury.
Gorman and Whelley encourage stu-
dents, as they seek their own style, to go to trials and observe the lawyers. “If you
like something,” Gorman tells them, “try
it here. You can try things here without a negative effect on the client.”
Part of the process of finding and using
the appropriate courtroom style is to become comfortable in the courtroom. “We want them to be comfortable looking toward a
jury box,” Gorman said. “We want them to
be comfortable with electronic equipment.” Students are not the only ones who by
the end of the course have benefited. “Every year I have to stay sharp on rules, on my
techniques,” Whelley said, noting that law
students are proficient at uncovering people who don’t know what they are talking about.
Learning to teach has also helped him
in his practice. “As a partner,” he said, “I’m responsible to help train lawyers in the firm.”
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them said they learned from the course.
practice. How much of a law student’s
no pedagogical training before beginning
good teacher.
much to doctrine is a debate, Rice said,
work, he said, “We talk about the same
learn themselves.
how do I make this case simple?”
you have to teach it to someone else,” said
teacher can be a bit intimidating. Mary Kate
trict Court, Southern District of Ohio, who
But unlike Gorman, who taught middle
school before her law career, Whelley had teaching as an adjunct. In his training
things that Barbara and I do. For example, The process of a practitioner becoming a
Huffman ’90, Montgomery County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court judge and president of the School of Law Alumni Association,
remembers clearly her first year teaching
For, a teacher whose students learn is a And good teachers, adjuncts say, also “You learn a subject inside out when
Judge Walter Rice of the United States Dis-
taught trial practice at UD for two decades.
“If you can explain what you do and why, it makes you better.”
And that is “extremely rewarding,” said
learning should be related to skills and how “that has waxed and waned for years.”
The two kinds of courses are different.
They differ in purpose. Rice pointed, for
example, to the difference between a law
student learning when he or she could make an objection in court — a matter of learning the substance of the law — and learning
when he or she should — a matter of learning the practice of the law.
The two types of courses also differ in
nearly a decade ago. After the course was
Ria Farrell Schalnat ’99, a patent attorney
how they are taught. According to Huff-
sociate dean for academic affairs, that she
with professor Julie Zink, has taught a cap-
methods work. A teacher can’t tell you how
finished, she told Kel Dickinson, then asdidn’t know whether she did it right.
“I can assure you,” she remembered him
saying, “that you did it badly.”
That was not quite the response she
expected. But his point was simple: No one is a good teacher at first. That takes years.
with Frost Brown Todd in Cincinnati, who,
stone course in patent litigation. “I feel like
I’m giving something to the next generation
subject through their eyes.”
cliché,” he said. “But that is exactly what a
much as the students when I look at the
Part of that benefit comes from stopping
discount the best and the worst (“There will
which pieces will be useful to the learning
ple who dislike you a lot”) but pay attention to those in the middle, seeing how many of
Rice praised the balance and the focus
of Dayton’s approach to legal education.
and looking at one’s experience practic-
always be people who like you a lot and peo-
to do a skill but can help you learn it.”
of lawyers but also that I’m benefitting as
He also gave her pragmatic advice on how
to use student evaluations, suggesting she
man, “Skills classes are where non-Socratic
“The Lawyer as Problem Solver sounds like a lawyer is.”
The bottom line, he said, is to serve
ing law, Schalnat said, and “discerning
“in the most effective, efficient and cost-
process.”
your client.”
Schalnat’s capstone course, like many
effective way to produce the best results for
n
of those taught by adjuncts, emphasizes
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A different perspective
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UD’s innovative two-year program is different.
Ganow
So are its students. BY THOMAS M. COLUMBUS
Scot Ganow’s old office has perhaps the best view in the city of Dayton. A westward-facing wall of windows reveals a panorama
including the Deeds Carillon, the Arena Sports Complex
and the downtown Dayton skyline. From his desk, Ganow could see raptors soar on massive up currents in front of a backdrop of blue skies and distant green hills.
As senior contracts and grants administrator for the
University of Dayton Research Institute, Ganow was among the first Research Institute employees moving into its new
home, the 1700 South Patterson Building, where its former owner, NCR, used to have its world headquarters.
Ganow, who joined the Research Institute after
graduation from the School of Law in May 2009, found the
Institute’s sense of community a wonder even greater than his office view.
“These people don’t leave,” he said. “And they don’t WINTER 2011-12
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leave for a reason. These folks are great. The Institute provides a
unique environment where people can do what they love and work
alongside people who share a passion for their work and UD. There
is indeed a sense of family. And UDRI is doing exceptional work that benefits Dayton, Ohio and the world. It really is.” Yet Ganow left.
The reason is both simple and complex. Ganow came to
the University of Dayton School of Law with a definite goal; he
wanted to practice law, specifically in the areas of data privacy and
privacy officer, I was getting the ball 99 yards down the field and they were putting it in. I realized I could do that.”
One day Ganow had a discussion with the outside counsel with
whom he worked — a person who later became a mentor — about
the possibility of going to law school. Ganow pointed out, “I’ll be 37 when I get out.”
The reply: “If you don’t go, you’ll be 37, too.”
Recently, Ganow had a conversation with one of his former
bosses on the value of an advanced degree. They
intellectual property. Thus, when an opportunity materialized
agreed, Ganow said, “It’s
to build a practice in these areas with Burton Law, he left the
not just the substantive
University to do so.
material. It’s the
The intense focus on a goal is a feature shared by many of
interaction, the collective
Ganow’s fellow graduates of the two-year program. Descriptions of
experience. You’re never too
the differences between students coming into the two-year program
old to benefit from that.”
and those coming into the traditional three-year program are
While Ganow gradually
generalizations rather than characteristics universal to each group.
discovered he wanted
And, since the two-year program’s first students graduated in 2008,
a career in law, Lynch-
there exists so far only a small sample for generalizing.
German said, “I always
But applicants to the two-year program do seem to have definite
characteristics. They are of nontraditional age. (“That is code,”
Ganow said, “for old.”) They are highly motivated. They have work
experience. And they are particularly concerned about cost, in terms of both money and time.
The ability to “get in and get out” was an attraction to Ganow,
who when he began law school was 35 and had two children. The
sidetracked.” She majored in
journalism, spent 14 years in that field and then worked as a private investigator. With a husband and a career and of a nontraditional age for law students, she decided she still wanted a career in law.
Having done work for Michael Ganzer ’81 of the Milwaukee firm
Hodan, Doster & Ganzer, she talked to him about law schools. He
to Lauria Lynch-
program, she was very interested. When she was not immediately
German, who
before starting law
school at age 38 was
working as a private investigator and
had, as she said, “a
recommended his alma mater. After learning of Dayton’s two-year accepted but wait-listed, she said, “I called and asked, ‘What do you want me to do?’”
The response was helpful. Since her application was five
months old, the admissions staff suggested writing a letter for the admission committee about what she had been doing.
“I was doing PI work on serious sexual crimes,” she said.
husband who wasn’t
Writing about that — and, like a good journalist, including quotes
out of college when
the attention of the admissions committee. She was accepted.
portable.” Three years he began law school, current student
James Kezele was
that she obtained from people saying how valuable she was — got In less than a month, she had to wind down her investigation business, find a place to live and move to Dayton.
When she arrived, she said, “I went to my room and then to the
younger; but, also
law school and became completely ensnared by the family values
work experience,
with remembered appreciation, if she knew where the local grocery
with a spouse and
he found the prospect of “getting back to work a year earlier” an appealing attraction of UD.
Ganow’s path to the practice of law grew out of his work
experience. As an undergraduate at Baylor University, he majored in premed. His career took him into the corporate world of health
attitude.” She was even asked by a helpful staff member, she said stores were.
That sense of community persisted through law school and after
graduation even though she claims that during her time at Dayton, “I was constantly in trouble.”
Nevertheless, “During my first year of practice, I talked to four
care data and technology. For five years before law school, he served
or five of my profs,” she said. “They were available, helpful and
counsel,” he said. “People would act like I was the lawyer.”
about something like an ethical dilemma.”
as a corporate privacy and ethics officer. “We didn’t have inside
Aware that he wasn’t a lawyer, he also noticed, he said, “as a
14
wanted to be a lawyer. I got
timeframe was
also a selling point
Kezele
Lynch-German
DAYTON LAWYER
WINTER 2011-12
made a great deal of fun of me. I can still pick up the phone and ask She contrasted that experience with those of some people she
knows from other institutions: “The first contact they have after graduation is from somebody asking for money.”
It was probably good that somebody from Dayton didn’t come
calling right away about opportunities available to her to support future generations of lawyers. Lynch-German was concerned
about her own income. When Ganzer offered her a job and named a salary, she called Dayton again, this time asking Tim Swensen, assistant dean and director of the career services office, what she should do about Ganzer’s offer. She did.
Of her aspirations before studying law, she said: “I wanted to be
the guy in To Kill a Mockingbird.” Her life now, however, is less that of a fictional lawyer and more that of a real one.
“I spend half my life doing research on arcane civil stuff,” she
said. “And I love it. It has the same adrenalin rush as in journalism with a higher sense of risk. As a journalist, if If I screw up now, somebody could go to jail.” And she likes her work environment. Of
Ganzer, she said, “He’s my friend; he’s my boss; sometimes it gets silly. I don’t know how to behave like an associate.”
That’s perhaps one reason she got a big
raise after her first year.
James Kezele doesn’t know what will
happen after his first year in practice. He’s now in his last year of law school. He’s
spending his time now studying to become
a lawyer and searching for job opportunities once he finishes at Dayton. He’s applying to midsize and large firms. And “working for
the government is one of my top choices,” he
He told them that law school is more work than a full-time job
and a lot more work than college. He told them of the large amounts of reading, digesting, analyzing and writing but added that, with
proper time management, it can be made a lot less daunting than it may seem.
Starting in May and finishing in May two years later can appear
even more daunting than the traditional path of three academic
years. That first summer, students have to hit the ground running with a heavy academic load.
His response was succinct: “Take it.”
you make a mistake, you write a correction.
animal. It’s difficult, but definitely doable.”
In their first fall term, summer-starts encounter a
phenomenon, observed by Swensen, that makes their job search a bit different from students on the traditional three-year path. As
the two-years return in the fall, they are suddenly aware that they
will graduate with students, the 2 Ls, who started 12 months earlier. And they notice that many of those other students are walking
around in suits, going to interviews. Without
The intense focus on a goal is a feature shared by many of Ganow’s fellow graduates of Dayton Law’s two-year program.
said.
With a degree in government and legal studies from Claremont
McKenna College and three years of postgraduate experience
working in the Environmental Defense Section of the Department of Justice under its Honors Paralegal Program, he has formed an
even having received grades for their first
term, the summer-starts have no record yet to present to prospective employers.
Nonetheless, early data on the two-years
as compared to traditional students indicate similar credentials on entering, similar performance while here and similar job
placement. The summer-starts’ job and life experience may give them an advantage.
Another phenomenon that differentiates
starting in the summer from starting in the fall is the simple fact that in the summer there are fewer people in Keller Hall. The
cohort is smaller; the classes are smaller.
Many of the students have the similarity of
embarking on a second career as well as family responsibilities. In that, and in the sense of
being pioneers in a new program, they may resemble those students who graduated in the early years after the School of Law reopened in the 1970s.
Class dynamics also differentiate a summer start from a fall
opinion of what to expect in such work.
start.
exceptional attorneys,” he said, “with a lot of mentoring abilities.”
professor of lawyering skills, “a student can go five or six weeks
“I loved working for the Department of Justice. It has
Kezele didn’t hurt his job chances by landing an externship last
summer with Chief Judge Susan Dlott, United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio. He found the research interesting, the
writing extensive and the opportunity to observe court proceedings enlightening. And, as for the mentoring, he said, Dlott is “an
“Sometimes in the fall,” said Lori Shaw, dean of students and
without being called on.”
With the summer classes for the summer-starts, each student
might be called on several times a week. “That heightens their intensity,” Shaw said. “It keeps them on their toes.”
She also sees an advantage they have in the summer of a greater
exceptional legal mind, and her full-time clerks are great attorneys.”
opportunity to meet with their professors. “Individual attention
Law in Dayton, which specializes in complex civil litigation and
several years.
Kezele also works as a law clerk for Richard Skelton of Skelton
federal defense work. That experience, Kezele said, “has provided
is important to them,” she said, many having been out of school And, “they take care of each other,” she said. “If a student
more great legal experience and legal mentoring.”
notices another missing a class he was expected to be in, he’ll
“What is law school like?” His answer: “It’s a different kind of
easier with a small group to see if somebody is left out.”
When he spoke to a UD prelaw class, he faced the question,
inquire about it. Everybody finds a slot in study groups — it’s simply
(continued on page 19) WINTER 2011-12
DAYTON LAWYER
15
roundtable 1978 Gilbert Gradisar of Upper Arlington, Ohio, recently became a shareholder of Zaino & Humphrey, a law firm based in Dublin, Ohio. Gilbert focuses his practice on litigation, health care and general business issues. Dennis Lieberman was featured in a question-and-answer article with the Dayton Business Journal in which he discussed trends in the legal industry and his career. Dennis is an attorney at Flanagan, Lieberman, Hoffman and Swaim, an adjunct professor at UD and coaches the school’s mock trial team. He received the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2000. Walter Reynolds received the 2011
Joseph Cinque Award from Dayton Law’s Black Law Students Association during a banquet March 18 in Keller Hall. Walter is partner-incharge of the Dayton office of the law firm Porter Wright. He received the School of Law’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008.
1979
Mark B. Koogler was named one of the top attorneys in Ohio in the category of corporate mergers and acquisition by Chambers USA. Mark is an attorney with the law firm Porter Wright. Working in the firm’s Columbus office, he is the leader of the firm’s mergers and acquisition practice group. James D. Piergies, a member
of the Montgomery County Municipal Court in Huber Heights, Ohio, is featured in an article in the Huber Heights Courier. Previously, he operated his own law practice, served as vice president of Progressive Paper Co. in Middletown, Ohio, was an attorney with the Labor Counsel and worked for the Spalla & Spalla Law Offices in Huber Heights.
Michael Strong has a chapter,
as general counsel and corporate secretary of a new stand-alone defense and information solutions company once it is spun off from its current parent company, ITT Corp. Ann is currently vice president of corporate responsibility for ITT Corp., which she originally joined in 2007. Prior to joining ITT, she held executive, legal and ethics and compliance positions at Alliant Techsystems, Honeywell and Parker Hannifin.
“Subrogation: Payback for the Insurance Companies — Or What the Insurance Companies Giveth, the Insurance Companies Taketh Away,” included in the new book A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing: What Your Insurance Company Doesn’t Want You To Know and Won’t Tell You Until It’s Too Late! On the day of its release, the book reached No. 1 in the insurance category and No. 42 in the personal finance category on amazon.com. Michael now operates a private law practice in Falls Church, Va. and Bethesda, Md.
1980
1982
Jeffrey Ireland was elected
Jane Lynch was selected to
Ann Davidson is expected to serve
the president of the Dayton Bar Association. Jeff is a partner and cofounder of the Dayton law firm Faruki Ireland & Cox.
16
This is the third year in a row a UD law alumnus has led the Bar Association. The previous two presidents were both 1977 graduates: Judge Mary Donovan of the Second District Court of Appeals in Ohio and Tom Whelley II, a partner at Dinsmore & Shohl. In a recent survey by Chambers USA, Jeff was ranked fourth in litigation in the general commercial individual category for Ohio.
DAYTON LAWYER
WINTER 2011-12
the Super Lawyers list in the 2011 edition of Ohio Super Lawyers. She is a shareholder of Green & Green Lawyers in Dayton. Jane
specializes in the defense of significant construction litigation, governmental immunity litigation and significant personal injury litigation.
company’s New York City base. He previously served as president of publishing at SPi and vice president of global data fabrication at LexisNexis.
1983
1984
Chuck Baldwin was elected to the board of directors of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., a labor and employment firm. Chuck is the managing shareholder of the firm’s Indianapolis office. He was selected as one of the top labor and employment lawyers in Indiana by Chambers USA Leading Business Lawyers in the USA (2004 to present), one of the Indiana Super Lawyers (2004 to present), one of the Best Lawyers in America (2007 to present) and named on the International Who’s Who of Management Labour & Employment Lawyers (2010). In 2009, he was inducted into the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a nonprofit professional association honoring the leading lawyers nationwide in the practice of labor and employment law.
Timothy Wood was appointed to the Montgomery County, Ohio, Domestic Relations Court. He replaced Judith King ’77, who retired, and will serve the remainder of her term, which expires Jan. 3, 2013. Timothy previously served as magistrate on the Domestic Relations Court and as a staff attorney on the Darke County (Ohio) Department of Human Services.
Sheila Kyle-Reno was selected as
the new public defender of Hamilton County, Ohio. Formerly the directing attorney for the Elizabethtown trial office of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, Sheila began her new position March 14. Previously, she served with Dayton’s Legal Aide Society; for AFSCME, a union for government workers; and as the deputy safety director for Columbus, Ohio.
Chris McGrath was named Citizen of the Year by the Inwood Civic Association in New York. Chris was honored for his community service. He is a trial attorney at Sullivan Papin Block McGrath & Cannavo in New York and a member of the UD School of Law Advisory Council.
Robert O’Dell was appointed
president and general manager of Jouve North America, where he is responsible for consolidating Jouve’s position as a leader in editorial and publishing services as well as e-book conversion. He will work out of the
1985 Kathryn Buono is recognized for excellence in her practice in the 2011 edition of the Chambers USA directory. Stephen Owens was appointed
state public defender by the Indiana Supreme Court.
1986 David White and his wife, Suzanne, announce the birth of their twin daughters, Lilybet Christina and Makayla Simone (1-4-11).
1987 Jackie Butler is running for a
seat on the city-county council in Marion County, Ind. A practicing attorney, Jackie has also served as a deputy prosecutor, sitting judge in Ohio and pro tem judge in Marion County.
Robert A. Skelton has been named to the Ohio Heritage Bank board of directors. He has served as board secretary since 2005 and is a founding director of Ohio Heritage Bancorp, the parent company of
Ohio Heritage Bank. He is a partner in the law firm Pomerene, Burns and Skelton and also serves as law director for the city of Coshocton, Ohio.
1988 Jim Burn was elected president
of Allegheny County Council in Pennsylvania in March. First elected to the council in 2005, Jim serves as chair of the council’s public safety and government reform committees and chairs the Allegheny and Pennsylvania Democratic parties. He served as the mayor of Millvale, Pa., from 1994 to 2005.
James Casey has been promoted
to executive director of the office of grants, contracts and industrial agreements at The University of Texas at San Antonio.
1989 Thomas Pinney was admitted to the partnership at the Philadelphia law firm of White and Williams LLP. Tom is a member of the firm’s financial restructuring and bankruptcy practice group. Michael Vough acted as the general chair of the Greater Pittston, Pa., Chamber of Commerce’s 91st Anniversary Dinner Meeting on May 11. Since 1992, Michael has worked as an assistant district attorney for Luzerne County in Pennsylvania. In 1991, he founded the Law Offices of Vough & Associates.
1990 Rich Benziger published a letter to the editor, “Destiny of a Cubs fan,” in the Chicago Tribune about his love for the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. Rich resides in Ewing, N.J. Carrie E. Cope is writing a
monthly column, “Coping Skills,” for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. The column addresses issues that lawyers face in law firms and has been well received in the Chicago area. Her column is republished on her firm’s website. Carrie is a shareholder and head of the insurance regulatory and specialty lines claim and coverage consulting practice areas at Schuyler, Roche & Crisham P.C. She also serves on the LexisNexis Insurance Law Center Advisory Board.
Donna Tweel was elected to the board of directors of the Warren County, Ohio, Arts and Culture
Taking it seriously Elizabeth McClanahan ’84 Most women can share stories about the competing demands of work and family. But the story told when Elizabeth McClanahan was sworn in as Supreme Court Justice of the Commonwealth of Virginia tops most. While in labor with her second child, she conducted a conference call, giving birth 10 minutes after hanging up. McClanahan, then chief deputy in the Virginia attorney general’s office, had left a midnight message for her boss. When he phoned her the next morning, “I thought they knew I was at the hospital and still expected me to do it.” Colleagues who spoke at her investiture ceremony on Sept. 1, her 52nd birthday, praised her strong work ethic. “My parents considered it a privilege to work,” said McClanahan, McClanahan a southwest Virginia native whose parents taught school Photo: Richmond Times-Dispatch and later ran a construction business. “It was a point of pride to get your work permit at age 14.” She never vacationed during spring or Christmas breaks from law school or college at William and Mary. “If you came home at midnight after two weeks of exams, you were still expected to be at work at 8 the next morning.” An expert in natural resources law, McClanahan spent 19 years in private practice in Abingdon, Va., before becoming chief deputy Virginia attorney general in 2002. She joined the Virginia Court of Appeals in 2003 and was serving her second term when the Virginia General Assembly elected her to a 12-year term on the Supreme Court. In appellate law, “if you enjoy an academic and intellectual challenge, it doesn’t get any better than listening to and reading the briefs of lawyers making their best arguments on both sides,” she said. But she’s looking forward to the more diverse caseload and greater number of civil cases the Supreme Court offers. An avid runner and a breast cancer survivor, McClanahan has learned to enjoy every day. “I’ve always been a Christian and believed in the hereafter, but when you see your name and the word ‘carcinoma’ on a piece of paper, you have to embrace the inevitable. Once you’re given a second chance, you do live every day to its fullest.” —Deborah McCarty Smith
Center. Donna is a partner with
try and his career. Jeff is the partner
Northern College of Law April 8.
lectual property practice group and
Cincinnati office, splitting his time
Women’s Bar Association and a part-
Dinsmore & Shohl in the firm’s intelcorporate M&A practice group.
1991
in charge of Faruki Ireland & Cox’s
between the firm’s Cincinnati and Dayton offices.
Valoria is president of the Ohio
ner at Kohrman, Jackson & Krantz, PPL, in Columbus.
1992
1993
question-and-answer article with
Valoria Hoover was a featured
Clay Athey, a member of the
discussed trends in the legal indus-
Issues in the Workplace,” at Ohio
announced that he will not run
Jeffrey Cox was featured in a
the Dayton Business Journal in which he
speaker at a CLE, “Navigating Gender
Virginia House of Delegates,
WINTER 2011-12
DAYTON LAWYER
17
for re-election. He assumed office in 2002. He is chair of the House Republican Policy Committee and vice chair of the Courts of Justice Committee.
Joseph F. Dinolfo was appointed
attorney with the Rochester, N.Y., office of the Mental Hygiene Legal Service for the Fourth Judicial Department. The legal service is an auxiliary agency of the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court. Previously, Joseph worked as a general law practitioner handling both civil and criminal matters and as a hearing examiner for the City of Rochester, where he presided over cases involving vehicle and traffic and municipal code violations.
1996 Patrick Merkel has joined the
firm of Cameron Worley, P.C., in Brentwood, Tenn. Prior to joining the firm, Patrick was chief counsel for fire prevention and law enforcement at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance and counsel to the Tennessee Motor Vehicle Commission.
Ron Raether participated in a panel discussion, “Solving Special Computer Security Issues,” at the second annual NetDiligence Cyber Risk & Privacy Liability Forum in Philadelphia June 9-10. His presentation built on his article “Data Security Breaches: Defining Measures Appropriate Under the Circumstances,” which examined how businesses can meet the legal and compliance obligations presented by the technical threats. http://www.ficlaw.com/site/ people/partners/links/4RIR_ DataSecurityBreaches.pdf
1997 Jeff Rezabek bowled 300 on April 13
at Thunderbowl Lanes in Englewood, Ohio. That day he also rolled 234 and 246 for a 780 series. Jeff has operated his Dayton law practice since 2003.
1998 Scott Jones was featured in a
question-and-answer article with the Dayton Business Journal in which he discussed trends in the legal industry and his career. Scott is an attorney with Graydon, Head & Ritchey in West Chester, Ohio, and
18
DAYTON LAWYER
WINTER 2011-12
an adjunct law professor.
Jason Miller published an article,
“A Four-Step Guide for Securing Patent Portfolios after Stanford v. Roche,” on the National Law Review website. The article presents four steps that colleges and universities should implement, based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Stanford v. Roche case in June 2011. Jason is of counsel at Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed in Orlando, Fla. He is also co-chair of the firm’s intellectual property group.
Brady Yntema is president-elect of the board of directors of Sanctuary House, which provides services for adults with mental illness in Guilford County, N.C. He has practiced law in North Carolina for more than 12 years and is currently a partner with Pinto Coates Kyre & Brown, PLLC.
1999 Patrice johnson Blakemore returned to Dayton to present “Effective Communication Tips for Women” in the School of Law’s Women in Law Speaker Series Feb. 17. Patrice is the founder and president of Blakemore Coaching, specializing in helping female employees maximize their productivity by increasing their confidence. She is married to Edward Blakemore.
Matthew Harper was elected partner at Thompson & Knight LLP. He is a member of the firm’s intellectual property practice group in Dallas, focusing his practice primarily in the areas of computer hardware, software, telecommunications and the Internet. Aaron A. Seamon was elected partner at Squire Sanders, where he serves on the financial services and corporate practice groups in the firm’s Columbus, Ohio, office. He advises financial institutions and public and private companies on a wide range of corporate and securities law matters.
2000 PETER DRAUGELIS was elected
partner at the law firm of Dinsmore & Shohl. Peter works in the firm’s corporate department in its Cincinnati office. In addition, he serves as president of the Oakley, Ohio,
Community Council, a member of the Cincinnati Academy of Leadership for Lawyers, and recently as the vice chair of the board of directors for Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Greater Cincinnati.
John A. “Tripp” Fitzner was elected to the board of governors of the 42,000-member State Bar of Georgia. John is the chief assistant district attorney of the Middle Judicial Circuit in Swainsboro, Ga. As chief assistant district attorney, he handles criminal prosecutions in five Georgia counties. Chad A. Sharkey joined the law
firm Morris, Manning & Martin of Durham, N.C. Chad is of counsel in the firm’s bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, commercial litigation and construction litigation practices. He previously worked at Smith Debnam in Raleigh, N.C.
Winifred Weitsen was elevated to of counsel at Venable LLP. She works in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office in its SEC and white collar defense practice, and focuses on defending companies and corporate executives facing criminal investigations, as well as civil and regulatory government enforcement actions. She also serves as vice chair of the DRI Government Enforcement and Corporate Compliance Committee.
2001 Greg Kaskey was elected a partner at the law firm Dinsmore & Shohl. Practicing out of the firm’s Dayton office, Greg focuses on real estate and business law.
Clarence Williams III was
honored by the State Bar of Georgia for his community service. He was one of the recipients of the Justice Robert Benham Awards for Community Service. He was nominated by his peers in the legal community for his continuous service to Houston County and the surrounding areas. Clarence is a solo practitioner specializing in criminal defense and civil litigation. He and his wife, Erikka Williams, live near Macon, Ga.
2002 John W. Gragg joined the law firm
Frost Brown Todd LLC. Working in the firm’s Louisville, Ky., office, John will practice in the Real Estate and Lending and Commercial
Services Practice Groups. Previously, he was general counsel and chief legal officer for Global Fitness Holdings, which operates the Urban Active fitness centers and is headquartered in Lexington, Ky. He also practiced with Stites & Harbison PLLC from 2002 to 2007.
2003 Dennis Harney was elected partner
at SNR Denton US LLP. Dennis is a member of the firm’s intellectual property and technology practice in its St. Louis office. He focuses on biotechnology and biochemical patent preparation and prosecution, including preparation and prosecution of patent applications. He also teaches Biotechnology and the Law at Saint Louis University School of Law.
2004 Cheryl Lynn Keggan announced the birth of her granddaughter Jenna Faith Keggan May 7 to parents Christopher and Amber Keggan. Jenna joins her big brother, Ean Christopher Keggan.
2005 Sarah Carter is included in the 25
Women to Watch in 2011 list compiled by the Miami Valley Women in Business Networking organization. Sarah is an associate in the business department of the Dayton law firm Pickrel, Schaeffer & Ebeling. She recently commenced a three-year term on the board of directors of the American Red Cross, Dayton Area Chapter and, in 2010, was recognized as a Dayton Business Journal 40 under 40 award recipient.
Anneka Bettker Collins was
named prosecuting attorney of Highland County, Ohio. She is the county’s first female prosecutor. Anneka has served in the Highland County Prosecutor’s Office since 2006.
John Langenderfer was elected
treasurer of the Greene County, Ohio, Republican Party in January. John is an attorney at Surdyk, Dowd and Turner in Miamisburg, Ohio.
Chris Seelbach was invited in
June to Washington, D.C., to participate in the White House’s celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. Chris, the CFO and vice president of the
(continued from page 15) Then, in the fall, she said, “They blend in.” national marketing consulting firm The Seidewitz Group, was elected to a seat on the Cincinnati City Council.
2006 Jude Byanski joined Hunter Law
Office, PC, in Fishers, Ind. After graduating from UD, he practiced in Ohio for three years before returning to his native Indiana in 2010.
Cori Stirling has joined Dinsmore
& Shohl as an associate in the labor and employment department in the firm’s Cincinnati office. Prior to joining the firm, Cori practiced in Faruki, Ireland and Cox’s Dayton office.
Sasha VanDeGrift is included in the 25 Women to Watch in 2011 list compiled by the Miami Valley Women in Business Networking organization. Sasha is an associate attorney at the Dayton law firm of Coolidge Wall, where she specializes in litigation. She is also the chair of the Dayton Bar Association Young Lawyers’ Division, maintains an active presence on other DBA committees and is participating in the DBA’s Leadership Development Program. Additionally, Sasha won the Ohio State Bar Foundation’s District 2 Community Service Award for attorneys 40 and under. She will formally receive this recognition this spring.
2007 Jason Hillard joined Dismore &
Shohl as an associate in the labor and employment department. He is practicing in the firm’s Cincinnati office. Prior to joining the firm, Jason served as an assistant prosecuting attorney in the Warren County, Ohio, Prosecutor’s Office, where he prosecuted a wide range of criminal cases.
Sheila Hughes was designated “Trustee of the Year” by the Atlantic County, N.J., Bar Association. She received her two-year term as a bar association trustee in June 2010. Sheila is an associate with Cooper Levenson, where she works in the firm’s Atlantic City office focusing on commercial and business law matters. Michele Thomas joined the
University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Library full time as a tenuretrack law library faculty member. After spending the 2010-11 academic year as a visiting professor, Michele was hired as an assistant professor of law librarianship and catalog/ reference librarian.
2008 Molly Bolek was sworn in as assistant prosecutor in Highland County, Ohio, where she grew up. She has worked as a caseworker for Highland County Children Services, a legal intern and hearing officer for Montgomery County, Ohio, Child Support Enforcement Agency and as special assistant prosecuting attorney in Fairfield County, Ohio. Michael Eshleman published an
article, “Prego Signor Postino: Using the Mail to Avoid the Hague Service Convention’s Central Authorities,” in the Oregon Review of International Law at the University of Oregon. The article discusses how to serve process abroad by mail.
2009 William Brendan Neal has
joined the Armstrong Law Office in St. Joseph, Mich., as an associate. His primary areas of practice are criminal defense, expungements, driver license restoration and CPS administrative hearings. He previously interned at the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C., and the Montgomery County, Ohio, Public Defender’s Office.
2010 Rebecca Greendyke and Stephen E. Schilling cowrote “How to Win
Ganow, Lynch-German and Kezele all pointed to a bond
beyond that which tied their starting cohort together in their
first summer, to a sense of community permeating not only the school but also the local bar and its relationship with UD. Long
gone are local suspicions from the founding days of the law school that Dayton grads pouring into a market — previously the largest city in Ohio without a law school — would provide unwelcome
competition with older law schools for local jobs. Present now is a culture of mutual support.
Jobs and salaries, however, are major concerns today as well.
The economic crisis that derailed the economy has across the
country hit the legal profession particularly hard. In the boom
times for the investment and banking industries, legal services
for those industries were in great demand. They competed to hire the best graduates of the nation’s law schools, thus driving up
salaries throughout the profession. Then the bubble burst with the aftershock rippling through the market for lawyers.
What the next economic cycle will bring, no one knows.
But it is clear that law school is a serious financial commitment
including time out of the workforce. By eliminating one year of lost income, Dayton’s two-year program provides a strong benefit to aspiring lawyers.
How many people will take advantage of it? The answer to that
question is also unclear.
“Recruiting for two-year students is different,” said Janet Hein,
assistant dean and director of admissions and financial aid. Since
the potential students are generally at least a year out of school and working, traditional methods of recruiting — such as on college
campuses — don’t uncover them. For example, Lynch-German said she did not know of Dayton’s two-year program until she applied. Getting the word out to those who may be interested requires
new techniques — perhaps through workplaces or through
advertising. In the words of Marianist founder Blessed William
Joseph Chaminade, often quoted by members of the University of Dayton community: “New times call for new methods.”
While the School discovers and pursues new methods to get
students to Dayton, the two-year students on their way out of
a CALI Award: Some Personal Advice from Two Law Students Who Have Done It,” which was published in the latest edition of the University of Dayton Law Review. Rebecca is a patent attorney with the U.S. Air Force and works at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. Stephen is serving as a judicial law clerk for U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett of the Southern District of Ohio in Cincinnati.
school appreciate an established method to get them from campus
2011
program: “She’s as enthusiastic as anybody can be about the bar
Jose Mauricio Rocha Grenier
that has advantages of cost and time. Its success will depend on
is pursuing a Master of Public Service and Administration with a Certificate in Advanced International Affairs at The George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. Jose married Jennifer Pence July 2.
to work: the Road to Bar Passage Program.
Of the bar exam, Lynch-German said, “You spend two years
cramming, and then you are expected to belch it out.” She said she was well-prepared, however, for the bar exam in her home state (“And Wisconsin has some goofy rules”) because of Dayton’s bar passage program.
“Becky Cochran,” she said of the law professor who conducts
the program, “was value-added, running around, smacking you up, making sure you did the work.”
Ganow shares Lynch-German’s opinion of Cochran and the
exam. All you have to do is show up and do the work. And it’s free!” The two-year program offers a path to becoming a lawyer
the interest of prospective students and the results it produces. Pursuing that two-year path requires a person to make a major
decision about interrupting what may be a settled life. Ganow put into a few words perhaps a major reason for doing that: “To me,
law school is an opportunity to build up skill sets but also to gain the autonomy to do what I wanted where I wanted. “Today I have flexibility. I like that.”
n
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DAYTON LAWYER
19
GOOD WORKS
Dayton was but a pleasant memory
W
hen 1984 University of Dayton School of Law
graduate Kathleen Donohoe Mezher met Michael
Mezher in 1981 on the first floor of Roesch Library,
neither one of them had much to their names.
Kathleen was just out of college, which she’d attended
on a volleyball scholarship. Michael, who had graduated
When they realized how much a part of their lives UD
had become, they established the Kathleen Mezher and
Michael Mezher Family Scholarship in the School of Law for Catholic students who exhibit the values and ideals central to the good practice of law.
“It’s a sign of appreciation and gratitude,” Kathleen
that spring with a degree in computer science, had just
said. “I was blessed to be successful with a good career and
a few years before from his native Beirut, Lebanon, which
and received excellent educations. My husband is particu-
started in the MBA program. He’d only arrived in the States was mired in civil war. “We both started
my own law practice. Now two of our kids have come to UD larly proud of the scholarship and is happy to give back to
at UD with a whole lot of nothing,”
Kathleen said. After
they graduated, they married, started a
family and built their lives in Cincinnati. Kathleen opened
Kathleen Mezher &
Associates in 1987 and now has five offices between Ohio and
Kentucky. Michael
moved into finance,
became a stockbroker and later became
president of an asset
Photo by Larry Burgess
management company. UD was but a pleasant memory of their first years together until daughter Christine
moved into Marycrest Hall in 2005.
“Over the years
since we graduated,
When Michael and Kathleen Mezher ’84 and their children, Michael ’10 and Christine (3L), realized how much UD had become part of their lives, they did something about it.
we hadn’t been back a
whole lot,” Kathleen said. “Our affection for UD just really
this institution that gave him his start. Mike believes in
to see how the campus had grown. It was wonderful to see
realize their dreams.”
rekindled. When I brought her to campus, it was very nice a crucifix in her dorm room, and she received such a warm welcome. That really left an impression on me about how different UD was.”
Suddenly, the Mezhers became UD fixtures. When
son Michael decided to go to law school, “UD was the
first choice for all of us,” Kathleen said. A 2010 graduate, Michael now practices with the family firm.
C
hristine, a 2009 English graduate, is now in her
third year in the School of Law, and Kathleen is on campus at least once a month for continuing legal
education and professional networking with the American Bankruptcy Law Forum, which meets in the Keller Hall atrium.
20
DAYTON LAWYER
WINTER WINTER 2011-12 2011-12
the gift of education so that others may achieve success and Now, the Mezhers are also serving the University as
alumni volunteers. In September, Kathleen and Michael, along with son Michael, co-hosted an event at Hyde Park Country Club in Cincinnati to introduce alumni to Dean
Paul McGreal and to encourage people to strengthen their ties to the University of Dayton.
“It was a good chance to network with other alumni in
the area,” she said, “but it’s also great to see alumni coming to the support of an institution that gave something to them.”
—Maureen Schlangen
Prepared for pressure The University of Dayton School of Law is no longer a fledgling institution, but it was when Jerry Madden ’78 arrived here. “It was a new school,” he said, “so there was pressure to do well.” He did. Having edited the law review and graduated first in his class, he served as law clerk to Chief Justice C. William O’Neill of the Ohio Supreme Court. Then he went to Washington, D.C., planning to return to Dayton, a city with which, he said, he had fallen in love. After five years of private practice in Washington, however, he stayed, beginning a career with the Department of Justice and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Through both the savings and loan crisis and the more recent financial crisis, he has served the government as counsel in many trial and appellate proceedings including a number before the Supreme Court. Today he is an attorney in the Appellate Litigation Unit of the FDIC’s Legal Division. He serves as the senior staff litigator advising the FDIC chairman and senior FDIC management on the foreclosure crisis. He still professes his love for Dayton — the city, the University and the law school. And, after a long career in the nation’s capital, he can look back and say, “I have litigated with and against attorneys from highly regarded law schools my entire career, and my legal education at Dayton has served me well.”
The University of Dayton School of Law educates lawyers well prepared to practice law and to serve their profession and their nation.
Call 888-253-2383 or log on to http://supportud.udayton.edu. Or send a check to: Dean’s Fund for Excellence University of Dayton School of Law 300 College Park Dayton, OH 45469-2961
for
WINTER 2011-12
DAYTON LAWYER
Photo by Stephen Voss
Dean’s Fund Excellence
21
then and now
University of Dayton 300 College Park Dayton, OH 45469-2961
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID DAYTON, OH PERMIT NO. 71
Clearly proven1 When asked about John C. Shea’s role in founding the University of Dayton School of Law, former mayor of Dayton R. William Patterson said in 1965, “In summation, you can record for apodictic assurance that the UD Law School was an efficacious educational facility.” Shea was dean from 1922 to 1932. New dean Paul McGreal now carries on that legacy. 1
Otherwise he would not have written “apodictic.”
Shea
McGreal