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September 2006

Welcome to The Drexel Docket – Drexel Law’s e-newsletter. The Docket brings you updates about the college; stories about what the faculty and students are doing; and news we think will be of interest to current and prospective students, pre-law advisors, co-op sponsors, alumni of the University, and friends of the law school. If you have comments or suggestions, please send them to us using the link at the end of this issue. We invite you to visit us at http://www.drexel.edu/law.

Drexel Law kicks off at Constitution Center Orientation

Dedicated to increasing public understanding and awareness of our nation’s Constitution, Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center lent the perfect backdrop to welcome Drexel Law’s inaugural class in mid-August.

First Things First

In addition to a warm welcome from Drexel Law’s first-year administration, students attended presentations on civil and criminal litigation, the roles of the different branches of government, professionalism, and sources of law. One of the highlights of Orientation for students was viewing the film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Students then engaged in a large-group discussion on legal ethics, followed by a discussion of real-life professionalism issues by local practitioners. Panelists included Janet Perry, director of professionalism and special counsel at Pepper Hamilton, a large firm with a national civil practice; Carol Shepherd, founder and partner at Feldman Shepherd, a 15-lawyer firm specializing in plaintiff personal injury work; Tom Gallagher, a partner at Pepper Hamilton who practices health care defense litigation; Elois Howard, who is the deputy district attorney in the Narcotics Division of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office; and Ellen Greenlee, chief defender with the Defender Association of Philadelphia.

“Each panelist is a distinguished and eloquent star in his or her own field,” said Drexel Law professor Chapin Cimino Cody, who moderated the panel discussion. “The students were completely engaged in the discussion and soaked up all of the insights they shared. We aim to make professionalism a big focus of their legal education, and the panel certainly got us off on the right foot.”

Time to Network

Students enjoyed small-group lunches with their faculty advisors and were able to view Constitution Center exhibits before being welcomed at a City Hall reception by City Solicitor Romy Diaz and President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas Darnell Jones, with many other judges and administrators in attendance. By the end of the three-day whirlwind, they were ready for a well-deserved weekend respite in order to gear up for the on-campus continuation of Orientation that began August 21.

A hearty official welcome goes out from Drexel Law to all members of the inaugural class as they begin their studies!

Drexel Law discusses Grisham’s A Time to Kill

Students and faculty may not have had much “time to kill” just a few weeks before Orientation, but many took a few hours out of their busy schedules to read and have an online chat about John Grisham’s novel A Time to Kill. Participants exchanged ideas over the relative merits of jury selection procedures, the effectiveness of the justice system, and whether or not the verdict in the story was realistic.

“It was a wide-ranging discussion about law, race and the jury system, and lawyer ethics,” said Acting Dean Jennifer Rosato. It was also an informal way for students and professors to get to know each other a bit, with some side discussions on law careers and questions on what to expect when classes begin.

Co-Op Spotlight: 
Montgomery McCracken’s Health Law Group

“Entrepreneurial Nonprofit Law.” The phrase is enough to catch anyone’s attention, but for Drexel Law – which will have core concentrations in both entrepreneurial business law and nonprofits, as well as health law – it lies right in the heart of the college’s mission.

That’s why the Health, Education and Nonprofit Law Group at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads was one of the first co-op placements Drexel Law enrolled. With one of the first and largest nonprofit law groups in the region, Montgomery McCracken has earned a reputation for broad experience in representing nonprofit organizations of all types and sizes, including schools and universities, private and community foundations, social service providers, cultural and religious organizations, trade associations, and advocacy groups.

Students who are selected for the Montgomery McCracken co-op placement will work primarily with Don Kramer, who founded the group and has more than 35 years of experience representing nonprofit organizations of all types, along with teaching, writing, publishing, and serving on nonprofit boards.

“I am looking forward to the start of the Drexel Law co-ops,” said Kramer, a Princeton University and Harvard Law School graduate who edits and publishes Don Kramer’s Nonprofit Issues, a national electronic newsletter on nonprofit law and governance. “There are so many things going on in the nonprofit sector these days, and the Philadelphia region has so many nationally prominent charities, that I think it is one of the most exciting and rewarding areas to practice.”

Students will also work closely with Catherine Gillespie, who serves as head of the group and brings graduate degrees in social work and public health to a practice that frequently involves issues in long-term care, and Virginia Sikes, a tax lawyer and member of the firm’s Management Committee who spends more than half of her time working with nonprofits.

National spotlight on Drexel Law at sentencing conference

Drexel Law and Philadelphia took center stage last month as the respective co-sponsor and host of the 2006 National Association of State Sentencing Commissions Annual Conference. Selected Drexel Law students were invited by several members of the Philadelphia judiciary to attend the conference, which featured more than a dozen sessions on sentencing attitudes, policies, research, alternatives, and outcomes.

Students Get Involved

“The conference was a fantastic experience for someone just embarking on his new legal career,” said Nick Pennington, a Drexel Law student who hails from Tennessee and is returning to school after working in luxury hotels in Manhattan and California for the past five years. “Sitting among lawyers, judges, and commissioners from all over the nation and the world allowed me a glimpse of all I have to look forward to after my three years at Drexel. The discussions of the legal, moral, and economic ramifications of imposing a proper sentence were riveting.”

Another student, Andrew Cole, said that it was interesting to hear different perspectives about the effectiveness of sentencing. “There seemed to be tension between the federal presenters and the academic and judicial presenters over whether the states were doing an adequate job in such areas as sex offenses and overall recidivism rates between federal and state jurisdictions,” said Cole, who serves as associate operations director for the Linguistic Data Consortium and is interested in criminal law. “The federal presenters argued that their lower recidivism rates indicated better outcomes, while the state judicial officers on the panel and in the audience argued that the larger range of state prosecutions allowed the federal courts to cherry-pick violations and cases.”

Professor Filler Provides His Perspective

Drexel Law professor Dan Filler, who was a featured presenter on juvenile sentencing, said he felt the conference was valuable to students because it brought together criminal sentencing professionals across several disciplines to address issues affecting every state and the federal government. “I think students gained a great deal simply by seeing the ways that lawyers address real problems and work together with other professionals,” he said. “They see that lawyers cannot be effective working alone; they fit into a larger scheme.”

Filler said he tried to illustrate during his own talk that criminal justice policy isn’t just produced by elected officials in Washington or Harrisburg – it’s often the work of local officials such as judges, prosecutors, parole officers, and social workers, who sometimes work around state law to produce fair and efficient outcomes in juvenile prosecutions.

In addition to gaining insight into sentencing issues, the participating Drexel Law students were able to meet each other and see the law in action. “The conference gave me a chance to meet many of my future colleagues, and each of them was excited about Drexel and its groundbreaking approach to legal education,” added Pennington.

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Wednesday, September 13, 2006 — Register Online

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