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The Family Law Clinic: A Student Advocate’s Perspective

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Working within the Temple University Legal Aid Office, Family Law Clinic has been, without a doubt, my most rewarding experience in law school. Temple’s Family Law Clinic gives law students the opportunity to work as a legal advocate for clients under the supervision of an attorney and law professor. This gives a student, who may have no prior legal work experience, an opportunity to work within a law office, as a certified legal intern. A certified legal intern works along side the supervising attorney interviewing and counseling clients, drafting and filing documents, negotiating with opposing parties or opposing counsel, and going to court and arguing on behalf of the client. Clinical work is supplemented with an academic course, in which students are taught substantive family law, complete case rounds, and discuss any issues or interests that may come up as a result of working within the clinic. What sets the Family Law Clinic apart from a typical law school course, an internship, or an externship, is the combination of academic study and practical application. For …

Walking While Black – A Reflection

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Before the beginning of my last semester at Temple Law, I braved a very cold, windy, and snowy day to take part in the screening of the documentary “Walking While Black: L.O.V.E. is the Answer.” The film attempted to take a balanced approach in discussing the deep-rooted problems in America when it comes to the distrust that many Black Americans have with law enforcement, and the dysfunctional relationship between the two. The film attempts to humanize the Black victims of injustices propagated by law enforcement by focusing on some of the incidents that have gotten a lot attention, and many that have not. The film also attempts to humanize members of law enforcement by using primary sources to give the viewer insight into what it’s like to be a member of law enforcement in this current criminal justice reform environment. Ultimately, the film ends with a call to action, for victims of injustices, their families and communities, to engage in a reconciliatory approach with members of law enforcement for the purpose of creating a relationship …

Feminist Judgments & The Future of Reproductive Justice

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One of the most memorable moments in a typical 1L student’s constitutional law class is the discussion around Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court’s treatment of the often controversial rights surrounding reproductive health and wellbeing. On November 13th, the students at Temple Law had the opportunity to hear directly from Sarah Weddington (lead counsel on Roe v. Wade) and Kathryn Kolbert (lead counsel on Planned Parenthood v. Casey). The panel, which also featured Professors Kim Mutcherson, Elizabeth Kukura, and David Cohen, focused on the questions presented by moderator Professor Kathryn Stanchi’s book Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinoins of the United States Supreme Court. The book poses the question “what would United States Supreme Court opinions look like if key decisions on gender issues were written with a feminist perspective?” It seeks to answer this question through a series of rewritten Supreme Court opinions on issues of gender, penned by scholars and lawyers. The panel began with Professor Kim Mutcherson, professor at Rutgers School of Law in Camden and author of the book’s rewritten Roe. Professor …

Being a Prepared and Flexible Advocate

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My law student partner and I recently represented a client at an arbitration hearing through the Sheller Center for Social Justice’s Advanced Social Justice Lawyering Clinic. Our client was a low-wage worker who had not been paid minimum wage and overtime by her former employer, for whom she worked for seven years. Her case had been ongoing for several years and she wanted a chance for her story to be heard — regardless of the hearing’s outcome. I was tasked with cross-examining the opposing party with an interpreter. To prepare for my cross-examination, I looked through depositions and documents, then crafted short and leading questions that I hoped would result in admissions that supported our case theory. The thing I did not anticipate was under what circumstances I would be conducting my cross-examination. Once it was time for my cross-examination, the arbitration had been in progress for approximately four hours and the panel was noticeably impatient. I wound up cutting a significant portion of my cross-examination on the spot because the witness was unable to read the documents that I’d …

Meet the New Dean of Students

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Eleanor Myers officially took over as the new Associate Dean of Students on January 3, 2017.  Kaitlin Perry, Associate Director of Student Services, interviewed Dean Myers to learn a little bit about her and what she is looking forward to in her new role. How long have you been at Temple Law? I have been at the law school since 1993. I have taught an array of Business law courses but my true calling is Professional Responsibility. I’ve always thought that the ethical choices lawyers make are the deepest and most personal decisions. I want students to understand you can be true to your personal moral and ethical standards and also be a very good lawyer. Haven’t you retired from teaching? I did retire, on the understanding that I would continue to direct the fall semester of the Intro to Transactional Skills course to the first-year day division students and teach in the Integrated Transaction Program (ITP) for two years. I teach with Professor Rob Bartow in the ITP program which I helped pioneer along with …

Liz Schultz

2L Liz Schultz Debriefs on the Equal Justice Works Conference & Career Fair

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Last Friday, I attended the Equal Justice Works (EJW) Conference & Career Fair for the first time. To be honest, I primarily went to hear Justice Kagan speak. As Co-Chairs of the EJW National Advisory Committee, Jojo Choi and I also helped out with some behind-the-scenes work. However, I was so blown away by all the amazing experiences I had while I was there, I will definitely return next year! As a 2L, hearing Justice Kagan speak was truly moving. I teared up hearing her talk about Justice Thurgood Marshall. She recounted that being Solicitor General was his favorite job because he loved to say “I’m Thurgood Marshall and I represent the United States of America.” (I even teared up typing that—law school has fanned an unexpected patriotic wildfire in me!) She kept the whole room laughing for the entire hour. After explaining that one of her duties as the junior justice is to serve on the cafeteria committee, she admitted that her successful advocacy for the clerks’ desired dessert earned her the nickname “the …