We are just a few short weeks into the semester, and the Law School is a flurry of activity.  Last week, we dedicated the Trial Lawyers’ Hall of Fame, an interactive display featuring some of the nation’s most prominent and powerful advocates.  That the National Trial Lawyers Association selected Temple as the home of its Hall of Fame is strong affirmation of Temple’s continued nationally renowned strength in advocacy training.  We were honored to hear from one of the Hall’s inductees, Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Click here to read more about Mr. Dees’ remarks and the challenge he issued to the audience.

This week, our own Professor Jaya Ramji-Nogales was joined by her co-authors, Georgetown Professors Andrew Schoenholtz and Philip Schrag, as the three presented to a packed room from their book, Lives in the Balance:  Asylum Adjudication by the Department of Homeland Security.

In Lives in the Balance, the authors analyze a database of 383,000 cases to better understand the effect on grant rates of a host of factors unrelated to the merits of asylum claims. The authors also examine the degree to which decisions were consistent among the eight regional asylum offices and within each of those offices.  The findings are exciting, compelling, and make a strong case for legislative and policy changes to improve the asylum decision-making process.

The 2014-2015 Trial Team selections have been finalized and the team is already hard at work preparing for an intense fall competition schedule that includes the NITA Tournament of Champions, the Peter J. James National Civil Rights Competition, the Puerto Rico Trial Advocacy Competition, and the Buffalo-Niagara Invitational Competition.  Our Moot Court season also gets underway this weekend with the opening rounds of the Samuel Polsky Moot Court Competition, from which we will draw the members of our Moot Court Honor Society for the coming year.

Next week, we welcome to Temple Law Nancy Updike, award-winning producer of the popular NPR show, This American Life.  Nancy has filed stories from around the globe, and brings both an international perspective on current events and an expert touch in crafting a compelling narrative.

The school year is off to an exciting start, and we look forward to more inspiring and informative events.