All posts tagged: Featured

Temple University Beasley School of Law's Professor Margaret deGuzman sitting on the judge of the Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals.

Are Juries Worth the Effort? A View from the International Bench

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At this year’s Edward Ross Lecture in Litigation, the Honorable Rebecca Pallmeyer, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, addressed the important and controversial topic: are jury trials worth the effort? Judge Pallmeyer’s answer was an unequivocal “yes.” She argued that juries are not merely useful tools for adjudicating cases, they are integral to the legitimacy of the American legal system. According to the Chief Judge, jury trials are one of the reasons that Americans respect the law. In her view, juries are often perceived as more impartial than judges, bringing diversity of experiences and perspectives to the resolution of cases. She emphasized that participation in the jury system promotes confidence in the system’s fairness.  Judge Pallmeyer’s views comport with conventional wisdom about the importance of juries. As every American knows, jury service is an essential duty of citizenship. According to a Pew Research Center Survey, two-thirds of U.S. adults consider jury service integral to good citizenship. District Court Judge Zach Zouhary begins trials by telling jurors that …

Three law students discussing a contract

How ITS Has Guided My Legal Journey

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When I first decided to attend law school, I knew that I learned best by doing. I hoped to gain the practical skills required to advocate zealously for my clients, whether in the boardroom or the courtroom. I never imagined that I would learn right from my first semester and that’s why I am a huge believer in Temple Law’s Introduction to Transactional Skills (ITS) course for first year students.    ITS is a multi-week session for first year students that immerses students in the art of dealmaking. Working in teams of two, students represent either the chef or the financier, tasked with negotiating terms and drafting contracts to create a hypothetical restaurant that aligns with their client’s needs. Through my participation in ITS, first as a student and then as a Teaching Assistant (TA), I have learned many skills that have tremendously helped in my legal career so far and continue to shape me into the lawyer I wanted to be coming into law school.    As a student in the ITS program during my …

Putting Lawyering Skills Into Practice Through Community Legal Services’ (CLS) Youth Justice Project

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This summer, I worked with Community Legal Services’ (CLS) Youth Justice Project (YJP) under the supervision of Temple Law alum Tracie Johnson LAW ’18. YJP works with young people across the range of legal needs they experience. This allowed me to learn about and work on a variety of issues, from helping clients get probation fees waived to researching the legal standard for “recklessness.” What made the work particularly impactful was getting to help clients solve their individual legal problems while also working towards structural change to address the injustices at the heart of those needs. One of my main assignments was representing a client in a hearing to determine whether they could continue to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. This allowed me to put crucial lawyering skills such as client interviewing, analyzing records, case strategy, and oral advocacy into practice. However, this work went beyond addressing one client’s needs. I also assisted with a roundtable that allowed community organizations who help people apply for SSI benefits to share their experiences directly with congresspeople …

How Earning an LL.M. Can Help Internationally Trained Lawyers Gain Practical, Legal Work Experience in the U.S.

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Ally Lamson, Esq. is Temple Law’s Assistant Director for Global Legal Studies. She supports international LL.M. students by providing career advice for both domestic and international opportunities, such as reviewing resumes and cover letters, searching for jobs and internships, and conducting mock interviews. Prior to this role, Ally worked as a family lawyer and assisted her firms in hiring legal talent. If you have any questions or would like to connect with Ally, you can email her here. Q: How can earning an LL.M. help internationally trained lawyers gain practical, legal work experience in the U.S.? A: It’s common for students to look for legal work experience in the United States while they are in law school or immediately following their LL.M. degree, even if they intend to return to their home countries to practice law. Here are five ways in which foreign-trained lawyers can best position themselves to acquire meaningful exposure to the U.S. legal profession. Select an LL.M. program with options: Many LL.M. programs develop practicums specifically for their LL.M. students, which involve …

Unpacking the Race, Gender, Disability and Class Implications of Juvenile Detention Decisions

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Race, gender, disability and class based injustices happen to our nation’s teens every day, in the mundane decisions that probation officers, caseworkers, and judges make, usually out of public view. An article in Pro Publica documents a judicial decision to detain a 15-year-old Black girl for violation of her probation. The violation involved her failure to properly attend her online school program and keep up with her assigned homework. The judge, citing a “zero tolerance” for probation violations, incarcerated her in May, 2020, in the midst of a massive disruption to the school lives of every American teenager. The decision was made without testimony by the girl’s special education teacher, who had to leave the online hearing to fulfill her other teaching duties. Studies make clear the disproportionate impact of race in all aspects of the juvenile justice process. Those involved in the process tend to see Black teens as more mature and therefore more culpable for their behavior than white teens of the same age. Juvenile detention also disproportionately impacts teens diagnosed with ADHD …

My Philly Neighborhood: Passyunk Square in South Philadelphia

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When I’m not in class or studying in the law school library, I am enjoying time in my South Philadelphia neighborhood. My brother has lived in Passyunk Square in South Philadelphia for years and suggested I look for housing in the area. I quickly found my apartment on the real estate website, Zillow. I live on my own in a one-bedroom apartment and rent is around $1,600 per month. I chose to live in Passyunk Square because it’s charming, safe, and an easy commute to school. Each morning I walk 5 minutes to the Ellsworth-Federal station and ride the Broad Street Line (BSL) to Temple’s Cecil B. Moore station. The entire commute is around 20 minutes. It was important to me to live in a neighborhood near the BSL so that I don’t have to transfer between subway lines or trolleys to get to school. Living near the BSL also makes it easy to get to shopping and dining in Center City, though I often walk. There is a lot within walking distance in Passyunk …

School Discipline Advocacy Service | Student Organization Voices Series

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Your Name: Araesia King Graduation Year: May 2021 Name of Organization: School Discipline Advocacy Service (SDAS) Position in Organization: Program Director   TLS: When did you join this organization? AK: I joined SDAS as 1L last year. Getting involved with SDAS was actually one of the reasons why I was excited about coming to Temple. I knew that I was interested in education law and this organization is a great way to learn the basics. I had looked up the program before coming to the school and made sure to sign up at the student activities fair. TLS: Why did you decide to join this group? AK: I chose to get involved with SDAS because it is a great way to interact with the community that I hope to work with in the future (students in the public school system and their families). I also was looking for a way to do some community service during my time here at Temple. TLS: What is your organization’s mission? AK: The organization operates in three schools in …

Teaching, Engaging, Achieving, and Motivating

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“Lift as you climb.” As I embark on various endeavors and gain knowledge, skills, and experiences, I feel morally obligated to use the resources I have acquired to help others progress and succeed. Throughout my undergraduate education and law school, I have become keenly aware of the lack of diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.  Specifically, there is a shortage of African-American attorneys and few African Americans and minorities in leadership roles within firms, companies, and organizations nationwide.  One way to address this issue is through opportunity and exposure. Since 2015, I have created five educational programs for minority students. The majority of my programs were created and implemented for students in the Greater Philadelphia area.  My latest initiative is the Teaching; Engaging; Achieving; Motivating program (T.E.A.M.), which I facilitated in Willingboro, New Jersey. T.E.A.M. was launched in January 2019 for 50 middle schoolers in Willingboro, NJ. The 14-week program consisted of 60-minute sessions held on Friday mornings at Memorial Middle School.  Students learned basic criminal law and criminal procedure including Miranda rights, police …

Learning to Ask

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I don’t even know what I don’t know. This was my mantra my entire 1LE year… and maybe even for a few of my 2LE classes. Law school is essentially a process to break down and rebuild the way you think and analyze information. As a 1LE, one of the first things you do is to spend hours pouring over the Bluebook, the citation reference guide for legal writing, trying to figure out how to cite cases that you hope are applicable to the paper you are writing. You also spend hours reading lengthy, wordy, Scalia dissents that have no bearing on the major takeaways from the case you’re reading, but that will be helpful to know down the line. More than likely, you are also in the throes of trying to figure out the different elements of ‘negligence’ and why a word that once seemed so simple, suddenly seems so complex. There’s also the added pressure to know those elements before Monday, because you’re on call and will need to answer questions in front …

My Philly Neighborhood: Commuting from the Suburbs

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I grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, but was always drawn to the city itself. When I enrolled in Temple Law, I was excited to throw myself entirely into city life. I thought that during my time at Temple Law, it was essential for me to live in the geographic boundaries of Philadelphia. However, I quickly realized that this was not the case. Living in the suburbs as a Temple Law student is actually a very real possibility. We all know that law school can be expensive, and for me, living in the suburbs was a way to offset some of that expense. Luckily for me, my parents still live in the same suburb where I grew up and were willing to have me move back home after years of living on my own. As a current third-year law student, I commute to Temple Law every day using Septa’s Regional Rail System. The Regional Rail has trains that run from Philadelphia to the western suburbs, northern suburbs, and even New Jersey. I take the Paoli-Thorndale …