The Cardinal Lawyer -

Constitution Day 2009

j0chen24 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:08:36 +0000

Mike Wilkins, Preamble (1987). Featured in the University of Louisville School of Law's Constitution Day Picture Gallery.

The Law School celebrated Constitution Day on September 17. We take great pride in presenting an annual commemoration of Constitution Day on behalf of the entire University of Louisville. For the benefit of its readers, The Cardinal Lawyer reprises the two video presentations that comprised this year's program.

In the first video, Law School faculty discuss the appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Professors Laura Rothstein, Judith Fischer, Luke Milligan, Samuel Marcosson, and Cedric Merlin Powell and Dean Jim Chen, joined by Professor John McGinnis of the Northwestern University School of Law, ponder the significance of Justice Sotomayor's arrival on the nation's highest court. In the second video, Professor Joseph Tomain presents Fleeting Expletives and the Shadow of the First Amendment.

The Law School's Constitution Day page represents a year-round guide to American constitutional law. Whenever the anniversary of the Constitution is celebrated, we invite other institutions, throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky and elsewhere, to link to our Constitution Day page and to use the resources we have collected. Those resources include a 21-question constitutional scavenger hunt and a picture gallery depicting constitutional controversies throughout American history. Our page also includes archives of the Law School's Constitution Day programs from 2008 and 2007.

UofL law faculty discuss the confirmation hearings of Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Audio podcast —

Joseph Tomain, Fleeting Expletives and the Shadow of the First Amendment

Audio podcast —

The Law School flood relief fund

j0chen24 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:13:01 +0000

Many people in the Law School community were affected by the campus flood on August 4th. Among those who lost their belongings in the disaster, one student lost all of his books for the fall semester. Other students lost laptops and similarly expensive items. They needed to replace these books and computers in order to be fully prepared for their courses.

There is a way you can help. You can direct financial assistance to students who need help covering the replacement cost of items destroyed in the flood. If you would like to help by providing monetary support for a student in need, please contact Matt Williams at (502) 852-6381 or at matthew.williams@louisville.edu.

I know what you did last summer

j0chen24 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:49:18 +0000

The Law School openly acknowledges that preparing for a lifetime of economically gainful employment is a prime goal — arguably the prime goal — of legal education. Summer provides the perfect opportunity for exploring potential work settings. The Law School's multimedia site happily presents What I Did over Summer Vacation, a program in which upper-level students discussed their employment experiences during summer 2009 and offered tips and advice to new students just entering the job market:

Friday's incident at the Law Library: A summary

j0chen24 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:09:28 +0000

In addition to earlier postings on The Cardinal Lawyer (Trespasser apprehended and Further observations), these stories summarize Friday's incident at the Law Library:

Further observations on the Law Library incident

j0chen24 — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:55:02 +0000

Once again The Cardinal Lawyer wishes to thank the Law School personnel and University of Louisville Police for their swift and safe resolution of this morning's incident in the Law Library.

In the immediate aftermath of the campus shootings at Virginia Tech in April 2007, the University of Louisville convened a working group on emergency prevention, preparedness, and response. Among many other measures, this group created a student care team and implemented emergency procedures to be followed in the event of an active threat to campus safety.

The University, in short, has been preparing for an incident of this kind. We had hoped never to have been forced to use the protocols designed for these situations. Today the University had to use those protocols. Thanks to the vigilance of Law School personnel and UofL Police, a potentially dangerous situation was defused, and no one was harmed.

Trespasser apprehended for carrying weapons into the Law Library

j0chen24 — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:07:01 +0000

Note: The following announcement has been issued by the University of Louisville. The University and the Law School will provide more information as it becomes available. I hasten to add my thanks to those expressed below by Provost Willihnganz. Quick, clear thinking and action by Law School personnel and UofL Police kept our community safe today.

A former University of Louisville student and contract employee was apprehended by UofL Police this morning after carrying weapons into the Law Library.

UofL Police have arrested Thomas H. Irwin and charged him with carrying a concealed deadly weapon and with criminal trespass.

According to police, Irwin entered the law library at about 8:30 a.m. with two handguns and ammunition. After receiving a call from an employee, UofL Police arrived on the scene and escorted Irwin from the premises without incident. He was taken to ULPD headquarters for further investigation.

Irwin had been declared persona non grata by the university in December 2008.

UofL officials praised the law school employee who called the police.

“We have systems in place to protect our students, faculty and staff, and in this case the employee acted quickly and appropriately,” said Provost Shirley Willihnganz. “I also want to thank our police for acting quickly.”

The university will provide more details later today.

The second annual Conference on Innovation and Communications Law

j0chen24 — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:32:35 +0000

Update: We welcome you to live-Tweet the Conference on Innovation and Communications Law by using the hashtag #CICL2.

The University of Louisville proudly welcomes the second annual Conference on Innovation and Communications Law:

August 21, 2009, 8:00am – August 22, 2009, 5:00pm
Louisville Marriott Downtown
Registration cost: $100 · Register online

The University of Louisville is proud to host the second annual Conference on Innovation and Communications Law on August 21 and 22, 2009. The Conference, a follow-up to the 2008 conference held in Turku, Finland, is a cooperative effort of the University of Louisville School of Law, University of Turku Faculty of Law, Drake University Law School, Michigan State University College of Law, and the IPR Center in Helsinki, Finland. We also acknowledge and appreciate the support of Middleton Reutlinger and Stoll Keenon Ogden.

This year's conference will focus mainly on the role intellectual property and communications law play in the dissemination of information. As a result, discussion will focus on how the legal system helps (or hinders) the development of knowledge. For example, we anticipate one or more sessions dealing with licensing and franchising issues. Other topics include the role of intellectual property registration, the law governing trade secrets and confidential information, remedies, and the special case of university inventions and works. Many of the participants have come from outside the United States and will make presentations with an international or comparative perspective.

This season's final Red Barn Summerfest concert will benefit flood victims

j0chen24 — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:53:16 +0000

Many have asked about ways to deliver aid to individual victims of the August 4 flood. The University has just announced a benefit concert that addresses this very need:

♫ The final Red Barn SummerFest Concert will be a fundraiser for faculty and staff who suffered losses in last week's flooding. The concert, featuring The Vinyl Kings, is Friday, August 14, 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Doors will open at 4:30 p.m. The Vinyl Kings are one of Louisville's premiere rock/pop bands. They play the sound of the '60s and early '70s. Admission is free, but donations will be taken at the door and contributed to a university fund for faculty and staff flood victims. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Start your weekend off right — "Come Back to the Barn." This Friday, you'll enjoy good music and good friends for a truly good cause: restoring our UofL.

Orientation 2009

j0chen24 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:32:31 +0000

Law School orientation 2009 is in full swing. We began this morning with a special welcome that included two of the Law School's most distinguished alumnae:

The Honorable Sara Walter Combs, chief judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals (pictured at right).
Bonnie Kittinger, director and general Counsel of the Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions.

The bond between the Law School and its students — past, present, and future — is a lifelong covenant. We were very privileged to welcome Chief Judge Combs and Ms. Kittinger back to campus to lead a special ceremony that introduced our new students into the Law School family on their first day of a life in the law.

The Andrew Franklin Young Writing Award and Memorial Fund

j0chen24 — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 06:10:13 +0000

» Reprinted from the July 2009 issue of Kentucky Bench & Bar «

Andrew Franklin Young died tragically on March 19, 2009. In the weeks that followed, his classmates, friends, and family members contributed money to the University of Louisville School of Law to honor his memory. The class of 2009 dedicated the traditional class gift to Andrew's memory.

The Law School will maintain the Andrew Franklin Young Memorial Fund in honor of our friend and classmate. We will use money donated in Andrew's memory for the benefit of students of the Law School. The annual award for best paper by a graduating senior will be named the Andrew Franklin Young Memorial Writing Award. While he was still alive, Andrew was selected the writer of the best paper by a member of the class of 2009. In future years, the winner of the Andrew Franklin Young Memorial Writing Award will be awarded prize money, as financial circumstances permit, from the Andrew Franklin Young Memorial Fund.