DePaul Law News

Professor Havel's Dublin lectures cap IALI's successful year

International Aviation Law Institute — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:08:22 -0500

Professor Brian F. Havel, academic director of the International Aviation Law Institute, delivered his first lecture as newly-appointed visiting professor of law at Leiden University Law School in the Netherlands on May 13.

The topic was sweeping, The Legal Regime Governing Trade in International Air Services, and effectively allowed Professor Havel to review an entire semester's worth of material in an intensive three-hour session. The students are enrolled in the Advanced Master of Laws (LL.M.) Program in Air and Space Law at Leiden's International Institute of Air and Space Law. Professor Havel will return to Leiden to give further lectures in September and November 2013.

Professor Havel will be in Dublin, Ireland, in the week beginning June 17, 2013, to present a new course in international aviation law at University College Dublin (UCD), where he was also recently appointed as visiting professor of law. The course, which he will co-teach with UCD lecturer Noel McGrath, is specially designed for aviation professionals. Ireland is one of the leading world centers of aviation corporate finance and also the home state of the international aircraft registry established under the recently-effective Cape Town Convention. As well as presenting a complete overview of trade in international air services, the course will include modules that are specifically focused on the acquisition and disposition of aircraft under that convention.

In mid-July, Professor Havel will complete his historic two-year term as Keeley Visiting Fellow at Wadham College, University of Oxford, before returning to Chicago.

DePaul celebrates launch of the Chicago Public Interest Staycation

DePaul University College of Law — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:34:17 -0500

By Adrienne Packard, Assistant Director, CPIL

Most agree that the time we spend in law school provides an opportunity to learn the letter of the law, make lifelong friends, and gain invaluable experiences in our field of interest. It is also important to take advantage of the opportunity to learn the practice of law and to experience the full benefit of providing service to those in need.

Several law students learned this firsthand during the inaugural Pro Bono Staycation held over spring break in Chicago. Rather than spend their spring break relaxing or traveling, Kevin O’Donnell (’13), Brooke Tucker (’14), Jennifer Thomas (’15) and Sylvia Zarski (’15) decided to work with the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services and The Center for Disability and Elder Law (CDEL). The students started off the week at the Legal Aid Society where they assisted the family law practice group in wrapping up their open files and shadowing attorneys in court. By having the students close cases, attorneys were able to focus more of their energy on the advocacy aspect of their work, rather than the administrative. They also provided the students opportunities to see firsthand the daily work of legal aid family law attorneys.

The students spent the remainder of their week volunteering with CDEL, where they interviewed clients and assisted in drafting powers of attorneys for healthcare and property for low-income senior citizens as part of CDEL’s Senior Legal Assistance Clinics. Despite the fact that the services provided by the students spanned the course of only a few days, participants were able to see the immediate impact of their work and walk away knowing they had helped clients with something they may not have accomplished on their own. These clients, who were elderly and spoke limited English, worked with the students and interpreters to complete and execute documents that, if needed, will make their care and protection seamless.

Tom Wendt, legal director at CDEL, explains the impact and importance of student volunteer service: “Having students in our office allows CDEL to provide services to a greater number of low-income seniors and people with disabilities. As a volunteer-based organization, CDEL literally could not exist without the dedicated volunteers that offer their time and talents to CDEL and its clients.”

Wendt advocated for students to commit to regular volunteer work. He maintains, “The impact that volunteering has on the students is really three-fold. First, student volunteers learn valuable, practical legal skills, which can augment the more theoretical learning in the law school classroom. Second, it provides students with the opportunity to hone various skills, [such as] drafting, interpersonal and client-relations skills, etc. Finally, volunteering at an organization like CDEL provides students with an introduction into the world of pro bono legal service, something that they can take with them into private practice.”

Although DePaul offers many opportunities for students to participate in spring break service projects outside the Chicago area, the Staycation is unique in that the work is provided in our own backyard. Cheryl Price, director of the Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative, explains it best: “One of the wonderful things about the pro bono Staycation is the opportunity to work locally with programs in the Chicago area and with client populations in our local community. Although you can provide service anywhere, working outside of the Chicago area does not provide the opportunity to build relationships with community partners or potential future employers in the Chicago area.”

"Law matters," Richard M. Daley to DePaul University law graduates

DePaul University College of Law — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:11:43 -0500

Richard M. Daley, who served as mayor of Chicago for 22 years, delivered the commencement speech May 19 at DePaul University’s College of Law. Daley earned his law degree from DePaul in 1968 as well as a bachelor’s degree in 1964. He cited his DePaul education as “the foundation on which my career has been built.” (Photo by Thomas Vangel)

In remarks to graduates from DePaul University’s 100-year-old College of Law, Richard M. Daley described the law as “the rulebook for society.”

The former Chicago mayor, who earned a law degree from DePaul in 1968, told graduates “When you change the rulebook, you can literally change how the world works.”

He noted that the law “is more than statutes and rules and regulations and proceedings. It is the architecture that determines how we interact with one another. Like any other kind of architecture, if you change the design, you change the outcome. Do you want to change the world? Then you change the law.”

Citing his 22 years of experience as Chicago’s mayor and nearly 10 years as the Cook County State’s Attorney, Daley used the issue of gun violence to illustrate that there are “intriguing legal questions” at the core of some of today’s social challenges.

“In the time since I received my DePaul law degree, over 100,000 children and teenagers have been killed by guns in the United States of America…. I’m not going to tell you that there are easy answers to the problem of gun violence. There are not. But I will ask you some legal questions.

“Should it be easier to buy a gun than it is to buy a car? Why is the gun industry shielded from liability when no other industry enjoys such protection? If some other product were killing thousands of children every year, would Congress and its citizens issue the manufacturers of that product blanket immunity? If a gun shop repeatedly sells guns that end up in the hands of criminals, should that be a criminal offense?” Daley posed.

“These are obviously difficult and divisive questions,” Daley said. “My message today is simple: How you answer these legal questions will affect who gets killed on our streets. The law matters.”

He continued, “Those of us who study law — including all of our new graduates here today — must recognize that laws have consequences. They shape society. They determine how we interact with each other and with the rest of the world.

“You graduate today as our nation is facing a new set of challenges…. You will leave here today with more than a graduate degree. You will leave here with an understanding of the most powerful lever that we have for improving America and the world,” Daley said. “And that is the law.”

Conferring law degrees on 314 graduates was the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, president of DePaul University. Introducing Daley was Gregory Mark, dean of the College of Law, which is celebrating its centennial.

Article reprinted from DePaul Newsroom.

Click here for photos of the 2013 College of Law Commencement Ceremony, or view a webcast of Sunday's event.

Justice Ginsburg speaks at DePaul's tricentennial celebration

DePaul University College of Law — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:17:00 -0500

From left: Interim Provost Patricia O'Donoghue, Dean Donald Casey (Music), Justice Ginsburg, Dean Ray Whittington (Business), Dean Gregory Mark (Law).

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in Chicago May 10 to help DePaul celebrate the centennials of three of its schools -- law, business and music -- at an evening event featuring live opera selections and discussion about how law is portrayed in them.

Ginsburg, an opera aficionado who has appeared onstage in cameo opera roles and studied the intersection of opera and the law, provided commentary for the event at the Chicago History Museum.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Ginsburg's presentation in its coverage of the centennnial event.

Alumna named Lawyer of the Year by DuPage County Bar Association

DePaul University College of Law — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:30:41 -0500

Wendy Musielak (BUS '99, JD '03) was named DuPage County Bar Association's Lawyer of the Year in recognition of her long-standing commitment to the DuPage County Bar Association (DCBA) and DuPage Association of Women Lawyers.

Musielak is a partner at Esp Kreuzer Cores LLP where she concentrates her practice in family law.

Musielak received the award at the 2013 President's Ball at Danada House in Wheaton. "Wendy has been invaluable to the DCBA," said outgoing DCBA President Sharon Mulyk. "When it came time to make a decision for Lawyer of the Year, the choice was an obvious one."

She also serves as chair of the membership committee and a member of the planning committee for the DCBA. Musielak is a director for the DuPage Association of Women Lawyers and a fellow with the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois.