s | b | a CHICAGO-KENT STUDENT BAR ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
November 22, 2021
Announcements
Fitness Center Lockers: Please note that the fitness center lockers are not for overnight use. The lockers are only to be used while you are using the Fitness Center. Items left overnight may be thrown out.
Judges’ Panel Recording: Last week SBA hosted four sitting Cook County Judges to discuss their careers and positions on the bench. The Judges have kindly agreed to let us share the recording from the event for you to view that you can find, here.
Holiday Happy Hour: Looking to destress before finals? Interested in learning how to make cocktails to impress family and friends? Want to join in a virtual happy hour from the comfort of home?
Join us for a virtual cocktail hour on Thursday, Dec 2, from 7-8:30 PM! The cocktails are riffs of classics with some winter ingredients for a fun twist! No previous cocktail experience necessary, and if you don’t have equipment at home anything with a sealed lid will do (tupperware, mason jar, travel mug, etc). If you want to skip the cocktail part, feel free to BYOB and just mingle virtually with fellow students.
Ingredients list:
1) Gin, cranberry juice, lemon juice, simple syrup (1/2 c. sugar & 1/2 c. water, heated until dissolved), heavy whipping cream, soda water (lacroix/bubly/etc), egg (optional)
2) Whiskey, orange bitters (for example, angostura), sugar, pomegranate seeds, fresh rosemary sprig (optional), orange wheel (optional)
Join us Dec 2, 7-8:30 – https://cutt.ly/SBACocktailHour
Fall 2021 Student Tech Survey: Help the Chicago-Kent Tech Team improve your digital education & classroom teaching tools by sharing your experiences & feedback. The survey is anonymous, but requires your kentlaw email to access to validate your student status. Please respond by Friday, 12/3/2021 at 5pm.
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Survey link: https://forms.gle/5UrdRcPYsoPmEYLf7
Note: If you would like to report issues and receive a personal response, please contact our helpdesk account, which includes our IT, audiovisual, and digital education support staff. The survey won’t allow individual responses.
Fall 2021 Exams: For more information about exams this semester, please visit the following links:
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Exam Quick Guide-Remote Exams
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Exam Quick Guide-In Person Exams
Barristers’ Ball Survey! We are very excited to announce that the Barristers’ Ball is a GO this year! For those who do not know, the Barristers’ Ball is an annual event held at most law schools towards the end of the school year. The event is hosted by SBA as a school-wide formal affair- you might have heard it referred to as "Law School Prom." This year is very special, especially to all of the 3Ls, since this event has been canceled for the past two years. That being said, we want to make this year’s Barristers’ the biggest celebration it can be while ensuring it is as safe as possible for every student in attendance. We all deserve a special night to celebrate our accomplishments throughout this crazy covid law school experience we have all had. If you could take a minute and complete this survey so the Barristers’ Committee can plan as carefully as possible, I know we would all greatly appreciate it. Thanks and see you all at Barristers’!
Fall Clothing Drive, now through 11/30/2021 (note the changed date): Parents and Caregivers at Chicago-Kent (PACCK), The Chicago-Kent Racial Equity and Advocacy Alliance (REAA), and Women in Law (WIL)—in partnership with the Design Museum of Chicago—are pleased to sponsor a Fall Clothing and Toy Drive to benefit The Women’s Treatment Center (TWTC) in Chicago. TWTC served as the sole substance abuse treatment center in Illinois focused solely on women and specializing in treatment framed and informed by women’s issues. However, the pandemic forced TWTC to shutter its physical space, and many women were displaced. While TWTC has found new arrangements for many of the women and children it serves, these women and their children remain in need of clothing in general—and toys (!) for this upcoming holiday season. PACCK, REAA, and WIL ask you to open your hearts (and your closets!) and donate this fall to support these women and their families as they transition through recovery. The Design Museum will accept donations now through November 30, 2021. You may donate via drop-off, delivery, or mail, directly to:
TWTC
c/o Design Museum of Chicago
72 E. Randolph St.
Chicago, IL 60601
Upcoming Conferences:
Please join the Office of Continuing Legal & Professional Education virtually for these upcoming webinars! They are all free to Chicago-Kent students but registration is required. Click links below to register.
Thursday, December 2 – Friday, December 3, 2021
37th Annual Illinois Public Sector Labor Relations Law Conference
This program is eligible for up to 7.5 hours of general CLE credit, including 1.0 hour of Mental Illness Awareness credit, pending approval. This event is free to Chicago-Kent students when you enter the discount code CKCLE1 during checkout.
Student Organizations
American Bar Association (ABA):
If you would like to be more involved in the ABA or make the most out of your free membership, register for an account here and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions! Some benefits of that account include:
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Free Membership in up to 5 Sections, Divisions, and Forums
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Access to ABA Advantage Programs
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Free content
And if you go for the premium $25/year membership, you also get:
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ABA Career Forward Powered by Korn Ferry Advance
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After the Bar digital publication
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ABA Bar Bundle Prep (discounts to various prep services)
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ABA Legal Ethics Bundle (MPRE Prep)
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90 Day Free Trial of Quimbee Gold Plan with up to 50 case briefs
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Free JD Advising 1L sheets, discounts on tutoring and law school resources
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Access to leadership opportunities and national competition
ABA Announcements
The 2022-2023 Law Student Elections application period is now open!
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Our student leaders are the voice of law students in the American Bar Association. Council members can learn leadership skills, advocate on behalf of their peers, and make connections with attorneys across the nation.
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As a member of the council, you’ll be representing law students from coast to coast. You’ll also have the opportunity to attend the next two ABA Annual Meetings, the ABA Midyear Meeting, and other events such as attending the Young Lawyers Division spring conference.
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Applications to run for these positions on the council are now open! The deadline to apply is January 14, 2022, at 12noon.
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Division Chair
Join us and submit your Law Student Division election application today!
Jewish Law Student Association: Come join the Jewish Law Student Association (JLSA) to celebrate Hanukkah, have some sufganiyot (traditional jelly donuts), and mingle with other students before finals. December 1st, 9am-2pm, Room 704. Open to everyone, stop in for as little or as long as you can. Hope to see you there!
Labor & Employment Law Society (LELS): Join LELS and the First-Generation Law Student Association on November 23 at 5 p.m. to chat about your plans for next semester and beyond! We will be discussing registration for the Spring 2022 semester, general course planning, and tips for outlining and exam prep, so bring your questions or concerns. The Zoom link can be found on the SBA calendar.
National Lawyer’s Guild: NLG Brown Bag Lunch Series with Attorneys Melinda Power and Candace Gorman: Come together with VETERAN RADICAL ATTORNEYS. Learn how they shaped their careers, the movements they have been a part of, and their advice for law students now. From Standing Rock to Guantanamo there is a role for lawyers to play in resisting the system and building solidarity with radical peoples movements at every stage of our careers. Come learn from those who have gone before and are still paving the way! This is an opportunity for students to come and ask practicing attorney’s questions about movement lawyering, and social justice lawyering in today’s landscape. Bring your lunch and your questions!
Where: Room 704 or on zoom: https://bit.ly/3kmuBb4
When: Tuesday, Nov. 23, 12:30-2
Candace Gorman:Gorman has won a unanimous decision before the United States Supreme Court, taken on pro bono habeas corpus petitions for two men being held at Guantanamo, and was invited to be a visiting professional at the International Criminal Court at The Hague focusing on reparations for victims of war crimes. Recently, Gorman’s focus has shifted to suing the city of Chicago and several detectives for a wrongful incarceration case on behalf of Nathson Fields, a man who had been sentenced to death and spent 18 years in prison and on death row for a crime he did not commit.
Melinda Power: Melinda Power of the West Town Law Office practices criminal defense, civil rights, domestic relations, and works especially closely with the Puerto Rican community and on false arrests and police accountability. Her commitment to movement lawyering has seen her represent Puerto Rican independence activists, anti-Gulf War and anti-NATO demonstrators, striking workers, radical feminists, Black Lives Matter activists, and Standing Rock Water Protectors among others. Melinda has been an NLG member for over 40 years.
Upcoming Events
NOVEMBER 23rd: NLG Brown Bag Lunch Series with Attorneys Melinda Power and Candace Gorman
NOVEMBER 23rd: LELS Next Semester Chat
DECEMBER 2nd: SBA Holiday Happy Hour
More events may be found on the SBA calendar. Please make sure you are accessing via your Kent email address.
Resources
Writing Competitions: Interested in submitting a paper to a competition? The law library has created a guide to student legal writing competitions. For more information, please see the library blog post about the guide.
Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (IICLE) Writing Contest. Find out more information here.
From ASP: 1Ls: Listen from students and faculty on what strategies they used for academic success: https://youtu.be/wQquU7OyoTI
Events to Remember:
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Date & Event |
Description |
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Month of November, Native American Heritage Month/Indigenous People’s Month |
Native American Heritage Month was originally celebrated as a week-long celebration in 1986. Since then, every US President has issued annual proclamations designating November as a time to celebrate the culture, accomplishments, and contributions of people who were the first inhabitants of North America. The Chicago area is located on ancestral lands of indigenous tribes such as the Council of the Three Fires, comprised of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations; the Miami; Ho-Chunk; Menominee; Sac; Fox; Kickapoo; and Illinois Nations. To learn more, see the resources linked below: Native American Heritage Month Events |
Birthdays & Special Days – November/December:
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November 1 |
Hailey LaMay, 2L |
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November 2 |
Tayrn Trusty, 3L |
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November 3 |
Erin Monforti, 3L |
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November 3 |
Stephen Cruz, 2L |
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November 6 |
Professor Mary Nagel |
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November 11 |
Aleathea Williams, 2L |
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November 13 |
Erin Granger, 2L |
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November 17 |
Ian Murray, 2L |
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November 18 |
Claudia Wojslaw, 2L |
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November 20 |
Chelsea Smith, 2L |
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November 22 |
Julian Verdream, 2L |
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November 22 |
Zelpha Williams, 3L |
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November 23 |
Jonah Brandhandler, 2L |
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November 24 |
Professor Kari Johnson |
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November 24 |
Monika Nasiadka, 2L |
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November 28 |
Valeria Lopez-Fernandez, 2L |
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December 1 |
Mairead DeWitt, 2L |
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December 2 |
Shiny S. Patel, 2L |
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December 4 |
Donna Elias, 3L |
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December 6 |
Greg Kelley, 3L |
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December 10 |
Alyssa Lanier, 2L |
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December 12 |
Madeline Moore, 2L |
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December 13 |
Alisha Panthier, 1L |
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December 13 |
Devin Ross, 2L |
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December 16 |
Eleni Galanopulos, 3L |
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December 17 |
Carmen Otubsin, 2L |
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December 18 |
Teona Pipia, 2L |
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December 19 |
Vanessa Makris, 2L |
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December 24 |
Julia Veeser, 2L |
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December 29 |
Haley Zobel, 2L |
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December 30 |
Hayley Loufek, 2L |
*if you wish to share your special date with the student body, click here