FSU College of Law Juris Master Program on LinkedIn: #fsulaw (2024)

A decade ago, six for-profit law schools accredited by the American Bar Association enrolled more than 5,000 aspiring #attorneys across the U.S. That number has since dwindled to about 900 and may soon plummet further as the shine has worn off the for-profit model.Half of the for-profit law schools operating in 2013 have shuttered amid waning demand and accreditation problems, one has converted to nonprofit status, and another — Charleston School of Law — is currently seeking to become a nonprofit.That change would leave just one American Bar Association-accredited for-profit law school in the country: Western State College of Law at Westcliff University in Irvine, California, which has about 300 students. Karen Sloan has more: https://reut.rs/493oDDH#lawschools #lawstudents #legaleducation #legalindustry #legalnews #legal

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"As someone who didn't have a clear path into appellate law and who didn't even do a judicial clerkship, I realize just how fortunate I am to have found that career path. But as a mentor I'm hoping to change that for other law students." - Jody Sanders, appellate lawyer, TAP mentor, and donorThe Appellate Project is dedicated to guiding and supporting the next generation of diverse leaders in appellate law. Your contribution can help turn aspirations into achievements for law students from backgrounds underrepresented in our legal industry.Why Your Support Matters:* Empower Aspiring Lawyers: By donating, you provide mentorship, education, and vital experiences to talented students, helping them navigate their career paths in appellate law.* Promote Diversity in Law: A more representative legal field enriches legal discussions and decisions. Your contribution ensures that more voices and perspectives are heard in appellate courts, enhancing the justice system.* Invest in Tomorrow's Leaders: Your support today is an investment in the future. These students will become the advocates, judges, and policymakers shaping our legal landscape.Your donation, no matter the size, can ignite a lifetime of change. Join us in supporting these future changemakers. Donate now and be a part of creating a more inclusive and dynamic future for our appellate bar, here: 👉 👉 👉 https://lnkd.in/ddAdMJC#GivingTuesday #MentoringMatters #nextgen

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Here is my first fellow update for my Equal Justice America fellowship:As I finish my first month at Mobilization for Justice, I have learned so much about the housing rights law landscape in NYC. It is a maze with constantly changing paths, creating new patterns we have never seen before and integrating them with unique paths we have not yet walked. As a rising 2L stumbling my way through this system, I see seasoned attorneys just as confused as I am by ever-evolving regulatory schemes. I see how they work every day to apply those schemes to the lives of tenants, all of whom have different stories and problems, in a way that humanizes their experience and advocates for their right to housing.I could only imagine how the tenants feel navigating this system without legal knowledge–that is until Monday, when we did in-court intake. To interact with so many tenants facing eviction and learn about their situations was a stark reminder that the things we learn in law school are things that can house people, or unhouse them. Every law, every piece of legislation, every court opinion, has a practical and lasting effect on the lives of real people, and that effect reverberates outward often infinitely. It is the job of lawyers like those at MFJ to protect these people, to champion the well-being of low-income New Yorkers, and keep them in their homes. It is a reminder that a legal education is a privilege that all law students should be thankful for. No matter how hard it is. We should be thankful that we are being equipped with tools to protect ourselves, and we should employ those tools in the service of others. It also means that we should support tenant advocacy organizations to help people understand their rights and protect themselves, as well. One organization I would like to highlight is Right to Counsel NYC Coalition, which is tenant-led, broad-based coalition that formed to disrupt Housing Court as a center of displacement and stop the eviction crisis: https://lnkd.in/eduETx-3To help EJA support future law students working toward the goal of providing equal access to justice for all, you can donate here: https://lnkd.in/epFYRcrq#EJAFellowUpdate

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Connections, Friends, ACU Attorneys and Alumni of Abilene Christian University —Savannah Hostetter Benac and I invite you to join us in investing in future difference makers by donating to ACU tomorrow or Wednesday for ACU Gives!In particular, I want to highlight a passion project of ours that has been years in the making! As most lawyers know, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is often the biggest barrier students face to entering great law schools and receiving good scholarships. A great LSAT score can be the difference between a full ride and 150K+ in student loan debt. To help ACU students better prepare for law school, compete at the highest level, and graduate with less debt, we've established "The Law School Admissions Endowment." This fund will help ACU students cover the costs of LSAT prep courses (~$1,000 - $2,000 each) and other costs associated with applying to law school. To borrow some corporate terms and looking simply at the financial impact of this endowment on debt, donating to this makes sense because a small investment in one prep course for one student can result in a 75x-150x return for that student. The human impact is harder to quantify, but I know for a fact that ACU lawyers are stewards and leaders in their communities. As such, please consider investing in the The Law School Admissions Endowment! Your gift matters and will make a difference.If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Savannah or me. Together, we can empower the next generation of ACU attorneys to have a meaningful impact on their communities and the legal profession!#ACUAlumni #ACUGivesbit.ly/acugivesprelaw

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I write my fifth and final #EJAFellowUpdate as I wrap up the summer at Philadelphia Legal Assistance and return to law school this week. Having completed one year of law school and one summer in the practice realm, my return has prompted me to think about the ways in which I have experienced the connections and disconnections between legal education and public interest practice. As many will tell you, the first year of law school is daunting. Sleepless nights are accompanied by classes that encourage us to seek prestige and craft arguments based mostly on what has been said or done before. It is difficult to envision (or even have the time for) a more just world when the justice system primarily asks its students to answer, “how can we stay the same?” and its students respond, “how am I going to make it through the week?”Law school has its perks, though, and my summer at Philadelphia Legal Assistance helped me return to the reason why I came. Through working to help people obtain or preserve their homes, I got to see how firsthand how the law can change someone’s situation for the better—irrespective of any amount they paid to do so. More broadly, I got to immerse myself into the huge and growing field of public interest lawyers who, even in the midst of a widely inaccessible and unjust legal system, possess some semblance of an underlying belief that the law can and should be wielded non-traditionally; that is, not according to market principles and not in a way that emphasizes the kind of precedent-based stagnation we learn in school. Legal education may not translate perfectly to legal practice for any attorney, but I think its perks are grounded in a similar collectivism that I experienced as a public interest legal intern this summer. I am excited to learn, laugh, and build community this year alongside brilliant people who are not focused on prestige or competition, but on their own happiness and wellbeing, or the wellbeing of others.I am so grateful to have spent the summer working with Philadelphia Legal Assistance. So grateful, in fact, that I will be continuing as an extern in the consumer housing unit this fall! I am appreciative of funding from Equal Justice America and for the work that they do to make public interest experiences more accessible. If you are interested in contributing to Equal Justice America's efforts to support public interest law students like myself, please feel free to donate at this link:

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After the Supreme Court decision to bar race from the college admissions process last June, foundations have been preparing for legal challenges to race-based grantmaking. Some have already taken a different approach in their commitment to racial equity, wary of litigation."Rather than stop making grants designed to benefit members of a specific race or using proxies for race, Watkins suggests that grant makers investigate the language they use to publicize and complete their grants to ensure that they cannot be interpreted as contracts." https://lnkd.in/gBcniqNW Read more on the call to philanthropy to double down and not “water down” its funding to Black and brown leaders, and racial equity and justice ✊: https://lnkd.in/e4fFDYNu

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You’ve likely heard us talk a lot about our involvement with Kids Chance Charity but surprisingly I have heard a few recent comments that people didn’t know “what exactly it was” or “why it was so important.”We have an amazing KCIL Board of Directors **please reach out to any one of us** to ask for more information, we’d love to talk with you and share our passion for this great organization and let you know how you can get involved. These Kids who have survived some horrific family tragedies are depending on us now AND this is an amazing way to give back to our IL insurance community. 🎁Ellen Marie Michael Amy Blaylock Toni Herwaldt Sue Baxter-Pflederer Lisa Ulrich Sarah Hazel Melissa Dunn Lindsay Huffman Dan Simones Michael Skweres, CPA, CFF, CGMA Jennifer Wright Brad Tracy Juan Carlos Lopez Carrie Blaine If you DO know what Kids Chance is already (*or even better if you have attended or supported one of our recent fundraising events!)—Can you do us a huge favor and share/re-post this to your network to help spread the word? There are kids out there dealing with the fallout of Workers Compensation Injuries to a family member, who may not know we can help?—and perhaps (hopefully) many more generous IL based companies who may want to join in the giving spirit to help support our mission as we head towards 2024. ❤️#moremoneyformorekids #KidsChance #KCIL #KCOA #GivingTuesday #generous #spreadtheword

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Here is my second #EJAFellowUpdate for the Equal Justice America 2023 Fellowship:I knew that becoming a lawyer would entail research, and a lot of it. At New York Law School (NYLS), 1Ls are required to take a year long “Legal Practice” course, which teaches us how to write memorandums and appellate briefs, as well as interview clients and engage in negotiations. To complete each of these assignments and activities, we were taught how to utilize secondary sources as touch stones for orienting yourself in a new area of law or legal issue, to dig deep into case law, and conduct preparatory work on understanding both your client and your adversary’s background, goals, strengths, and weaknesses. So, entering my summer internship at Mobilization for Justice (MFJ) and as a research assistant with NYLS Professor Britney Wilson, I knew that my ability to research various legal (and non-legal) issues would be paramount to productive, meaningful work. What I did not expect, however, was the power of wielding curiosity and creativity in your research. After doing in-court intake with a client at MFJ, the first step is to understand their housing situation. We start by asking, “Is their unit rent regulated?” This question is integral to our ability to help these potential clients, since being in a rent stabilized or rent controlled apartment affords those tenants additional protections that other tenants in market rate apartments do not have. Sometimes we know immediately whether a client’s unit is rent regulated in some way. In other situations, we may have the opportunity to argue that the unit should be regulated. In that latter situation, we become investigators. Was the apartment built before 1974 and does it have 6 or more units? If it was built before 1974 but only has 5 units, are there additional illegal living spaces that could make it de facto rent stabilized? If it was built after 1974, did the building take a tax credit that rent stabilized the units? If the unit used to be regulated but the landlord claims it is not anymore, was it deregulated illegally? Essentially, how can we argue that it is or should be rent stabilized? These are just some of the questions that we ask ourselves during initial research, and each one of them carries with it a thinking process driven by curiosity to come up with creative ways to protect our client.All this to say, when people think of the legal profession, they think about lawyer’s researching and then arguing. However, to win a case, we cannot underestimate the power of being a curious learner, as well as a creative researcher and strategist, because that very curiosity and creativity can prevent someone from being evicted, even if the odds were initially against you.To help EJA support future law students working toward the goal of providing equal access to justice for all, you can donate here: https://lnkd.in/epFYRcrq

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I’m so excited to have the opportunity to intern with Empire Justice Center this summer!Empire Justice Center is a non-profit organization that provides civil legal assistance to those within New York state through direct and impact litigation, legislative and administrative advocacy, and by providing technical assistance and training to other advocates, attorneys, and organizations.The wonderful staff at Empire Justice Center work tirelessly through outreach programs and helplines to make sure that New Yorkers are aware of their rights and have access to as many resources as possible. As their motto suggests, their mission is to “make the law work for all New Yorkers.” This summer, I'm going to be working with both the Crime Victims Legal Network (CVLN) and the Civil Rights practice groups. In my work with CVLN, I’ll help to provide “technical assistance,” in the form of research help and resources on novel legal issues, to other non-profit organizations so that they have the information and connections to outside resources to serve their clients in the best possible manner. I’ll be researching different topics such as the Constitutional concerns surrounding extreme risk protection orders (ERPO), which can be filed to prevent those people who potentially pose a serious risk of harm to themselves or others from having access to firearms. Another issue I’m researching for the Civil Rights practice group is the legal standards that school districts must meet in their special education programs, and the appeal processes that students and parents in the special education programs can go through when these legal requirements, and the students’ particular needs, are not met. I can’t wait to help make an impact with Empire Justice Center! #EJAFellowUpdateEqual Justice AmericaEmpire Justice CenterAlbany Law SchoolLink to Equal Justice America fundraising page: https://lnkd.in/exqzYkpu

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Time for my third EJA Fellow Update! I’ve continued working on matters that seek to interrupt exclusionary discipline practices in Illinois. So for this update, I thought I would share more information on harmful exclusionary practices and how they disproportionately affect students of color. Exclusionary discipline practices refers to any discipline that removes a student from the classroom – so typically suspensions and expulsions.Research has shownthat students of color are disciplined more often and more severely than their white peers, starting as early as pre-school.According to the Department of Education, in the 2021-2022 school year, Black students made up only 15% of the students in the United States. But Black students made up 26.2% of students given one or more out-of-school suspensions. For expulsions with educational services, this number jumps to 29%.Not only do racial disparities exist in exclusionary discipline practices, but these practices have far-reaching consequences.Studies have shownthat exclusionary practices lead to worse academic performance, lower levels of school engagement, greater chance of leaving school before graduation, and increased likelihood of future involvement with the criminal justice system. Students often get behind on classwork and material during a suspension or an expulsion. While exclusionary discipline practices have decreasedsince the mid-2010s, the racial disparities in those practices still exist. Schools have also begun to use administrative transfers, which can also pose challenges to students of color. As a former educator, I am grateful that organizations like Chicago Lawyers’ Committee are committed to interrupting exclusionary practices that harm students of color.I wouldn’t be doing this work if it weren’t for Equal Justice America! If you can, consider donating so they can continue to fund important work all across America:https://lnkd.in/gWKPy-Ec#EJAFellowUpdate Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Equal Justice America University of Illinois College of Law

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