Each year, Mission Possible sends a group of students abroad to participate in a community service project in lieu of their Spring Break. Mission Possible will be selling tacos from 11-1pm Wednesday, November 18, in front of Cafe Lawte to benefit their important community service work this coming March in Central America.
If you are interested in government or public interest, you should plan to attend the 2010 Northwest Public Service Career Fair. Gonzaga’s Career Services Office, along with ten other law school career services, will be hosting the Career Fairs in Seattle on Friday, February 5, 2010 and in Portland on Saturday, February 6, 2010.
Complete details about the Career Fairs and the employers that are participating are available online at www.nwpifair.org (Please note – You may view the list of employers on the website prior to paying your registration fee.)
Student registration is now open. Registration fees are $15 for one location, or $25 for both locations. Registration will remain open up to the Career Fair – however, remember if you are submitting application materials for an employer, you must be registered and have paid your registration fee prior to the deadline date, which is Monday, January 18, 2010.
Many of the participating employers are recruiting for law clerks and/or attorneys and will be conducting interviews at either Career Fair, or will schedule interview for a later date at their office. To be considered for an interview, you must register for the Career Fair, as well as submit a cover letter and resume (for each employer you wish to apply to) by 11:59 pm January 18th. Complete details about the application process is available on the website.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email pifair@lclark.edu or jgill@lawschool.gonzaga.edu. Hope you can make it to one or both Career Fairs!
The Alliance for Social Justice and Gonzaga Public Interest Law Program (GPILP) will host the “Social Justice Saturday Breakfast” this coming Saturday, November 14. The primary purpose of the event is to connect underclassmen with upperclassmen who have experience in public interest law. The upperclassmen will be represented mostly by the Alliance Councilors and GPILP Board Members. The Councilors and Board Members will share job search tips, discuss their previous work experience, give advice on resumes and cover letters, and answer any other questions students may have related to finding an internships or thinking about a public interest career.
Another purpose of the social is to give students an opportunity to unwind for a bit as they work on their final legal research projects for the semester. It is a stressful time of year in which students sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. The social will remind students of the public interest ideals that drew many of them to law school during a time of the year when the academic pressures can become overwhelming and alienating. At the same time, it is an opportunity to relax, take a bit of a breather, and enjoy the company of friends.
So take a break from memo-writing and enjoy some free food! The breakfast will be held on the first floor lobby outside of Cafe Lawte. Stop by anytime between 9am and 1pm.
Support the Hispanic Law Caucus’ high school mock trial program, Alcanzar Justice, by purchasing enchiladas for lunch on Thursday, November 12 beginning at 11:30am.
Amnesty International will present the movie Trade to an open audience on Thursday, November 12 at 6:00pm. The movie is about human trafficking and reaches from the heart of Mexico City across the U.S. borders to a stash house in New Jersey. Inspired by Peter Landesman’s chilling NY Times Magazine story on the U.S. sex trade, “The Girls Next Door,” Trade is a thrilling story of courage and a devastating expose of one of the world’s most heinous crimes.
The Sports and Entertainment Law Club has organized a Penny Drive to help support the Special Olympics of Washington. The Penny Drive is a class competition. Each class and the faculty/staff will have their own change container in the foyer of the Law School. Pennies count as positive contributions to your own class an any other type of change counts against the class total. Feel free to sabotage the other teams and contribute more to charity. The winning class or faculty/staff will receive lunch courtesy of the Sports and Entertainment Law Club. All proceeds go to help the Special Olympics.
Phi Alpha Delta, with the help of Second Harvest, Rosauers, and KREM2, is accepting monetary donations in the foyer of the Law School for the next two weeks to raise money to buy turkeys and other Thanksgiving supplies.
On Tuesday November 17, Women and Children’s Free Restaurant and Pawn1 are sponsoring a free Thanksgiving dinner for about 1200-1500 people. They need volunteers to assist from 2:30 – 7:00pm. The location is 500 S. Stone St., East Central Community Center. Please contact Karen Orlando at WCFR at 324-1995 no later than Tuesday, November 10th if you plan to volunteer. There will be a mandatory orientation on Thursday, November 12th. It is a great opportunity to fulfill some of your community service hours!
Professors Treuthart and Ballard will share legal perspectives on Colombia from personal experiences there last summer. The discussion will explore cultural and historical characteristics, current challenges and social issues, as well as the effect of the Twinning Agreement on life in Colombia. The event will take place on Monday, November 9 at NOON in the Moot Court Room and is co-sponsored by Amnesty International and the International Legal Society.
On Thursday, November 19, Mary Beth Tinker will speak to an audience of law school students and faculty as well as community members in the Barbieri Courtroom. Her speech will address themes concerning student free speech and social justice. Ms. Tinker was a 13-year-old plaintiff in the seminal case of Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) after she and a group of students were suspended for wearing black armbands to school in protest of the war in Vietnam. She and four other students were told they could not return to school until they agreed to remove their armbands. A four-year legal battle culminated in a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
In the forty years since the Supreme Court protected Ms. Tinker’s symbolic speech, she has become a strong advocate for student free speech. She continues to educate young people by speaking to student groups across the county. Ms. Tinker is the former director of the Marshal-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project at American University, which mobilizes law students to teach courses on constitutional law and juvenile justice at public schools. In 2006, the ACLU National Board of Directors renamed its youth affairs award the “Mary Beth Tinker Youth Involvement Award.”
As part of her visit to Spokane, Gonzaga Law School is sponsoring her visit to local area high school students at Lewis and Clark High School and Rogers High School. Her visit to the Spokane community is made possible by a coalition of sponsoring organizations including the Gonzaga Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (via a generous donation from the ACLU of Washington), the William O. Douglas Committee, the Thomas More Program, and the Alliance for Social Justice. Her discussion will take place at 5:00pm on November 19 in the Barbieri Courtroom and is open to the public. [EDITED: Please note time change from 4:00pm to 5:00pm]