Law School Briefs – 2/27/13

Law School Briefs highlights news from law schools in Indiana. While Indiana Lawyer has always covered law school news and continues to keep up with law school websites and press releases for updates, we gladly accept submissions for this section from law students, professors, alumni, and others who want to share law school-related news. If you’d like to submit news or a photo from an event, please email it to Marilyn Odendahl at [email protected], along with contact information for any follow-up questions at least two weeks prior to the issue date.

Hoosier law students attend ABA Judicial Clerkship Program

Students representing three Indiana law schools participated in the Judicial Clerkship Program during the American Bar Association’s midyear meeting in February in Dallas.

The goal of the program is to encourage minority law students to seek judicial clerkships after graduation. At the ABA event, the students joined about 55 federal and state appellate, tribal, trial and administrative law judges for panel discussions, a research exercise and social events. The students also attended an oral argument at the Texas Court of Appeals.

Students from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law and Valparaiso University Law School all participated.

Retired Indiana Supreme Court Justice Frank Sullivan has been a leader of the program since its inception in 2001. This year, he developed the research exercise and moderated the closing panel discussion.

McKinney dean appointed to sport court for 2014 Olympics

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Dean Gary Roberts has been appointed to the Ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and will be part of the group that will attend the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, in February 2014.

Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, CAS was organized by the International Olympic Committee and provides services to facilitate the settlement of sports-related disputes through arbitration or mediation. Since its founding, all international sports federations have agreed that all disputes regarding teams, athletes and coaches will be submitted to the CAS for final binding arbitration.

Roberts, a recognized expert in sports law, is currently an officer and board member of The Sports Lawyers Association and is a founding member and member of the board of directors for the International Association of Sport Professionals and Executives.

Notre Dame professor Shaffer honored by fellowship program

The University of Notre Dame Law School is honoring a longtime faculty member by renaming the Notre Dame Law Fellowship as the Thomas Shaffer Public Interest Fellowship.

The fellowship is being redesignated in gratitude for Shaffer’s dedication to Notre Dame law students. Schaffer joined the NDLS faculty in 1963, served as dean from 1971 to 1975, and was the supervising attorney in what is now the Notre Dame Clinical Law Center.

The fellowship is highly competitive, requiring applicants to develop and propose a two-year public interest program to be implemented with a host agency and a supervising attorney. Funded entirely by the law school’s benefactors, the fellowship pays the fellows’ salaries as well as health and other benefits for two years.•