Clear Admit: Law School Admissions Blog » School: University of Virginia

UVA Law Graduate To Serve as U.S. Supreme Court Fellow

Clear Admit — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:00:37 +0000

This September, James Tysse, a 2006 graduate of UVA Law, will serve as one of four U.S. Supreme Court fellows during the upcoming 2010-2011 session. Tysse was selected from among eight finalists after two days of intensive interviews, which took place last January, with Elena Kagan and former Justice O’Connor, a dinner at the Supreme Court and an introduction to the Chief Justice.

During his time serving at the U.S. Supreme Court, Tysse will specifically work at the Sentencing Commission where he’ll conduct research of sentencing guidelines. Tysse developed an interest in this area while he was studying for his JD at UVA and specifically points to a class on criminal law and psychiatry taught by Professor Hafemeister. Since graduating, Tysse has clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for Judge Henderson.

The U.S. Supreme Court fellowship was created in 1973 by then Chief Justice Burger to give lawyers an insider’s view of the judicial branch. Although the application process was rigorous, Tysse states that this is a “tremendous honor” and one that comes as a result of the support he received from his alma mater. Ruth Payne and Yared Getachew, the Director of Judicial Clerkships and Assistant Dean for Public Service at UVA Law, respectively, were instrumental in guiding Tysse through the application process and Tysse admits that “UVA Law made this position possible.”

University of Virginia School of Law Faculty Spend Summer Teaching Internationally

Clear Admit — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:45:41 +0000

Last week, the UVA School of Law followed up on some of its faculty who went abroad this summer to teach mostly non-American law students at law schools located around the world. The faculty profiled in the article included criminal law scholar Josh Bowers, vice dean for the law school and food and drug law expert M. Elizabeth Magill, contracts scholar Kevin A. Kordana and torts and insurance law expert Kenneth S. Abraham. Additionally, international business expert Paul Stephan also spent the summer teaching abroad.

The UVA Law professors on the whole reported that their experiences teaching at schools such as Peking University’s School of Transnational Law in China, Melbourne Law School in Australia and University of Munster in Germany helped them view the U.S. legal system and its laws from a new perspective. Vice Dean M. Elizabeth Magill summarized the impact of teaching U.S. food and drug law to students at Melbourne like this: “Matters that are of great concern [in the U.S.] — for instance, the delegation of policymaking authority to administrative agencies — are not concerns elsewhere…This forces me to think about why that is. I have found the experience of teaching abroad invigorating because it gives me new perspectives on fundamental aspects of the U.S. legal system.”

In addition to finding new ways to look at their subject, some of the UVA professors marveled at how similar the experience of teaching U.S. law to international students was to leading a class at UVA Law. Professor Kordana, in particular, was surprised that the Chinese students he taught at Peking University were just as smart and “really eager, really engaged” as the students at UVA, and were familiar with the style of legal instruction used by U.S. law schools – no doubt due to the School of Transnational Law’s American-style approach to law teaching.

It will be interesting to see how the students in Charlottesville will benefit from their professors’ international experiences when the fall term begins for 2Ls and 3Ls on Wednesday August 25.

2010-2011 Clear Admit Law School Guide to Georgetown University Law Center Now Available!

Clear Admit — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:50:28 +0000

We are pleased to announce the release of the 2010-2011 Clear Admit School Guide to Georgetown University Law Center, the 12th and final title in our 2010-2011 law school guide series. To take a “look inside” the guide or to purchase it for immediate download, please visit the Clear Admit Shop!

The Clear Admit Guide to Georgetown University Law Center contains the most up-to-date information available about the admissions process, academic programs and quality of life at Georgetown University Law Center, and we present it to you in an easy-to-read format. Download your copy to learn about Georgetown Law’s unique Curriculum B, its London-based Center for Transnational Legal Studies, its robust Public Interest Law Scholars Program and much, much more. Here’s a glimpse of our section on the Georgetown Law clinical program:

“The clinical program at Georgetown Law consists of 14 clinics, all of which offer free or low-cost legal services to underserved communities. In addition to these fourteen Georgetown-run programs, students can also participate in the independent clinic D.C. Law Students in Court, which is open to students from five law schools in the D.C. area. In all of these clinics, students are responsible for most aspects of client representation, including research, interviewing clients, counseling, negotiation, analysis, legal writing and elements of the oral advocacy process. Depending on the clinic in which they choose to enroll, students can gain experience in trial, administrative, appellate or legislative practice under the direct supervision of Georgetown Law faculty, as well as learn about corporate and transactional law and engage in policy analysis. In a few Georgetown clinics, students are permitted to personally represent their clients in court.

Georgetown’s newest clinic is the Community Justice Project, which opened in the spring of 2010. Students in this clinic take on a wide variety of cases based on the needs of the marginalized clients who approach them; thus far, the clinic has offered legal assistance to clients with HIV, represented runaway youths and people facing life sentences in prison, and helped incarcerated parents to reestablish contact with their children. Students’ responsibilities include investigating cases brought before the clinic, trial preparation, community organizing, written and oral advocacy, and lobbying governmental agencies on behalf of their clients.”

Like our other 11 Clear Admit Law School Guides, which were released in late July, the Guide to Georgetown University Law Center is designed to help law applicants:

Select law schools effectively by comparing J.D. programs head-to-head using objective data that goes beyond published rankings

Save time assembling application materials as the guides provide the key admissions information that law applicants need in one location

Craft informed application essays with school-specific details about special programs, faculty, and experiential learning opportunities to enhance Personal Statements and supplemental essays

Develop an insightful waitlist strategy by demonstrating knowledge of a program that proves the applicant’s “fit” in the class

The Clear Admit Guide to Georgetown University Law Center is available in the Clear Admit Shop, along with our 11 other titles: Harvard Law, Yale Law, Stanford Law, Columbia Law, NYU School of Law, Chicago Law, Penn Law, Berkeley Law, Michigan Law, Northwestern Law and Virginia School of Law. Guides can be purchased individually for $25 each, or for a discounted price of $20 each if you add three or more to your shopping cart.

Trivia Tuesday: Pro Bono Opportunities at University of Virginia School of Law

Clear Admit — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:00:14 +0000

It’s time once again for Trivia Tuesday, our regular exploration of the special programs and opportunities available at leading law schools. This week we take a peek into the recently released Clear Admit School Guide: University of Virginia School of Law, and share an excerpt on Virginia Law’s robust pro bono program.

“Managed by the Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center, Virginia Law’s Pro Bono Program offers its students the opportunity to gain professional skills and serve their communities through pro bono work. The Public Service Center administers a variety of pro bono projects, most of which require three to five hours of service per week over the course of a semester or academic year. Admission to these projects tends to be very competitive, and students must therefore apply to be selected. Participants are frequently asked to interview and screen clients, conduct research and write legal briefs as part of their pro bono work. As with the Virginia clinical program, certified third-year students may also participate in courtroom advocacy and trial work.

The center also works to connect students with outside pro bono opportunities, most of which are short-term commitments offered on a first-come, first-served basis by faculty members and outside attorneys. Among these are the Winter Break Pro Bono Projects, which typically entail 20 hours of work at a non-profit organization or law firm’s pro bono practice, and the Spring Break Pro Bono Projects, week-long trips to underserved communities organized in conjunction with the Public Interest Law Association. In 2010, 34 students donated their time to Spring Break Pro Bono Projects with the Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans, the Fair Child Initiative in North Carolina, and the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, Inc., as well as legal aid organizations in the Charlottesville area.

Students are also welcome to create their own pro-bono projects by establishing contact with a public interest law organization and finding a Virginia Law professor to sponsor the project. Recently, student-initiated pro bono projects have had great success in attracting interest among other students and have started to impact their partner organizations. For example, a project associated with the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) that was developed in 2008 by a group of students and Virginia professor Chris Sprigman has won the admiration of the NVLSP lawyers who trained and supervise the students, and has had some modest success in helping veterans begin to navigate the Department of Veteran’s Affairs disability claims process.”

To continue reading about Virginia Law’s pro bono program, and to find out about the school’s Pro Bono Challenge as well as other UVA Law-specific experiential learning opportunities, such as Virginia Law’s Clinical and External Studies Programs, be sure to check out the Clear Admit Guide to University of Virginia School of Law, which is available for immediate purchase and download on the Clear Admit Shop!

Clear Admit Publishes Eleven 2010-2011 Law School Guides

Clear Admit — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:00:27 +0000

We are pleased to announce the release of the 2010-2011 Clear Admit Law School Guides to Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Michigan, NYU, Northwestern, Penn, Stanford, UVA and Yale!

This set of comprehensive guides was designed with the discerning law school applicant in mind. Each publication provides detailed information about areas such as academics, clinical programs, student clubs, career services, and admissions and financial aid in an easy-to-use format. These objective guides help law applicants:

Select law schools effectively by comparing J.D. programs head-to-head using objective data that goes beyond published rankings

Save time assembling application materials as the guides provide the key admissions information that law applicants need in one location

Craft informed application essays with school-specific details about special programs, faculty, and experiential learning opportunities to enhance Personal Statements and supplemental essays

Develop an insightful waitlist strategy by demonstrating knowledge of a program that proves the applicant’s “fit” in the class

We’re confident that applicants at all stages of the law school admissions process will find the Clear Admit Law School Guides to be valuable, time-saving resources. To take a “look inside” our guides, please visit the Clear Admit Shop where each guide is available for immediate download. Be sure to check back in early September for the release of the Clear Admit School Guide to Georgetown Law!

Campus Chronicles: Summer Reading

Clear Admit — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:00:57 +0000

For those applicants looking for some fun summer reading that has the added benefit of enhancing your law school applications, the archives of student newspapers are a wonderful resource that is well worth exploring. Student papers often offer excellent insight into the culture on campus and provide a great window on the events and controversies at each school, making them an important part of the law school application research process.

Candidates beginning the application process might find it helpful to read through some of the back issues of a school’s paper. Information from the papers can become a valuable addition to application essays later this summer – perhaps you would like to help organize one of the conferences or speaker series profiled in the paper? Maybe the summaries of athletic matches stir your competitive spirit and inspire you to join one of these activities at law school? Alternatively, perhaps you’ve appreciated how helpful the student newspaper is to applicants and would like to contribute to its production as a law student? Each of these ideas for involvement can help you tailor your application essays to a school while adding flavor and interest.

For applicants’ convenience, we’ve listed below student newspapers published at several of the leading law schools in the United States:

Chicago Law School: Chicago Maroon
Columbia Law School: The Columbia Law School Newspaper
Duke Law School: The Devil’s Advocate
George Washington University Law School: Nota Bene
Georgetown University Law Center: The Georgetown Law Weekly
Harvard Law School: Harvard Law Record
NYU Law: The Commentator
The University at Buffalo Law School: The Opinion
University of Miami Law School: Res Ipsa Loquitur
University of Michigan Law School: Res Gestae
UCLA Law: The Docket
UVA Virginia: Virginia Law Weekly
Washington and Lee School of Law: The Law News

Happy reading!

UVA Law School Supporters and Alumni Give Back in Record Numbers

Clear Admit — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:00:34 +0000

Yesterday the University of Virginia School of Law released its 2009-2010 annual giving campaign results. The school reports a record number of donor contributions and adds a fifth consecutive year of receiving donations from a majority of its alumni. 8,430 graduates of UVA Law School contributed to the school’s coffers this year, which translates to 52.7% of the school’s active alumni population. President and Chief Executive of the school’s foundation, Luis Alvarez Jr. said “The surge in donors shows confidence in the Law School’s leadership and the investments we have made in our students and faculty.” Considering these tough economic times, which often result in a decrease in giving across institutions and non profits, Alvarez’s assertion seems well-founded. The school’s operating costs are supported entirely by tuition and gifts. According to their press release, the school raised a total of over $10.3 million in funds for the 2009-2010 time period, $4 million of which was unrestricted. In past years, funds from the foundation have subsidized students’ summer public interest jobs, and provided needed financial support to school clubs and publications, facilities and the Student-Faculty Center.

NYU Law School Grad Is First Winner Of UVA Law’s New Annual Writing Competition

Clear Admit — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:55:06 +0000

Earlier this year the University of Virginia Law School announced that its Human Rights Program and Virginia Journal of International Law (VJIL) would co-sponsor a new writing competition, the UVA Law Human Rights Student Scholars Writing Competition. The writing competition is designed to be held every year and is open to J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. students from around the world who are interested in and have written about human rights topics.

NYU Law’s Alyssa Bell ’10 won the competition for her essay “Torturous Intent: Refoulment of Haitian Nationals and U.S. Obligations Under the Convention Against Torture.” Bell’s paper outlines the humanitarian crisis occurring in Haiti due to the abusive, crowded, and unsanitary conditions of the prisons, and argues that the U.S. has legal obligations related to this situation due to its agreement to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment.

As the competition winner, Bell will receive a cash prize of $500 as well as be featured in an online symposium hosted by the VJIL and the Opinio Juris blog. Her essay will also undergo expedited consideration for publication in the VJIL. NYU Law plans to publish Bell’s winning article in the upcoming issue of the Review of Law and Social Change. Finally, Bell has the opportunity to present her paper at a Human Rights Student Scholars Workshop, which the law school’s international law faculty, VJIL editors, and law students will attend.

Bell received her B.A. with high honors from Swarthmore College, after which she worked in legal services and health care policy. She went on to study transnational migration in Spain as a Fulbright Scholar, and then enrolled at NYU Law under a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship, which was given in recognition of her intention to continue pursuing a career in public service. At NYU Law, Bell held the position of senior articles editor of the Review of Law and Social Change. A graduate of the Law School this spring, Bell will go on to clerk for Judge Margaret Morrow of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California for the 2010-2011 term and for the 2011-2012 term, move on to clerking for Judge Richard Paez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Virginia Law School Announces Increase in Federal Service Jobs for Graduates

Clear Admit — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:00:49 +0000

In a June 24th press release, Virginia Law announced that the number of its graduates from the class of 2010 entering positions in public service nearly doubled from the previous year. Seventeen members of the class of 2009 graduated and went on to work within the federal government but, according to the school’s Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center, that number rose to thirty in Virginia Law’s most recent group of graduates. Part of this rise may be, in part, a result of concerted effort on the part of both the Public Service Program and alumni to prepare students for the application process to the Presidential Management Fellowship Program. Finalists from the previous year returned to campus to share their experiences with graduating students, which resulted in a leap from 2009′s sixteen applicants to 2010′s fifty. The number of accepted students also grew from four in 2009 to sixteen in 2010. Accepted students will enter a number of different federal spheres, including the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

In addition to the sixteen fellowship winners, others will be entering a number of other federal positions. Allen Abrams, for example, will join the Air Force’s Judge Advocate General Program. Other classmates will begin their work in a variety of governmental departments, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The school’s assistant dean for public service, Yared Getachew, was quoted as saying “When you look at where our alumni are, you can’t help but admire their level of service for the nation in all branches of federal, state and local government.”

Trivia Tuesday: Academic Specialization at University of Virginia School of Law

Clear Admit — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:00:28 +0000

Welcome back to Trivia Tuesday, where we at Clear Admit shed some light on the ins-and-outs of a leading law school’s program. Today, we’re turning our attention to the University of Virginia School of Law and the opportunities students there have to concentrate their final two years of law school on a particular area of law practice that interests them.

Virginia Law offers 18 curricular concentrations covering a wide array of legal fields, including Constitutional Law, Health Law, Legal History and Tax Law. Each concentration program offers students a list of lecture courses, seminars, short courses, and Principles & Practice offerings that they can take to fulfill the concentration requirements, as well as a suggested sample curriculum to guide their studies during their time at Virginia Law. The programs are also designed to inform students of related co-curricular opportunities, including clinics, through which they can deepen their knowledge of their chosen field, as well as providing a list of relevant extracurricular events to attend. Because these concentrations are an elective-based program of study, not an official separate track or degree program, students do not receive a certificate or any designation on their diploma that they have completed a concentration.

One of the most popular concentrations at Virginia is Tax Law, which is organized by the school’s Law & Business program. Students who pursue this course of study tend to primarily be interested in corporate law, and therefore take courses that focus on accounting, taxation and corporate partnerships, giving them a strong legal foundation in business transactions.

Virginia Law also offers concentrations for students who want to work in the public sector. The Human Rights and Civil Liberties concentration, for example, allows students to delve into the field of human rights advocacy through the school’s International Human Rights Clinic, First Amendment Clinic and Immigration Law Clinic. Students can complement this hands-on experience through courses such as International Human Rights Law, Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Refugee Law and Policy.

For more information about academic specializations available at other leading U.S. law schools, be sure to check out the Clear Admit Law School Guides!