One Thousand New Lawyers

Actually, 1,016, to be exact. Yesterday, the Ohio Supreme Court announced the names of individuals who passed the July 2008 bar exam. Congratulations to them all. Swearing-in ceremonies are scheduled for November 17 in Columbus.

Of local note, 65 of the newly-minted attorneys boast the UC College of Law as their alma mater. We should extend particular good wishes to local bloggers Christopher St. Pierre, formerly (?) of Cogitation, and Brad Thomas of the UrbanCincy Blog.

Over the next several months, there will no doubt be much hand-wringing, consternation, and several administrative and faculty meetings at UC. Its overall bar passage rate was 81% (82% for first-time test-takers), which placed it last among all Ohio law schools. This is a significant decline from five years ago: its graduates' passage rate on the July 2003 exam was 86% (87% for first-time test-takers), which placed it second among Ohio's nine law schools.

Over the last five years, the College of Law has restructured part of the first-year student curriculum, as well as the way it teaches commercial law (one of the topics covered by the bar exam). Also, UC has dramatically increased clinical opportunities for its students. While clinics offer students an exciting way to learn the law (often through the actual representation of clients under the supervision of a licensed attorney), one wonders if the higher percentage of students involved in clinics means that students are taking fewer bar courses in their second and third years of law school. No doubt, these will all be topics of conversation at the corner of Calhoun and Clifton for quite some time. A school's bar passage rate is one factor many prospective students consider in choosing a law school, as well as part of the criteria used by U.S. News & World Report, which compiles what many believe is the definitive ranking of law schools.

Congratulations again to all those who passed, and welcome to the practice of law!

Post updated to extend kudos to an additional local blogger. If there are other local bloggers in the "now we're lawyers" club, please let us know in the comments.

Extraordinary Americans In Cincinnati Last Night

Last night, while many were tricking-and-treating, I was privileged to be among a group of individuals who were present for the 2008 William J. Butler Human Rights Award Ceremony.  The Butler Medals, as the awards are known, are awarded through the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights at the UC College of Law.  My status as a former Urban Morgan fellow (Class of 2003) was enough to get me on the guest list.

This year's honorees were Lt. Col. Yvonne R. Bradley (USAF); Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights; and Thomas B. Wilner, managing partner of the International Trade and Global Relations Practice of Sherman & Sterling.

No doubt you're wondering:  what could three such seemingly disparate attorneys have in common?  The answer:  all three represented Guantanamo Bay detainees.  Lt. Col. Bradley was appointed counsel for Binyam Mohamed, who has consistenly claimed that he was the subject of torture and rendition.  Mr. Ratner has spearheaded CCR's efforts to restore the right of habeas corpus and has organized an army (700 strong) of private attorneys across the country to assist in the representation of Guantanamo detainees.  Mr. Wilner entered the fray in 2002, and was ultimately counsel of record in Rasul v. Bush and Boumediene v. Bush, the landmark cases in which the Supreme Court pushed back on the chief executive's efforts to eradicate "the great writ."

It was an honor not just to be present for the awards ceremony, but also to be among the guests there, many of whom are among the most august members of Cincinnati's legal community.  (I'll not be specific, as it feels a little too much like name-dropping.)  But being at last night's gathering made me proud to be an alumnus of UC Law and the Urban Morgan Institute and prouder still to be an attorney.  Hearing the awardees and the presenters speak reminded me of why I entered the legal profession and push me to be a better, more passionate lawyer and advocate.  

Earlier in the day, the three honorees participated in a panel discussion at the College of Law.  You can view it (well worth the time) on the web here.

Finally, a shout-out to the venue:  the Verdin Bell and Clock Museum on Reading Road.  I'd noticed the building before but didn't know what was there; it's  truly a gorgeous facility.

Dishonest?

Did the Pro-PR camp use Obama's image and implied endorsement dishonestly? I got one of the mailers and I thought the same thing.

Clancy Runs A Distasteful Campaign

I'd had no intention of expressing preferences in any of the local races (particularly any involving the courthouse), but I was infuriated by an ad Patricia Clancy ran earlier tonight.  Perhaps it's been running for some time, but I hadn't seen it before.  Clancy, a Republican, is running against Democratic candidate Martha Good for HamCo Clerk of Courts.

In the ad, Clancy suggests that Martha Good isn't qualified to be the Clerk of Courts.  (Good is, by the way, the only Democratic candidate endorsed by the Enquirer this year.)  Clancy's "evidence":  Good supposedly received negative evaluations from her students at Miami University.  The ad goes on to show college-aged actors saying mean things about Ms. Good.  (The ad is produced in such a way that one might get the impression that the actors are actual students giving testimonials.  They're not.)

How, I wondered, did the Clancy campaign get hold of the evaluations students submit to Miami at the end of the semester?  Those aren't generally made public (at least, not at most schools).  Then the fine print came:  the "evaluations" were culled from a website, "RateMyProfessors," where anonymous students can rate their profs.

The website has no safeguards to ensure that students have actually taken the class of the professor they choose to rate.  Frankly, you or I could create an account and "rate" any professor we wanted to.  And we all know that this kind of website tends to draw angry people; people with something good to say won't generally take the time to search out a website to say it.  And here's a measure of the seriousness of the website:  one of the ratings categories is "hotness."

This is a silly, specious attack ad.  County row office races are often difficult for people to follow intelligently, particularly in a presidential election year.  This is a time that these candidates should be telling us why they're best-suited for the office for which they're running.  Instead, Clancy has chosen to cull together quotes from anonymous (alleged) students at Miami U.  Ridiculous.

Sometimes people have a hard time finding a reason (besides party affiliation) to vote for someone in the races for the more obscure local offices.  But I think this negative, misleading ad will give plenty of folks grounds to vote against Patricia Clancy.  

If you're looking for a reason to vote for Martha, check out the Enquirer's endorsement.  By itself, Dr. Good's pledge to end the tradition of using the Clerk's office as a sanctuary for political patronage is enough to warrant filling in the box next to her name on Tuesday.  Add to it her background and experience with the court system (and her opponent's dearth of legal expertise or experience), and the choice should be clear.

Your Halloween Robo-Call

Courtesy of Jason Silverstein at McSweeney's

"Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama talks during movies. During a recent screening of The Dark Knight, Barack Obama irritated several pro-America patrons when he echoed the famous 'Why so serious?' line to his wife, Michelle, who hasn't always been proud of being an American, much like the Joker. He'll raise his voice over Heath Ledger's. And he'll raise your taxes. That's why I'm so serious, my friends, about your vote on November 4."

Obama Update

To update Griff's post:

The Enquirer is reporting that Senator Obama will address a rally to be held at Nippert Stadium on the campus of UC at 9:00 pm. According to an email that UC has sent to students, gates will open at 6:00.

I'll be waiting to see if our local stations broadcast the address live, as they did in 2004 when Bush made a campaign stop here just before the election.

Ain't that America, we're somethin' to see, baby

Ain't that America, the home of the free

What kind of person puts a sign like this up in front of their business (Salem Hardware in Mt. Washington)? Or hangs Senator Obama in effigy on the University of Kentucky campus? Or hangs Governor Palin in effigy in West Hollywood?

Let's just have an election before any more of our ugliness is unleashed. It's quite sad.

But apparently we are still fighting over where Senator Obama was born out in Warren County, so on we go . . . . . . And what clever nefarious people Senator Obama's grandparents must have been to put that birth announcement in the Honolulu newspaper after his birth in 1961 --- you see, they knew, as all clever radical sleepers must, that this newborn would one day run for President against someone born in Panama (Didn't the Senate feel it necessary to pass a sense of the Senate resolution declaring John McCain a "real American" even though he was born in Panama?). But damn, these folks are sneaky. (All those of you who are mouthing the idiocy of Corsi, Berg, and Savage on this point please explain the birth announcement for me.)

Does everyone have their tinfoil hat on today? It is Halloween, after all.

Just Four More Days ---- KNOW HOPE AND VANQUISH NUTTINESS

Be Safe Among The Ghouls And Goblins In Our Midst Tonight!