Student News

Victor Nilsson (3L) received the first prize in the ABA Business Law Section’s Mendes Hershman Student Writing Contest for his article, You’re Not from Around Here, Are You? Fighting Deceptive Marketing in the Twenty-First Century, 54 Ariz. L. Rev. 801 (2012). This prize included an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to attend the ABA Business Law Section’s spring meeting, as well as $2,500. Read more about the award here. Victor also received the Snell & Wilmer Best Published Note Award at the recent Arizona Law All-Publications Award Banquet and the Snell & Wilmer Best 2L Note Award last spring for this article.

Posted: 05/03/2013

The three Arizona Law publications, Arizona Law Review (ALR), Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law (AJICL), and the Arizona Journal of Environmental Law & Policy (AJELP), held their 2012 - 2013 Award Banquet, Thursday, April 18, 2013.

For the ALR, the award recipients were:

• Best Case Note Award:  Julie Wilson-McNerney
• Best Copywork Award:  Kimberly O'Hagan
• Snell & Wilmer Best 2L Note Award:  Jana Sutton
• Snell & Wilmer Best Published Note:  Victor Nilsson
• Steptoe & Johnson 2L Writer of the Year:  Alexander McCourt
• Java Jim Award:  Sarah E. Epperson
• Rose 'n Berg Distinguished Editor Awards:  Nicholas Verderame & Michael Shumway
• Steptoe & Johnson Editor of the Year Award:  Brian Mosley

For AJICL, the award recipients were:

• Best Copywork Award:  Robert Rosvall
• Professionalism Award:  Ronald Cooper
• Greatest Contribution by an Editorial Board Member:  John Lierman
• Collegiality Award:  Jessica Gale
• Best 2L Note:  Edward Laber
• Prof. Kozolchyk Award for Best Student Note:  Elinor Rushforth
• Greatest Contribution by a 2L Writer:  Alanna Duong
• Distinguished Editor Award:  Rachel Fleming

For AJELP, the award recipients were:

• Editor of the Year Award:  Caylin Goldey Barter
• Distinguished Editor Awards:  Jacob Kavkewitz & Brian Tedder
• 3L Associate Editor Award:  Oksana Holder
• Best Copywork Award:  Matthew Bracken
• Best Comment Award:  Benjamin Nucci
• Professionalism Award: A li Felchlin

Thanks to the Law College Association, Patricia Martin & Timothy Berg, Robert & Elise Rose, Snell & Wilmer, Toni Massaro, and all the other sponsors for supporting this event.

Posted: 04/30/2013

The Udall Foundation recently announced that Cara Wallace, a 1L at the College of Law, is one of 12 students from 12 tribes and 11 universities selected as 2013 Native American Congressional Interns. Interns were selected by an independent review committee of nationally recognized Native educators and tribal policy leaders on the basis of academic achievement and a demonstrated commitment to careers in tribal public policy.

This highly regarded internship program is intended to provide American Indians and Alaska Natives with an insider’s view of the federal government. The internship is located in Washington, D.C., and is known for placing students in extremely competitive internship positions in Senate and House offices, committees, Cabinet departments, and the White House, where they are able to observe government decision-making processes firsthand.

The 12 Udall Interns will complete an intensive, 10-week internship in the summer of 2013. Special enrichment activities will provide opportunities to meet with key decision makers. From 1996 through 2013, 209 American Indian and Alaska Native students from 110 tribes will have participated in the program.

For more information about Ms. Wallace and the other 2013 Udall Interns, please see this page:  www.udall.gov/OurPrograms/NACInternship/MeetInterns.aspx?Year=2013.

Posted: 04/26/2013

Arizona Law 2012 - 2013 Law & Entrepreneurship students, under the guidance and mentorship of Prof. Hecker, have provided legal advice to competing startups in the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship during the past year. Their efforts culminate in the annual McGuire New Venture Competition and Showcase, held at McClelland Hall on Friday, April 26, 10:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. The law students will present their work at 3:00 p.m. More details about the New Venture Competition and Showcase are available at the McGuire website, http://mcguireexperience.com/nvc/.

Posted: 04/24/2013

The Environmental Moot Court team made an extremely good showing at the 25th Annual National Environmental Moot Court Competition at Pace University Law School in White Plains, New York, last week. The Competition featured 72 teams from law schools across the country and judges drawn from the ranks of leading environmental practitioners and national nonprofit organizations.

Our team advanced to the quarter-finals. Jena Decker-Xu (3L) was named Best Oralist in the first Preliminary Round of the competition. The team members are:

• Heather Coe-Smith (3L)
• Jena Decker-Xu (2L)
• John Lierman (3L)

The Team was coached by Don Large and by many faculty members and attorneys who contributed their time to judging practice rounds.

Posted: 02/27/2013

Congratulations to Arizona Law 2Ls Daniel Arellano and Omar Vasquez, who just won the American Bar Association’s First Amendment and Media Law Diversity Moot Court Competition! Daniel and Omar were one of only eight teams chosen, on the basis of their resumes and a sample essay, to submit an appellate brief. Their brief won them a spot as one of only four teams selected to participate in oral arguments at the ABA Forum on Communication Law’s 18th Annual Conference in Orange County, California. Not only did Daniel and Omar win the oral-argument competition for Arizona Law, they also won the Best Brief Award, and Omar was recognized as Best Oral Advocate. The team’s coaches were Arizona Law Professors Toni Massaro, Derek Bambauer, and Jane Bambauer. You can read more about the competition here.

Daniel and Omar participated in this competition through Arizona Law’s Legal Skills Competition program, one of the many experiential-education opportunities at the College. Each year, Arizona Law sends student teams to participate in five competitions – the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition, the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the National Trial Competition, the Native American Law Student Association Moot Court Competition, and the Pace National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition. Students like Daniel and Omar who are interested in participating in other Legal Skills Competitions may seek approval to do so from Arizona Law’s Legal Skills Competition Board. You can find more information about these opportunities on the College of Law’s website at www.law.arizona.edu/current_students/Legal_Competitions/competition.cfm.

Posted: 02/11/2013

Arizona Law’s team has won the Inaugural Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Negotiation Competition, sponsored by the American College of Bankruptcy, in Los Angeles. The three team members are Jeffrey Coe, David Obrand, and Bradley Terry, all third-year students.

The competition was held at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law late last month. Twelve teams competed in this first competition, and the Arizona law students edged out contenders from UCLA, USC, UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, UNLV, and BYU, among others.

The team’s coach is Robert M. Charles, Jr., who teaches Bankruptcy Reorganization at the law college and is a partner at Lewis and Roca, based in its Tucson office. A 1982 graduate with distinction from the law college, Mr. Charles heads the firm’s Finance and Bankruptcy Group and practices throughout Arizona and Nevada.

“I was really proud of our team. They did an excellent job understanding a complicated financial problem, applying their understanding of bankruptcy law, preparing a term sheet, and competing in both rounds of negotiation,” said Professor Charles. “They worked well together, and the judges gave them great feedback after their rounds. It was a terrific experience.”

All three competitors took Professor Charles’s Bankruptcy Reorganization course in the fall. The three students also had taken many other relevant courses in debtor-creditor law, such as Bankruptcy and Related Issues, Secured Transactions, and the Mortgage Clinic.

The competition involved the preparation and exchange of written term sheets over the semester break, followed by two rounds of in-person negotiations on January 26. The negotiations concerned an out-of-court restructuring between a financially distressed California winery and an unofficial committee of its unsecured creditors. Materials describing the fact pattern and the rules for the competition were distributed to the competing teams in early November, with preparation taking from then through the negotiation rounds in late January.

Posted: 02/07/2013

UPDATE:  The Arizona Daily Star published an article about the program on February 12, 2013. Read this article with additional details here.

Arizona Law students, along with UA English students are working with the Pima County Superior Court judge and alumni Dean Christoffel to simplify complex language in instructional packets related to divorce, child custody and other family law proceedings. The for-credit internship program, called Simpla Phi Lex, takes the expertise of both sets of students to make clear, succinct and accurate revisions to the instructions that accompany family law forms for Pima County Superior Court. Read more here.

Posted: 02/06/2013

Third-year student Jonay Foster spent the spring and summer of 2012 as a White House intern. Read about her experiences here.

Posted: 12/11/2012

Arizona Law students support an active chapter of the Environmental Law Society (ELS). On September 16, 2012, they hiked to Tanque Verde Falls. Additional hikes are being planned. The chapter will be hosting speakers, films, and other events to encourage awareness and further study of how the law intersects with the environment. In addition, the members are planning the ELS Annual Camping Trip and joint events with the Arizona Journal of Law and Policy.

Posted: 09/24/2012

Third-year Arizona Law students, Jordan Emerson and Athan Papailiou, assisted in a jury trial of a Tucson construction worker who treated women suffering gynecological problems by injecting them with ozone in his home without a license. Emerson and Papailious helped Assistant Arizona Attorney General Michael Jette in the case. The jury deadlocked on some of the charges but convicted the worker on others. Read more about the case here.

Posted: 09/24/2012

Please join in congratulating the following students, who have been selected as new members of the Arizona Journal of International & Comparative Law::

Posted: 07/16/2012

Please join in congratulating the following students, who have been selected as new members of the Arizona Journal of Environmental Law & Policy:

Posted: 07/16/2012

Please join in congratulating the following students, who have been selected as new members of the Arizona Law Review:

Posted: 07/16/2012