For more information, please contact:
Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
ADVISORY TO PRODUCERS, COLUMNISTS AND ASSIGNMENT, LEGAL, PLANNING, POLITICAL, BOOK, CITY DESK, FEATURES AND DAYBOOK EDITORS
CHICAGO–April 30, 2007–Chicago-Kent College of Law and Stuart School of Business have experts available to discuss current issues. To reach any of our experts, call Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, at (312) 906-5251. Press releases and earlier advisories are available on our Web site: www.kentlaw.edu/news/advisory.
Helping persons with criminal records overcome legal barriers to gainful employment is the focus of a two-day conference sponsored by the American Bar Association (See below.) Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson, policy-makers, experts in the labor market and criminal justice system, and others will convene at Chicago-Kent to explore how imprisonment affects employment prospects for persons with criminal records and how the challenge of finding work after incarceration affects recidivism. Although the conference is sponsored by the ABA’s Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions, Chicago-Kent experts are available for background interviews on several issues that will be covered. Dean Harold J. Krent, an expert on privacy issues, can discuss issues related to the public release of criminal records. Professor Richard Gonzalez of Chicago-Kent’s Center for Law and the Workplace is a former administrative law judge for the State of Illinois Human Rights Commission, can discuss employment discrimination issues.
May is Older Americans Month. One in six Americans is 60 years of age or older. Last year, the nation’s oldest baby boomers began turning 60. Chicago-Kent professor Howard C. Eglit is an expert on law and aging. Professor Eglit is the author of Elders on Trial: Age and Ageism in the American Legal System and of a three-volume treatise, Age Discrimination. He is available for interviews in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. He can also discuss workplace issues faced by aging baby boomers.
Chicago-Kent was the first law school in the nation to require its students to take five semesters of legal writing courses before they graduate. The law school’s emphasis on effective analytical, research, and communications skills has served as a model for other institutions. Chicago-Kent will host “Back to the Future of Legal Research,” a one-day symposium for legal writing faculty and law librarians. (See below.) Professor Mary Rose Strubbe, director of Chicago-Kent’s Legal Research and Writing Program, is available for interviews about the curriculum and the symposium.
Chicago-Kent’s Immigration Law Clinic is seeking those who need legal assistance with immigration, asylum and nationality matters. The clinic is supervised by Professor Matthew I. Bernstein, whose practice includes advising corporations, nonprofit organizations and individuals in all areas of immigration law, including professionals; aliens of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts and business; individuals seeking immigration benefits for family members; and individuals threatened with removal from the United States by the government. Professor Bernstein is available for interviews about the Immigration Law Clinic. He is also available to speak with organizations about immigration issues.
Downtown Campus Events:
April 30-May 1: Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley will deliver the keynote address at 8:45 a.m. on the second day of “Overcoming Legal Barriers to Reentry,” the spring conference of the ABA Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions. Participants will discuss the impact of laws and policies that limit employment prospects of persons with criminal records. Panel discussions will examine the employer’s and employee’s perspectives, the balance between the public’s right to information and policy interests that encourage successful reentry, and the risks and rewards of encouraging elected officials to support reentry initiatives. Former Illinois Governor James R. Thompson and George Washington University law professor Stephen A. Saltzburg, co-chair the ABA commission. Attendance is free, but advance registration is required. Details of the program and a complete list of conference participants are available at http://www.abanet.org/crimjust/calendar/cecsspringconference.pdf. This program is co-sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Chicago Metropolis 2020, the Safer Foundation and the ABA Criminal Justice Section. News media representatives are welcome to attend the conference, but ABA press credentials are required. To register as media, please contact Nancy Cowger Slonim, (312) 988-6132, or slonimn@staff.abanet.org.
May 3-4: 26th annual Federal Tax Institute. Hon. Eric Solomon, assistant secretary for tax policy at the U.S. Department of Treasury, will be the luncheon speaker on the second day of the institute to discuss current developments at the Treasury Department. This two-day program brings together nationally recognized tax advisors to provide a comprehensive update on recent developments and their impact on tax planning, compliance and controversy techniques. For more information, call (312) 906-5090.
May 18: Back to the Future of Legal Research. How can law schools stay abreast of the rapid changes in legal research techniques? How can they best pass this knowledge on to their students? This intensive one-day conference will bring together law librarians and legal writing professors from across the country to continue conversations on important issues begun in 2005. For a schedule and registration information, please visit
http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/future/ on the Web.
May 20: Chicago-Kent Commencement. Illinois Supreme Court justice and Chicago-Kent alumna Anne M. Burke will deliver the commencement address at Chicago-Kent College of Law’s 2007 ceremonies. Commencement ceremonies begin at 2 p.m. and will be held in the Arie Crown Theatre at McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center, 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, in Chicago. Approximately 385 students are expected to receive Juris Doctor degrees, and 45 Master of Laws degrees will be conferred.
May 21: Who Owns Your Body?: Legal and Social Issues in Michael Crichton’s Next. Best-selling author Michael Crichton and a panel of experts from the legal, judiciary, medical, bioethics and social science communities will convene at Chicago-Kent to explore a variety of thought-provoking questions raised in Crichton’s latest techno-thriller Next. The novel presents a genetics industry Crichton says is “fast, furious and out of control.” In Next, the author imagines a world in which blondes are threatened by extinction and it is possible to design one’s pets. And, while tissue donors and their families are not yet being pursued by bounty hunters intent upon harvesting genes for biotech companies, there are battles currently being waged in the courts and Congress that will determine who owns an individual’s genes and other body parts. Mr. Crichton will speak from 4 to 5 p.m.
The program is free and open to the public, but registration is required. However, for Illinois lawyers seeking mandatory continuing legal education credit (4.0 hours), a $20 fee applies. To register and for more information, please visit www.whoownsyourbody.org.
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