For more information, please contact:
Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
ADVISORY TO PRODUCERS, COLUMNISTS, AND ASSIGNMENT, LEGAL, HIGHER EDUCATION, INTERNATIONAL, BUSINESS, PLANNING, CITY DESK, FEATURES AND DAYBOOK EDITORS
CHICAGO–May 11, 2009–Chicago-Kent College of Law and Stuart School of Business have experts available to discuss current issues. To reach experts on IIT's Downtown Campus, please call Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251. Press releases and earlier advisories are available on our Web site: www.kentlaw.edu/news/advisory.
William E. Kovacic, immediate past-chairman and a current member of the Federal Trade Commission, will deliver the commencement address at Chicago-Kent's 2009 ceremonies on May 17. More than 250 students are expected to receive Juris Doctor degrees, and 85 Master of Laws degrees will be conferred. Kovacic, whose current term ends in 2013, has served as an FTC commissioner since January 2006, following his nomination by President George W. Bush and confirmation by the U.S. Senate. In March 2008, President Bush named him FTC chairman. Kovacic held the chairmanship until March 2009, when President Barack Obama appointed a successor. A recognized expert in both antitrust law and government contracts law, Kovacic has published extensively in both fields. Prior to his current position with the FTC, Kovacic spent eight years as the E. K. Gubin Professor of Government Contracts Law at George Washington University Law School. (A complete bio and photograph are available at www.kentlaw.edu/news/releases/commencement_2009.html.)
Chicago-Kent's Class of 2009 comprises a diverse group of more than 300 individuals. Several are profiled below and are available for interviews.
Valedictorian Betsy L. Gates will stress "the importance of community service and ethical conduct, especially during these difficult times" in her J.D. student address. As a member of Chicago-Kent's Moot Court Honor Society, Gates won the 2007 Ilana Diamond Rovner Award for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy and was a member of the 2009 National Moot Court Competition championship team. She also served as a Notes and Comments editor of the Chicago-Kent Law Review. Gates, a candidate for a certificate in environmental and energy law, came to Chicago-Kent with a double major in zoology and environmental studies from Ohio Wesleyan University. As a Georges Fellow at the John G. Shedd Aquarium, she developed a legal research project addressing regional pollutant transport regulation under the Clean Air Act. After graduation, Gates will begin practice in the Land Use and Local Government practice group in the Chicago office of Holland & Knight LLP.
Laurie-Anne Greilier, a candidate for an LL.M. in International and Comparative Law with an emphasis on antitrust and unfair competition law, will deliver the graduate address. Grelier studied law at the University of Poitiers, France, and continued her legal education at the University Paris-Dauphine, Paris, where she specialized in European and international business law, with a specific focus on competition law and single market law. Grelier, who is admitted to the Paris Bar, has worked in the Competition Law department at the law firm UGGC & Associés in Paris. Her address will focus on the need--in the midst of globalization--to "stimulate dialogue among various legal systems and the importance of foreign study." After commencement, Grelier will sit for the New York Bar.
Robert J. Grindle, who will graduate seventh in his class, is legally blind as a result of retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease. Grindle earned an undergraduate degree, with distinction, in computer science from the University of Michigan and worked for Motorola's GSM Division for more than a dozen years before law school. He has received CALI awards for receiving the highest grades in nine courses and served as Notes and Comments editor for the Chicago-Kent Law Review. Grindle completed a judicial externship with Justice Michael Gallagher of the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, and worked as a summer associate with the Chicago firm of Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP.
Casandra Rdzak is a native of Romania who immigrated to the United States in 2002. Rdzak earned a bachelor of arts in Romanian Legal Studies in 2001 from Dimitrie Cantemir University College of Law in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She and fellow graduate Sarah Buck won the 17th annual National Health Law Moot Court Competition, the only tournament in the U.S. devoted to health law. In the spring of 2008, Rdzak served as a judicial extern for Judge Martin C. Ashman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She was a summer associate in 2008 at the Chicago law firm of Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, where she will work as an associate in the Labor and Employment group after graduation.
Jonathan Rhodes is a J.D. candidate in the Public Interest Certificate Program. Working as a volunteer with the Student Hurricane Network, Rhodes became involved with the Gulf Coast Civic Works Projects, a student-led project to develop community-based policies "for just and equitable rebuilding of the Gulf Coast." During the summer after his first year of law school, he worked as a policy fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives Office of the Democratic Caucus, where he drafted the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act of 2007. The bill, co-sponsored by more than 30 bipartisan members of Congress, was introduced in the House in November of 2007. The revised bill, which Rhodes also drafted with the help of community partners, was introduced in the 111th Congress on May 5, 2009, as the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act of 2009. He is currently working with the bill's supporters to arrange for hundreds of faith leaders, students, and Gulf Coast residents to travel to Washington, D.C., on June 1 to encourage passage of the bill. After graduation, Rhodes will sit for the Louisiana bar.
Theresa Williams graduated cum laude with a business degree from Northeastern University, where she was a member of the women's varsity track and field team and considered "one of the best triple-jumpers in New England." Williams earned a graduate degree in sports management from West Virginia State University. At Chicago-Kent, she won the first SmithAmundsen Excellence in Legal Writing Award. Williams was a member of the team that represented Chicago-Kent in the National Institute of Trial Advocacy's Tournament of Champions, one of the most prestigious trial competitions in the country. In her spare time, she volunteered with Girls in the Game, a Chicago organization that provides and promotes sports and fitness opportunities, nutrition and health education, and leadership development for girls. Williams will begin practice at Schiff Hardin in January 2010.
Honors Scholar Matt Towey won the 2009 national student writing competition sponsored by the American Bar Association's Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law. A 1995 magna cum laude graduate with a double major in philosophy and government from University of Notre Dame, Towey came to Chicago-Kent with more than a decade of service with nonprofit organizations providing housing and services for people facing homelessness. At Chicago-Kent, Towey co-chaired the Kent Justice Foundation's annual auction to support public interest fellowships for his classmates, served as a Notes and Comments Editor of the Chicago-Kent Law Review, completed an externship with Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys in the U.S. District Court, and worked on civil rights matters as a law clerk in the Office of the U.S. Attorney. After graduation, he will join the Legal Honors program at the Chicago office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Ruth Lopez is a candidate for a J.D. with a certificate in Public Interest Law. Prior to attending law school, Lopez was a community organizer on Chicago's northwest side, where she worked to increase neighborhood police patrols, and to create community block clubs, after-school programs, and a third-shift preschool program that services more than 200 3- and 4-year-old at-risk children. She earned her undergraduate degree in Spanish and Latino Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During her first year at Chicago-Kent, Lopez became involved in the Hispanic-Latino Law Student Association (HLLSA), Student Hurricane Network (SHN), Women in Law, Access 2 Justice and the Kent Justice Foundation. Her involvement continued through service on the boards of various student organizations; she served as external vice president for HLLSA and president of SHN. Lopez also served on the 20-member national advisory committee of Equal Justice Works, an initiative of the National Association of Public Interest Law.
Springfield, Illinois, native Brian P. Wojcicki graduated cum laude from Bradley University with a double major in political science and philosophy. Prior to law school, he worked for a legislative consulting firm, various political campaigns and interned in the Governor's Legislative Affairs Office. Wojcicki was a member of the Chicago-Kent teams that won the 2008 National Ethics Trial Competition and the 2009 Midwest regional championship of the National Trial Competition, where he received individual honors as Best Oral Advocate. A candidate for a J.D. with a certificate in Labor and Employment Law, he clerked at the Chicago labor law firm of Asher, Gittler, Greenfield and D'Alba Ltd.
Sulema Madrano served as a legislative fellow with the White House Initiative on Education Excellence for Hispanic Americans and worked for two Michigan state legislators before law school. Medrano came to Chicago-Kent with a degree from the School of International and Public Affairs of James Madison College at Michigan State University. She has served as Region XI president of the Hispanic National Bar Association's student division and community service chair of Chicago-Kent's Hispanic-Latino Law Student Association. Medrano was a member of the International Moot Court Honor Society, student editor of the Chicago-Kent Journal of International & Comparative Law, and a member of the Chicago-Kent trial ad team that won the Midwest regional championship of the National Trial Competition.
Honors scholar Ted Koshiol, who graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in environmental studies and economics from St. Olaf College, is a J.D. candidate for a certificate in environmental and energy law. Prior to law school, Koshiol served as a public policy intern at Cannon River Watershed Partnership in Northfield, Minn., where he organized a regional "Protect Our Water Campaign." As a member of the Moot Court Honor Society, he was a member of the winning 2008 Evan A. Evans Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition team and coached the Chicago-Kent team that won the Evans tournament in 2009. Koshiol was a member of the Chicago-Kent Law Review and the Kent Justice Foundation board. After graduation, he will join Fredrikson & Byron PA in Minneapolis.
Downtown Campus Events
May 17: Chicago-Kent Commencement. William E. Kovacic, immediate past-chairman and a current commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, will deliver the commencement address at Chicago-Kent College of Law's 2009 ceremonies. Commencement will begin at 3 p.m. in the Arie Crown Theater, McCormick Place's Lakeside Center, 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, in Chicago. More than 250 students are expected to receive Juris Doctor degrees, and 85 Master of Laws degrees will be conferred. (A complete bio of William E. Kovacic is available at www.kentlaw.edu/news/releases/commencement_2009.html.)
May 28: The People v. Drew Peterson. Chicago attorneys Greg Adamski and Karen Conti, hosts of WGN Radio's Legally Speaking, will present a mock trial of the closing arguments in the murder prosecution of Drew Peterson for the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. The program will begin at 6 p.m. in Chicago-Kent's Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Courtroom. It is free and open to the public and will be taped for broadcast on WGN Radio June 14 and June 21. Tickets are required and are available at www.wgnradio.com. Editors please note: Drew Peterson was indicted by a Will County grand jury last week on two counts of murder in connection with Savio's death. Peterson is scheduled to be arraigned May 18. However, this event is intended as an "education exposition based solely on the facts that have been publicly reported." For more information, visit the WGN Web site: www.wgnradio.com or call (312) 222-4700.
June 5: 28th annual Conference on Not-For-Profit Organizations. This one-day seminar is designed for experienced attorneys, accountants, not-for-profit executives and staff, and board members. The conference features a comprehensive program at a mid-to-advanced level of discussion on most current developments in taxation, legislation and regulation of non-profits. Registration is required. To register or for more information, please call (312) 906-5090 or visit www.kentlaw.edu/depts/cle.
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