My name is Amelia Clark, and I serve as the tournament director for the Yale Mock Trial Association. It is my pleasure to invite you to join us at the 2012 New Haven Regional Mock Trial Tournament, to be held Saturday and Sunday, February 11th and 12th at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Mock trial is an undergraduate student organization in which competitors from around the nation prepare and present a fictional case to attorney judges such as you. Past judges have reported it to be an engaging and rewarding experience, and are frequently impressed by the level of competition. In fact, many of our past judges choose to return year after year. This tournament, hosted by Yale University, serves as the first round of competition leading to the American Mock Trial Association’s National Championship Tournament, held in April.
Furthermore, as a law-related student organization, we are a certified provider of CLE credits to attorneys in New York and Connecticut. For just a few hours of your time, you would be able to earn 3 CLE credits free of charge. No mock trial experience is necessary. The success of this and all our tournaments depends on the generosity of legal professionals such as yourself who donate their time and energy each year. This year, the rounds will be as follows:
Saturday, February 11th
9:00 am: Complimentary Breakfast
9:45 am: Judge’s meeting
10:30 am – 1:30 pm: Round 1*Complimentary Lunch after Round 1
2:45 pm: Judge’s meeting
3:30 pm – 6:30 pm: Round 2Sunday, February 12th
8:00 am: Complimentary Breakfast
8:45 am: Judge’s meeting
9:30 am – 12:30 pm: Round 3*Complimentary Lunch after Round 3
1:45 pm: Judge’s meeting
2:30 pm – 5:50 pm: Round 4** We are particularly looking for people who are available to judge on Sunday, as we tend to have far fewer registrations for those rounds. Note that we are only certified to offer 3 CLE credits, even to those judges who choose to judge in multiple rounds. However, we do encourage judging multiple rounds, and in the past, many of our judges have chosen to evaluate both rounds in a given day.
To register, please fill out the form located on our website, http://www.yale.edu/mocktrial/judges.html. Upon registration, you will receive more information regarding event logistics.
If you have questions not answered on our website, please do not hesitate to contact me! Feel free to forward this information to any interested colleagues. The Yale Mock Trial Association depends on the generosity of volunteers like you for the success of this event, and we would greatly appreciate any help you could provide.
Thank you!
CUP 5th Anniversary Leadership Gala
SAVE THE DATE: Thursday, April 5, 2012 for Council of Urban Professionals (CUP) 5th Anniversary Leadership Gala @ Espace, NYC
For sponsorship information, please contact Samantha E. Erskine, Director of Development, at [email protected] or (646) 619-5187.
Download CUP’s 2012 Overview Sheet
Download CUP’s 5th Anniversary Leadership Gala Registration Form
WSJ: Vinoo Varghese Secures Plea Deal in Art Fraud Case
WSJ: Vinoo Varghese Secures Plea Deal in Art Fraud Case
AABANY Director and criminal defense attorney Vinoo Varghese appeared in a Wall Street Journal story on January 13 about his client Richard Silver who took a guilty plea in a case involving forged appraisal documents for fake Damien Hirst prints. Not mentioned in the article is the excellent result that Vinoo obtained for his client who was looking at a possible 7-year prison term. Vinoo negotiated that down to 60 days in a vocational program or 12 weekends in jail.
Applications Now Being Accepted for 2012 Public Interest Law Fellowship
The Paul M. Dodyk Fellowship for Economic Justice has been established by generous donors to the National Center for Law and Economic Justice in honor of Paul M. Dodyk, past Chair of NCLEJ and a great champion of using the law to promote economic justice and fair and dignified treatment for everyone in our society, regardless of their means. The Fellowship is designed to foster the next generation of lawyers working for economic justice while enhancing NCLEJ’s capacity to serve those who have the least in our society.
Dodyk Fellows will participate in a variety of high-impact legal and policy matters at NCLEJ and assist in developing new matters and areas of work. Candidates with expertise or interest in specific issues are encouraged to inquire about pursuing that work through the Fellowship.
Get more details on the Fellowship here.
You can see a video launching the Dodyk Fellowship in which a recent Skadden Fellow at NCLEJ describes her experience (go to www.nclej.org). A description of a recent Equal Justice Works Fellowship at NCLEJ may be seen at http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/node/2058.
Lunar New Year at the Met
The Metropolitan Museum of Art will celebrate the Year of the Dragon on Saturday February 4 with performances, interactive gallery activities, and art-making workshops for all ages.
All programs, including performances in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, are free with Museum admission. The cafeteria will be celebrating Lunar New Year with a traditional Chinese menu including soy sauce chicken, pork buns, and Napa cabbage with garlic and ginger. All visitors are welcome.
Visit the Met’s page for a complete schedule of events.
a4 Festival: Locating the Sacred
a4 Festival: Locating the Sacred
The Asian American Arts Alliance will hold an information session for its upcoming twelve-day event, “Locating the Sacred Festival”, on Tuesday, January 17, 2012, from 6:30PM to 8PM, at 25 West 43rd Street, 18th Floor, between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan. AAARI of several outreach partners for the Locating the Sacred Festival.
“Locating the Sacred” is a twelve-day, twenty-event festival coordinated by the Asian American Arts Alliance (a4) that brings together artists and spaces in New York for creative explorations of the “sacred.” The festival showcases the diversity and talent of the Asian American community, which now constitutes more than 1 million people in New York (13% of the population) and is the most rapidly growing cultural group in the city. The festival aims to promote artists as agents of change, demonstrating the power of art and culture to unleash imagination, break down barriers, and connect communities together for the greater good.
a4 will produce three pillar events: an opening, a closing, and a panel discussion series. For the other festival events, a4 will act as an umbrella, matching artists with space hosts in an attempt to generate creative collaborations across ethnic, religious, geographic and aesthetic boundaries. These events will benefit from the festivalʼs “stamp”, from underwriting for artist fees of up to $2,000 depending on the scope of the project, and from the exposure from the festival’s citywide PR and marketing campaign.
To RSVP for the info session and details on how to apply as an Artist or Space host, please visit http://aaartsalliance.org/page/locating-the-sacred#JOIN%20US
CUP Hosts: A Conversation with Geoffrey Canada
The Council of Urban Professionals is hosting a conversation with president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, Geoffrey Canada, moderated by Omar Wasow on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm at J.P. Morgan Chase, 270 Park Avenue – 2nd Floor.
You can purchase a ticket at this link. Read more here about CUP.
Volunteers needed for National Trial Competition (NTC)
Hofstra Law School is hosting the local regional version of the National Trial Competition (NTC) and is looking for attorneys and judges to volunteer their time. CLE credits will be available to all those who serve as “presiding judge” or “evaluator.”
The competition will be held on February 9-11, 2012, at the Nassau County Supreme Court, 100 Supreme Court Drive, Mineola, NY. There will be a total of 33 trials over the three days in February, each requiring a presiding judge and at least two other individuals to serve as evaluators, to score the performances of the student competitors, three volunteers per trial for 33 trials.
Following is the schedule of trials:
Thursday, Feb. 9, 1:00 pm: Preliminary Round 1 (nine trials)
Friday, Feb. 10, 9:30 am: Preliminary Round 2 (nine trials)
Friday, Feb. 10, 2:30 pm: Preliminary Round 3 (nine trials)
Saturday, Feb. 11, 9:30 am: Semifinal Round (four trials)
Saturday, Feb. 11, 2:30 pm: Final Round (two trials)
If you have any questions about the NTC or would like to discuss the competition, please contact Jared Rosenblatt by email, [email protected].
AALDEF SEEKS VOLUNTEER INTERPRETER – MALAYALAM
AALDEF’s Economic Justice project seeks a volunteer interpreter who is fluent in Malayalam to conduct a 2 ½-hour consultation between AALDEF attorneys and a potential client in the coming week. The consultation may take place at AALDEF’s New York office during the afternoon in a workweek, or by telephone during the weekend. Interested volunteers should contact Jennifer Weng at [email protected] regarding their availability.
AALDEF SEEKS VOLUNTEER INTERPRETER – MANDARIN
AALDEF seeks a volunteer fully fluent in Mandarin to accompany an attorney on an initial legal visit in a medical setting within New York City. The meeting is flexible, but must take place sometime between 4pm and 8pm, during the workweek (Mon. Jan. 9th through Fri. Jan. 13th).
Ideally, the volunteer is conversant with terms involving the judicial system, but a preliminary review of the terms to be used may be arranged. If interested, please contact [email protected].