The Magazine of Roger Williams University School of Law - May 2019

MAY 2019

RWU Law A LAW SCHOOL THAT MATTERS:

th ANNIVERSARY

RWU LAW TURNS 25

THE MAGAZINE of ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

FIRST WOMEN OF THE RHODE ISLAND BAR Page 28

MILLENIAL LAW

CLOSING ARGUMENT

Page 39

Page 48

THE NEW GENERATION OF LAWYERS

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THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND THE FOXY LADY

O D g

eA h T

in z a m

T O R

HY

CR

K C O

T T E

THE FIRST AFRICANAMERICAN WOMAN ADMITTED TO THE RHODE ISLAND BAR, 1932.

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THE AMAZING DOROTHY CROCKET

By Michael Bowden The first African-American woman admitted to the Rhode Island bar, 1932.

ON THE COVER: Judge Netti Vogel, admitted 1975; Judge Patricia Sullivan, 1978; Attorney General Arlene Violet, 1974.

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RWU Law

CONTENTS

20 A LAW SCHOOL THAT MATTERS

by Michael Bowden How the Great Recession helped shape the institution RWU Law has become

DEPARTMENTS 4

The Dean’s Space Dean Yelnosky chats with

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14

Field Reports

President-Designate Miaoulis

By the Bay

44 Amicus

News from the Bristol campus and beyond

RWU students, faculty and alumni in the community

The alumni pages

FEATURES

28

39

48

MILLENIAL LAW

CLOSING ARGUMENT

by Alexandra Varney McDonald

by Dick Dahl

by Associate Dean Jared Goldstein

How RWU Law honored the first pioneering women of the Rhode Island Bar

How a new generation of lawyers is changing the future of the profession

How the First Amendment protects the rights of dancers at the Foxy Lady

FIRST WOMEN

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‘RWU LAW IS ESSENTIAL TO THE VISION…’

RWU Law Dean Michael Yelnosky and President-Designate Ioannis Miaoulis.

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n February, the Roger Williams University Board of Trustees announced the appointment of the University’s 11th president, Ioannis Miaoulis, who transformed the Museum of Science in Boston into an institution of national and international prominence.

He will take the reins in August.

During his career, Miaoulis has led large-scale efforts to spark passion for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) among young learners around the world. Prior to his tenure at the Museum of Science, he was Dean of the College of Engineering at Tufts University and led the effort to make it a separate School of Engineering.

Born in Athens, Greece, Miaoulis graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 1980. He earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984 and a master’s degree in economics from Tufts in 1986. He received a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Tufts in 1987.

Miaoulis recently visited the School of Law for a chat with RWU Law Dean Michael Yelnosky.

Dean Yelnosky: We just came from your first visit to the law school – attending our Accepted Students Day Diversity Breakfast. So welcome, and thank you for being here. How do you like the place so far?

President-Designate Miaoulis: I love it. The energy is great. I had a chance to speak with some students, some faculty members; everyone has been wonderful.

Of course, I’m not a lawyer. But there’s an excellent sense of something very interesting going on.

MY: And you’ve done some incognito research on the university as well …

IM: Yes, I actually took two campus tours incognito. I also went into the dining hall and pretended to be a parent. And I wasn’t being totally dishonest about it, actually, because …

MY: So you are a lawyer! [Laughter] IM: I stayed for three different lunches, sitting with different groups of students – men, women, sitting together and having a good time. And I pretended to be the parent of a prospective student and asked them, “So how do you like it here?” All

of them seemed very happy with the university; they spoke very highly of it. And these were just ordinary students, not tour guides trained to say good things.

MY: I fell for you when you first told us that story. I thought, “This is the kind of spirit we could use.”

IM: Well, how else do you learn about a place? At a university, the consumer is the product. So what better way to get the feel of it than to see firsthand the quality of the students who have been attracted to the university, and ask how they feel about it?

In fact, one of the first students I sat and listened to was a law student. She was sitting with an undergrad student. It was a great conversation. They were very engaged, so I didn’t speak to them, I just listened. At one point, he asked her, “What do you guys do for fun over at the law school?” And she said, “Well, I’m a firstyear law student, so we don’t have time for fun. We just study all the time.”

MY: Which is true, for the most part.

And the fact that a law student was sitting and having lunch at the Commons with

an undergraduate – that makes me think about the connection between the School of Law and the rest of the university.

Maybe those interactions happen more often than we think they do.

IM: I think it’s terrific. We’re all one university. And the Providence campus seems like another great opportunity to expand those sorts of connections.

MY: Well, during their first year, it’s nice for law students to have a sort of real, classic academic experience here in Bristol.

But we believe strongly in getting them out into the community, gaining experience.

And the Providence campus is really the hub of the programs that get them out there. For example, our clinics are there.

But let’s talk a little about you. What are you passionate about that we wouldn’t know from your very impressive CV? IM: My two main hobbies are fishing and cooking. Incidentally, the first time I ever saw Roger Williams University, it was from my boat – and I have to say, what an 25th Anniversary RWU Law

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impressive view. Narragansett Bay is, by far, my favorite fishing spot in New England.

I have a small boat, and I used to take it to Allen Harbor, a beautiful place not far from Quonset. I used to fish all around there.

MY: When did you first develop a taste for being out on the water?

IM: I have always loved the water. I grew up in Athens, Greece, and my parents had a small summer house right on the water, on the Gulf of Corinth. I used to spend every summer there, and a lot of weekends when the weather was warm – probably 16 hours a day on the water. I would swim, snorkel, sail, fish – everything.

MY: What do you fish for in Rhode Island?

IM: Bluefish, primarily.

MY: I love bluefish. My wife won’t eat it. I keep telling her, “You’re missing out.” But I

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RWU Law

think bluefish has this reputation of tasting a little too “fishy.”

IM: I disagree. As long as it’s fresh, you just clean it, put some Cajun spices on it, a little olive oil, put it in the oven – that’s one of my favorite ways to eat fish. Or you can make a nice sauce with good olive oil, lemon, a bit of oregano… just delicious.

MY: Nice. And do you drink wine or beer with that?

IM: Beer while I’m fishing, wine when I’m eating.

MY: Rules to live by. [Laughter] A lot of the publicity surrounding your appointment as RWU’s new president focused on the STEM elements of your background. Could you talk a bit about the more liberal arts subject areas – in particular the law, and how your background prepares you to work with that side of the academic equation?

IM: I feel that a well-educated person is one who appreciates and understands matters beyond merely technical skills. And it’s not just a matter of the curriculum; it’s the people you interact with, the friends you meet from other disciplines. When I got my master’s in economics, I survived classes like microeconomics only because my classmates were not as good in math as I was, and it’s very mathematical – so they helped me with the economics and I helped them with the math.

Roger Williams is strong in both the technical disciplines and in the liberal arts, as well as in its high-quality professional graduate programs. Frankly, for a university to have a law school is a tremendous plus.

MY: How does the law school fit into your larger vision for the university?

IM: One of the many things that attracted me to Roger Williams was its determination to be the university the world needs now.

RWU Law

THE MAGAZINE of ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

‘ A LAW SCHOOL IS A TREMENDOUS PLUS.’ - President Designate Ioannis Miaoulis

© 2019 Roger Williams University School of Law Published by Roger Williams University School of Law and the RWU Division of Marketing Issue 10/2019 INTERIM PRESIDENT Andrew A. Workman, Ph.D. DEAN Michael J. Yelnosky DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael M. Bowden ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING Lynne Mello

And I believe RWU has all the right ingredients to become precisely that – a model for education. But we have to do it in a more visible way, so that we are noticed; so that our reputation expands.

That’s the overall vision. As to specifics, I’m going to spend the next six months genuinely listening to faculty, staff and students – to understand their dreams, aspirations and challenges. And that will enable us to articulate a vision that is not just mine, but rather a collective vision that we can translate into a strategic plan with specific goals and metrics. I’m not smarter than the people who are already here, but I’m new. And that’s one of my strengths: I’m in a position to identify, to understand where everything is now, and then try to find opportunities where people want an area to grow.

And maintaining RWU Law as a high-caliber professional school is essential to this vision. You have some great signature products – like the Marine Affairs program, for example, which fits right into the growing societal focus on coastal sustainability. And exceptionally strong experiential programs as well.

MY: Yes, we were one of the first schools in the country to guarantee clinical experience for students while they’re here.

It’s an area where we have a tremendous amount of depth and we’ve been recognized for the work that we do getting

students out into the community and getting experience on the one hand, but also providing really valuable services for individuals who would not otherwise be able to afford representation.

IM: That’s very consistent with the whole culture of the school, and it positions us uniquely.

MY: Yes. The connections that being the only law school in the state provide to our students really distinguishes us from our competitors as well.

IM: And every year, more and more of your graduates are lawyers and judges, in Rhode Island and beyond. I hope to cultivate strong relationships with all of our alumni, because we need them to be connected; they’re part of the family. I want our students to see themselves not only as students, but as future alumni.

They should feel that they are part of the future of the institution, and not just customers who are going to get their degree and get out of here. If we neglect our alumni, it’s a lost opportunity.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Michael M. Bowden, Richard Dahl, Edward Fitzpatrick, Jared Goldstein, Alexandra Varney McDonald, Julia Rubin DESIGN & PRODUCTION Blair Carroll, Bryn Bachman CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Charlie Abrahams, Andrea Hansen, James P. Jones, David Silverman, Peter Silvia Please direct questions, comments, letters and other editorial inquiries to: E-mail: mbowden@rwu.edu Phone: (401) 254-3881 Fax: (401) 254-3185 Send Subscription requests and changes of address to: E-mail: smccarthy@rwu.edu Phone: (401) 254-3426 Fax: (401) 254-3599 While every effort has been made to ensure that information is accurate and up to date, we’re writing about a dynamic educational environment, and it is not possible to guarantee that all items will be accurate at all times.

Roger Williams University and RWU Law are registered with the United States Patent & Trademark Office.

Roger Williams University School of Law Board of Directors: The Honorable William Smith, Chair; the Honorable Francis X. Flaherty, Vice-Chair; Joseph D. Whelan, Esq., Treasurer; the Honorable Netti Vogel, Secretary; Kenneth E. Arnold, Esq.; Collin Bailey, Esq. ’08; Nicole J. Benjamin, Esq. ’06; the Honorable Edward C. Clifton; Marc DeSisto, Esq.; the Honorable Melissa R. DuBose, Esq. ’04; Michael W. Field, Esq. ’97; Linn Foster Freedman, Esq.; Mark Gemma, Esq. ’97; Valerie Harrison, J.D., Ph.D.; Connie Howes, Esq.; Patrick Jones, Esq.; J. Scott Kilpatrick, Esq.; Stephen P. Maguire, Esq. ’96; Mark Mandell, Esq.; Howard Merten, Esq.; Stephen Pignano, Esq.; James Ruggieri, Esq.; George L. Santopietro, Esq.; the Honorable Patricia Sullivan; the Honorable Paul A. Suttell; Hinna Mirza Upal, Esq. ’07; Nicole Verdi, Esq. ’14, ex-officio; Stacey P. Veroni, Esq.; Ed Weiss, Esq.; Andrew A. Workman, Ph.D., ex-officio; Michael J. Yelnosky, ex-officio.

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BY THE BAY NEWS FROM THE BRISTOL CAMPUS AND BEYOND

NCDC TO HOLD TRIAL PRACTICE INSTITUTE AT RWU LAW The National Criminal Defense College will hold its Trial Practice Institute at RWU Law for the first time this summer.

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pair of two-week sessions will take place from June 16-29 and July

21-Aug. 3, bringing more than 100 defense attorneys from across the country to the Bristol campus.

“We are thrilled to partner with RWU Law,” say NCDC Co-Deans Natasha Perdew Silas and Karen Smolar. “We were drawn to [the school] because of its outstanding commitment to public service and its reputation for excellence.

We also share RWU’s belief in the power of experiential learning. As we prepare for the 34th year of the NCDC Trial Practice Institute, we are looking forward to a magical time in Bristol.”

“Hosting the NCDC Trial Practice Institute is a perfect fit for RWU Law,” said

Dean Michael Yelnosky. “We have great depth in and a commitment to criminal law and procedure, public interest law and experiential education. Many of our alumni are public defenders or criminal defense lawyers in private practice, and many are prosecutors. We believe, as does NCDC, that effective representation is essential to equal justice under law, and I am proud that we are in a position to welcome them to Bristol and to Rhode Island in summer 2019.”

The Trial Practice Institute is a twoweek, transformative experience for public, private, military and federal defense attorneys from all over the United States and beyond. Participants are challenged to master courtroom skills by attending lectures, performing case exercises with live professional actors, and by watching demonstrations by NCDC’s nationally renowned faculty.

“Our goal is to empower passionate and committed defense lawyers to become the

most formidable client-centered courtroom advocates they can be,” Silas and Smolar said.

Last year, about 80 faculty members taught in the two Institutes, which were attended by 208 participants. The faculty come from coast to coast and from the judiciary, law schools, private practice, and state and federal public defender offices.

Associate Professor Tara Allen, who recently joined the RWU Law faculty and is an alumna of NCDC, will join the Institute’s visiting faculty for summer 2019.

“Having NCDC’s Trial Practice Institute at RWU Law will bring some of the best criminal defense lawyers from across the country to Bristol and Rhode Island to serve as Institute faculty,” Yelnosky said.

The Institute will also provide tremendous summer experiences for four RWU Law students who will work with the deans of NCDC, as well as the Institute faculty and staff.

- Ed Fitzpatrick

DONNELLY-BOYLEN NAMED TO LSAC BOARD OF TRUSTEES

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ichael Donnelly-Boylen, Assistant Dean of Admissions at RWU Law, has been named chair of the Schools and Candidates Committee of the Law School Admission Coucil (LSAC) Board of Trustees. In this role, he will be working alongside leaders in legal education nationwide.

Kevin Washburn, law dean at the University of Iowa and incoming chair of the LSAC board, named Donnelly-Boylen to the position.

Donnelly-Boylen brings more than two decades of legal education experience to his position at RWU Law. He has become a leader on issues relating to the inclusion of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population in legal education.

LSAC is a nonprofit corporation that provides admissions-related products and services for law schools and their applicants worldwide. The council is best known for administering the Law School Admission Test, with about 100,000 tests administered annually at testing centers worldwide.

A MANDATE FOR CHANGE In divisive times, Rachael Rollins brings an approach to the Boston DA’s chair that is, if not quite unifying, at least refreshingly real.

“I

don’t want to speak with people who agree with me,” she told a large gathering of law students, professors, alumni, judges and other Rhode Island legal luminaries during her keynote Martin Luther King Week address at RWU Law. “We need to start having conversations with people who don’t agree with us – that’s where the change is going to happen.”

Which is one reason Rollins – who was sworn in this January as the first African-American woman to serve as District Attorney in Massachusetts and the first female DA in Suffolk County – so willingly throws herself into the lion’s den of local conservative talk radio hosts.

“You can be pleasant but firm,” she explained. “And when it ends and they say, ‘Well, I guess you’re not completely crazy’ – well, that’s a win.”

Rollins knows winning. The political newcomer surprised pundits last fall when her informed, common-sense platform and plainspoken approach to campaigning won her 42 percent of the overall vote in the primaries – and then 82 percent in the general election.

Deborah Johnson, RWU Law Director of Diversity and Outreach, introduced Rollins as “a woman of many firsts” who is "all about getting things done.”

Indeed, over the course of two decades in the law, Rollins, 47, has worked as a state and federal prosecutor, clerked on the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and served as general counsel of both the MBTA and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, among many other positions.

Rachel Rollins and law student Matthew Chatelain

Looking back on her accomplishments, Rollins noted, “I cannot tell you how many people have said to me, in every job I’ve had, ‘Oh, there’s never been a woman who’s done this before. There’s never been a visible person of color who’s done this before.’ Or, ‘There’s no way that you can win being the District Attorney in Boston, as segregated as it is.’”

Clearly, she never let the naysayers stop her. “You’ve got to put all of that noise out of your head,” she advised students in the room.

‘The People Have Spoken’ As she laid it out at Roger Williams, the main points of Rollins’ platform are: • Stop criminalizing mental illness, addiction and poverty.

• Treat all parties with dignity, fairness and respect throughout the legal process.

• Don't prosecute 15 minor crimes – all related to mental illness, addiction, and poverty.

• Designate hospitals, schools, churches, and public sections of courthouses as “safe zones” for undocumented immigrants.

“Those are some of the things I said out loud and people lost their minds,” Rollins noted with a smile. “But you need a mandate for change. I was very transparent about what I was running on prior to the primary – and the people have spoken. I don’t report to anyone but the voters, so if you have a problem with that, I will see you in four years when we’re running again.”

The oldest child of an Irish-American father from South Boston and an AfricanAmerican mother with roots in Barbados, Rollins has five siblings, some of whom “have either struggled with opioid addiction or cycled in and out of the criminal justice system.”

Rollins has also survived a battle with cancer, which she says did wonders to clarify her priorities. She is also the legal guardian and kinship foster parent to two nieces and has provided temporary shelter to many other displaced children. Her parental pride shone through when she mentioned that her own athletic daughter Peyton, 14, holds the AAU national record in 55m, 100m and 200m hurdles.

RWU Law’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Keynote Lecture is held annually in honor of the contributions of Dr. King to the Civil Rights Movement. It is presented with the generous support of Nixon Peabody LLP, and the RWU Law Office of Diversity & Outreach.

- Michael M. Bowden 25th Anniversary RWU Law

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BY THE BAY

WELCOME NEW FACULTY RWU Law welcomes the newest additions to its faculty: Tara Allen, Christopher Ryan, Jr., and Nadiyah Humber bring fresh expertise to the school’s outstanding programs.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR TARA I. ALLEN will be teaching Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Evidence. She joins us from the Federal Public Defenders Office for the District of Rhode Island, where she served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender since 2012, representing indigent defendants in federal criminal proceedings of all kinds.

She has also worked in Federal Public Defender Offices in the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Eastern District of California. Prior to her work as a trial lawyer Professor Allen was a staff attorney in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Second Circuits.

Professor Allen will be a familiar face to many in the RWU Law family, as she has been teaching as an adjunct here (to rave reviews) for several years, and has served as an externship supervisor for RWU Law students placed in the federal defenders office. She also has teaching experience at U.C. Hastings and McGeorge School of Law. Professor Allen earned her B.A. from Wesleyan University and her J.D. from Northeastern.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER J. RYAN, JR. will teach Property, Wills and Trusts, and Statistics for Lawyers. He joins us from an American Bar Foundation Fellowship, where he conducted research on the job market for law school graduates. He also has a Ph.D. in Policy Studies from Vanderbilt University; his dissertation focused on the economics of attending law school.

Professor Ryan served as a law clerk to Judge Joseph M. Hood of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and he was Director of Development at the University of Kentucky. He has also taught courses in business at the University of Louisville.

In addition to his scholarship about law schools and law school graduates Professor Ryan has written about a variety of intellectual property topics. He has a B.A. from Dartmouth College, a Master’s in Education from Notre Dame, and a J.D. from the University of Kentucky.

ASSISTANT CLINICAL PROFESSOR NADIYAH J. HUMBER will be directing the Corporate Counsel and Government Clinical Externship Programs. She joins RWU Law from Suffolk Law’s Housing Discrimination Testing Program, where she was director of investigations and outreach and a clinical fellow. She was also a lecturer at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, where she taught law for business students.

Earlier she was Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at Northeastern Law. She has served as a trial attorney with the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Worcester, Mass., as well as a volunteer attorney for the Housing Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services, and on the steering committee of the Boston Bar Association’s Commission on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Professor Humber earned her B.S. from Vanderbilt and her J.D. from Suffolk.

3L MICHAELA BLAND RECEIVES SKADDEN FELLOWSHIP For the first time, an RWU Law student is receiving one of the coveted Skadden Fellowships that allow talented young lawyers to pursue the practice of public interest law on a full-time basis.

By Ed Fitzpatrick

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ichaela Bland, who graduates from RWU Law this spring, was selected to receive one of 28 Skadden Fellowships awarded this year. She plans to work with the Rhode Island Center for Justice to find legal solutions to the “school-to-prison pipeline,” a national trend in which children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

Over the years, Skadden Fellowships have become known as the public-interest world’s version of U.S. Supreme Court clerkships. Each year, more than 200 law students apply for the 28 fellowships. The fellowships have launched the legal careers of hundreds of public interest attorneys, with 90 percent of Skadden Fellows remaining in public interest law.

“Our primary goal is to help prepare our students to change their world,” says Dean Michael Yelnosky. “It is humbling and exhilarating to work with a student as gifted and passionate as Michaela. I am thrilled for her that the Skadden Foundation has recognized that her vision and talent are worthy of their investment.”

The vast majority of Skadden Fellowships have gone to graduates of the most elite law schools. This marks the first time a RWU Law student has received a Skadden Fellowship, and it represents a milestone in the school’s development as a law school with depth in public interest law.

“Michaela is an extraordinary student – full of passion, commitment, and talent – who came to law school specifically to be a public-interest lawyer,” said Laurie Barron, RWU Law’s director of the Feinstein Center for Pro Bono and Experiential Education. “Her project will change the landscape in Rhode Island.”

Bland, an Ithaca College graduate born in Chili, N.Y., said receiving the Skadden Fellowship has been a surreal experience.

“I cannot thank the Feinstein Center and the Rhode Island Center for Justice enough for their constant support and guidance,” Bland said. “My fellowship project will dismantle discriminatory discipline practices, which have funneled minority students into the school-to-prison pipeline, and it will continue to build Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream for children to ‘one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character’ into a reality.”

NATIONAL ADMIRALTY CHAMPS A team of third-year RWU Law students swept the premier admiralty law tournament in the United States, winning the overall championship as well as awards for best brief and best oral advocate. The team – consisting of 3Ls Brody Karn, Steve Lapatin and Joe Staph – traveled to Charleston, S.C., this spring to participate in the 26th Annual Judge John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court Competition, where they squared off against 24 teams from 18 law schools, including admiralty law powerhouses such as Tulane (defeated by RWU in the quarter finals), and returning champs Louisiana State (with two teams, defeated by RWU in the semi-final and championship rounds respectively).

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BY THE BAY

LEGAL STRATEGIES FOR CLIMATE ADAPTATION

By Ed Fitzpatrick

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he 11th Marine Law Symposium brought top legal and policy experts together at RWU Law last fall to address legal strategies for climate adaptation in coastal New England.

Co-hosted by the Marine Affairs Institute, Rhode Island Sea Grant and the Georgetown Climate Center, the symposium was part of a yearlong RWU series titled “Ocean State/State of the Ocean: The Challenge of Sea-Level Rise Over the Coming Century.”

ROGER WILLIAMS INTRODUCES

“Communities across New England are facing a different climate than they had a decade ago,” says Julia Wyman, director of the Marine Affairs Institute, a partnership of RWU Law, Rhode Island Sea Grant and the University of Rhode Island.

“Some of the changes they are seeing are an increase in flooding roads during regular rain events, more frequent and stronger storm events, and an increase in sea-level rise and coastal erosion. State and local governments are being presented with complex challenges on how to adapt existing laws, policies and regulations to the changing environment.”

The daylong event began with a series of presentations covering practical and innovative ways for state and local governments to address current and future climate risks in their planning, followed by break-out sessions with the speakers, allowing attendees to share their experiences with the issues.

“This symposium is a great example of what the Marine Affairs Institute at RWU Law does best,” says Dean Michael Yelnosky.

“These are some of the most consequential legal challenges of our time.”

JOINT JD/MBA DEGREE

RWU will become the only university in Rhode Island offering a joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration degree.

RWU Law and the Mario J. Gabelli School of Business will collaborate to offer students two valuable degrees that they can complete in four years instead of the usual five. The joint degree will equip students to compete in the fast-changing and increasingly global economy, and provide an edge for those embarking on law or business careers – or the increasing number of careers that combine aspects of both disciplines.

“This is another example of the way in which our powerful

collection of professional programs collaborate to provide our students with the skills to succeed in the rapidly changing workplace,” says RWU Interim President Andy Workman.

“RWU, with the only law school in Rhode Island, is uniquely placed to provide graduates with both legal and business expertise to the cutting-edge employers building the new economy of our state.”

“This JD/MBA program is the latest manifestation of the law school’s commitment to increasing the amount and sophistication of business education available to our students,” notes Dean Michael Yelnosky.

GETTING TO KNOW...

THOMAS MELLO ’04 Almost everyone agrees that due process is a cornerstone of our criminal justice system.

The idea that every criminal defendant should be treated the same, regardless of means, is one that Americans take pride in.

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homas Mello ’04 was proud, too – but he didn’t realize just how strongly he felt about it until his second year at RWU Law. “The turning point for me was Professor Andy Horwitz and the Criminal Defense Clinic. They planted the seed of, ‘This is what I want to do.’ After that, I didn’t look back.”

A decade and a half later, as Supervising Attorney for the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), Superior & District Court Office, Public Defender Division, in New Bedford, Mello says he still employs the lessons he learned at Roger Williams every day.

“You can go to any law school and get the blackletter law you need to pass a bar exam,” Mello says.

“What makes RWU Law unique is the depth and quality of the clinical experiences and training you receive in addition to those academic elements.

That’s your real-world preview; that’s what gets you ready to do the work. Because you can believe in the ideals all you like – but unless you have the practical chops to get the job done, you’re not going to be of much help to your client."

" FOR DUE PROCESS TO HAVE ANY TEETH, YOU NEED LAWYERS WHO ARE WILLING TO STAND UP AND REPRESENT THE ACCUSED - NO MATTER WHAT." 25th Anniversary RWU Law

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FIELD REPORTS RWU STUDENTS, FACULTY AND ALUMNI IN THE COMMUNITY

FORCE MULTIPLIERS RWU Law students gain legal experience helping low-income tenants avoid eviction, while also forging longer-term solutions to Rhode Island’s ongoing housing crisis

By Michael M. Bowden

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ur homes are the solid ground upon which we build our lives – safe, secure, healthy spaces where we can eat, sleep, and spend time with our families; bases from which we travel to work or school; conducive, reliable environments in which we can thrive and grow.

Yet for many Rhode Islanders, this basic resource remains persistently out of reach. It’s a crisis that students at RWU Law are addressing head-on through the Rhode Island Tenant Stabilization Project, aimed at helping low-income tenants who face eviction and possible homelessness.

Law students get involved through RWU Law’s Pro Bono Collaborative, in partnership with the Center for Justice, HousingWorks RI and the Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law School.

“For us, RWU Law students are a force-multiplier,” says Jennifer Wood, executive director of the Center for Justice.

“Having them involved is a critical factor for us to be able to reach the volume of cases we need in order to draw meaningful conclusions about the best way to help families sustain their tenancies, stabilize their housing, and stabilize their lives.”

It also places RWU Law students at the center of the action.

“Students get some practical application of the things they’re learning in the classroom – and we get those extra boots on the ground that the law students provide,” Wood says. “They interact with our clients, they write, and they do research – these are critical aspects to us in developing cases, and also critical learning experiences for the students.”

Indeed, third-year law student Stephanie Diorio said her work with the project has been eye-opening and gratifying.

“It’s a tremendously valuable experience,” she said. “We’re in the field working with actual attorneys and clients. And along the way, we have a wonderful opportunity to help people who would otherwise not have legal representation.”

An Eviction Crisis While many advocacy groups assist tenants in public housing and Section 8 housing, no parallel resources exist for those in the private rental market. The Tenant Stabilization Project is an effort to change that dynamic.

“Our review of the docket at the 6th District Court [in Providence] revealed that more than 400 evictions are filed every month in that court alone,” Wood notes. “With no other attorneys dedicated to this work, hundreds of tenants face eviction proceedings without an attorney.”

As a result, most never get the chance to raise legitimate counterclaims and affirmative defenses based on substandard health and safety conditions – and landlords wind up with revolving-door tenancies.

What’s needed is someone who can dig down and identify these underlying issues. Evicted tenants “want to talk; they want to tell their stories,” said Diorio, who interviewed many of them at the courthouse following eviction hearings. “Even when they’ve had a negative outcome, they still want to tell us about

the housing issues they’ve been facing.”

The Tenant Stabilization Project aims to prove that when such matters are effectively brought to the court’s attention, positive change can happen.

“That’s the ultimate goal of our project – that tenants in Rhode Island are able to live in affordable, safe, healthy housing,” Wood says. “For us, it makes sense for the tenant to be able to stay in their housing – perhaps through a negotiation with the landlord in the context of an eviction proceeding; and for the landlord to upgrade the housing with some needed repairs to make the unit code-compliant. So the landlord wins, because there’s an upgraded apartment, and a stable tenant who’s paying the rent; and the tenants win, because they’re able to avoid dislocation and all of its negative downstream consequences – from loss of education stability for the children in the family, to potential loss of employment.”

‘Absolutely Inspired’ By working together, RWU Law, the Center for Justice, HousingWorks and Harvard’s Access to Justice Lab “hope to make some pretty powerful policy arguments about how these types of cases should be handled in the future,” Wood says.

Laurie Barron, director of RWU Law’s Feinstein Center for Pro Bono & Experiential Education, says the initiative is also a perfect fit for the school’s social justice focus.

“It’s collaborative. It’s in our community,” Barron explains.

“It’s a way of leveraging resources that we just don’t have on our own.”

Part of the project’s synergy comes from the fact that the Pro Bono Collaborative, the Center for Justice and HousingWorks are all headquartered at RWU Law’s experiential campus in downtown Providence. “Co-locating us in the same building, in the same city, was a stroke of genius by Roger Williams University,” HousingWorks director Brenda Clement explains, noting that participants from each organization regularly drop by one another’s office for impromptu brainstorming sessions.

“It’s an absolutely inspired situation.”

Wood adds that “a small nonprofit center like ours really benefits at every level from having participation from law students. We also have a commitment and a partnership with the law school to employ RWU Law graduates, who come to us for two-year fellowships so that their experiential learning and practical training continues beyond graduation from law school.”

The Rhode Island Tenant Stabilization Project program is made possible through a gift from Hassenfeld Family Initiatives LLC, which established the Hassenfeld Projects – an intensive, three-year initiative to expand and enhance innovative work in experiential education. The grant builds on RWU’s growing suite of experiential programs that prepare students to meet the demands of today’s employers while building skill sets in areas such as economic development, sustainability and social justice.

25th Anniversary RWU Law

15

FIELD REPORTS

THREE RWU LAW GRADS CONFIRMED FOR STATE JUDGESHIPS

By Ed Fitzpatrick

G

overnor Gina M. Raimondo’s nomination of new state judges in December included three RWU Law graduates.

Melissa R. DuBose ’04 was confirmed

for a District Court judicial seat. Since 2008, she worked as senior legal counsel at Schneider Electric in Foxboro, Mass., providing in-house legal support for the

Right here, in our own country, in 2019, in a majority of states, you can still be fired from your job, or kicked out of your apartment, or denied service in a restaurant simply because of who you are and who you love. This is dead wrong and un-American. While the efforts of the LGBT community and its many advocates helped bring us so much progress over the past few decades, we've seen just how easily progress can be undone in a short period of time.

“

“

company’s global units. From 2005 to 2009, she worked as a special assistant attorney general in the criminal division of the state attorney general’s office. She is a member of the RWU Law Board of Directors.

Christopher Knox Smith ’07 was confirmed for another District Court judicial seat. Since 2010, he has represented indigent clients facing misdemeanor and felony charges at the state public defender’s office. He earned an advanced degree focusing on environmental and natural resources law from the University of Oregon School of Law in 2008.

Keith A. Cardoza Jr. ’10 was confirmed as an associate justice on the Workers’ Compensation Court. Since 2016, he has represented employers, employees, insurance carriers and third-party administrators for all aspects of workers’ compensation claims in Rhode Island and Massachusetts as a founding partner with the firm Izzo, Gardner & Cardoza.

- Congressman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) at RWU Law's 2nd Annual Stonewall Lecture, focusing on the importance of passing his LGBTQ-plus Equality Act in Congress.

“This is a great honor for our RWU Law graduates, each of whom is most deserving of the trust of Governor Raimondo and the Rhode Island Senate,” Dean Michael Yelnosky said when the announcement issued. “This is also a great landmark for Rhode Island. The Judicial Nominating Commission and Governor Raimondo took a bold and long-overdue step toward making the Rhode Island judiciary more reflective of the population it serves.”

All three RWU Law graduates are African-American and will add muchneeded diversity to the state judiciary, law school officials said.

It's also a sign of RWU Law’s growing impact in the state, Yelnosky said.

“Attracting and supporting students from diverse backgrounds has always been part of our mission, and it is gratifying for all members of the law school community to see the sustained efforts of so many bear fruit during our 25th anniversary year in the confirmation of three alumni of color,” he said.

“These appointments show the significant role Roger Williams plays and will continue to play in shaping a bench and bar that reflects the entire Rhode Island community,” added RWU Law Assistant Dean of Admissions Michael DonnellyBoylen. “It gives us so much pride that our long-term efforts are really making a difference.”

RWU AND BON APPÉTIT OFFER HOT MEALS TO COAST GUARD FAMILIES DURING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN During the partial federal government shutdown, RWU and its food service provider, Bon Appétit Management Company, provided free hot meals to active-duty members of the Coast Guard and their families.

By Ed Fitzpatrick

A

ny active-duty members of the Coast Guard in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts were welcomed to visit the Upper Commons dining hall on RWU’s Bristol campus for dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. on January 15.

Salaries for members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps were not affected by the shutdown because the Department of Defense had its full fiscal year funding approved last fall. But the Coast Guard is funded through the Department of Homeland Security, one of multiple agencies whose budgets lapsed in late December amid an impasse over border wall funding.

“We are pleased to welcome active duty members of the Coast Guard and their families to our campus for a hot meal,” RWU Interim President Andy Workman said. “RWU and our University College educate many students from the military, and we are glad to do our part by providing support at this difficult time for these local families.”

Photo by Kris Craig | The Providence Journal

“Here in the Ocean State, we have a high density of Coast Guard members,” said James Gubata, Bon Appétit’s general manager at RWU. “So we are responding to a need in the community and opening our dining hall. We will be offering a family-style meal and trying to create a sense of family because we want them to know they are a part of a community and we want to help them through this situation.”

ARCTIC JUDGE Alaska Governor Bill Walker in December announced the appointment of Terrence Haas ’07 to Bethel Superior Court.

By Michael M. Bowden

T

errence Haas, supervisor for Alaska’s Bethel and Dillingham public defender offices for the past decade, was a Phi Beta Kappa philosophy grad from Indiana University Purdue, who spent a few years living “off the grid” in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula before enrolling at RWU Law, serving as editor-in-chief of the Law Review, graduating near the top of his class, and then clerking for the Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

Soon afterward, he learned of a “bush” position as a public defender in Alaska. “I really don’t think I understood what that

meant,” Haas said. “But I had always been interested in Alaska.”

The rest was history. Bethel – a mostly Native Alaskan town 340 miles west of Anchorage, and accessible only by air and river – became home.

Referring to Haas and three other judicial appointees, Walker observed, “Their history with Alaska, their excellent records, and the personal conversations I had with each of them made me confident they will serve Alaska well in their new roles.”

25th Anniversary RWU Law

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FIELD REPORTS

HOMBRES NUEVOS: A SCREENING AND DISCUSSION Award-winning immigration attorney Luis Mancheno ’13 returned to his alma mater this spring to host a screening of “Hombres Nuevos,” episode six of the AT&T documentary series,“REFUGE: Finding Home.”

By Michael M. Bowden

“H

ombres Nuevos” details Mancheno’s often harrowing journey – from suffering extreme violence in his hometown of Quito, Ecuador; to abuse and rejection by his family, undergoing forced conversion therapy with an anti-gay therapist; to barely surviving an attempt on his life due to his sexual orientation – and then the loneliness and confusion of arriving in the U.S. and seeking asylum, which he was granted in 2008. It also tells the emotional story of Mancheno’s reconciliation with his father shortly before his death.

Today, Mancheno is an attorney with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, fighting for the lives of other refugees.

He has also served as an immigration attorney with the Bronx Defenders, and as a clinical teaching fellow at the Immigration Justice Clinic at Cardozo School of Law. In 2018, he was honored as RWU Law’s Alumni Champion for Justice. The episode includes coverage of Mancheno fighting the Trump administration’s travel ban against people from Muslim-majority countries – an effort that won him a front-page profile in the New York Times.

Still, Mancheno rejects attempts to categorize him as the sort of “good” immigrant who should be allowed into the United States.

“Yes, I deserve to be here,” he told a large audience at RWU Law. “But not because I am ‘good’ – because I am a human being. I am flawed, I make mistakes like everyone else. Please don’t buy into that ‘good versus bad immigrant’ narrative.”

Before the screening, Mancheno attended a private lunch with about 20 law students, including 2L Garrett Gee, current president of the LGBT Alliance, which Mancheno headed during his time in law school.

The screening was followed by a question-and-answer session with students, moderated by Providence immigration attorney Joseph Molina Flynn.

“Luis is completely relatable,” Gee said. “He’s a successful attorney, close to my age, who is engaged in what’s happening now and making a name for himself by following his passion. His message is, ‘I’ve done a lot, not because I’m special, but because I worked hard and was in the right place at the right time.’ He inspires us to feel that if we follow our own paths, we can become what we want to be as well.”

FIRST CIRCUIT SITS AT RWU LAW A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit convened in RWU Law’s Honorable Bruce M. Selya Appellate Courtroom this past fall to hear lawyers (including RWU Law alumni Mark P. Gagliardi ’03 and Josh Xavier ’14) argue four cases – all before an audience of law students, who then had the opportunity to ask judges and lawyers about the hearing. Pictured at right: the Honorable Bruce M. Selya H ’02, his wife Cindy, the Honorable O. Rogeriee Thompson H ’10, and the Honorable Jeffrey R. Howard, Chief Judge, after the unveiling of a portrait of Judge Selya in his namesake courtroom.

- Julia Rubin

GETTING TO KNOW...

BRETT BEAUBIEN ’16 "I WANT TO SHOW STUDENTS THE REAL LIFE SIDE EFFECTS OF INCARCERATION."

P

rovidence defense attorney Brett Beaubien’s passion for his work was sparked while working with the Pittsburgh Federal Defender’s office for an Alternative Spring Break project during his RWU Law years.

“I had no interest in criminal defense work prior to that program,” he says. “Yet, when I went and did it, I ‘saw the light’ and immediately knew that it was going to become a part of my life.”

Today Beaubien shares that light as a supervising attorney for the Pro Bono Collaborative (PBC)’s Civil Legal Clinic Project, which serves inmates in Rhode Island’s Adult Correctional Institution (ACI) Medium Security Facility and Women’s Facility. As part of his job, he assists law students in providing advice and counsel on civil legal issues.

“A lot of inmates suffer collateral consequences of their incarceration, including obstacles to employment, business and financial problems, and family law issues such as custody, visitation and divorce,” Beaubien explains. “They need somebody to talk to, assistance with filling out forms or preparing motions, and sometimes advice on whether they have a claim or defense.”

In the process of helping them out, students’ eyes are opened to a little-considered side effect of mass incarceration.

In essence, Beaubien says, “we expose students to the criminal justice system by showing them how people’s personal and financial lives are adversely affected when they are incarcerated.”

25th Anniversary RWU Law

19

A LAW SCHOOL

that matters

20 RWU Law

W

ROGER

Making It Affordable

H

W

RSITY

J

ust over a decade ago, as the Great Recession ravaged the U.S. economy across multiple industries, the

bottom fell out of the nation’s legal education sector. Applications dropped precipitously, law schools from coast to coast struggled to make their budgets, and some law schools folded.

Barely 15 years old at the time, Roger Williams University School of Law made several decisions during the downturn that shaped the institution that celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

“In a crisis, you have to do some real soul-searching and figure out what’s most important about your institution, and what genuinely distinguishes it,” explains Dean Michael Yelnosky. “When you can’t make investments willy-nilly, when you have to be careful and thoughtful about how you spend that next dollar, what do you spend it on? For us, setting those priorities produced some positive results.”

Broadly, the school prioritized: (1) ensuring affordability; (2) doubling down on experiential education; (3) expanding pro bono practice opportunities; and (4) broadening student diversity.

Many of these decisions built on existing institutional strengths and priorities.

“These decisions worked, in part, because they were not artificial; they were organically rooted in who we already were as an institution,” notes Professor David Logan, who was dean from 2003 to 2013, including when the recession hit. “Without those hard choices, I’m not sure we’d be what we are today – a dynamic law school that’s going to last for a lot longer than 25 years.”

C

S

By Michael M. Bowden

IAMS UN I VE

HOW THE GREAT RECESSION HELPED SHAPE TODAY'S RWU LAW

L IL

A OOL OF L

“It was a bold statement that we weren’t just like every other law school,” says Yelnosky.

“We did something that virtually nobody else had done. And it gave us, I think, the sense that we could be more than just passive observers of our market.

Instead of being back on our heels, we started to declare the other ways in which we were not like other law schools.”

In its most dramatic response to the changing landscape of legal education, RWU Law introduced its Affordable Excellence initiative, reducing tuition by 18 percent in 2014. In addition, the school guaranteed that tuition would not increase during a student’s three years of law school, and did not increase tuition for an incoming class until 2018. These moves made RWU Law the best-priced Are You Experienced?

ABA-accredited private law school in the For example, the school decided to Northeast, with tuition that's not just double down on its already strong program lower but, in many cases, much lower than of experiential education. A commitment peer schools. to practical training was a feature of the “We were trying to address, in a very curriculum at RWU Law from day one, specific way, what the market for legal but at 25 the school is doing more than education was telling us,” Yelnosky ever to ensure that its students learn to explains, “which was that the value of think and act like lawyers. a law degree was not in sync, in many “You’ve got to be able to both teach instances, with the cost of that law students the law and also teach them degree; that the return on investment how to apply the law,” Logan says. “We’ve started to decrease when the recession become very good at doing that.” hit. It seems an obvious adjustment to In the wake of the recession, the law make in retrospect, but in real time it school underscored its seriousness of was unsettling because it was uncharted purpose by issuing another signature territory.” guarantee – that every student would have The results were swift and tangible: at least one substantial clinical experience enrollment stabilized and then began to during his or her time in law school (at creep up again. The move also won the present, about 85 percent of students take school recognition in national media. The advantage; 65 percent complete two or Wall Street Journal called out RWU Law as more). “We were already ahead of a lot one of “a handful of U.S. law schools” that of schools in this regard, and we decided had successfully boosted enrollment in a to create some new programs at a time down economy by reducing tuition. The when many other schools were retrenching New York Post added, “Good for these law or just beginning to strengthen their schools for working to give their students experiential education,” Yelnosky says. more bang for the college dollar,” again “We got innovative.” singling out RWU Law for praise. “The smarter schools will follow.”

25th Anniversary RWU Law

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Professor Andy Horwitz, Assistant Three are based at Roger Williams’ Dean for Experiential Education, has had dynamic new experiential campus in a front row seat for the development of downtown Providence. (The Veterans these programs.

Clinic is located a few blocks away in “I’m very proud of the ways in which the offices of Chisholm, Chisholm & our experiential programs have developed,” Kilpatrick, one of the nation’s leading Horwitz says. “We’ve been deliberate and veterans disability law firms. This “field thoughtful in the clinic” model was one way we’ve developed of the post-recession “We’ve been deliberate our programs, and in innovations, opening in and thoughtful in the the rigor with which 2015.) way we’ve developed our All the clinics are we’ve monitored how well they work for our programs, and in the focused on delivering students. We’ve made what Horwitz terms rigor with which we’ve experiential education “true clinical depth.” The monitored how well they in-house clinics are an very much an integral work for our students. part of what it means eight-credit experience, We’ve made experiential to graduate from meaning it accounts RWU Law.” education very much an for half of a student’s When the school’s academic load in a integral part of what it first class reached its semester. means to graduate from 3L year in 1996, there “That allows us to assign RWU Law.” were two clinics up a fair volume of work,” and running. Today Horwitz says. “Part of there are four: the the learning experience Business Start-up Clinic, the Criminal comes from volume and repetition: if you Defense Clinic, the Immigration Clinic, interview two clients, that’s a different and the Veterans Disability Appeals Field experience than when you interview five or Clinic. six. So obviously you’re going to progress faster and farther and learn more, aided

RWU LAW 2015

22 RWU Law

by self-reflection, evaluation and feedback, all of which are very much part of the learning process.”

Logan adds that the school’s choice of clinical offerings also reflect its values.

As an example, he cites the Immigration Clinic, which was established in part upon the urging of then-professor (now Providence mayor) Jorge Elorza, who argued that Rhode Island’s immigrant communities were hugely underserved, and that a clinic to help them was one of the most valuable services the law school could provide.

“In my judgment, setting up an Immigration Law Clinic was the single best decision the faculty made in my 11 years as dean,” Logan said. “We brought in Mary Holper, and she just blew the doors off it; and now it’s run by Deborah Gonzalez [’07], who’s one of our many terrific alums. So there’s a beautiful through-line there from Jorge, to my own commitment to diversity and the law faculty’s long-standing interest in having robust clinical programs. Our commitment to experiential education is anything but a passing fad – it’s who we are and who we have always been.”

Clinical Externships RWU Law has also expanded its externship offerings in powerful ways.

Just a decade ago, there were only two such options: the Judicial Externship Program and the Public Interest Externship Program.

Today, they have been joined by the Corporate Counsel Externship Program, the Environmental & Land Use Law Externship Program, the D.C. Semester-in-Practice Program and the New York Pro Bono Scholars Program.

“We call them clinical externship programs,” Horwitz notes, “because they remain true to our emphasis on clinical depth.”

The Business Start-Up Clinic and Corporate Counsel Externship Program, in particular, present “another example of the innovation and strategic investment, post’08,” Yelnosky explains. “Those are extraordinarily important programs to us, and helped create an environment that, again, made us more attractive to a broader group of students. The Corporate Counsel Externship Program has become exceedingly popular and it builds on another one of our strengths – our connection to the bench, the bar, and the business community in and around Rhode Island.”

Logan explains, “After I’d been at Roger Williams for a few years, I kept hearing from students that we had experiential programs for criminal defense and immigration law, but nothing for business law.

Today, we’ve succeeded in creating a clinical guarantee that not only increases our commitment to social justice, but is also responsive to the interests of students who want to do transactional law.”

The Semester-in-Practice is another popular option with students, because it lets them earn academic credit while training full-time (locally or anywhere in the U.S. or abroad) in a government, nonprofit or judicial setting, under the supervision of attorneys or judges.

return home and spend the last semester of law school in their home community.

So they’re still enrolled in school and advancing academically, but they’re also networking and fostering employment opportunities in the place where they want to wind up.”

Pro Bono Programs

“It’s a five-day-a-week, full-time immersion experience that allows the student to go much deeper in terms of the work they’re involved with at the placement site, while still participating in a classroom component, sometimes remotely,” Horwitz says. “It opens up all kinds of doors, and works especially well for out-of-state students who want to

In 2009, RWU Law’s Pro Bono Experiential Learning Requirement – which was created in 1997 and required all students to complete 20 hours of law-related volunteer work, for neither compensation nor credit – was raised to 50 hours. In addition to being another tangible example of the school’s commitment to social justice, it resulted in bringing the organization and “scaffolding” of this work in-house through the Pro Bono Collaborative (PBC).

“Of the schools that require pro bono as a graduation requirement, there’s no one else doing anything like us in terms of cutting-edge pro bono programs,” says Suzanne Harrington-Steppen, associate director of Pro Bono Programs.

“And a large part of that is because our students are completing the requirement through school-facilitated projects.”

Examples range from the burgeoning popularity of Alternative Spring Break to such eye-opening opportunities as the Adult Correctional Institution Medium Security Facility Civil Legal Clinic Project, in which law students provide inmates with advice and counsel on civil legal issues.

“In essence, we’ve gone from simply matching up students with organizations, to developing and managing our own projects,” Harrington-Steppen says.

“More than half of our students now fulfill their pro bono requirements through a project that we have directly facilitated. That transition first happened five years ago, and every year since then we’ve had a greater number of students join these well-facilitated, well-structured, very intentional PBC projects – meaning that students receive consistently highquality training while also gaining an understanding of why the work is considered pro bono.”

25th Anniversary RWU Law

23

“The goal is twofold,” adds Laurie Barron, director of RWU Law’s Feinstein Center for Pro Bono & Experiential Education. “We want students to provide as much service as possible while they are in law school, but also to really instill in them a pro bono ethic – trying to maximize the likelihood that they will continue to see providing pro bono legal services as part of their professional responsibility.”

Among other tangible outcomes, the visibility of these efforts in the larger community is reflected in the $500,000 campaign completed in January 2019 to endow the Pro Bono Collaborative, an achievement that was announced at, and in part made possible by, the law school’s popular annual Champions for Justice event.

New Physical Space In 2016, Roger Williams University doubled the size of its presence in downtown Providence, with the opening of new campus offices at One Empire Plaza.

The University’s move from its previous

24 RWU Law

Providence home at 150 Washington Street as a manifestation of our educational opened up significantly more space for philosophy,” he says. “Experiential law students, while also providing a new education isn’t something that we do as a home for RWU Law’s Feinstein Center for luxury at the tail end of a student’s ‘real’ Pro Bono & Experiential Education, as education; it’s part and parcel of how we well as its in-house clinics, the Pro Bono prepare them for their lives as lawyers.”

Collaborative, and a growing array of It also tangibly represents the school’s outreach programs such as HousingWorks integral role in the legal community, RI, the Latino Policy Institute and the Yelnosky notes.

Rhode Island Center for Justice. The latter, “In a way, it’s also a manifestation also created recently – in 2015 – is home of our maturity as an institution,” he to a post-graduate fellowship program explains. “With few exceptions, all the exclusively available to graduates of RWU great institutions of Rhode Island are in Law. The Center will be the venue for the Providence. This is where so many of the work of RWU Law’s first Skadden Public connections between the law school, the Interest Fellow beginning in the fall of bench and bar – which give our students 2019 when Michaela Bland ’19 will launch such great opportunities – were developed. a two-year program to disrupt the schoolThe Rhode Island Supreme Court is there, to-prison pipeline in Rhode Island. (Story as are the federal district court, the state in this issue.) courts, the AG’s office, the governor’s “The Providence campus presents office. All of those, and more.” students with a blend of academic settings “On top of that,” he adds, “it is a that is pretty distinctive,” Logan observes. manifestation of our commitment to “In my opinion, the ability to be a school public interest and our connection to that teaches not just doctrine and theory, that community. In most instances, our but also skills, is a good position to be in.” students are providing legal assistance Yelnosky agrees. to individuals and organizations in and “I think of the new space in Providence around Providence that cannot afford legal

excluded from the legal profession.” disadvantaged and changing their world. representation on the open market. It is Yelnosky adds that this “social justice” “When I arrived at Roger Williams in a cliché, but it is hard not to think of this aspect of the case for diversity resonates 2011, the ethnic and racial diversity in the approach as ‘win-win.’” with the values that have shaped the first-year class was 15 percent,” says RWU Logan notes the Providence campus’s school’s development.

Law Director of Diversity and Outreach role in facilitating such connections is in “Lawyers occupy a privileged place in Deborah Johnson. “Today, by contrast, many ways a tribute to former RWU Law society. They are, for example, essential to when I walk through the hallways I see President Donald Farish, who passed away the operation of much of the government,” faces and hear conversations that reflect a last summer. he says. “And if a government isn’t seen vast array of backgrounds and experiences “I think that a lot of credit for that as being open to the people – faces and conversations goes to Don,” Logan says. “He really that were barely seen did share our vision of a law school that RWU Law is more whom the government represents, it can lose its genuinely wants to make the world a better or heard when this law than twice as legitimacy.” school opened in 1993. place, while also giving students a terrific diverse as it was The school’s LGBTQ The look and feel of the education. To borrow Don’s phrase, we just seven years population is a good example law school is very different really are the law school the world needs of this dynamic, Johnson than it used to be.” now – a law school that matters.” ago, with 32% of notes.

Johnson explains that 2018’s entering Diversity “In the time that I’ve these demographic shifts class identifying been here, the right to marry mirror the changing Yet another measure of RWU Law’s as racially and/or has been extended to samerealities in American life post-recession development is reflected in and society. the increase in the diversity of its student ethnically diverse. sex couples and thus to an increasing number of body. members of our law The school is more school community,” she than twice as says. “That has meant diverse as it was just more than words and seven years ago, numbers can speak.” with 32 percent of But while much has 2018’s entering class been accomplished, (and 28 percent of plenty of work remains the law school’s to be done. overall student body) “We can, should and identifying as racially absolutely must celebrate and/or ethnically our increased diversity,” diverse – the highest Johnson says. “But we number in the school’s must increasingly focus history, in a class on issues of inclusion and that also includes the continue our fight for highest-ever percentage equity – to ensure that of women, at 56 all those who enter our percent, and fully 10 doors feel welcomed and percent identifying as included as members of LGBTQ. our community, and that The result is a all have fair and equal group of students access to opportunities who bring with them that will allow them to an extraordinary Judge Melissa Long, Christopher Smith ’07, and Weayonnah Nelson-Davies ’07 learn, grow, and thrive.” breadth of perspective at RWU Law's 2019 Diversity Symposium.

Yelnosky is also hopeful and purpose, as well that these goals will be fulfilled.

“These are not just numbers,” she says. as classroom experiences informed by “We should be proud of what together “These changes in and to our student body diverse cultural and legal perspectives that challenge and deepen students’ reflect the society our students and alumni we have accomplished,” he says, “and I am confident we will continue to make serve. They also reflect the extension of understanding of the communities they progress. The health of RWU Law, of the opportunities to students who previously will serve. Students put that education to legal profession and of the society depend may not have had such opportunities. work while in law school and after they on it.” graduate – effectuating change, improving And they reflect victories for groups who have been historically marginalized and their communities, fighting for the 25th Anniversary RWU Law

25

W MEN

LAWYERS IN RHODE ISLAND

Roger Williams University School of Law honors the pioneering First Women of the Rhode Island Bar. Their efforts helped establish the rightful place of women in the legal profession and a foundation upon which a more fully inclusive legal profession can be built.

Lois B. Agronick, 1979 (year admitted)

Mercedes Deines, 1979

Angelica B. Gosz, 1973

Janice Ahlquist, 1952

Kristin A. DeKuiper, 1979

Marilynne Graboys Wool, 1950

Victoria Almeida, 1976

Margaret Joyce Diamond, 1953

Corinne P. Grande, 1953

Lillian M. Almeida, 1977

Marion J. Dillon, 1970

Patricia Gray Bell, 1978

Cheryl A. Asquino, 1979

Sophia Douglass Pfeiffer, 1975

Betty R. Greenberg, 1973

Denise M. Auger, 1975

Sarah T. Dowling, 1977

Dianne Griffin, 1979

Haiganush R. Bedrosian, 1971

Louise Durfee, 1966

Betsy E. Grossman Deleiris, 1973

Patricia M. Beede, 1979

Elizabeth M. Fahey, 1977

Nancy Hall McMillen, 1974

Deborah D. Benik, 1975

Carolyn Famiglietti, 1973

Carolyn Harvie Thompson, 1960

Emilie A. Benoit, 1977

Joyce A. Faraone, 1979

Erato Haseotes, 1960

Helen I. Binning, 1922

Margaret D. Farrell, 1976

Susan D. Hayes, 1977

Rebecca E. Book, 1978

Margaret M. Fitzgerald Cooney, 1926

Mary F. Healey, 1979

Sheila Cabral Sousa, 1971

Judith B. Fox, 1977

Carol A. Helliwell, 1979

Dorothy A. Carr, 1951

Ann T. Frank, 1972

Cynthia M. Hiatt, 1978

Catherine Carroll-Chiulli, 1979

Gertrude Friedman Jacobson, 1925

Ann E. G. Hicks, 1978

Deborah P. Clarke, 1979

Margaret-Ann Gardner, 1979

Maureen A. Hobson, 1977

Rae B. Condon, 1965

Lise J. Gescheidt, 1977

Judith E. Hodge, 1965

Eileen G. Cooney, 1977

Alice B. Gibney, 1972

Mary C. Hogan, 1928

Mary F. Counihan Livingston, 1977

Cynthia M. Gifford, 1975

Merita A. Hopkins, 1979

Dorothy R. Crockett Bartleson, 1932

Carol T. Giliberto, 1978

Constance A. Howes, 1978

Judith Crowell, 1977

Janet Gilligan, 1978

Barbara Hurst, 1976

Emma M. Cummings, 1953

Virginia Giroux, 1974

Patricia A. Hurst, 1978

Dianne Curran, 1979

Beverly Glenn Long, 1951

Patricia J. Igoe, 1979

Marie Daignault, 1929

Andrea K. Goins Van Leesten, 1979

Elizabeth E. Jutras, 1978

Laurie N. Davison, 1974

Kathleen Gooden DiMuro, 1976

Linda S. Katz, 1978

Mary Louise Kennedy, 1976

Constance L. Messore, 1957

Gayle F. Tarzwell, 1976

Susan L. Kenny, 1977

Cathleen S. Miller, 1976

Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson, 1976

Winifred Elizabeth Kiernan, 1972

Diane H. Miller, 1979

Sheila Tobie Swan, 1978

H. Frances Kleiner, 1979

Joan M. Montalbano, 1972

Norma M. Trifari Carberry, 1942

Lynette J. Labinger, 1975

Patricia D. Moore, 1979

Rosemary D. Van Antwerp, 1975

Anne M. Lang, 1979

Diane M. Morrocco, 1977

Diane S. Vanden Dorpel, 1977

Sandra A. Lanni, 1978

Allegra E. Munson, 1970

Saundra W. Verri, 1979

Faith LaSalle, 1979

Florence K. Murray, 1946

Patricia Vinci, 1978

Rosemary C. Lawlor, 1977

Jean A. Musiker, 1974

Arlene M. Violet, 1974

Maryann Lawrence Grodin, 1978

Mary J. Nagle, 1979

Kathleen A. Voccola, 1978

Susan Leach De Blasio, 1979

Carol E. Najarian, 1974

Netti C. Vogel, 1975

Beverly E. Ledbetter, 1979

Helen M. Nash, 1967

Jill S. Votta, 1975

Victoria Lederberg, 1977

Anne L. Northrup, 1974

Ellen Wattendorf, 1977

Mary E. Levesque, 1978

Jo Ellen Ojeda, 1979

Judith P. Wegner, 1974

Margaret R. Levy, 1977

Nancy Palmisciano, 1974

Janice M. Weisfeld, 1978

Doris J. Licht, 1973

Janet G. Perelson, 1978

Mildred White Tracey, 1969

Mary Mona Lisi, 1977

Hinda G. Pollard, 1978

Melanie Wilk Thunberg, 1978

Diana Littleton Daunis, 1973

Fredrika H. Quinn, 1976

Stacy E. Wolfe, 1974

Mary F. Logan, 1979

Barbara M. Quinn, 1977

Carolyn A. Yacovone, 1979

Helen M. MacGregor, 1953

Pamela Rehlen, 1970

Marjorie Yashar, 1968

Pamela M. Macktaz, 1970

Elizabeth D. Rode Dunning, 1977

Myrth York, 1977

Corinne J. Magee, 1979

Paula E. Rosin, 1977

Carol A. Zangari, 1978

Kathleen Managhan, 1971

Patricia Ryan Recupero, 1974

Patricia A. Zesk Sullivan, 1978

Nancy Marks Smith, 1976

Beth S. K. Sarat, 1977

and others unknown

Mary E. Masulla, 1973

Ada L. Sawyer, 1920

Elizabeth L. Mathieu, 1977

Nancy S. Schectman Nemon, 1967

Joanne E. Mattiace, 1976

Dorothy W. Schoch Jacobson, 1979

Anne Maxwell Livingston, 1975

Marilyn Shannon McConaghy, 1978

Mary Ellen McCabe, 1966

Merrill W. Sherman, 1974

Marcia McCabe Wilbur, 1971

Lisa N. Singer, 1978

Jean McCahey Connelly, 1978

Carol I. Siravo, 1975

Gail E. McCann, 1978

Sarah Smith Friedman, 1940

Marcia McGair Ippolito, 1979

Linda L. Standridge, 1973

Marifrances McGinn, 1975

Judith N. Stevenson Calcagni, 1979

Susan E. McGuirl, 1977

Jeanne K. Stretch Barrett, 1977

Maureen E. McKenna Goldberg, 1978

Kathleen Sullivan Murray, 1976

Mary Ellen McQueeney-Lally, 1979

Elizabeth C. Suvari, 1975

Ellen M. McVay, 1977

Amy R. Tabor, 1975

Katherine Merolla, 1979

Alyssa L. Talanker, 1979 25th Anniversary RWU Law

27

Mercedes Deines, 1979

Carol A. Helliwell, 1979

Kristin A. DeKuiper, 1979

Cynthia M. Hiatt, 1978

Margaret Joyce Diamond, 1953

Ann E. G. Hicks, 1978

Marion J. Dillon, 1970

Maureen A. Hobson, 1977

Sophia Douglass Pfeiffer, 1975

Judith E. Hodge, 1965

Sarah T. Dowling, 1977

Mary C. Hogan, 1928

Louise Durfee, 1966

Merita A. Hopkins, 1979

Kathleen Managhan, 1971 Nancy Marks Smith, 1976 Mary E. Masulla, 1973 Elizabeth L. Mathieu, 1977 Joanne E. Mattiace, 1976

Anne Maxwell Livingston, 197 Mary Ellen McCabe, 1966

lizabeth M. Fahey, 1977

Constance A. Howes, 1978

arolyn Famiglietti, 1973

Barbara Hurst, 1976

oyce A. Faraone, 1979

Patricia A. Hurst, 1978

Jean McCahey Connelly, 1978

Patricia J. Igoe, 1979

Gail E. McCann, 1978

Elizabeth E. Jutras, 1978

Marcia McGair Ippolito, 1979

Linda S. Katz, 1978

Marifrances McGinn, 1975

Mary Louise Kennedy, 1976

Susan E. McGuirl, 1977

Susan L. Kenny, 1977

Maureen E. McKenna Goldberg

Winifred Elizabeth Kiernan, 1972

1978

H. Frances Kleiner, 1979

Mary Ellen McQueeney-Lally

Lynette J. Labinger, 1975

1979

ynthia M. Gifford, 1975

Anne M. Lang, 1979

Ellen M. McVay, 1977

arol T. Giliberto, 1978

Sandra A. Lanni, 1978

Katherine Merolla, 1979

Faith LaSalle, 1979

Constance L. Messore, 1957

Rosemary C. Lawlor, 1977

Cathleen S. Miller, 1976

Maryann Lawrence Grodin, 1978

Diane H. Miller, 1979

Susan Leach De Blasio, 1979

Joan M. Montalbano, 1972

Beverly E. Ledbetter, 1979

Patricia D. Moore, 1979

Victoria Lederberg, 1977

Diane M. Morrocco, 1977

Mary E. Levesque, 1978

Allegra E. Munson, 1970

Patricia Gray Bell, 1978

Margaret R. Levy, 1977

Florence K. Murray, 1946

Betty R. Greenberg, 1973

Doris J. Licht, 1973

Jean A. Musiker, 1974

Mary Mona Lisi, 1977

Mary J. Nagle, 1979

Diana Littleton Daunis, 1973

Carol E. Najarian, 1974

Margaret D. Farrell, 1976

Margaret M. Fitzgerald Cooney,

926

udith B. Fox, 1977

Ann T. Frank, 1972

Gertrude Friedman Jacobson, 1925

Margaret-Ann Gardner, 1979

Lise J. Gescheidt, 1977

Alice B. Gibney, 1972

anet Gilligan, 1978

Virginia Giroux, 1974

Beverly Glenn Long, 1951

Andrea K. Goins Van Leesten, 1979

Kathleen Gooden DiMuro, 1976

Angelica B. Gosz, 1973

Marilynne Graboys Wool, 1950

orinne P. Grande, 1953

Dianne Griffin, 1979

Betsy E. Grossman Deleiris, 1973

Nancy Hall McMillen, 1974

arolyn Harvie Thompson, 1960

rato Haseotes, 1960 28 RWU Law

Susan D. Hayes, 1977

Marcia McCabe Wilbur, 1971

The First Women

of the Rhode Island Bar

Helen M. Nash, 1967 Mary F. Logan, 1979

By Alexnadra Varney McDonald Anne L. Northrup, 1974 Helen M. MacGregor, 1953 Pamela M. Macktaz, 1970

Jo Ellen Ojeda, 1979

75

9

g,

y,

A

ccompanied by her

husband, father,

brother and son − all of them fellow attorneys, seated in the gallery − Constance L. Messore of Barrington jokes that she had "a contingent of male escorts" the time she argued before the Surpreme Court of the United States.

Then a Rhode Island Special Assistant Attorney General, Messore that day delivered the winning argument in the 1985 case of Moran v. Burbine, proving the defendant’s constitutional rights had not been infringed upon; and with that, his murder conviction was affirmed. It was the “highlight of my life” and career, she recalls.

“When I came back from the Supreme Court, I felt like a different person,” says Messore, who calmly responded to queries posed by such commanding figures as Justices William H. Rehnquist, Sandra Day O’Connor and Thurgood Marshall. “I felt nobody could intimidate me after that. I’d been through the firing squad!”

In fact, it’s hard to imagine Messore ever being intimidated.

As one of the very few women to attend Boston University Constance Messore, flanked by her brother, Family Court Chief Judge (to be) Jeremiah Jeremiah, Jr., and her father, Jeremiah Jeremiah, Sr. School of Law in the mid1950s, Messore ambitiously set out to become a lawyer at that, overall, she never felt particularly until her youngest was in first grade, and a time when patriarchy prevailed. Upon discriminated against. This was possibly, then soliciting help from her mother and graduating in 1957, she became one of she allows, because she was born into a hiring college-aged sitters. the first 20 women (probably the 19th) to notable family in the state’s small legal Now 86, Messore remains reluctant be admitted to the Rhode Island bar. She community: her father, Jeremiah S. to label herself a “trailblazer,” but went on to become the very first judge – acknowledges that she met the challenge of Jeremiah, was a prominent Providence male or female – of the state’s Workers’ attorney; her brother was the late Judge “breaking out of societal norms” and built Compensation Court, and spent the bulk Jeremiah S. Jeremiah, Jr., Chief Judge of a thriving career in a state that was slow to of her career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney the Rhode Island Family Court. On a embrace female attorneys. An understated for the District of Rhode Island – all the feminist, Messore is still not quite sure why more workaday level, Messore suggests, her while holding down her “second full-time status as a prosecutor may have given her she could never accept the idea that her job” of raising two sons and managing an “the upper hand” in her professional life. only proper role was that of a homemaker. eight-room house.

“No one wants to upset the prosecutor!”

Although she recalls incidents such as “I did all the cooking and cleaning and she smiles. “So they treated me with being asked to use the back door when helped my sons with their homework,” says respect.” she attended a celebration for bar-passers Messore, who managed this balancing act, at the male-only University Club, she says in part, by delaying the start of her career 25th Anniversary RWU Law

29

Building a List Rhode Island’s earliest female attorneys trod an onerous path: the state was the last in the entire country to admit women to the practice of law. In the year 1920 — as the country finally ratified the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote — the Rhode Island Board of Bar Examiners denied the application of Ada Lewis Sawyer (1892–1985) to sit for the bar exam. Sawyer only became an attorney after taking her case to the state’s supreme court. The court ruled that the bar rules’ reference to “person” with respect to admission to the bar did indeed include women.”

“For a state which is known for being to the left of center in many ways, I was surprised at how long it took for Rhode Island to allow women to become attorneys,” says Nicole Dyszlewski of the Roger Williams University School of Law Library. “It was so ingrained in the culture that women weren’t seen as professional equals. Hearing the Ada Sawyer story – about how she had to fight and fight and fight to become a lawyer; that surprised and saddened me.”

“There was not a lot of support for women in the law. The way female lawyers were treated was a deterrent.”

- Nicole P. Dyszlewski, RWU Law Library

Though Sawyer fought to pave the way for Rhode Island women to become lawyers, the next several decades saw only a handful following in her path – but until recently, exactly how many remained a mystery. For much of the 20th century, there was simply no definitive record of these women anywhere.

“That posed a problem,” explains Dyszlewski. “There was no searchable database that was complete. There was

30 RWU Law

no list saying, ‘Here, these are all the women!’”

So Dyszlewski and RWU Law embarked upon a vast and ambitious project that would take well over a year to complete: finding and documenting all of the “First Women” attorneys admitted to practice in Rhode Island from 1920 onward (it was eventually decided to cap the search at 1979). That task took on a new focus when Dyszlewski discovered a typewritten sheet among some papers donated to the RWU Law Library years earlier, listing around 50 female attorneys, beginning with Sawyer. It seemed to have been compiled in the 1970s.

“The provenance of the list was unclear, but it was a start,” says Dyszlewski. “We decided to accept it as truth and then started to try and fill in the gaps.”

With that, she and a colleague, Jessica Silvia, RWU Law Faculty & Digital Services Assistant, undertook a project that amounted to nothing less than recapturing lost history. Cross-referencing the list against records from the state’s judiciary branch and bar association, they combed through newspaper articles and obituaries from the 1930s, 40s and 50s, and extracted names from public records and ancestry databases. Some were handwritten in fragile ledger books with no delineation between genders, making it challenging to decipher and confirm whether an attorney was indeed female.

The law school’s decision to support this monumental project reflects its commitment to diversity in the bar, reaching out to those historically underrepresented in the legal profession.

“At RWU Law, we believe the profession should reflect the population it serves,” explains Dean Michael Yelnosky. “We owe these women a debt of gratitude.”

He added that the school plans on creating opportunities to celebrate these pioneers.

“That’s one of the roles of a law school — to be a convener. And I can tell you that the positive

energy that I’ve felt when a group of these women have gathered to talk about the project is powerful.”

When the list had grown by another hundred attorneys to approximately 165 in total, Dyszlewski published it in the Rhode Island Bar Journal, asking for additional input; ten more names emerged, for a current total of 176. “Because the law school has built so much trust and so many connections in the community, people felt confident about coming forward and sharing their information,” she says. “They were excited about the project.”

Among other things, the newly expanded First Women list confirmed that – for several decades after Sawyer – relatively few women practiced law in the state.

“My supposition is that this can be attributed to societal factors,” says Dyszlewski. “One Cornell Law scholar notes that the overall proportion of women students increased from 3 to 12 percent during the war, but dropped to prewar levels when the veterans returned. The next two decades remained a time when women still had few opportunities outside of nursing and teaching. Harvard Law School did not even admit women until 1950.”

Attorney General Arlene Violet, admitted 1974

“There did not seem to be a lot of support for women in the law,” says Dyszlewski.

“I imagine the way female lawyers were treated was a deterrent.”

‘ But We Already Have a Woman’ However, the women of the Rhode Island bar who forged ahead – like their U.S. Supreme Court counterparts Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg – often made strides that would open the profession for generations to come. From their numbers came some of the state’s first female judges and corporate CEOs. Tempered by the experience of being the only woman in the classroom, courtroom or boardroom, these pioneers fought the perception that they were mentally or physically inferior, challenged social mores and demanded a fair shot at equal treatment and opportunity.

“My female classmates tended to be rather extraordinary, which is why they

were there, and why they asked to go to law school despite the times,” says former Rhode Island Attorney General Arlene Violet, one of the state’s first 75 female attorneys, who was one of 20 women out of 400 law students in Boston College’s class of 1974. “They were very strong women and they had the resolve that they were going to graduate. Some were married and had families and that made it very difficult. We were very conscious about helping each other out. And not one of us dropped out.”

Violet, in fact, went on to become the first woman elected AG in the United States (in 1985); she’s also a nun who has been featured on “60 Minutes,” and a published author (The Mob and Me, 2010).

But most of these accomplishments were profound uphill battles.

“There were times when I was told by fellow attorneys that a case was too big a matter for me to handle alone,” Messore recalls. “For many years, there was always that added responsibility of proving that I,

as a woman, could accomplish it.”

Louise Durfee of Tiverton was one of just five women in Yale Law School’s graduating class of 1955, and one of Rhode Island’s first 25 female lawyers.

Post-graduation, she was invited back for a second interview at Providence’s largest law firm at the time.

“Then I got this letter from them that I kept for many years,” recalls Durfee, now 88. “I remember vividly: it said, ‘Thank you very much, but we already have a woman!’”

Advised to seek her fortunes in New York City, Durfee found that Manhattan law firms were also refusing to hire women. Finally she landed her first job with AT&T’s legal department.

“Corporations were more accepting because they were used to hiring women during World War II,” she says. “But for a long time, I was the sole woman anywhere I worked.”

When employed in the early 1960s as counsel for a predecessor of ExxonMobil

FIRST WOMEN ALL: Governor Frank Licht declares Women Lawyers Day, c. 1970. LEFT TO RIGHT: Rae Condon, Judith Hodge, Corinne Grande, Constance Messore, Helen McGregor, Ada Sawyer, Majorie Yashar, Licht, Mildred Tracey, The Honorable Florence Murray, Mary Hogan, and Beverly Long.

25th Anniversary RWU Law

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Corp., Durfee found it “disheartening” that she had to press the general counsel to stop excluding her from working lunches with the other lawyers. “This is crazy,” she told him. “You really should invite me. This is ridiculous.” She modestly attributes her eventual success to “dumb perseverance and a sense of surviving.”

Durfee went on to build a tremendous legacy in environmental law (in 2002, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Save the Bay). In 1999, the Providence Journal named her one of the state’s “Heroes of the 20th Century.” She was also the first woman appointed to the state Board of Bar Examiners.

In 2008, Durfee received the Florence K. Murray Award from the Rhode Island Bar Association, presented to those who have influenced women to pursue legal careers, opened doors for women attorneys or advanced opportunities for women within the legal profession. It was named in honor of another First Woman: the Honorable Florence K. Murray (1916– 2004), who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Women's Army Corps during World War II, before going on to become Rhode Island’s first female state senator, its first female judge, and then the first female member of the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

the partner in charge was not flying her across the country for the closings.

“Two male attorneys, who had worked on my deal for only a very little time, were sent along to Washington State,” she says. When she confronted the partner, he responded, ‘You are a married woman.

How would it look if I travelled with you?’”

Like Messore, Howes also was required to use the University Club’s back door for a bar event, and once refused to celebrate a closing at the exclusive, all-male Hope Club in Providence. “I don’t want to have to go to a place where I have to go in a back door,” she remembers thinking.

“That’s ridiculous!”

Rhode Island Associate Justice Netti C. Vogel remembers, as a young lawyer, marching past the befuddled maitre d’ at the (now defunct) all-male Turks Head Club, which was in the same building as her law firm. Refusing to be intimidated, she boldly took a seat at the table.

“I should have perhaps felt uncomfortable because I really wasn’t welcome, but instead I felt proud I was breaking down a barrier,” she says. “You should have seen the men seated at that

The Seventies In the 1970s, with the women’s liberation movement underway, the passage of antidiscrimination legislation and the wider accessibility of the birth-control pill, an uptick in women attorneys finally began to take hold.

Constance A. Howes, former executive vice president for women’s health Judge Netti Vogel, admitted 1975 with Care New England, recalls working on a series of lunch. Jaws dropped. You’d think they’d acquisitions with some West Coast clients never seen a woman before!” back when she was a practicing corporate Vogel says female attorneys, even now, attorney in a private firm. As the project need to ensure that they put themselves neared completion, Howes realized that

32 RWU Law

on a level playing field, calling out anyone who tries to get the upper hand by using terms of endearment.

“We don’t have an intimate relationship. Do not call me honey or dear,” she would say to opposing counsel.

“I was in my twenties and thought of as uppity. Maybe they thought I had a chip on my shoulder. Let them! Nobody talked to me that way.”

However, with a client or judge, she says, you had to be more delicate.

When she became the first visibly pregnant attorney to try a case in the state, for example, Vogel recalls a memorable exchange with the presiding judge. Vogel was on her way to lunch when the trial judge approached her. The issue of a female firefighter who wanted to breastfeed in the firehouse had been in the local news, and Vogel was wearing her maternity clothes.

“Let me tell you something, honey,” the judge said to her. “You can breastfeed your baby in my courtroom any time you want.

And when the baby is done, I’ll finish.”

“You can’t imagine it, can you?!” Vogel muses today. “He would not get away with that now. A complaint would be filed.”

As a litigator, Vogel practiced at a firm well known for its “street-fighter” trial attorneys. “It was a trial firm, and machismo was basically part of their brand,” she recalls. “I had to really complain and fight before I got files assigned to me in my own name.”

Like Vogel, many of the First Women found they needed to advocate to be assigned the prime assignments. “There were certain areas of practice that were permissible for women,” explains Dyszlewski. “According to my research, it seems there were very few practicing trial attorneys. Narrow areas like wills and trusts or estate planning—these were the acceptable practice areas.”

To Boldly Go …

And most female lawyers practicing today will attest that the double-standard persists even now. (See sidebar, “Persistent Challenges.”)

Violet notes that there’s still a double standard for women and how they express

themselves, especially when it comes to juries.

“You need to be passionate about your argument and passionate about fighting injustice,” she says. “But as a woman, if you show even a scintilla of anger, it does turn people off.”

Or ask Beverly Ledbetter, the first African-American female general counsel for an Ivy League college, who recently retired from Brown University after 40 years of advising on legal and regulatory matters, Title IX oversight, as well as recently filing amicus curiae briefs for affirmative action cases and the Trump administration’s travel ban.

“If a woman has an aptitude for this kind of work she has just as great an opportunity to succeed as a lawyer as she would have in any other profession.”

-A da Sawyer, Rhode Island’s first female attorney, Providence Evening Bulletin, January 12, 1925.

“I entered a field — higher education law — that was just opening up to women and minorities,” says Ledbetter, who graduated from Colorado Law in 1973 and entered her position at Brown in 1978. Though she found the other Ivy League attorneys — all white males — to be welcoming, she soon learned she was expected to adapt to the status quo.

“I have learned that, just as men may expect women to conform to the customs they have established, majorities — not just men — frequently expect minorities to value their traditions,” she explains.

With a charming Beverly Ledbetter, admitted 1979 belly laugh, Ledbetter recalls pushing back against stereotypical slights. For example, the time a young male graduate student came into her office and, assuming she was support staff, asked to speak with the university attorney.

PERSISTENT CHALLENGES

W

hile there is no doubt women in the law have made huge strides in the last half century, a 2018 American Bar Association survey shows obstacles still persist. Women are now the majority of law students, but yet, according to the Rhode Island Bar Association, they make up only 35 percent of attorneys authorized to practice in the state.

“It is now absolutely expected that women enter the legal profession,” says Stephanie Scharf, chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, which co-sponsored the study. “But nonetheless, there are clear differences in the extent to which women advance in the law versus the men.”

The study showed that gender and racial bias continues to permeate hiring, promotion, assignments and compensation in the legal industry; and underscored the disparate challenges, stereotypes and burdens women lawyers still face compared to their male colleagues, even at the senior level. For example:

81% 60% 54% 39% 34%

of women say they were mistaken for a lower-level employee, but this didn’t happen to men. of women said they’d left firms because of caretaking commitments, compared to 46 percent of men. of women said they were responsible for arranging child care, as opposed to 1 percent of men. of women said the task of cooking meals fell on their shoulders, compared to 11 percent of men. of women say they leave work for children’s needs, versus 5 percent of men.

But there was one common denominator: Men and women both had comparable overall satisfaction with the practice of law, a statistic that researchers say underscores the fact that women don’t want to leave — rather, they feel pushed out.

“Too many great minds are leaving the profession,” said JoAnne Epps, executive vice president and provost of Temple University, and former dean of Temple Law School in Philadelphia. “Everyone needs to care about that—not just women, not just men. I really believe that what we bring is valuable, and our loss is significant. If people recognize it’s a crisis, it’s a step in the process to fix this.”

25th Anniversary RWU Law

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“I told him to come back the next day,” says Ledbetter. When he asked if she was sure of the counsel’s availability then, she replied, “I can guarantee it.”

Despite the rise of women in the profession, Ledbetter bemoans the “nasty” attitude that she feels now permeates the practice.

“Women have tried to compensate by trying to act boldly,” she says. “We sometimes feel as if we have to be as crude or as abrupt or brutal as the men in order to get recognized as competent.”

The First Women agree that much remains to be done, and that the mantle must be picked up by future generations.

Yet they stress that it’s also important to look back and note how much progress has been made.

When recently attending her grandson’s graduation at Suffolk University Law School, Messore watched all the young women receiving their diplomas, hoping they would become aware of just how much things have changed since she began practicing 60 years ago.

“I would like to think that, in some small way, I contributed to the emancipation of women from these societal restraints,” she says. “It was a fantastic, terrific path.”

Dyszlewski agrees it’s essential to remember the contributions of the First Women.

“As a female lawyer in Rhode Island, it’s important to realize that there’s a community of women who came before me, movers and shakers who paved the way,” she says. “To be able to recognize and pay tribute to them in some way is humbling."

Judge Patricia Hurst, 1978

Judge Alice Gibney, 1972

Justice Florence Murray, 1946

Judge Corinne Grande, 1953

Joan Montalbano, 1972 34 RWU Law 34 RWU Law

The Amazing

Dorothy Crockett

By Michael M. Bowden with reporting by Alexandra Varney McDonald

Dorothy Crockett 1937, at the height of her Providence law practice.

25th Anniversary RWU Law 35

R

esearchers for the First Women attorneys of Rhode Island project have unearthed many pieces of history that might otherwise have been lost forever – but none were more surprising than the story of Dorothy Russell Crockett Bartleson, an AfricanAmerican woman admitted to the Rhode Island bar in 1932, to become just the 7th female lawyer in the state’s history.

Born in Providence on July 29, 1910, Dorothy Crockett grew up near what is now Roger Williams National Memorial, between the East Side and the Providence River. After graduating from Classical High School in 1927, she attended Boston’s Portia Law School, a women-only institution that has since become New England School of Law. Upon receiving her bachelor of laws (LL.B.) in June 1931, just a month shy of her 21st birthday, she returned to Rhode Island – still living with her mother on the East Side, on the site of what is now the Emery-Woolley Dormitory at Brown University – and secured an internship at the Providence firm of an established lawyer and prominent voice in the local African-American community, James M. Stockett, Jr., Esq. On March 1, 1932, Crockett filed an application for admission to the Rhode Island bar, certifying that she had “studied law more than three years in the country” at Portia, and completed a hands-on apprenticeship “in the office of an attorney and counselor in this state,” namely, Stockett, who in turn endorsed her as a person of “good moral character, and, in his opinion, a suitable person for admission to the bar.”

Crockett passed the written portion of the bar examination in April, and the oral portion in May of that year. When her application was approved, it was big news: “Colored Girl Passes RI Bar,” ran a front-page headline in the May 14, 1932 edition of the Boston Chronicle. “First Negro Girl in Rhode Island to Enter the Field of Law,” trumpeted the Providence Journal in another lead story. The Chronicle noted that Crockett was “one of the few women of any race entitled to practice law in the state.” (Indeed, she was the last woman admitted to the state’s bar in the 1930s – Rhode Island’s 8th female lawyer would not be sworn in until nearly a decade later, in 1940; no other African-American women joined the bar until the 1970s.)

Triumph and Trouble

Crockett maintained a busy practice in Providence for five or six years, concentrating on family law and debt collection.

Some of her quirkier cases occasionally turned up in the local papers: for example, she once represented a tenant who had donated blood for his landlord’s wife’s surgery – only to be evicted when the wife recovered. The tenant sued to be compensated for his blood (he lost).

36 RWU Law

Dorothy Crockett at the time of her law school graduation.

During this period, the 1935 Rhode Island census shows Crockett working just two doors down from her mentor, Stockett, on the third floor at 4 Weybosset Street, at what is now One Financial Plaza, home to the offices of Locke Lord LLP in downtown Providence.

From the start, she seems to have been an outspoken voice in the black community: a 1932 article from the Newport Mercury finds a 21-year-old Crockett already addressing a large gathering of women, passionately advocating for the Republican presidential candidate, incumbent Herbert Hoover – whom she endorsed as “a careful, firm man and a great leader” as well as “the greatest power in our great land since the Civil War” – over the upstart Democratic challenger, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

A few years later, she turns up in the Journal, delivering an address to the “Juliette Derricotte Club” of Providence, named for an educator and political activist whose 1931 death in Tennessee, after being refused treatment by a whites-only hospital following a car accident, had sparked outrage in the African-American community.

Trouble struck in July of 1937, when a “sweeping grand jury investigation into the activities of collection agencies” resulted in indictments against a dozen defendants, including Crockett

and three other attorneys involved in collection work, on a range of charges. All entered not guilty pleas, and the charges were ultimately dismissed – “wiped off the books in open court,” in the words of a contemporary Journal article – and never resurfaced.

Still, the experience would have been traumatic and frightening for Crockett: at the age of 27, she was arrested, jailed – at least overnight – and indicted, along with the other attorneys charged. But the case quickly disappeared from the headlines, and those involved went on to enjoy long, successful careers in Rhode Island (Frank Wildes, the senior attorney among those charged, retired at age 90, and his glowing obituary a few years later notes only that he had been Brown’s oldest living alumnus, and that his tenure in the legal profession spanned 67 years).

Meanwhile, in the fall of 1938, Crockett married one Irving “Abe” Bartleson. Though living in Providence at the time, Bartleson gave his occupation as the “hotel business” in Los Angeles on their marriage license application. The following year, the couple would pack up and move to the Golden State.

But as late as December of 1938, Crockett was still practicing law in Providence – when she appears in a Journal legal roundup (alongside Wildes, once again), winning a routine default judgment for a local dairy.

From Attorney – to Maid?

That case, however, may well have been one of her last jobs as a lawyer. A few years after Crockett’s move to the West Coast comes a sobering revelation: 1940 U.S. census records show Abe employed at a country club in La Jolla, a wealthy seaside suburb of San Diego. And Attorney Dorothy Crockett? She’s listed as a “maid”; another local history describes her as a “domestic” with a private family.

Whether that position was permanent or long-term is unknown. But there is no evidence that Crockett ever practiced law in California or even tried to take the bar exam – indeed, such a course seems exceedingly unlikely: records reveal that the first black woman admitted to the bar in California, in 1929, could not find legal employment in the state until 1939.

“Despite her incredible achievements, we cannot forget the time in which Attorney Crockett was living,” notes Deborah Johnson, RWU Law’s Director of Diversity & Outreach, explaining that race and gender certainly played a role in changing her career trajectory. “The fact that it was an AfricanAmerican male attorney who sponsored Attorney Crockett’s admission to the bar in Rhode Island suggests that was likely the only way she could have been admitted at that time. It stands to reason that, without a similar contact in California (this is admittedly an assumption, but one that seems to be supported by the evidence), practicing there as a ‘colored’ woman in the 1940s and 1950s would have been out of the question.”

Johnson adds, “While we don’t know the facts, it seems fairly safe to assume that, given the time and era, and the blatant and subtle discrimination that African-Americans and other people of color and women were facing, Attorney Crockett’s ability to practice was probably severely limited.

There is no reason to believe the discrimination of the time did not extend to the legal profession, which to this day remains one of the slowest to diversify.”

Crockett and her husband seem to have thrived nonetheless, purchasing land in the La Jolla Shores neighborhood Dorothy and her daughter Dianne, c. 1945. of San Diego (Crockett occasionally turns up in quasi-legal guise in city records, arguing for an easement or objecting to a city paving project) and setting up a household. Had she continued her role as an outspoken voice in the African-American community? It’s an unanswered question – and one that may ultimately be beside the point.

“What Attorney Crockett achieved is amazing – then and now,” Johnson says, “I have been fascinated learning about Dorothy R. Crockett, and pieces of her life and career. I am also mesmerized by many of the photos of her that I have seen.

She was clearly a woman of education and intellect, style and grace, and also one of grit and tenacity. Knowing the struggles and hurdles I have faced and had to overcome as a black woman attorney in the 21st century, I can only begin to imagine what her experiences were as the first black woman attorney in Rhode Island in the 1930s. I am in awe of and have tremendous respect for her.”

A Living Legacy

In 1947, Crockett gave birth to a daughter, Dianne Bartleson, her only child. But just seven years later, on February 27, 1955, she died of cancer at the age of 44.

This year, First Women researchers at RWU Law located Bartleson, now 72, in Surprise, Ariz. Only seven when Crockett passed away, she regrets being unable to shed much additional light on the mystery of her mother’s life: “I did not even find out she was a lawyer until later in my own life,” Bartleson says. She had been told, however, that her mother was a “very elegant and very nice person,” and that she looked just like her.

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Johnson adds, “In fact, she created an indelible impact “Then one day I was at a funeral and an old woman who’d that aided the paths of black women, women of color and, been a friend of my mother told me, ‘You know, Dorothy was indeed, all women attorneys through her monumental feat of an attorney’ – which was a really big deal,” Bartleson recalls. ‘rising to the top’ and becoming the first black woman and the “Finding this out made her so much more human and real to 7th overall – which still blows my mind! – to be admitted to me — and made me sad. I am so sorry that she died so young.” practice in Rhode Island.”

Bartleson and her husband, Harold Lewis, were both born Bartleson echoes her sentiment. in La Jolla.

“I would like my mother to be remembered as a pioneer, a “This was a very small, trailblazer,” she says. “Any time a black person is the first to do tightly knit community something it is important, because all of the advances that are of African-Americans possible for us in this day and age — they all rely on what our who were maids, ancestors have done in the past. Becoming an attorney is an chauffeurs and butlers,” accomplishment, and to have become the first black woman in Lewis explains. But the state to do so, that’s an accomplishment. So I’m really glad while such jobs provided this research is being done.” a comfortable, middle Still, her sense of loss is palpable. class living in those “I wish my mother had lived long enough days, Lewis recalls his to influence me,” Bartleson mused. “I parents’ generation as probably would have been encouraged being comparatively to obtain a law degree myself. I think tightlipped about their I would have become an ACLU style personal lives, though lawyer; and I can see my mother taking they always stressed that direction as well. I just wish I could the value of learning. talk to her about it – to find out how it all Bartleson finished happened, what motivated her. But there’s high school near the nobody to ask. That part is kind of sad.” top of her class and

Johnson, however, is confident that went on to graduate Attorney Dorothy R. Crockett’s influence from the University of will endure.

California, Berkeley.

“Although I am not a member of Both she and Lewis the Rhode Island bar,” she says, “I have became public-school to believe that my legal education and educators. “If there’s Dianne Bartleson, Dorothy's daughter, with her husband Harold Lewis in admission to practice in three states, such a thing as a La Jolla, California, 2019. including California, were possible gene of intelligence, because of Attorney Dorothy R. Crockett and the other First Dorothy must have passed it down to Dianne,” Lewis says.

Women, who paved the way. I am privileged and honored to be Nicole Dyszlewski of the Roger Williams University a part of Attorney Crockett’s legacy, and I am indebted to her School of Law Library, who led the team that first researched success and her willingness to champion the rights of others.”

Crockett’s story, agrees that education seems to be one of her defining principles.

This September, RWU Law will honor Dorothy Russell Crockett “It seems so clear that education was important to Dorothy Bartleson’s groundbreaking legacy in Rhode Island by naming Crockett,” she says. “She seems to have had an amazing impact a classroom in her honor. Watch law.rwu.edu for details. on her daughter, without even knowing it. And that is a great legacy.”

"I would like my mother to be remembered as a pioneer, a trailblazer...”

Dorothy's 1932 bar application 38 RWU Law

Katie Ahern ’07, Director of the Business Start-up Clinic, at a kitchen incubator space in Providence.

MILLENNIAL

LAW

By Richard Dahl

25th Anniversary RWU Law

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W

e’ve all heard the labels that have been foisted upon the so-called Millennial generation.

“They’re self-centered.”

“They’re lazy. “ “They need hand-holding.”

There’s just one problem with such generalizations, however: they’re all inaccurate, according to those in a position to know.

“Millennials are very creative; they don’t always necessarily do things in a traditional way,” says Katie Ahern ’07, director of the Business Start-up Clinic at RWU Law. “They’re very mission driven,” adds Veronica Paricio, RWU Law’s assistant dean for career development. “They want work that’s meaningful and they’re not afraid to say what they’re feeling.”

It’s worth getting a firm understanding of what drives the Millennial generation, because it is steadily increasing its reach and power. And its impact on the law profession promises to be significant – and positive.

“They’re going to be great for the legal industry,” Ahern predicts.

According to the Pew Research Center, Millennials — those born between 1981 and 1996 (i.e., currently between the ages of 23 and 38) — are poised to surpass Baby Boomers as the largest living adult generation this year. This unique population also comprises, by far, the majority of Roger Williams Law’s alumni base.

40 RWU Law

“We have very good studies that indicate how this generation is different from previous generations,” notes Elisabeth Kelan, Ph.D., author of Rising Stars: Developing Millennial Women as Leaders.

“On one hand, yes, there’s always the idea that this generation is very self-entitled; they want everything immediately, and so on. But on the other hand, that selfconfidence can be really positive in [many] situations. It depends on the environment.”

Deep Patel, author of A Paperboy’s Fable: The 11 Principles of Success, fleshes out several more Millennial characteristics:

Values-Driven. Millennials need income as much as anyone, but not at any cost. Meaning matters; fairness, justice and societal impact matter. “Millennials care about a variety of social causes, including those related to climate change and social equality,” Patel notes.

Technological. Millennials are

a digital generation. “They were born when the internet, personal computers and cellphones went mainstream,” Patel explains. “As a result, Millennials are obsessed with technology.”

Collaborative. Millennials “thrive on feedback,” transparency and opportunities to “collaborate with peers within and across teams,” says Patel.

Their idea of a career’s proper place in their lives also diverges from that of previous generations.

“The biggest change I’ve seen is that students come to law school now saying, ‘I know I don’t want to work 100 hours a week; I want a job that’s going to give me flexibility and autonomy, and will let me pick my own hours,’” says Paricio. “Their interests aren’t to be at a firm for 40 years and then retire as a partner. That’s not what they’re coming to law school to do.

They come into their first job knowing it’s not going to be their last job.”

Paricio arrived at RWU Law in 2007, just before the Great Recession began to

unfold, causing law firms to drastically retrench – and prompting young potential law-school students to look elsewhere for stable careers. Those developments had a pronounced impact on law school enrollments, according to Paricio. They’ve also meant that the mostly Millennial student bodies of today are significantly different from those of 2007.

“These students really, really want to come to law school,” she says. “They see all that negative press and say, ‘I still want to go.’”

And collectively, the Millennial generation has begun to change society — and to change the legal profession as well.

“A Little More Niche"

Third-year RWU Law student Sebastien Voigt, who has a job lined up this year as a public defender in New Jersey, is one of those who came to law school with a specific goal in mind. A 28-year-old Brooklyn native, Voigt worked for a couple of start-ups in New York after receiving his undergraduate degree in 2013 from Brooklyn College. He became interested in law from interacting with lawyers in those companies. They told him that if he wanted to have a legal career, nothing is as initially important as getting into court.

“I knew that I wanted to litigate, because it was a skill set that I believed I had and that I could polish,” he says. “But it was also because litigators have more flexibility in the job market, as opposed to transactional attorneys or attorneys who do not know how to appear in court.”

As a law student, he realized that he is most interested in criminal defense work and has become an active member of the school’s Criminal Defense Clinic. He’s already mapped out a general career plan: five years as a public defender – then segue to something else.

Another 3L, Rachel Feiden, came to RWU Law precisely with the goal of doing transactional law, and she’s stuck to that plan. “I do think people are coming to law school today with a narrower path,” says Feiden, a native of upstate New York with

a 2016 undergraduate That practice, however, is just part of a broader degree from Iona “You have a lot of work mix that includes College. a real estate brokerage; “With the tighter young attorneys an online business job market, you need to out there who selling equipment and think a little more niche have gotten into merchandise to police, fire, and then try to become and EMS customers; and as experienced as you law for all the teaching as an adjunct possibly can” in your field right reasons. professor at Bristol of choice. While working And women are Community College. He in RWU Law’s Corporate also has his own weekly Counsel program last stepping into radio program, “The year, Feiden landed an positions of power, Third Degree at 3 with externship with the which is fantastic Chris Carreiro,” on Boston Red Sox, fell in for the legal field.” WSAR-AM radio in love with Boston, and Somerset, Mass. hopes to land a job in a - Greg Rosenfeld ’11 “I never wanted to work firm there that handles for anyone else,” he says. transactional law.

“If you work for a law Patrick Burns, a 3L firm, where you have a and articles editor on requirement of so many billable hours and the Roger Williams University Law Review, other requirements, it becomes extremely came to law school envisioning a practice stressful and there’s no real disconnect in real estate or wills and trusts. A native between your personal life and your work of Barrington, R.I., and graduate of life.”

Fordham University, he landed a part Dan Reilly ’15, a classmate of Carreiro, time job with DeSisto Law Offices in expresses a similar sentiment.

Providence, a firm providing defense work for municipalities. He will be joining them full-time after completing law school.

“I think that younger attorneys, at least through law school, are more focused, given what the employment climate is,” Burns says. “My goal, even before I decided to go to law school, was: how can I get good, sustainable employment?

I think that’s something that younger people have to be more intentional about and plan for more now than folks in other eras maybe had to.”

He remembers the reaction he got in 2012 when he told friends and colleagues of his decision to go to law school. Hailing from a family of lawyers, Reilly was completing his senior year at Providence College at the time, while also serving as the youngest member of the Rhode Island General Assembly.

“When I told people I got accepted and was going, there was not a single lawyer I knew who said, ‘Great decision, congratulations, it’s going to go well,’” he recalls.

But Reilly forged forward, and today he too maintains more than one livelihood. After law school he worked in a Providence law firm for six months, handling mostly trust and estates work.

In the course of this work, he began to notice that many clients moving from the Northeast to the Southeast needed help from lawyers in other states to draft documents and make court appearances for them. Spotting an opportunity to launch his own venture, Reilly would Google suitable lawyers in the locations where the clients were moving, then email or call them to gauge interest and perhaps reach an agreement.

Wearing Many Hats

While many Millennial students are focused from the start on one particular area of law, others pursue law degrees to serve as tools to assist in the achievement of more entrepreneurial career goals.

A good example is Christopher Carreiro ’15, a Swansea, Mass., native and town selectman who wears many hats. After receiving his J.D., Carreiro passed the bar in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts and launched his own practice, focusing on bankruptcy, probate and estate work, and real estate.

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He and the lawyers would email the needed documents back and forth and, at the end, he’d mail the lawyer a paper check. After a time, however, the process just seemed too inefficient.

Reilly’s solution? A lawyermatching service called Legably, which he launched last year.

“It’s a marketplace to connect lawyers with other lawyers for short-term projects,” Reilly explains. “You can hire them, manage their work, and pay them, all through one platform, and the platform makes money by handling the transactions from the lawyers posting the work via a small service charge.”

“I don’t want to call it the work of the future, because people will always have careers,” Reilly notes. “But people are increasingly looking for flexible freelance income and the ability to toggle on and off an income stream – and to do so in as flexible a manner as possible.”

Reilly has since left the law firm, is working full-time as an associate at Acertitude, a Providence executivesearch firm, in a non-legal capacity, though he says his legal experience has proven to be helpful in negotiating compensation plans and employment agreements. In addition, Reilly maintains his own law practice, which focuses on providing legal services to medical professionals.

At 34, Greg Rosenfeld ’11 has fulfilled his goal of becoming a criminal defense lawyer. He now has his own firm in West Palm Beach, Fla. He keeps tabs on other Millennials who have become lawyers and does believe the legal profession is changing as a result.

“It’s a decisive time in our country right now,” he says. “You have a lot of young attorneys out there who have gotten 42 RWU Law

"Millenials like to build their own brand, be their own person. They use social media as a tool and weave it into their work."

- Ben Gold ’06

into law for all the right reasons and are out there trying to fix problems. I would also say the legal field is developing and moving in the right direction – going from a good-old-boys club to one where women are stepping into positions of power, which is fantastic for the legal field.”

Lawyer Stories

While not a Millennial himself, Ben Gold ’06 has had ample opportunity to study lawyers in that category. After receiving his J.D., Gold worked in the legal departments of two city housing authorities − in New Haven and then

In a May 2018 census, the American Danbury, Conn., and is now assistant Feedback and Chit-Chat Bar Association reported that there are executive director of North Central One common – yet demonstrably 1,338,678 licensed, active attorneys in Massachusetts Housing Authorities in unfair – rap against Millennials is the U.S. – a 0.2 percent increase since Leominster, Mass. Talking with some that they are overly “needy” people 2017, and a 15.2-percent rise over the lawyer friends in 2017, he was struck by and in constant need of affirmation. past decade. Yet the ABA itself is losing the realization that all Paricio explains that members—between 2017 and 2018 its attorneys have stories this is a generational membership dropped by fully 4 percent to tell about why they “This generation misinterpretation of what, — and the organization reported early last decided to go to law in fact, reflects a greater is always looking year that state and local bar associations school, and that it might desire to be purposeful. for a better way are losing ground as well. A survey by the be interesting to develop “Whenever I talk to ABA’s Division for Bar Services revealed a platform for lawyers to get things attorneys and they talk that nearly 60 percent of voluntary state and law students to share about Millennials,” she done. As people bar organizations, for example, reported those stories. says, “I try to debunk are looking membership declines of between 1 and 10 The result was Lawyer that myth. I don’t think percent.

Stories, an Instagram at alternative it’s fair to discredit Millennials’ tendency to network page (now on Facebook people who are actually ways to practice electronically, as opposed to face-to-face, as well) which had, by very motivated, and who law, I think this is a characteristic of the generation and the beginning of 2019, are generally looking for generation will be feedback, not necessarily something that Paricio addresses when she grown to include 500 talks to law students. such stories. Lawyers and big contributors.” praise.”

“The underbelly of technology and law students submit their Ahern, the Business social media and things like that is that stories and a photo or Start-up Clinic director, - Katie Ahern ’07, director of you might not get to know as many two, Gold edits them if adds that this desire for the Business Start-up Clinic attorneys in person,” she says. “So necessary, and generally feedback is more broadly at RWU Law. we spend a lot of time working with posts one per day. The based. students, getting them comfortable with Instagram site has more “From my own the fact that lawyers are social beings than 15,000 followers; observations working and if lawyers don’t work on developing Facebook has topped with students and uptraditional communication skills in 1,000; and the result of all this growth, and-coming lawyers from this generation, addition to the electronic ones – for Gold says, is a broad-based community I would say they’re very good at selfexample, hanging out at the courthouse of lawyers—the majority of whom are reflection and self-development – more so and just chit-chatting with other lawyers Millennials. “It’s actually developed into across the board than I’ve observed with – they might have a harder time getting a community,” says Gold, who recently other generations of lawyers. It’s ingrained referrals.” launched a closed Facebook group called in them; they’re constantly assessing Yet, on balance, Ahern is confident Lawyer Stories Alumni Network. “I know themselves and seeking feedback and that the unique traits of the Millennial that people have connected with each trying to get better.” generation bode well for the legal industry. other off of it.”

Another critique involves Millennials’

“They’re always looking for a better So what do these young lawyers seem perceived overdependence on technology. way to get things done. They’re creative to have in common?

While Millennial lawyers tend to enjoy at solving problems,” she says. “So I think “I think a lot of them like to build their electronic networking, the argument goes, that, as people are looking at alternative own brand, be their own person,” he says. some are unwisely neglecting the more ways to practice law, this generation will “They like to use social media as a tool and traditional ways in which lawyers connect be big contributors.” sort of weave it within their work.” with one another. This is partially reflected Also, he says, Millennials seem to in declining membership in professional value work flexibility — the ability to legal organizations. not be tied to set working hours. “I think While the number of lawyers in the they want to work when they feel most U.S. is at an all-time high, bar associations motivated and at the peak of their best everywhere are losing members, and working hours, rather than having a rigid, there’s a belief that the growing presence eight-to-six schedule. They also want the of Millennials in the profession is one of flexibility to work outside the office.” the reasons.

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AMICUS THE ALUMNI PAGES

SHANGHAI SOJOURN

AMANDA ARGENTIERI '09

By Michael M. Bowden

A

manda J. Argentieri manages business policies, training and communications for Global Business Operations at PTC – a Bostonbased computer software and services company – at its Shanghai offices. She is also president of the International Professional Women’s Society (IPWS) in Shanghai, where she has resided since 2014.

In her role at PTC, Argentieri supports more than 120 employees in seven countries across the globe and works directly with the leadership team in strategy planning, designing communication frameworks, and implementing policy governance. She also created a standardized onboarding program for new employees in her organization, which will be leveraged by PTC company-wide.

“I originally came here with my partner on an expatriate package for his job, but, ultimately, we didn’t work, and I decided to stay in Shanghai and ‘go local,’” Argentieri says. “I just didn’t feel ready to leave. I went from living in one of the nicest serviced compounds in the city to a lovely small apartment in the Changning district, where I currently live with my rescue dog, Bao Bao – and I couldn’t be happier!”

During her time in China, Argentieri has worked as a foreign associate attorney with a China-based law firm; supported community relations and marketing efforts

at one of China’s leading private healthcare companies; and volunteered for several community initiatives. Prior to becoming President, she served on the IPWS Board of Directors as Membership Executive and Vice President, as well as the organizing committee for Mentor Walks Asia.

“IPWS is a dynamic, diverse, supportive community of professional women – and supporting men – from all nationalities and backgrounds,” she noted. The group has a reach of about 8,000.

Prior to relocating to Shanghai, Argentieri was an associate with Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in Boston, where she focused her practice in consumer litigation, insurance coverage and defense matters, and professional liability defense.

Amanda also served three terms as a judicial law clerk, most notably for Justice Gilbert V. Indeglia of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. After graduating first in her undergraduate class at the University of Rhode Island, Argentieri earned a Master of Business from the University of Queensland in Australia. Returning to the States, she received her J.D. with honors at RWU Law. She is a member of the federal and state bars in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Amanda also served as the treasurer and membership chair of the Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association.

“My favorite aspect of Shanghai is its reputation as a city of opportunity,” she says. “You can truly create your own destiny here. People come from all over

the world for this reason. There is also an endless number of events, festivals, meetups, and more – you literally have to try to be bored in Shanghai. My least favorite part of living in Shanghai is the heartache of losing a favorite café, cocktail bar, or restaurant without notice. But thankfully there are always great new places popping up across the city to ease the pain. In addition to frequenting the great food and beverage establishments in Shanghai, I also enjoy biking to my next destination – squeezing in yoga and group classes at Z&B Fitness when I can, and of course attending all of the great professional and personal development events that IPWS puts on throughout the year.”

Argentieri has no immediate plans to return to the States.

“I can’t tell you how many times my friends and family back home in the U.S ask me if I will live in Shanghai forever,” she says. “I don’t have a good answer!

Every time I think I may head home a new opportunity presents itself. I often describe this city as ‘addicting.’ Even though I did not come to Shanghai entirely for myself, I have embraced the city and all it offers in building my life here. I have a fun job, a vibrant lifestyle, a supportive network, and have been able to travel to places I never imagined going. I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world.”

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AMICUS

MEET MAINE’S NEW ATTORNEY GENERAL

AARON FREY '08

By Michael M. Bowden

B

Frey, 39, credits RWU Law with shaping many of his legal perspectives. “By my first or second day at RWU Law, I’d met the justices of the Rhode Island Supreme Court,” he says, “Throughout my time there, I had access to top-notch lawyers, well-established in their fields. Roger Williams opened a lot of doors for me, and also opened my mind about what was possible with a law degree.”

RWU Law Dean Michael Yelnosky returned the compliment.

“We are proud to count Attorney General Frey as one of our alumni, not least because of his dedication to public service,” Yelnosky says.

“He has been a member of the Maine House of Representatives since 2012 and now, just over ten years after graduating from the law school, he has become the top law enforcement officer in Maine. He came from Maine to Rhode Island to Aaron Frey ’08 at the Maine State House in Augusta. get the training he needed to return home and pursue his dreams. We congratulate him and “I am honored and excited to lead wish him the best of luck.” Frey noted that a department with such a talented the number of Roger Williams lawyers in professional staff who work tirelessly on Maine was significant and growing fast. behalf of the people of Maine,” Frey said. “I look forward to working productively with Much Work to Do Maine’s legislature and executive branch in what I hope will be a new era of cooperation Two of Frey’s early goals as AG, he says, include finding better ways to fight Maine’s and civility in state government, leading to growing opioid crisis, and instituting positive results for our state.” angor defense attorney and threeterm state representative Aaron M. Frey ‘08 was sworn in this January as Maine’s new Attorney General, succeeding Janet Mills, who was elected the state’s first-ever female governor.

criminal justice reform – issues he sees as intimately related.

“Our jails are essentially being used to control populations that are already under siege by drug and economic issues,” he explained. “There has been too much focus on retribution and not enough on addressing the underlying issues and encouraging rehabilitation.”

Other priorities include bolstering state environmental protections and improving governmental relations with Maine’s four federally recognized tribal groups – the Micmac, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot – which have deteriorated since outgoing Republican Gov. Paul LePage rescinded the state’s agreement setting guidelines for the relationship.

“I want to get all parties sitting at a table again, and ensure that a constructive dialog resumes,” Frey says.

Maine Democrats surged to power after winning the governorship and 110 of 186 legislative seats in last November’s election, which – in a famously “purple” state – was widely seen by pundits as a referendum on both President Donald Trump and LePage.

In a speech following his election, Frey criticized the pair for policies “inconsistent with our Maine values,” citing rollbacks of environmental protections and efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Frey won the AG seat in a five-way race among Democrats in December.

Under the state’s unique system for filling three important government posts (AG, secretary of state, and treasurer), the Maine Legislature elected Frey – a three-term Democratic representative for Bangor and Orono – to a two-year term.

CLASS NOTES Carrie Abatiello ’02 has been named the new senior vice president/compliance officer of Pawtucket Credit Union.

Nancy Hartjen ’07 of Navarre, Fla., recently received the Florida Bar Pro Bono Award (1st Judicial Circuit). Hartjen was a co-team leader with Justice on the Block, which brings free legal advice via clinics to many who can’t afford legal representation. Justice on the Block is part of the Florida Bar’s Escambia Project, which has the goal of bringing more legal help to Escambia County residents.

J. David Freel ’08 has been named partner

Elizabeth Ortiz ’10 has become the first

Karen Michel ’18 has been awarded

Latina municipal court judge in Central Falls, R.I. Ortiz is also a founding member and vice president of the Rhode Island Hispanic Bar Association. In 2018, she was a recipient of the New England Rising Stars Super Lawyers Award. She completed her undergraduate work at RWU as well, graduating in 2007.

a Bart Gordon Fellowship. During law school, Michel worked with the Rhode Island Center for Justice, the RWU Law Immigration Clinic, the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights, and Catholic Social Services in Fall River, Mass. During her fellowship, she will focus on educational advocacy for low income students, children of color, and children with disabilities in Fall River. "I truly believe that education is the passport to one’s future,” Michel said, “so I am looking forward to helping students of marginalized groups who may have trouble accessing legal help realize that there is no such thing as a place they can’t go or a dream that is too big. This fellowship will give me the opportunity to show the community that the justice system is on their side and there are people just like them ready and willing to advocate on their behalf.”

Kurt Rocha ’11 has become an associate at Higgins Cavanaugh & Cooney, LLP.

at the law firm of Higgins, Cavanagh & Cooney, LLP, in Providence. He represents corporate and commercial clients in all phases of litigation within the areas of insurance defense, insurance coverage, premises liability, product liability, and employment law.

Diony Garcia ’12 has been appointed

Kristina I. Hultman ’09 has been

firm of Ursillo, Teitz & Ritch.

named partner at the law firm of Higgins, Cavanagh & Cooney, LLP, in Providence. She focuses her practice on product liability, premises liability, insurance defense and professional liability. She has had extensive trial experience on behalf of major corporations, and holds leadership positions in the Defense Counsel of Rhode Island and the Defense Research Institute.

Alexandra Pezzello ’09 has been named Partner at Partridge Snow & Hahn LLP. Brian Fielding ‘10 has been named partner at Adler, Cohen, Harvey, Wakeman and Guekguezian, LLP, in Providence.

to the Providence Housing Court.

He has also joined the Law Offices of William J. Conley, Jr.

Peter F. Skwirz ’12 has joined the law Jose Batista ’14 has been selected as executive director of the Providence External Review Authority (PERA), the nine-member panel tasked with providing civilian oversight of the Providence Police Department.

Josh Xavier ’14 has become an associate at Partridge Snow & Hahn LLP.

Erlin Rogel ’15 was appointed Chief of Staff of the Providence City Council. Rogel also did his undergraduate work at RWU, graduating in 2012.

Kyla Pecchia ’16 has joined the Law Offices of William J. Conley, Jr. She is also currently the Executive Director of Millennial Rhode Island and a member of the Rhode Island College Foundation Board of Directors.

IN MEMORIAM Judge Thomas J. Caldarone, Jr., associate justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court from 1984 to 1994, passed away on November 5, 2018, at age 91. A Navy veteran of World War II, he was an active member of the Rhode Island bar for 61 years. In his will, Judge Caldarone directed $100,000 of his estate to RWU Law for the establishment of a scholarship in his name, to be awarded based on academic performance, demonstrated need, and long-time Rhode Island residence.

Roy A. Jann III, a J.D. candidate at RWU Law, died unexpectedly on May 16, 2018.

Jann grew up in Bristol, R.I., and graduated from Providence College in 2003 with a B.S. in marketing. Before attending law school, he enjoyed a successful career in finance, rising to become vice president of the Professional Liability Department at Goldman Sachs in New York City. He was also a co-founder and partner of Gold Coast IT Solutions. Our sincere condolences go out to his family and friends.

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CLOSING ARGUMENT

THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND THE FOXY LADY

By Jared Goldstein, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

The exotic dancing at the Foxy Lady will never be confused with Russia's Bolshoi Ballet.

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ndeed, some would consider it “low value” speech and condemn it as demeaning to women, offensive and immoral. Yet, the fact that some members of society may frown on this type of expression provides no basis to suppress it.

Courts must be especially vigilant to protect exotic dancing and other types of unpopular speech precisely because they face the greatest threats of suppression. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said in 1919: “We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions we loathe.”

That vigilance prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island to file a “friend of the court” brief, arguing that the City of Providence trampled on the Foxy Lady’s First Amendment rights by shutting down the Chalkstone Avenue strip club.

RWU Law Professor Andrew Horwitz and I submitted that legal brief in our capacity as volunteer attorneys for the ACLU. The Providence Board of Licenses shut down the club last December 12 after three dancers were arrested on solicitation of prostitution charges, and the board revoked all of the club’s licenses on December 18, effectively putting 225 people out of work. A few days later, the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation allowed the Foxy Lady to reopen as a nightclub, and the Rhode Island Supreme Court has now allowed the club to reopen pending an appeal.

In our brief filed with the state Supreme Court, we argue that the revocation order by the Board of Licenses violates the First Amendment because it reflects “unbridled discretion” and arbitrary decision-making.

The Providence Home Rule Charter, which created the Board of Licenses, provides the board with authority to revoke an entertainment license based on “any reason

which the board may deem to be in the public interest.”

But the First Amendment requires that any licensing system regulating protected speech must specify “narrow, objective and definite standards” for determining when to grant or revoke a license, as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1969 case of Shuttlesworth v.

Birmingham.

In that case, the high court found a strikingly similar ordinance unconstitutional in Birmingham, Alabama, which provided a city commission with broad discretion to grant or deny parade permits. In later cases, the Supreme Court made clear that the invalidity of licensing ordinances that provide administrative boards with “unbridled discretion” applies equally to ordinances for licensing adult entertainment.

The absence of any definite criteria for revoking the Foxy Lady’s license is fatal to the revocation decision, regardless of whether the Providence board acted in good faith and regardless of whether it intended to suppress activity that enjoys First Amendment protection.

The unconstitutionally arbitrary nature of the board’s decision is obvious when you look at other decisions by the board, which has routinely suspended licenses rather than revoking them following much more serious infractions. For example, the board imposed a four-day license suspension after a double stabbing inside Club Ultra, and it imposed a 12-day suspension after a bouncer at the Rock & Rye Bar started a fight with and stabbed a patron.

Yet, the board chose to impose the ultimate penalty it has available – immediate and permanent revocation – based on the Foxy Lady’s first offense involving allegations of a non-violent misdemeanor.

In a submission to the court, the Board of Licenses cited a Providence ordinance that appears to require the immediate revocation of all licenses upon a finding that the use of a licensee’s premises for prostitution “resulted from the gross negligence of the licensee.” But that does not cure the unbridled discretion of the board and the arbitrary sanction imposed in this case.

For one thing, it’s not clear the ordinance can properly be invoked to justify revocation 25th Anniversary RWU Law 49

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because it was not identified in the show-cause order. As a result, the club had no notice that it would need to defend itself against a charge of “gross negligence.”

In any event, that ordinance compounds the constitutional problems instead of resolving them. The Department of Business Regulation made clear that the ordinance cannot be applied to the revocation of liquor licenses because it would be inconsistent with statewide policies to revoke liquor licenses based solely on a first offense involving solicitation of prostitution. As a result, the ordinance can only be applied to the club’s entertainment licenses, and the board apparently takes the position that the ordinance gives it greater power to revoke entertainment licenses than liquor licenses.

The board’s position thus turns the First Amendment on its head.

The First Amendment prohibits the government from imposing more severe sanctions on licensees because they are engaged in protected speech than it would impose for identical infractions by licensees not engaged in speech. Whatever else the First Amendment means, it does not allow the government to punish the club, or punish it more harshly than other establishments, because it engages in protected speech.

That would be too much of a leap, even for the Bolshoi Ballet.

Professor Jared A. Goldstein, RWU Law Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and former U.S. Department of Justice attorney.

CELEBRATING CHAMPIONS for JUSTICE 2019

At this year’s Champions for Justice event, the RWU Law community gathered for a special evening to celebrate and support students, alumni, partners and friends whose exceptional devotion to social justice increases access to justice for all. This year’s Champions were Robert McConnell, Esq., Alumni Champion Diana deGroof, Esq. L '03, and Community Partner Champion, the Rhode Island Public Defender.

Save the Date: January 24, 2020 - for next year's Champions for Justice Celebration!

DIVERSITY SYMPOSIUM 2019 RWU Law students, faculty, staff and friends gathered with diverse members of the Rhode Island bar and judiciary in April to talk about the legal profession with high school and college students from around the state. The discussion moderator was Angelyne Cooper, Esq. ’08, Senior Counsel with Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O’Gara. Panelists included RWU Law student Bre’Anna Metts-Nixon ’20, RWU Law Professor Diana Hassel, Attorney Lynette Labinger, Esq., and the Honorable Luis Matos, Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court. The Event was cosponsored by Nixon Peabody LLP and RWU Law. Photos: Andrea Hansen/RWU Law.

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Ten Metacom Avenue Bristol, Rhode Island 02809-2921

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LAWYERS IN RHODE ISLAND

Nearly 300 attendees turned out when RWU Law hosted a special event commemorating the First Women Lawyers in Rhode Island (1920 to 1979).

A plaque was unveiled, prominently mounted in the law school’s second-floor atrium, that lists the names of the 176 known First Women, “and others unknown,” along with the preamble: “Roger Williams University School of Law honors the pioneering First Women of the Rhode Island bar. Their efforts helped establish the rightful place of women in the legal profession and a foundation upon which a more fully inclusive legal profession can be built.”

Photo: David Silverman/RWU Law