Military Law Society

Stand Down is an event for homeless veterans that has been held for about the last 12 years in Columbus. The event provides all kinds of services for homeless veterans including medical check-ups, insurance information, haircuts, clothing distribution, and legal services.

Last week I volunteered along with Miranda Gahn in the legal services section. It was a really great experience for me. Local attorneys volunteer their time to help any veteran with pretty much any legal problem they walk in with. As a student, I was able to sit with an attorney and watch his interview process and I even had the opportunity to interview some of the veterans as well.

This is a great event because veterans who have no other way of obtaining legal help can come in for free and obtain advice from a lawyer and may even have a lawyer choose to represent them. I recommend that MLS do this event every year. It is a great way to give back to those who choose to serve and protect us.

Here is the updated list of our outline bank. For all dues paying members, all of these outlines are available at any time, just email any member of the X-board with your request.

If there is a class listed and no teacher indicated, it means we have an outline for the class, but no specific teacher.

Advanced Crim Pro

BA I
Burch
Steele
Wood

BA II
Steele
Burch
Wood

Civ Pro
Jurisdiction
Darling
Gilles
Upchurch

Rules
Darling
Gilles

Con Law
I
Strasser
Beattie
Brown

II
Strasser
Beattie
Brown

Consumer Bankruptcy
Ferriell

Contracts (I&II)
Westlaw
Wolmouth
Turack
Cordray
UCC’s

Copyright
Mayer

Crim Law
Bluth

Crim Pro
Kobil
Bluth

Decedent’s Estates
Grauer
Looper

Estate & Gift Tax

Evidence
Bluth
Rozelle
Cordray

Family Law

Forensic Evidence
Squires

Mediation

Origins of Western Law
McElwee

Payment Systems
Distlehorst

Professional Responsibility
Tibbles
Twiss

Property
I
Looper
Mays

II
Cohen
Looper
Mays

Secured Transactions
Ferriel
Distelhorst

Tax
Wood
Grauer

Torts
I
Kobil
Upchurch

II
Darling
Kobil
Gilles
Full Year - Blocher

Trusts & Future Interests
Grauer

Comrades,

Here is your illustrious 2008-2009 Executive Board, feel free to contact any of us with any questions or email the MLS generally at military@law.capital.edu.

President: Bryan Pritikin bpritikin@law.capital.edu
Vice-President: Jennifer Routte jroutte@law.capital.edu
Treasurer: Christy Turner cturner@law.capital.edu
Intel Officer: Amanda Blust ablust@law.capital.edu

This article appeared on Capital's website last year.

Family Support Services at Capital
By Laurin Wisnor, 1L
Photos by Troy Doucet, 1L

Starting with the admission process and continuing through the bar exam, Capital supports its students. Equally as important, it does an amazing job of supporting the students’ families as well.
“The thing about law school is that it doesn’t just happen to the student” say Cassandra Pritikin, founder of the Family Support Group and wife of a second-year law student. “Just like being pregnant, it is something that happens to the whole family.”

According to Dr. Terry Thompson, a licensed clinical counselor on staff at the Law School, the support that Capital provides for families starts during the admission process. During the summer before a 1L begins law school, the Capital Student Services Office invites families to the Law School to learn what to expect over the next several years. Dr. Thompson likes to “front-load” the families during the summer, so that there are no surprises in the fall. “Law school is hard for students; it helps families cope when they are prepared for what is coming.”

Approximately one month into a law student’s education, Capital hosts a Friends and Family Orientation. The event is as an opportunity for friends and families of law students to learn more about what life is like for their law student and to come to the realization that they are not in this alone. The orientation is a full day event, which consists of a mock class, a presentation by Dr. Thompson called “Living with and Loving a Law Student,” and a panel discussion with family members of current law students. The program gives family members a forum in which to discuss their apprehension about what life will be like with a law student in the family and to have their questions answered. Dr. Thompson provides them with her contact information and an invitation to join the Family Support Group.

A key element of the Friends and Family Orientation is the mock class held by a law professor. The goals for the mock class are two-fold. First, professors want to help the family members develop an understanding of the time commitment involved in being fully prepared for class and ultimately doing well in law school. The second goal is to help family members appreciate the level of stress and anxiety that accompanies a Socratic education method. Attendees are asked to come to class prepared to discuss a case that was distributed prior to orientation and the professor cold calls on the family members.

Throughout a student’s time at Capital, there are a number of resources available to help them succeed. In addition to the Academic Success Program, the Student Services Office, and a number of student organizations, Capital has an outstanding and supportive faculty and staff. Amazingly, and unique to Capital, almost all of these resources are available to families as well as students. According to Dr. Thompson, Capital is one of a very few law schools in the United States that goes to such lengths to support its students and their families. In fact, only three law schools in the country, including Capital, have a licensed counselor on staff and a fully developed student and family support program. Dr. Thompson joined Capital in 1990 and her function as a support system for students and their families is ever evolving. Her services are available to the student’s and their families free of charge. One of her suggestions for a struggling family member is to get involved with the Family Support Group.

Cassandra Pritikin founded the Family Support Group (FSG) in 2006. Married to a second-year law student in the evening program, it did not take Cassandra long to decide she wanted to find a way to help the families of law students survive the struggle they were about to face. She formed the idea for the group while she was attending the Family and Friends Orientation during her husband’s first year of law school.
Cassandra’s husband had previously been in the military and she was familiar with the military style of support for families. It is completely cooperative. It also was completely independent from the support system offered to soldiers. She wanted to create a similar support system for families at the law school so when her husband, Bryan Pritikin, formed the Military Law Society (MLS), it seemed like a natural fit to create a group for families, as an extension of MLS.

There are a number of “scheduled” FSG functions throughout the year, as well as a number of spontaneous get-togethers including luncheons, “spouses’ night out” and zoo days. The goal is to get families involved in something outside the confines of supporting their law student. Parents, siblings, spouses, children, girlfriends, boyfriends, fiancés, partners, grandparents, roommates etc. are all welcome to participate.

Just this month, FSG, along with the Student Bar Association, Phi Alpha Delta, Military Law Society, BLSA and Women’s Law Society, co-sponsored a great event — the Chocolate Bar Review, which brought students, families and faculty together for an afternoon of family-friendly events at the Law School. About 75 people attended with a mix of day and evening students and their spouses/partners and children. Each child received a chocolate gavel and a craft project to work on. A performing arts teacher from Dayton, Ohio, Becky Nienaber, entertained the families with a sing-along, instruments and costumes. The children toured the law school and had their pictures taken in the Moot Court Room.

Cassandra feels that it is very important that friends and family have a place they can go and truly be understood. Cassandra says, “Any law student will tell you that law school is like nothing you have ever experienced. So will all of their friends and family. There is a huge sense of relief and community when someone can say to you, ‘I’ve been there, let me help,’ and you know they really have been there. The tough part of loving a law student is that you go through everything they go through, but you feel like you cannot do anything to help them survive. Having a network of people who know the feeling can help family members know they are not alone and at the same time share great ideas for what they can do to help their law student succeed.”

Finally, after three or four years of living with the ups and downs of law school, graduation comes and families are lulled into the false sense of security in knowing that law school is over. Then comes the bar exam. Just like law school, preparing for the bar exam is like nothing you have ever experienced. It is time intensive; it is stressful and a law student’s career hangs in the balance. Enter Professor Yvonne Twiss, L’98, director of Bar Services. In addition to bar preparation for students, Professor Twiss offers support to families between graduation and passing the bar.

Similar to the Friends and Family Orientation that occurs at the beginning of law school, Professor Twiss holds a Bar Preparation Orientation at the end of law school. Families hear presentations on what they should expect their law student to be doing during bar preparation, how much work is involved, and how important it is for the student to prepare efficiently. Professor Twiss tries to take the heat off students by convincing families that the amount of work students are putting in is truly necessary to pass the bar. Panel discussions also provide families with tools they can use to support their student during bar studies, inform them about what resources are available to them at the law school and what the warning signs are of a student who is burning out, becoming depressed or not adequately preparing.

According to Professor Twiss, “The goal is to bring family members into the fold and make them relevant to bar preparation. It is not enough to give the student the space they need to study; the families must be actively engaged in helping the students succeed.” She also tries to prepare the families for the isolation they will have from their law students and what they should expect as far as scheduling, stress levels and emotions.

Summer 2007 was the first time that Professor Twiss held a bar orientation for families and it was very well received. She received positive feedback from both students and their families. She also received numerous “cries for help” from loved ones who needed assistance managing life during bar preparation. The orientation is scheduled to be a permanent part of the bar preparation process.
From beginning to end, Capital goes above and beyond supporting the people who are supporting its law students. According to Professor Joseph Bodine, L’89, director of the Academic Success Program, “There is nothing better than the support of the people you love, especially during finals when you think that you just can’t do it anymore.” Capital has taken extraordinary steps to ensure that the families of law students have all the tools and recourses they need to manage life with a law student. It’s a good thing too, because as any family member of a law student will tell you, “We are all in law school.”

Congratulations to Steve Fletcher who has been named a Presidential Management Fellow. Fletcher is an original MLS member and will be moving to Houston, Texas to take a job with NASA.

Link to the below article for the complete story and again, Congratulations.

Fletcher, L'08, is Presidential Management Fellow

UPDATE: My wonderful wife discovered this outstanding webpage and I felt it was my duty to share it with all of you, so here you are:
http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml

Whether you are a talkin’ attorney or a readin’ attorney, you are a writin’ attorney. This means that you are a worker of words, and as a worker of words, you need to pay attention to the words you use because those words are a direct reflection on you. Obviously I do not know every field of study in the law and what it encompasses, but I am willing to bet that in most of them, someone is going to read your writing besides your client (if they even read it at all). Even if you have a barely literate client that thinks you are a genius no matter what garbage you commit to paper and has no clue of the litany of grammatical errors in your letter for him or her, unless you are completely devoid of any self pride, your writing is important.

From the first day of legal writing, in our first year of law school, it was pounded into our heads that if we could not write, we were dead in the water. Our teacher showed us a brief that a prosecutor wrote that was so poor, the court said it didn’t even resemble what they considered to be a brief and refused to accept it, thereafter ruling in favor of our professor, the opposing counsel.

At the time, I had not read any legal briefs outside of our reading assignments. Cut to two years later where I read these motions on a daily basis and draft my own memos contra. I cannot believe the poor quality of the motions that find their way to my desk, it is disheartening. At best, it can only be described as grammatical anarchy. I am now under the impression that a three year old typing on a Dora the Explorer keyboard could be more proficient.

Here is a perfect example of the absolute laziness that I would say is borderline rampant in the legal community. I received a motion the other day requesting the Court approve an expert witness the defense wanted to introduce. Below is the entire document:

MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT
O.R.C. _________.

Off hand I don't remember the specific code section, but that was all he wrote. Some poor schlub paid for that.

Basic grammar is only one obstacle many in the local legal community struggle with. Many also don’t seem to grasp the basic concepts of sentences, spacing, or even spelling. However, that is another day.

Below is a short guide defining and showing use of basic grammar issues that unfortunately present themselves to me on a common basis. Maybe I hold the legal community to too high of a standard. Maybe there shouldn’t be too high of a standard. Feel free to refer to this short guide from time to time to check yourself. Yet another service the mighty, mighty MLS provides.*

* The MLS does not condone the use of contractions in legal writing

There is a difference between:

You’re & Your

Their, there, they’re, & them

"Their" signifies ownership. "There” designates a place (cf. here). “They’re” means “they are.”

It’s & its

--> Its is the possessive form of it: its therefore does not require an apostrophe to indicate possession as it is already a possessive term, similar to his and hers.

--> It's is a contraction of "it is" or "it has." "It's going to rain" is equivalent to "it is going to rain."

--> Its can function as a possessive pronoun and a possessive adjective. Its form is the same when used in either case.

i.e. and e.g.

i.e.
--> That is; in other words; that is to say; in essence.
The three U.S. states on the west coast (i.e. Washington, Oregon, and California) have favorable climates.

--> Use i.e. to explain or clarify a statement by either (exhaustively) listing options or by rephrasing the previous statement.

--> American English demands a comma after i.e.; in British English comma does not follow i.e.

--> Opinion is mixed about whether the abbreviation should be italicized, or whether there should be a separating non-breaking space as in i. e..

e.g.

--> Literally, "for example." Used to introduce an example or list of examples to illustrate what is being discussed.
Asia is a large continent, with many large nations (e.g., China, India, and Japan).

--> The list of examples following e.g. should not be exhaustive (in that case, i.e. should be used) and should not be followed by et cetera or etc.

--> Place e.g. between parentheses when used in written text and follow by a comma when used in its function as "for example."

--> Opinion is mixed about whether this term should be italicized and whether it should be written with a separating non-breaking space as in e. g.

effect and affect

EFFECT

An effect is the outcome of a cause, "Jim honked his horn and a passenger from the other car, Bryan, flipped him the bird."

Effect, from Latin effectus "performance, accomplishment" can be used in various meanings:

--> In movies and other media, sound effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds

--> In music, an effects unit is commonly used to manipulate the sound of musical instruments (see also: Effects pedal)

--> In reference to one’s personal belongings

Please note that although the word "effect" is most commonly found in noun form, it also exists as a verb, and as such is often confused with the word "affect" (itself most commonly a verb, but occasionally found in noun form, especially in the areas of psychology and philosophy).

AFFECT

The term "affect" generally suggests an emotion.

Make sure to cover your dangling participle

A dangling modifier attaches itself to a word different from the one the writer apparently meant.

--> When such modifiers are participles, they often appear at the beginning of sentences. For instance, in the sentence, "Walking down Main Street, the trees were beautiful," the "walking down" modifier seems to connect to "the trees" in the sentence, when on reflection it really connects to the invisible speaker of the sentence. He or she is the one walking down the street (and finding the trees beautiful). Thus, the modifier is hanging on nothing, therefore dangling.

Comma splice

A comma splice is a sentence in which two independent clauses are joined by a comma with no conjunction. For example:

It is nearly half past five, we cannot reach town before dark.

Comma splices are condemned in The Elements of Style, a popular American English style guide by E.B. White and William Strunk, Jr.

Simply removing the comma does not correct the error, but results in a run-on sentence. There are several acceptable ways to correct this:

Change the comma to a semicolon:
It is nearly half past five; we cannot reach town before dark.

Write the two clauses as two separate sentences:
It is nearly half past five. We cannot reach town before dark.

Insert a coordinating conjunction following the comma:
It is nearly half past five, and we cannot reach town before dark.
It is nearly half past five, so we cannot reach town before dark.

Make one clause dependent on the other:
As it is nearly half past five, we cannot reach town before dark.

Strunk & White note that splices are sometimes acceptable when the clauses are short and alike in form, such as:

The gate swung apart, the bridge fell, the portcullis was drawn up.

- - -

Finally, three more bitches I have about people that should know better:

(1) Loose is NOT lose

(2) Motions are not overruled, they are denied

(3) DO not italicize Latin phrases and do not use more than you need to, we all have a Black’s and are past the point in our lives where we are impressed by a thesaurus.

Thank you very little, I will now step down off my soapbox and open myself up to the comments that are sure to follow pointing out all of my grammatical errors in this blog. I am sure that once everyone takes a read through this blog, they are going to go through it a second time with a very fine toothed comb. I would. Also, how much of a geek am I to blog this much on grammar?

The following list is in no way inclusive or exclusive,they are merely suggestions (GOURMET GROUND COFFEE). Feel free to donate anything you want to send as long as it comports with the items that cannot be shipped.

Candy:
Twizzlers
Skittles
Sprees / Sweet Tarts
Life Savers / Jolly Ranchers
Chewing gum

Snack Foods:
Microwave Popcorn
Pringles (Small Containers)
Pre-Packaged Cookies (no chocolate)
Trail Mix / Nuts
Beef/Turkey Jerky
Energy / Granola / Cereal Bars
Canned Tuna Fish
Sunflower Seeds
Canned Fruit (small cans)

Powdered Drink Mixes:
Gatorade/ Kool-Aid/ Crystal Light
** GOURMET GROUND COFFEE **
** GOURMET GROUND COFFEE **
** GOURMET GROUND COFFEE **

THESE WILL NOT BE SHIPPED:
>> CHOCOLATE
>> LIQUOR
>> PORNOGRAPHY
>> RELIGIOUS MATERIAL
>> PORK PRODUCTS
>> HOMEMADE PRODUCTS

Morale & Entertainment:
**** INTERNATIONAL CALLING CARDS ****
Current Magazines
Current Paperback Books
Comic Books
Letter Writing Supplies
Travel Size Board Games
Dice / Playing Cards
Movies (DVD¡¦s / VHS)
Video Games
Batteries (AA & AAA)
Puzzle Books
CAPITAL / OSU gear
Technical books (just not fiction books)

Toiletries (TRAVEL SIZE):
**** BABY WIPES **** (Packets not Tubs)
Dental Floss
Mouthwash
Re-Wetting Eye Drops
Body Wash / Shower Soap
Hand / Foot Lotion
Shower shoes

Other:
Thumb Drives (1 gig or higher)
CD Cases
Red/Green laser pointers
Silverware / Steak knives
Clothes for giveaways to locals
** USED CELL PHONES **

We will also be accepting cash donations to help cover postage / mailing supplies

Support the Troops!