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UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

JAMES E. ROGERS COLLEGE OF LAW


JUNE 1, 2022

UPCOMING EVENTS

June 8

Innovations in Healthy Aging Summit

June 27-29

 State Bar of Arizona

Annual Convention

September 16

 Arizona

Law Day

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Greetings,


Over the past few weeks, you know we’ve been cheering on our graduates. We have featured some of the many outstanding members of the Class of 2022, and we’ll continue to do so. We also shared some candid photos from the festivities.

Until the footnotes,


Marc

FEATURE

2022 Convocation in Review

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2022 graduates of the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law took to the stage for our law school convocation on Saturday, May 14, at Centennial Hall. 


The full article and a link to the College of Law Convocation video are available here. Below, youll find some highlights, along with a few of our favorite photos and quotes from the event. 

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Dean Marc Miller opened the ceremony, asking graduates to not only spend the day celebrating and reflecting on how they got to this point but also to look forward to what they will do, where they will go and how they will put their new powers to use.  


“Your generation of legal professionals will be called upon to imagine and then shape justice. In new and complex ways, from local to global, and in ways both physical and digital,” said Marc. “Your generation of policy makers and social influencers are now facing and will, for the foreseeable future, face enormous social, economic, political, and environmental challenges.” 

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Student speakers Carmen A. Mestizo-Castillo (SJD), Leonard Mukosi (SJD), Jeremy R. Jones (MLS), Daniel Bowman (JD) and Bridget K. Feldmann (JD) reflected on their time at University of Arizona Law and encouraged each other to use their degrees to do good and make a positive impact in the future.  


“If those of us who have been trained in law are not willing to step up, then who will?” Daniel asked. “You can only ignore a wildfire for so long but eventually your house will burn around you. However, if we all start hearing and douse the flames around us, we can have an impact that would otherwise be impossible.” 

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Shannon Keller O’Loughlin (’01), citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and CEO and attorney for the Association on American Indian Affairs, delivered the keynote address. O’Loughlin, a graduate of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy (IPLP) program, reflected on her time as a student and how it allowed her family to heal from their past.


“We must always work to make everything, all the things, better. The only good thing about history is that we do better than our history and learn to overcome the arrows it slings our way. I rely on my elders and ancestors to guide me. They always told me my job was to merely stand on their shoulders, and reach and do better than they could, and better than they ever knew could be done,” said Shannon. “Use your voice, vote, use your superpowers to do good and find those shoulders to stand on.”


Before the ceremony, we also shared video messages to students in Tucson from law students at our microcampuses at Hanoi Law University and Ocean University of China.

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We hope you enjoy these images of our graduates and the rest of the LawCat community coming together for Convocation 2022.

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AROUND THE COLLEGE

Join Us in DC for Inaugural Healthy Aging Summit

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Please join us for our inaugural 2022 Innovations in Healthy Aging Summit: Bridging Academia and Industry on June 8, 2022, in Washington DC at our UA Center for Outreach and Collaboration or virtually.


Over this one-day hybrid event, a diverse selection of experts, including Senator Mark Kelly (via video), Professor Tara Sklar, and alumni Thomas Barnard (’01) and Anna Maria Chavez (’94), will explore how to better connect research and educational pathways with the needs and preferences of a growing aging population. Participants will hear from forward-looking leaders in government agencies, foundations, law firms, nonprofits, academia, and more on the latest trends and hot topics, including:


  • Leveraging Telehealth to Improve Aging in Place
  • Fraud & Abuse and Consumer Protection in Long-Term Care
  • Aging Well for All


To learn more and register: https://www.ihasummit.com/

Rising 3L Sonum Dixit Awarded Social Justice Fellowship

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University of Arizona Law rising third-year student Sonum Dixit has been awarded a Peggy Browning Fellowship, allowing her to work at Rothner, Segall & Greenstone in Pasadena, CA representing labor unions, labor-management trust funds, and employees with wage & hour and civil rights claims.


The Peggy Browning Fund is a not-for-profit organization established in memory of Margaret A. Browning, a prominent union-side attorney who was a member of the National Labor Relations Board from 1994 until 1997. Peggy Browning Fellowships provide law students with unique, diverse and challenging work experiences fighting for social and economic justice. 


“With the pandemic, automation, and growing attention towards poor working conditions in many sectors, this is an important time to be involved with labor rights work and I’m excited!,” says Sonum. “I am fortunate to have the opportunity to learn about a practice area I’m interested in, and to learn as much as I can from experienced attorneys in the labor field.”


For the full story, see here.

Prof. Barbara Atwood Wins Creative Arts Award

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At the University of Arizona Law, we are proud of the multifaceted talents of the members of our community, which reach well beyond the classroom, courtroom and boardroom. This week, we have a unique example:


Professor Emerita Barbara Atwood (’76) was the winner of the poetry category in the 2022 Arizona Attorney Creative Arts Competition. The May 2022 issue of the Arizona Attorney Magazine – the publication of the State Bar of Arizona – features Barbara and three of her poems along with the other 2022 winners.


We hope you take a moment to read Barbara’s poems and enjoy some of the other creative offerings featured in the magazine here.

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McNamee Scholar Comes Full Circle


Each year, as we send our graduates into the next phase of their journeys, we think about the potential they hold. It is appropriate that we are also including a story in this week’s newsletter about a promising graduate from a past class.


In a graduation re-cap newsletter much like this one a few years ago in May 2019, we noted that Charles Benaza (JD ’19, LLM ’21) was the recipient of that year’s Honorable Stephen M. McNamee Scholarship.


We recently received a note from Judge McNamee (’69) reporting to us that Charles, the 2019 recipient of Judge McNamee’s namesake scholarship, had been sworn in before him to practice before the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.


The Honorable Stephen M. McNamee Scholarship was funded in 2017 by Judge McNamee’s friends and colleagues in an effort to honor his legacy and commitment to education. Today, Charles is an associate at the firm of Jones, Skelton & Hochuli. He previously represented the state of Arizona as a Deputy County Attorney at the Pima County Attorney’s Office.

IN THE NEWS

Arizona gets the U.S. Supreme Courts OK to execute a possibly innocent man

The Arizona Republic, featuring Sylvia Lett


The US needs paid sick leave. Here’s how to get it right

Arizona Daily Sun, commentary by Shefali Milczarek-Desai

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LinkedIn, University of Arizona Foundation

Featuring law school alumnus Brad Terry (’13), Vice President and General Counsel of the University of Arizona Foundation

Even as we bask in the warm (Tucson! June!) waves of joy from graduation, the summer plans and possibilities pick up steam across the country – illustrated by the DC Healthy Aging Summit.

Warmly,

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