School of Law

The study of law is a conversation, and the Brown Family Campus Center at UConn School of Law is an ideal place for that conversation to happen, Dean Timothy Fisher said at the dedication of the new café and gathering place on Oct. 18, 2017. Student Gideon Asemnor ‘18 saw a multitude of conversations begin when the campus center opened at the start of the semester. It felt very different from his first year at the law school, when there was only a small cafeteria in the basement of Hosmer Hall and students seemed to disappear right after classes ended, he told the audience at the ceremony. “Starting this semester, there’s been a tremendous change on campus,” he said. “You see students from all walks of life, from different backgrounds, LLMs, JDs, you see them sitting together at the tables, having lunch and discussing tort issues or whatever cold call they got that day,” University President Susan Herbst opened the dedication ceremony with a thank you to the Brown family for generously funding the creation of the campus center in the slate foyer of the Thomas J. Meskill Law Library, facing the main quad. Joe Brown ’16 spoke on behalf of the family, welcoming the center as a place where students have already begun learning and sharing. Before the ceremony, Joe’s father, Jay Brown, discussed the 2008 financial meltdown at a presentation in the Reading Room in William F. Starr Hall with UConn Law Professor James Kwak, author of Thirteen Bankers and Economism. Brown, the retired CEO of MBIA, remembered the most harrowing turns of the crisis and the measures that brought it under control. The dedication ceremony followed, with a reception afterward in the new campus center featuring food catered by the university’s Dining Services team, which operates the café. The café opened Aug. 28 to a steady flow of students, faculty and staff gathering for coffee, meals, conversations and study sessions. In September it served triple the number of customers served in the Hosmer cafeteria in September 2016, according to Retail Operations Manager Ethan Haggerty. The café is open from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, providing meals for Day and Evening Division students alike. The menu includes soups, salads, sandwiches, pizza, snacks and baked goods. Customers have been enthusiastic about the café and the rest of the campus center. First-year students Kileigh Nassau and Jesse Sahani sit there every day and refer to it as their “office.” Every friendship they’ve made has started there, they said. Tyler Conklin ’18 said the center brings faculty and students together. “I have seen the dean here, and it really breaches the gap,” he said. “It fosters a sense of community on campus that did not exist before.”

New Brown Family Campus Center Dedicated

The study of law is a conversation, and the Brown Family Campus Center at UConn School of Law is an ideal place for that conversation to happen, Dean Timothy Fisher said at the dedication of the new café and gathering place on Oct. 18, 2017. Student Gideon Asemnor ‘18 saw a multitude of conversations begin […]

October 20, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

Attorney Santolo Odierna and unidentified client

‘Incubator’ Lawyers Making Legal Help Affordable

'We see an enormous need for legal assistance at a reasonable cost, particularly among people who don’t qualify for legal aid but can’t afford standard legal fees.'

September 26, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

Community Impact
Professor Jessica Rubin, right, discusses a case with, from left, West Haven Animal Control Officer Denise Ford, law student Christopher Kelly, and Desmond’s Army co-founder Christine Kiernan.

UConn Law Team Pioneers Courtroom Advocacy for Animals

The new program for abused animals is gaining ground in Connecticut and attracting notice across the nation.

September 15, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

Community Impact
The Thomas J. Meskill Law Library at UConn School of Law in Hartford.

Three UConn Law Alumni Honored for Service to Community

Former state Sen. Eric D. Coleman and business executives Cheryl A. Chase and Steven M. Greenspan will be honored next month with awards from The University of Connecticut Law School Alumni Association. Ms. Chase, co-president and general counsel of Chase Enterprises, a real estate development and management company, will receive the 2017 Distinguished Graduate Award. […]

September 8, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

Karen DeMeola

Karen DeMeola Installed as CBA President

Karen DeMeola ‘96, assistant dean for enrollment and students at UConn School of Law, took on an additional set of responsibilities on July 1, 2017, when she became president of the Connecticut Bar Association. She leads a team replete with UConn Law alumni. Jonathan M. Shapiro ‘01, a partner at Shapiro Law Offices LLC in […]

July 5, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

Student Daniel Hanley Gives TEDx Talk on Market Consolidation

To understand the marketplace, it helps to understand biodiversity, according to UConn Law student Daniel Hanley ‘19. A marketplace is an ecosystem,” Hanley said in a TEDxUConn talk, “and many of us understand how an ecosystem benefits by having large biodiversity of species in order for us to thrive. I believe the same can be […]

June 22, 2017 | Erin Murphy

Asylum Clinic Honored for Work With Detained Asylum-Seekers

The Asylum and Human Rights Clinic at UConn School of Law has won the 2017 Light of Liberty Award from the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center for its work with immigrants seeking asylum. For the past two years, the clinic has organized the Immigration Detention Service Project, sending a team of law students, social work students, […]

June 22, 2017 | Erin Murphy

Law Students Teach High School Students Constitutional Law

Hartford high school students came to UConn School of Law on April 27, 2017, to present their final arguments in a moot court case about a cell phone search and a student’s rap song. Arguments in the hypothetical case, involving the Fourth and First Amendments, were the culmination of a program offered through the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional […]

June 22, 2017 | Erin Murphy

Graduates Lauded at 2017 UConn Law Commencement

Author and journalist Emily Bazelon delivered the keynote address to a celebratory crowd of graduates and their families on May 21, 2017, at the 94th commencement at UConn School of Law. “Get to know people whose lives have been ensnared by crime, the victims and the perpetrators. Often they’re not as different from each other […]

June 22, 2017 | Erin Murphy

Theresa May, U.K. prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, delivers a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, U.K., on Monday, June 5, 2017. U.K. opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn traded blows with May over who has the worst record on countering terrorism, as Britains battle with jihadists looked set to dominate the final three days of the election campaign. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Op-ed: UK’s Plan to Deny Terrorists ‘Safe Spaces’ Online Would Make us Less Safe

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposal wrongly assumes that eliminating online hate and extremism would reduce real-world violence.

June 15, 2017 | Molly Land, School of Law