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The Advocate Student Publications Fordham Law School FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History The Advocate Student Publications 2-27-1995 The Advocate The Advocate, Fordham Law School Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/student_the_advocate Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation The Advocate, Fordham Law School, "The Advocate" (1995). The Advocate. Book 118. http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/student_the_advocate/118 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Publications at FLASH: The orF dham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Advocate by an authorized administrator of FLASH: The orF dham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE ADVOCATE Fordham Law School's Student Newspaper since 1967 Vol. XXVII, No.8 Fordham University School of Law • © 1995 The Advocate February 27, 1995 IS MOOT COURT AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ACTIVITY? Changing Curves and Board, Faculty Called 'Arbitrary & Thermostats Capricious' in Choosing Teams Part Two of by Irene Donna Thomas The Advocate's Interview May it please the Court. Each sum­ interest, a resume and a writing sample. mer and fall semester at the Law School, After these items are submitted, the with Dean Feerick throngs of soon-to-be attorneys sign up student interviews first with various anxiously for an opportunity to utter editors. These editors determine which The Advocate: The curoe was these traditional words of deference individuals will parti~ipate in "the recently raised. Why? before a panel of "judges" in the Will­ Marcus interview." Professor Marcus Part of [the situation] was that iam Hughes Mulligan Moot Court Com­ is the primary faculty advisor for the the old curve was hurting stu­ petition and the I. Maurice Wormser Moot Court Program. She is assisted dents in the job market. Other Moot Court Competition. Participa­ by Professor Hollister. These faculty schools with different kinds of tion in this process represents an op­ advisors participate in the interview curves were representing their portunity for a developing attorney to process. students more positively than we acquire the lawyering skills of brief The "Marcus interview" generally were [representing] our students writing and oral advocacy in a compe­ lasts for approximately five to seven and we felt that it needed to be tition setting. This process, however, is minutes. Professor Marcus, Professor addressed. We'll take another due for an immediate overhaul. Hollister and three Moot Court edi­ look at the curve at the end of the A student gets on the Moot Court tors, the Editor-In-Chief, the Manag­ school year. We have a great qual­ Dean Johrz Feerick Board in one of two ways: first, by ing Editor and the Inter-school Editor, ity in the student body. We had to being one of the top sixteen quarter:' asks general questions such as why the take account of this when other out a publication [in honor of 75 years] finalists in the competitions. These six­ student wants to be considered for a students of similar caliber were of women at Fordham. We sent copies t~eI) students earned the highest scores particular competition team. Then it's getting presented more strongly . to Deans, Chief Judges, Women Law in the competition based on their com­ over. A memorandum listing the se­ by their schools. Professors across the country - we've bined brief writing score and their oral lected competition team members is Editor's Note: According to received hundreds and hundreqs of advocacy scores. The second way a posted on the door of the Moot Court Professor Mary Daly, the chair of responses, not only about the pub­ student can get onto the Board is by office. the Curriculum Committee, the lication, but accolades on Fordham's being invited to participate in an inter­ The actual criteria used to select process of. reviewing the curve positive environment for women. view. Students whose scores did not the students placed on a competition began last Spring but was actu­ The Advocate: How is the school qualify them for the quarter-finals are team is also arbitrary and capricious. ally undertaken in the Fall of last addressing this issue, if it is one? invited for the interviews. The crite­ What is clear, however, is that the hard year. The committee membership I don't think this is an issue. Our rion for being selected for an interview work that students put into earning a is composed of faculty and ad­ statistics in terms of women have been is arbitrary and highly subjective. staff position on the Moot Court Board ministrators Dean Escalera, Pro­ at least at the national average and in Soon after a student is on the Board, will mean nothing. Competition scores fessors Denno, Trainor, Green, most cases above the national aver­ sign up for office hours takes place. The mean nothing. Office hours mean noth­ Vorspan,Tracy, and Goebel. The age. If there's a need to point up this sign-up for competition teams and ing. Writing a bench memorandum curriculum committee studied the aspect of the school, we need only bench teams will also begin. Each com- . means nothing. What matters is who issue and passed it on the faculty look at the 75 year celebration last petition team has a bench team. Stu­ you know. At least one student, who for a vote. Whether or not to year. It was a wonderful history to dents on the competition teams will interviewed onto the Board, confided consider raising the curve again is share with everyone. We have awon- write a brief based on an assigned prob­ to me that s/he w~s pulled aside and is an issue the committee is con­ . derful reputation of women at t~e lem and then argue orally in a national encouraged to sign up for a competi­ sidering. The new structure calls school. Like any group in the school, competition. Students selected for a tion team. On the other hand, I re­ for 5-15% of A- to A+; 30-40% of however, you can't take the group for bench team will write a summary of ceived no such consideration. I earned B+ to A+; 45-65% B- to B; 5-15% of granted. law based on the problem for their com­ a spot on the Moot Court Board by C + or below; no standard for D or The Advocate: It is common dis­ petition team for the practice judges. placing seventh out of over 200 stu­ F. course among students that we are so To be considered for a competition dents who competed. The Advocate: What about the stressed out with grade watching, study­ team, a student must submit a letter of When I questioned why some stu­ 43% female student enrollment fig­ ing and job hunting that we are largely Continued on page 8 ure you addressed in your remarks in apathetic when it comes to the school our first issue back in September. itself Therefore, many students choose Any chance of having a 50/50 male/ not to speak aloud but are content to female ratio, or even a higher number grumble that despite the sincere efforts of of females than male? the administration to serve the students, A 43% female ratio to male is there is a perpetual lack of or substandard above average [nationwide]. seroices, for instance, the high or low I think an [even ratio of males temperatures in ILJ that lead to discom­ to females] can happen at anytime. fort, the lack of supplies such as soap, It's all a product ofthe admissions paper towels, etc. in the men's and ladies' process. The current first year rooms, the lack of cleanliness in the bath­ evening class has a 49% ratio fe­ rooms altogether, etc. How much control male to male. do you have over these issues and how can Everything we are doing is this be addressed? pushing the school to a greater Frankly, that has been a very seri­ horizon in American legal educa­ ous problem ... tion. For example -this fall we put Continued on page 10 2 The Advocate • February 27, 1995 Getting a Good Job (Even If Law Review's Not In Your Future) By Stephen]. Savva ('96) . After reaching the halfway point in the opportunity one step further. I asked my studies at Fordham, I have come to the law clerks if I could start immediately realize many things aboutlaw school. When by coming in on Friday's for a few hours. I first arrived here last August, I had no This was probably the best thing I could idea of what to expect about the whole have done for my career. Beyond establish­ process of becoming a lawyer. My percep­ ing a good rapport with the clerks as well as tion was that you go to school for three or the Judge, I began to improve my research four years, take the bar exam, and get a job and writing skills. Each week, I was given paying $85,000 a year. However, most if different assignments involving areas of not all who subscribe to this myth are sim­ law I knew absolutely nothing about; it ply fooling themselves. kind of paralleled law school. By the time !~~~~t)it { 1 I chose Fordham because I know it is a my Legal Writing section began the brief good school, with good values, and an even and moot court assignments, I was familiar better reputation. However, I'm some­ with the proper writing style and had ob­ what biased because I am a graduate of served several excellent oral presentations.
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