Law School Survey of Student Engagement

Want to do well in law school? Try some extra face time with professors and fellow students.

A large-scale survey of law students found that those who interacted more with faculty members and classmates experienced benefits including keener critical and analytical thinking, writing and research skills, and ethical development.

That was one finding of the Law School Survey of Student Engagement, an annual study of law student satisfaction conducted by Indiana University's Center for Postsecondary Research, which surveyed more than 25,000 students at 81 schools.

The researchers found that students benefited from a variety of faculty interactions, including in-class discussions and timely feedback on their work. "Our analysis reveals that interaction with faculty relates significantly to students' perceptions of their own gains in both academic and personal dimensions," the authors wrote.

Not only did these interactions help students develop key legal skills; they also helped them earn better grades. Students who reported more interaction with their professors tended to be more satisfied with their law school experience.

To read the complete article, click on the link below:

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202584415825&slreturn=20130031092429

Boys and Girls Club of Central Appalachia ASL Fundraiser

Don't forget to stop by the Lion's Lounge today and place your Gumbo order cooked by ASL's very own Professor Bowers! Only $5.00 (bread and drink included). All proceeds benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Central Appalachia. Tickets will be sold until Thursday, Feb. 7 2013. The Gumbo will be served on February 12, from 5:00 to 7:00 in the Booth Center. Contact Sabrina Mullins at smullins15@my.asl.edu with questions.

Meet the ASL Development Office Staff : Janie Castle

Janie Castle is the Director of Career Services and Alumni Relations.  She works closely with Institutional Development to engage our almost 1000 living alumni. As a 2010 graduate of ASL, she is uniquely aware of the needs of both ASL students and alumni.

Meet the ASL Development Office Staff : Tonya Moore

Tonya Moore is the Secretary to Career Services and Development & Events Coordinator. Her favorite thing about working at ASL is the pleasant environment and friendly interaction with co-workers and students.

ASL Open House: March 2, 2013

The Appalachian School of Law Open House is March 2, 2013 from 9:30am to 1:30pm

Dean McGough in the news: Erasing gender lines: Women deserve opportunity to serve their nation

http://bdtonline.com/columns/x503833038/Erasing-gender-lines-Women-deserve-opportunity-to-serve-their-nation

ASL's Google Community Calendar

 

 

 

Do you know about ASL's Google Community Calendar? To add your events, email Tonya at tmoore@asl.edu . You will need to include the date, time, location, and a description of the event. These can be local community events or events at the law school.

calendar@my.asl.edu

ASL's Energy & Mineral Law Society

Check out ASL's Energy & Mineral Law Society Blog: http://appalachianemls.blogspot.com/

ASL Environmental Law Society Meeting: Monday, January 28th

 

Announcement: The ASL Environmental Law Society will meet this upcoming Monday, January 28th. We meet every other Monday after that. Meeting time is 12:30 PM in room 223. 

We will be providing lunch for members and discussing the events ELS will sponsor through out the semester. Also, ELS provides a great vehicle for 1L's to become involved in the community, gain community service, and converse about the environmental industry.  Contact Justin Crawley at jcrawley14@my.asl.edu with any questions.

Six ASL 2L Students Receive Paid Summer Internships with West Virginia Public Defender Services

Congratulations to the following 2L students who received paid summer internships with West Virginia Public Defender Services: Steven Turner, Kolbe Page, Kenyatta Thorpe, Lauren Shadrick, Jessica Miller, and Matthew Roohollahi.  WVPDS recruits at ASL during the fall semester each year, and has commended ASL on the quality and work ethic of our students.  The WVPDS summer internship program allows students to represent indigent clients in a supervised practice in one of 10 to 12 Public Defender offices throughout West Virginia. Interns practice under a Rule 9 Practice Certificate (Third-Year Practice Certificate) and handle court cases.

ASL's Melanie Ghaw to be published in Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

Melanie Ghaw, a third-year student at the Appalachian School of Law, will be published in the Buffalo Environmental Law Journal. Her forthcoming article, Animal Farm Reality: The First Amendment Struggle to Reveal the Frightening Truth Behind Industrial Farm Animal Production, explores the detrimental effects of industrial farm animal production on public health, the environment, and consumer rights. It further suggests certain bills and statutes, particularly food disparagement laws and ag-gag bills, are unconstitutional as an infringement on the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and press.

Melanie Ghaw is currently working as a research assistant to Professor Douglas McKechnie, Professor Alan Oxford, and Professor Kendall Isaac. Additionally, she is a work-study for Career Services. Melanie Ghaw is the Articles Editor on the Executive Board of the Appalachian Journal of Law.

 

ASL Natural Resources Law Program

The Appalachian School of Law is continuing to bolster its offerings in Natural Resources. ASL's location in southwestern Virginia, the heart of the Appalachian coal-producing region, makes an emphasis on the topic a natural fit.

Mission

The ASL Natural Resources Law Program’s mission is to train attorneys to navigate the increasingly complex world of natural resources law in terms of energy production, conservation, and improving sustainability. At the center of this mission is ASL’s commitment to offer a place for rational discussion, intelligent debate, and collaboration to foster cutting-edge programs and innovative scholarship with the ultimate goal to make students more effective and scientifically grounded policymakers and advocates.

Curriculum

ASL offers several Natural Resources upper-level classes for students interested in Natural Resources and Environmental law. The seminar in Natural Resources examines the specialized property rules governing estates in natural resources, the correlative rights of surface and mineral owners, and the rights to explore, mine and extract, develop, and transport natural resources, with primary emphasis on "hard" minerals. A seminar in Environmental Law allows students to examine selected topics in the law governing the protection of air, water, and land from pollution. A practicum in Sustainable Energy focuses on the legal implications of policies and technologies that seek to minimize carbon emissions in the development and delivery of energy. Additionally, ASL recently approved the development of a class in Coal and Mineral Law.

Partnership with Virginia Tech

Interested students may earn a joint Certificate of Graduate Study in Natural Resources from ASL and the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources. Students at both schools can take a combination of courses at both institutions both traditionally and via distance learning. Students must take 12 credit hours of approved coursework to earn the certificate.

Distinguished Professorship in Real Estate Law

Virginia Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth McClanahan became ASL's first Street Memorial Distinguished Visitor in Real Estate Law. McClanahan, an expert in natural gas, coal and oil issues, grew up in Buchanan County. She practiced law with the Law Offices of PennStuart in Abingdon and was a recognized expert in real estate law, regularly lecturing, writing, and publishing on various related topics. She was the 1994 El Paso fellow at the University of Colorado Natural Resources Law Center. She served as Virginia's chief deputy attorney general prior to the Virginia General Assembly appointing her to the bench and served eight years on the Virginia Court of Appeals. The General Assembly elevated her to the Virginia Supreme Court this year, making her only the fourth female justice to serve on the Court.

Appalachian Natural Resources Law Journal

ASL's Natural Resources Law Journal is a student-formed, student-run, faculty-advised organization dedicated to educating students, practitioners, and the surrounding community concerning legal issues related to natural resources. ANRLJ published its first issue in 2007.

Recent Graduates

ASL is proud to boast successful alumni who are working in Natural Resources law. Among them is Troy Nichols '04, who recently joined Alpha Coal Sales Co. LLC, a subsidiary of Alpha Natural Resources, Inc., as corporate counsel. Alpha is a Fortune 500 company and ranks as the world's fifth-largest supplier of coal and third-largest supplier of metallurgical coal. Before joining Alpha, Troy practiced at Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs in Lexington, Kentucky, where he served as a senior associate and was a member of the firm's Natural Resources & Environmental Service Team. Blair N. Wood '10 practices with the Creekmore Law Firm in Blacksburg, Va. The firm's business litigation practice helps in the defense of oil, gas, and coalbed methane litigation across Virginia and West Virginia. Wood was president of the Energy and Mineral Law Society while at ASL and graduated first in her class.

Current and Former ASL Employers

Alpha Coal Sales	Mountian Institute
Alpha Natural Resources	Noble Energy
British Petroleum	Penn Stuart & Eskridge
CNX Land Resources	Rhino Energy
Creekmore Law Firm	Shell Oil
Environmental Protection Agency	Steptoe & Johnson
Equitable Resources	Teco Coal Corporation
EQT Production Company	VA Dept of Environmental Quality
Frontier Energy Group	Western Land Services
Jackson Kelly	Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs
Jones & Associates	York Professional Land Services

Trees for America Campaign

The Arbor Day Foundation has advertised a Trees for America Campaign.  They will supply two of the following types of trees for a $10 fee:  white dogwoods, flowering crabapples, hawthorns, redbuds, & golden rain trees.  Dean McGough would like to reimburse the $10 fee to the first ten in the ASL Community who participate in this program and become a member of ADF.  These trees will be planted around the ASL campus this spring.

If you are willing to participate in this program, please contact Brenda Oxford at boxford@asl.edu or call 276- 935-4349 ext. 1231

 

January 17, 2013 Snow at ASL

Opening Statement Competition

The Criminal Law Society will be hosting the 2nd Annual Opening Statement Competition on Wednesday, January 30th at 5 P.M. This competition gives those involved the opportunity to craft and deliver an opening statement for a short criminal problem. Last year there were quite a few competitors, and we hope this year will be even more successful. With all of that being said, in order to compete we suggest that you attend the informational session on Thursday, January 24th at 5 P.M. in Room 226.

 At this meeting, the rules of the competition and the problem will be introduced. Because so much information will be provided at this meeting and you will have less than a week to prepare, I strongly suggest attendance at the Jan. 24th session. If you can't be there but would still like to compete, you need to email me at nogle13@my.asl.edu  so I can give you the rules and problem. 

The top three competitors will win trophies for their efforts. The competition will be judged by our own faculty and food will be served. Guests are permitted. Thank you all for your time and we hope to see you next week on the 24th at 5 P.M. in Room 226 for the information session.

ASL Make The Princeton Review's Best 168 Law Schools

The Princeton Review reports:

Appalachian School of Law Students Say...

The Appalachian School of Law is a young, private institution, organized in 1994 and given full accreditation from the American Bar Association in 2006. The traditional-looking campus is very beautiful and the library is “new.” Wireless Internet access is available and, in recent years, “The technology aspect of the Law School has shown a significa...The Appalachian School of Law is a young, private institution, organized in 1994 and was awarded full accreditation from the American Bar Association in 2006. The traditional-looking campus is very beautiful and the library is “new.” Wireless Internet access is available and, in recent years, “The technology aspect of the Law School has shown a significant improvement.”

Students report that “trial advocacy training,” “moot court programs,” and other “practical courses” are “first rate” at ASL. The mock trial team “has trounced big names” in national competitions. “The law school’s emphasis on practical legal skills has thoroughly prepared me for everyday situations in the general practice of law,” says a 3L. “I will graduate and know what to do in a courtroom besides espouse constitutional theory with opposing counsel at lunch.” Appalachian also “distinguishes itself from the majority of other law schools by requiring 150 hours of community service.” A summer externship is also “required of all first-year students.” “The community-service requirement promotes student involvement in law school organizations, benefits the community, and strengthens the reputations of both ASL and the legal profession in general,” explains one student. “The summer externship program provides all rising 2Ls with the opportunity to apply the knowledge they gained from first-year classes to real-life situations.” There is also a “mandatory alternative dispute resolution requirement,” though the school seems keener on this than the students.

The “knowledgeable” and “very approachable” professors here are “down-to-earth people who have a wide variety of legal experience” and “extensive practical and theoretical knowledge of the subjects they teach.” Their dedication means that “they are exceptionally concerned with bar passage” and always “available outside of the classroom.” “My experience at the Appalachian School of Law has been nothing short of exceptional,” confides one student. “The teachers love interacting with the students and are our greatest cheerleaders, mentors, and leaders.”  Students tell us that “the greatest strength” of their law school is its “concern and respect for students as individuals.” “The administration, faculty, staff, and students have created a community where you can receive an excellent legal education in the midst of the natural beauty of the Appalachian Mountains,” explains one student.

Dominion Virginia Power Grant

 

 

 

 

January 17, 2013

Grundy, VA -- The Appalachian School of Law and Professor Buzz Belleville were recently awarded a $95,000 grant from Dominion Virginia Power to examine the barriers to the development of onshore wind energy in Virginia. Despite the fact that (a) Virginia has had a renewable energy goal for several years, and (b) there is sufficient wind capacity in several locations along the Appalachian highlands in Virginia, the state has no active commercial wind sites.

Prolonged and contentious battles in Highland County and Roanoke County have resulted in a couple approved Virginia sites (with fairly restrictive conditions), though neither has yet come on line. Other proposed wind projects, such as one on East River Mountain in Tazewell County, have been thwarted largely by local opposition. Reported proposals in other Virginia counties face an uncertain future, while other states along the Appalachian chain such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia are growing their wind energy base.

The grant from Dominion Virginia Power charges ASL’s Natural Resource Law Center with cataloging and analyzing the legal, regulatory, policy and public opinion opposition to onshore wind energy development in Virginia. The project will explore the bases for local opposition, the local and state incentives and disincentives for wind energy development, the barriers inherent in Virginia’s permitting and siting process, and the differences between Virginia and similarly situated states where wind energy development is proceeding.

Professor Belleville is ASL’s specialist in energy law and policy, climate change law, and renewable energy. He has presented on the “Appalachian Wind Wars” on several occasions. He will engage ASL students to assist him in the project, and he emphasizes that this project is not intended to be one advocating either for or against wind energy development. Rather, he expects that the project will result in a resource both for developers and local communities as they consider future proposals for onshore wind energy development in Virginia.

ASL Upcoming events

 

 

January  28^th Interviewing Skills Workshop 2:30 to 4 Trial Courtroom

February  4^th Business Etiquette/Professional Development Workshop 2:30 to 4 Trial Courtroom

February  11^th Dos and Don’ts of Professional Attire Fashion Show co-sponsored with AWIL Trial Courtroom 2:30 to 3:30 (start time is tentative)

February 18^th Speed Networking with ASL Alumni Booth Center Classroom 2:30 to 4

February 25^th 2L Career Planning Workshop 2:30 to 4 Trial Courtroom

March 18^th 1L Career Planning Workshop 2:30 to 4 Trial Courtroom

Either April 8^th or April 15^th TENTATIVE Alumni LLM Speaker: Andrew Call, Class of 2007, has completed two LLM degrees with honors

 

March 23^rd (Saturday) the 5K Memorial Race in the morning, alumni brunch (tentative), and the Practice Area Career Fair in the afternoon (tentative depending on employer interest)

Singleton to Exhibit Art at the Booth Center Gallery

January 15, 2013

Singleton to Exhibit Art at the Booth Center Gallery

Southwest Virginia Community College would like to present “Expressions of the Soul” by Angela Singleton at the Booth Center Gallery in Grundy, Virginia.  Angela’s stylistic, representational watercolors are inspired mostly by nature and has been described as “visions of a new dimension and expressions of the soul” by Interior designer and art collector Lois Endicott.  Everyone is encouraged to view this exhibit during Center hours from January 17 through February 27, 2013.

Angela Singleton is from the majestic mountains of Southwest Virginia in Vansant, Virginia.  She studied art throughout high school and furthered her artistic education at Southwest Virginia Community College.  Singleton has designed numerous logos for special events such as the Festival of the Arts 2004 presented by SWCC and logos for her former high school, Grundy Senior High.  In 1993 Angela had three works chosen by Miners and Merchants Bank for reproduction and publication.

Although Angela is constantly working as a watercolor artist, she also works as an Assistant Department Manager for a major retail food distributor in the southwestern Virginia area.  After extensive study of the cake decorating craft, Angela’s goal of becoming a professional confections designer became a reality.  Applying her expertise, she taught several cake decorating classes for SWCC.

For more information on this exhibit please contact Rhonda Whited at 276-964-7228 or email Rhonda.whited@sw.edu  For Center hours contact Eddie Hannah at 276-964-7558.