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UPCOMING EVENTS

Greetings,

This week, we share some of the highlights from orientation.

The new class includes 128 JD, 9 Advanced JD (AJD) students, and 18 LLM students, along with our SJD and MLS students. 

This group also joins a total of more than 1,600 BA in Law majors, including 475 at Ocean University of China, nearly two dozen at American University Phnom Penh (AUPP), and 60 prior students – and a still-gathering fall class – at our microcampus in Hanoi.

The incoming JD and small graduate cohort of LLM and SJD students represents 31 U.S. states, 15 countries, and 13 indigenous nations or groups. (Looking back one or two years adds different countries, states, and indigenous nations, illuminating the vast diversity of our students, of which geography is only one part.)

The average age of the JD class is 25. Many are parents and bring their families along with them to Tucson. Twenty percent of the incoming JD class were the first generation in their families to attend college.

I hope you will join me in welcoming all of our new students in Tucson and around the world to the Arizona Law family. 

Until the footnotes,

Marc

Professor Sylvia Lett helped set the stage for what it means to study the law in our Arizona Law community, along with a panel of current students including Jade Colclasure (2L), Oscar Fimbres (3L) and Hannah Hays (2L).

Throughout the day Wednesday and through the rest of the week, new students heard from key members of the administration and faculty, in both formal and informal settings, about all aspects of academics and life as a law student.

On Thursday, students met with their small sections for the first time, followed by a legal writing workshop. The day ended with the Student Organizations and Resources Fair & Ice Cream Social.

Judge Raner Collins (’75), Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, spoke on professionalism and administered an oath. Students then met in small groups led by over 40 attorneys to discuss professionalism scenarios they may encounter in law school and in their careers. 

Thank you to Judge Collins and all the volunteers who took their morning to be with us. The full list is below.

Throughout orientation, it was easy to feel the excitement of the new students to be on campus and starting their law school journeys.

Thank You, Orientation Volunteers!

The success of orientation this year relied on the participation of a wonderful group of volunteers from our alumni and professional community. We extend our thanks to:

Nick Bielat (’14)

Michelle Bowen (’15)

Joan Bundy (’05)

Nikki Chayet (’77)

Dean Christoffel (’74)

Justin Cluck

Laura Conover (’05)

Jody Corrales (’06)

Amy Courson

Emily Danies (’90)

Anne Elsberry (’96)

Joel England (’02)

Jessica Findley (’06)

Jessica Graves (’15)

Chuck Harrington 

Mark Hotchkiss

Karolyn Keller

Craig Kessler

Akilah Kinnison (’12)

Heidi Krauss (’13)

Paul Julien (’86)

John Norling

Bunkye Olson (’99)

Richard "Rick" Palmatier (’80)

Alyce Pennington (’82)

Lisa Queen (’13)

Isaac Rothschild (’07)

Justin Ruggieri (’00)

Jennifer Schroader

Roberta Tepper (’86)

David Udall (’88)

Nate Wade (’13)

Matthew Walker (’13)

Joseph Williams

AROUND THE COLLEGE

This fall, we are welcoming five new and visiting faculty members joining the University of Arizona Law. In last week’s newsletter and today, we are proud to introduce them.

James Diamond

James Diamond (SJD ’14) joins us as the interim director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program (IPLP) and professor of practice. Jim is the former director of the IPLP’s Tribal Justice Clinic and former law professor at the University of Arizona. He is Dean of Academic Affairs at The National Tribal Trial College (NTTC) where he trains victim advocates who work in Tribal Courts in domestic and sexual violence cases. He has been on the faculty of the NTTC since 2016.

Prior to teaching, Jim practiced law for 25 years in Connecticut. His academic research focuses on the aftermath of heinous crime and restorative justice. He is the author of numerous articles on the practice of criminal law in Tribal Courts, author of “After the Bloodbath: Is Healing Possible in The Wake of Rampage Shootings?” and coauthor of “Introduction to Criminal Law, A Contemporary Approach.” Jim is admitted to practice law in numerous Tribal Courts, the states of Connecticut, New York and Arizona and numerous federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. He holds a BA from The State University of New York at Albany, JD from Brooklyn Law School and SJD in Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy from the University of Arizona. 

Wendy Netter Epstein

Wendy Netter Epstein joins us as a visiting professor of law from DePaul University College of Law where she is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Professional Development. Her teaching and research focus on health care law and policy, with an emphasis on the financing and delivery of health care, the creative application of behavioral economic principles to entrenched problems and matters of health equity. Her scholarship draws on her personal experience representing health industry clients as a partner at a large law firm. Her work has most recently appeared in the Southern California Law Review, Washington Law Review, Cardozo Law Review and the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics among others.

Prior to DePaul, Wendy clerked for the Honorable Michael Daly Hawkins, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, and was a partner in commercial litigation at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. In 2017, she was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School and in 2020, at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Epstein received her BA from the University of Illinois, and her JD from Harvard Law School. 

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Our superb new in-person class of JD, LLM, and SJD students brings a wealth of experience and a well of new energy to our hallways. They join a vibrant community ready to engage every day, in our hallways, classrooms, clinics and out in our community. 

We have emphasized how profoundly important the support and engagement of our community of alumni and friends is to the success of each person here. You can see the first evidence of that in the many alumni and friends who made the time to lead a conversation around professionalism.  

As opportunities and invitations appear, we hope each of you who cares about our college will similarly join in, and help every student learn and thrive.

Warmly,