Law Alumnus Receives Nation’s Top Civilian Honor

Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks (JD '48, DHL '77), a civil rights leader and alumnus of DePaul University College of Law, received the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, from President George W. Bush on Monday, Nov. 5. Hooks served as the executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1977 to 1992. Hooks is the first DePaul graduate to receive the honor.

For more information, please visit the College of Law web site or the White House press release. For Hooks’ full biography, visit the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis.

Career Services Office Answers Alumni FAQs

Does my resume have to be 1 page in length? No, but it should be. The rule of thumb is that a two-page resume is permitted for individuals with more than ten years of professional experience. But even without this rule, you should use a one-page resume or at least have one version of this length. A resume is a major part of your marketing brochure for your product – you. It needs to be sharp, concise and informative. It needs to make the reader want to learn more about you and therefore request an interview with you. Resumes longer than one page can be too bulky and the critical, relevant information likely will be buried. A well-written one-page resume will tell the reader what he or she wants to know. Do not assume that the hiring individual will give your resume more than a 10-second glance, and be sure that in 10 seconds, he or she will want to interview you. Read More.

We encourage anyone looking to change jobs or careers to visit our web site and our job search site for more information on how Law Career Services can help! To arrange a meeting with a career adviser, please call (312) 362-8377.

Law Reunion Photos Now Online

Pictures from the Law Reunion Celebration on Oct. 13 are now available online.

DePaul Will Host Alumni Reception at the ISBA Joint Meeting

All Illinois law alumni are invited to join Dean Glen Weissenberger for a reception at the Illinois State Bar Association Joint Meeting on Fri., Dec. 7, 2007 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. This will be an opportunity to mingle and network with other DePaul law alumni, and to celebrate the close ties between DePaul and the ISBA. Both the current and immediate past presidents of the ISBA are DePaul law alumni – Joe Bisceglia (’73) and Irene Bahr (’77).

Please RSVP to DePaul_Law_Alumni@depaul.edu no later than Monday, Dec. 3.

Celebrate the Holiday Season at DePaul University

All alumni are invited to celebrate the holiday season at the first “Christmas at DePaul” on Friday, Dec. 14. The musical re-telling of the Christmas story will include a combined 200-person community choir and a 50-piece DePaul student orchestra, and will be narrated by Carol Marin, the political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Read More.

Law Alumni Invited to Participate in President’s Book Club Discussion

Law alumni are invited to participate in the next DePaul University President’s Book Club discussion. The President’s Book Club is an opportunity for members of the DePaul University community to discuss matters of social importance by considering a recently published book. The book selection for the 2008 winter quarter is “Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas.” The book examines the life and contribution of Justice Clarence Thomas, but also such matters as the national debate on affirmative action, the experience of being a conservative black in America, and the Court’s recent trend toward the right. The book is authored by Michael Fletcher, White House correspondent, the Washington Post, and Kevin Merida, associate editor, the Washington Post. Both authors plan to travel to DePaul to join in the Book Club discussion. More Information

The book is available at DePaul’s Barnes & Noble bookstores, at most major bookstores, and online.

Faculty News

Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni lectured at Columbia University Law School on Oct. 29 on the topic of war and crime. Professor Bassiouni was also cited in the December issue of Men’s Journal in an article entitled “Inside Blackwater: America’s Out of Control Private Army.”

Professor Leonard Cavise has been selected to present at the “New Voices in Human Rights” panel at the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting.

Professor Alberto Coll was interviewed on Oct. 29 on Chicago’s Channel 44 (Telemundo) on the subject of Plan Mexico, the United States’ controversial new effort to provide assistance to Mexico in the war on drugs.

Professor John Decker will be a lecturer at the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Association Annual Winter Training Conference in Chicago on Dec. 5-6, 2007.

On Nov. 6, Visiting Professor Nanette Elster presented at the American Public Health Association 135th Annual Meeting on “Political, Policy and Practice Implications of Racial Inequality in the Use of and Access to Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART).”

Over several weeks in October and November, Professor Patty Gerstenblith spoke at the Faculty Seminar Series at Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University; the ABA Section on International Law (in London), and conferences at the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee), Stanford University and the Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University. Professor Gerstenblith was also an instructor in the FBA Art Crime Team training program in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

For the second year in a row, Professor Mike Jacobs will be participating in the Asian Competition Law Conference to be held on Dec. 10 and 11, 2007 at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

In October, Professor Barry Kellman spoke at a roundtable discussion convened by the British-American Security Information Council and gave addresses hosted by the RAND Corporation, the Homeland Security Policy Institute of George Washington University and the Wilson Center Division of Internal Security Studies. Professor Kellman also participated in a conference on Transparency in Current and Emerging Approaches to Biosecurity, hosted by the Center on Arms Control and Non-proliferation and was interviewed via e-mail by The Correio Braziliense, Brazil’s largest newspaper, concerning a report that eighteen Brazilian embassies had received packets containing an unknown green powder.

On Nov. 2, Professor Roberta Kwall gave a talk on Authorship Norms at Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington.

Assistant Dean Charlotte Taylor has been selected as one of ten leaders from DePaul University to participate in the first Vincentian Mission Institute, a collaborative three-year program between DePaul, Niagara and St. John’s Universities designed to provide leaders of those institutions a deeper understanding of the distinctive identity of Vincentian higher education within Catholic higher education in the United States, and enhance their leadership role in carrying forward that mission.

Upcoming Events

Dec. 7: Alumni Reception at the ISBA Joint Meeting

Dec. 14: Christmas at DePaul

Dec. 21-Jan. 1: DePaul University Closed

Jan. 28: President’s Book Club Discussion

For all upcoming events at the College of Law, please visit www.law.depaul.edu/events.