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June 25 - July 1, 2006 | |
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The first Mrs. Anne and Hon. George Zimmerman Scholarships are helping John Marshall third-year students Joseph Lin and Sarah Simonson work on human rights issues this summer.
The $10,000 scholarships were presented in May by Mrs. Anne Zimmerman and her children, who selected Lin for his work this summer on judicial reform issues in Southeast Asia with the U.S. Department of State, and Simonson for her volunteer efforts with Equal Justice Works on behalf of death row inmates in Texas.
The Zimmerman family established the scholarship in memory of George Zimmerman (J.D. '40) to encourage students to work in public interest law for the betterment of those less fortunate.
Lin is interning with the Political Affairs Office of the U.S. Department of State in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He has been drawn to Southeast Asia, and he will share his expertise from his work for a nongovernmental organization with colleagues in the State Department office as they work on corruption issues, and judicial reform and the need for transparency in court proceedings.
Lin graduated from Boston College in 2002. He first went to Cambodia in summer 2003 to teach English, but found himself trying to work on behalf of several students who he learned were girls caught in the sex trade industry.
On his second visit to Cambodia in summer 2004, Lin volunteered as a legal intern for International Justice Mission (IJM) collecting evidence for possible prosecutions. He decided to stay on and continue his work which required a fall 2004 semester leave of absence from The John Marshall Law School.
"I only had one year of law school when I went, but I had more training than some people who are considered attorneys in Cambodia," Lin said.
His experience included interventions, investigations, advocacy work on behalf of the victims, working with the police on stings, and going into court to argue before judges. He rescued 44 victims and jailed 16 perpetrators.
He is also attempting to establish a fundraising mechanism to help underwrite safe-houses for girls and women trying to flee prostitution rings.
Simonson says she decided to apply for the Equal Justice Works program after hearing retired Cook County Circuit Court Judge Sheila Murphy talk about the death penalty.
Simonson is spending the summer as a 2006 Summer Corps intern with the organization's Gulf Regional Advocacy Center working at the Grace Law Center in Houston.
She is paired with an attorney working in Harris County, Texas, and will be assisting with research on various death penalty cases, and making visits to Texas prisons to interview those appealing their sentences.
Simonson is a graduate of Seton High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. She received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Northern Kentucky University. She worked for the Cincinnati law firm Keating Muething Klekamp during college and the year after graduation, before enrolling at The John Marshall Law School.
Simonson is an active member of the John Marshall student chapters of Amnesty International, the American Constitution Society, the International Law Society and the Public Interest Law Council. In summer 2005, she studied comparative constitutional law and international alternative dispute resolution through a Howard University Law School program hosted at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. 
Sarah Simonson (second from left) and Joseph Lin (center), the first winners of the Mrs. Anne and Hon. George Zimmerman Scholarships, were honored to meet Mrs. Zimmerman (second from right) and her children, Hon. Lloyd Zimmerman (left) of Minnesota, and Lynda (right). Not pictured is another daughter, Nancy.
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Sarah Touzalin, a May 2006 J.D. graduate and an LL.M. student at The John Marshall Law School, has been selected for a summer externship with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Tax Policy.
Touzalin is earning her LL.M. in employee benefits law through the law school's Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits. She is the fourth John Marshall student in the LL.M. program in employee benefits to be offered the externship.
Touzalin will work in the Treasury's Office of the Benefits Tax Counsel with Thomas Reeder, acting benefits tax counsel, and his team of attorneys. The office advises the secretary of the Treasury and the assistant secretary for tax policy on legislative and regulatory matters regarding employee benefits programs. These include group health care plans, health savings accounts, qualified employer-sponsored retirement plans and executive compensation programs.
William Sweetnam, former benefits tax counsel at Treasury, has presented Touzalin with a $5,000 stipend to help finance the travel and lodging expenses associated with this unique externship.
Touzalin has been working as a law clerk for Clancy & Associates, Ltd. in Chicago since April 2005. She has been assisting attorneys with various projects relating to delinquent employee contributions, default on 401(k) Plan loans, and ERISA reporting and disclosure requirements.
As a J.D. student, Touzalin served as a section representative to the John Marshall Student Bar Association, and was a member of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. She received a B.S. degree in business administration from John Carroll University in May 2003. 
William Sweetnam (second from right), former benefits tax counsel at the U.S. Treasury Department, presents a $5,000 stipend to Sarah Touzalin (second from left) who is completing a summer externship with the Treasury. Joining them are Professor Kathryn Kennedy (left), director of the Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits, and Associate Dean for Advanced Studies and Research Gerald Berendt (right).
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A passion for the law and a desire to work as a prosecutor have won Joseph Cook, a January 2006 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, the Lucy Sprague Public Service Scholarship.
Cook was selected based on his academic standing, his commitment to helping others and his willingness to do public interest legal work. Although he was offered a higher-paying job with a major Chicago law firm, Cook accepted a position as a Cook County assistant state's attorney "because I feel passionate about the work of a prosecutor. I definitely know that this is what I want to dedicate my professional life to."
The $25,000 scholarship will help Cook pay down a portion of his law school debt. The scholarship was established in 1998 in the memory of Lucy Sprague, who was a second-year student at The John Marshall Law School when she was murdered in December 1996. Her parents, Lee and the Honorable George Sprague, a district court judge in Cambridge, Mass., and her brother and sister, Alexander and Cynthia, established the scholarship to assist other students interested, as Lucy was, in a profession in public interest law.
Cook has been clerking for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office since January 2005, assisting in the Felony Narcotics Division, and assisting with jury and felony bench trials.
"Through these experiences, I've seen first hand what a difference I can make. It is heart-wrenching seeing victims and the families of victims suffering in the gallery or in the hallways during and after the trials," Cook said. "Knowing that I can be there for the victims and make a difference for them makes me want to work in public service."
Cook says he was also touched by the murder of a close friend. "This was a devastating experience for me, and really changed my outlook on my life and life in general. I realized that I needed to do something with my life that would benefit the greater good," he explained.
Cook received a bachelor's degree in history from Columbia University in New York City. He was a member of the Columbia football team for four years. After returning to Chicago, he taught at a Catholic grade school before enrolling at The John Marshall Law School in spring 2003.
Cook has coached basketball teams and varsity football teams at St. Mary of the Woods School. 
Cynthia Sprague (left) and her mother, Lee Sprague (third from left) were at the May 2006 commencement to present the Lucy Sprague Public Service Scholarship to Joseph Cook (second from left) who is joined by Acting Dean John Corkery (right).
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Newly installed officers of The John Marshall Law School Alumni Association for 2006-2007 are (from left) Russell W. Hartigan, first vice president; Cook County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl D. Cesario, second vice president; Katherine Amari, third vice president; Patrice M. Ball-Reed, president; Baltazar Mendoza, treasurer; Kimberly Anderson, assistant treasurer, and Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Fitzgerald Smith, secretary. 
Corinne Morrissey (center), director of the Academic Achievement Program, was honored by The John Marshall Law School Alumni Association with its President's Award. Making the presentation were Katherine Amari (left), third vice president, and Patrice Ball-Reed (right), newly installed president of the alumni association. 
Patrice Ball-Reed (left), president of The John Marshall Law School Alumni Association, and Katherine Amari (right), third vice president, present Jodie Panariello Needham, director of Academic Services, with the President's Award in recognition of her years of dedicated service to John Marshall students. 
Members of The John Marshall Law School Alumni Association Katherine Amari (left) and Patrice Ball-Reed (right) congratulate the winners of the Alumni Association Scholarship (from second from left) Benjamin S. Bassett, Christina M. Brewer and Constance F. Wright. Winners not pictured are Vance Gathing and Stephen K. Pope. 
Umberto Davi (center), the outgoing president of The John Marshall Law School Alumni Association, was given special recognition for his service to the organization. Presenting the honor were Katherine Amari (left) and Patrice Ball-Reed (right), incoming president.
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Professor Michael Seng
Activities 
He will moderate the program "Kelo v. New London: One Year Later" at the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum on June 22. Panelists for the debate on eminent domain will be John Norquist of the Congress for New Urbanism and former Mayor of Milwaukee and John Echeverria, executive director of the Georgetown University Environmental Law Institute.
Professor Mark E. Wojcik
Activities 
Professor Wojcik spoke on two panels at the Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The first panel was RESPECT- Find Out What It Means to Me (and Find Out a Few Different Ways to Get There), with Professor Sheila Simon of the Southern Illinois University School of Law, and Melissa Weresh of the Drake University Law School. The second panel was Publishing Legal Writing Books: How We Did It, and How You Can Do It Too, with Professor Michael D. Murray of the University of Illinois College of Law; Professor Suzanne Rowe of the University of Oregon School of Law; Professor Pamela Lysaght of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law; Professor Michael R. Smith of the Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law; Professor Elizabeth Fajans of Brooklyn Law School; and Professor Christy DeSanctis of The George Washington University Law School. Professor Wojcik spoke about his early publication of a book for lawyers and law students who speak English as a second language, and about his state-specific research text on Illinois law.
Professor Mark Wojcik taught a two-week intensive course in Legal English at the Facultad Libre de Derecho de Monterrey (FLDM). FLDM is an independent law school in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, in northern Mexico. The FLDM is considered to be one of the best law schools in Mexico, and many of its graduates will come to the United States to pursue LL.M. degrees in various fields including Tax, Real Estate, Intellectual Property, Information Technology and Privacy, International Business Transactions, and Global Legal Studies. Other FLDM graduates will work for law firms that do business with the United States, or that advise U.S. individuals and companies that want to invest in Mexico. Adjunct Professor of Legal English Juli V. Campagna also taught part of the Legal English course at FLDM, and also taught the first day of a second course on "Orientation to the U.S. Legal System." Both courses are offered at FLDM in cooperation with the International Law Institute in Washington, D.C., where Professor Wojcik also serves as Director of the Legal English Program.
Publications
Mark E. Wojcik, "Changing the Philosophical Landscape of State-Investor Disputes, BIT by BIT," 6 International Arbitration News 2 (Spring 2006). The article discusses the development of bilateral investment treaties and their impact on international dispute resolution between states and investors.
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June 26
- Reception in Honor of Dean Dorothy Li, Room 3East, 4:00 p.m.
June 27
- Young Real Estate Professionals Luncheon, Room 1200, 11:30 a.m.
- Domestic & Foreign Patent, Trademark, Trade Secret & Copyright Documentation Course, Room 409, 6:00 p.m.
June 28
- Deans' Meeting, Courtroom, 10:00 a.m.
- RIPL Meet and Greet, Room 3East, 5:00 p.m.
June 29
- IRS Training: Hot Topics in Employee Benefits Law, Room 1200, 8:00 a.m.
- Dept. of Justice Program Chicago Area Law School Consortium, Room 1102, 12:00 p.m.
June 30
- JMLS Softball Game, Grant Park - Field 7, 5:00 p.m.
July 1
- JMLS Pass Your Bar Program, Room 1102, 9:00 a.m.
July 3
- No Classes
- Building and Offices Open
July 4
July 5
- Deans' Meeting, Courtroom, 10:00 a.m.
July 8
- JMLS Pass Your Bar Program, Room 1102, 9:00 a.m.
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In the Loop is published by The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Copyright 2006
Editor: Assistant Dean John M. McNamara; Contributors: Marilyn Thomas, Director, Public Relations and Advertising; Andrea Koklys, Assistant Director, Public Relations and Advertising
All information to be included in In the Loop must be placed in the INTHELOOP folder on the H drive of the law school's computer network by 12 p.m. each Wednesday. When the volume of submissions exceeds the available space in the printed version of In the Loop, additonal material will appear only in the online version of the Newsletter, which can be found on the law school's website at www.jmls.edu. 
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