Director of Communications

Jeanne Leblanc

Author Archive

UConn Law Alumnus and ‘Marshall’ Scriptwriter Speaks at Screening

“The only way to get through a bigot’s door is to break it down,” actor Chadwick Boseman, playing Thurgood Marshall, declares at a pivotal point in the film Marshall. The statement elicited a hum of agreement from the audience gathered at Spotlight Theatres in downtown Hartford on January 25, 2018, to celebrate the film and […]

February 1, 2018 | By Erin R. Murphy

Robert "Bob" Whitman

UConn Law Community Remembers Professor Robert Whitman

Robert “Bob” Whitman, professor emeritus at UConn School of Law, died Monday, January 22, 2018. Professor Whitman, UConn Law’s longest-serving professor, knew he wanted to teach law by his second year of law school. After a brief professorship at Maryland Law, he accepted a position with Cravath Swaine & Moore, as he felt he’d be a […]

January 23, 2018 | By Alison Swain

An audience member asks a question at the religious freedom syposium.

Symposium Examines Divisions Over Religious Liberty

A Connecticut Law Review symposium on religious freedom focused on controversies in recent years, including litigation that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

October 27, 2017 | Tracy Gordon Fox

The study of law is a conversation, and the Brown Family Campus Center at UConn School of Law is an ideal place for that conversation to happen, Dean Timothy Fisher said at the dedication of the new café and gathering place on Oct. 18, 2017. Student Gideon Asemnor ‘18 saw a multitude of conversations begin when the campus center opened at the start of the semester. It felt very different from his first year at the law school, when there was only a small cafeteria in the basement of Hosmer Hall and students seemed to disappear right after classes ended, he told the audience at the ceremony. “Starting this semester, there’s been a tremendous change on campus,” he said. “You see students from all walks of life, from different backgrounds, LLMs, JDs, you see them sitting together at the tables, having lunch and discussing tort issues or whatever cold call they got that day,” University President Susan Herbst opened the dedication ceremony with a thank you to the Brown family for generously funding the creation of the campus center in the slate foyer of the Thomas J. Meskill Law Library, facing the main quad. Joe Brown ’16 spoke on behalf of the family, welcoming the center as a place where students have already begun learning and sharing. Before the ceremony, Joe’s father, Jay Brown, discussed the 2008 financial meltdown at a presentation in the Reading Room in William F. Starr Hall with UConn Law Professor James Kwak, author of Thirteen Bankers and Economism. Brown, the retired CEO of MBIA, remembered the most harrowing turns of the crisis and the measures that brought it under control. The dedication ceremony followed, with a reception afterward in the new campus center featuring food catered by the university’s Dining Services team, which operates the café. The café opened Aug. 28 to a steady flow of students, faculty and staff gathering for coffee, meals, conversations and study sessions. In September it served triple the number of customers served in the Hosmer cafeteria in September 2016, according to Retail Operations Manager Ethan Haggerty. The café is open from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, providing meals for Day and Evening Division students alike. The menu includes soups, salads, sandwiches, pizza, snacks and baked goods. Customers have been enthusiastic about the café and the rest of the campus center. First-year students Kileigh Nassau and Jesse Sahani sit there every day and refer to it as their “office.” Every friendship they’ve made has started there, they said. Tyler Conklin ’18 said the center brings faculty and students together. “I have seen the dean here, and it really breaches the gap,” he said. “It fosters a sense of community on campus that did not exist before.”

New Brown Family Campus Center Dedicated

The study of law is a conversation, and the Brown Family Campus Center at UConn School of Law is an ideal place for that conversation to happen, Dean Timothy Fisher said at the dedication of the new café and gathering place on Oct. 18, 2017. Student Gideon Asemnor ‘18 saw a multitude of conversations begin […]

October 20, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

Attorney Santolo Odierna and unidentified client

‘Incubator’ Lawyers Making Legal Help Affordable

'We see an enormous need for legal assistance at a reasonable cost, particularly among people who don’t qualify for legal aid but can’t afford standard legal fees.'

September 26, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

Community Impact
Professor Jessica Rubin, right, discusses a case with, from left, West Haven Animal Control Officer Denise Ford, law student Christopher Kelly, and Desmond’s Army co-founder Christine Kiernan.

UConn Law Team Pioneers Courtroom Advocacy for Animals

The new program for abused animals is gaining ground in Connecticut and attracting notice across the nation.

September 15, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

Community Impact
The Thomas J. Meskill Law Library at UConn School of Law in Hartford.

Three UConn Law Alumni Honored for Service to Community

Former state Sen. Eric D. Coleman and business executives Cheryl A. Chase and Steven M. Greenspan will be honored next month with awards from The University of Connecticut Law School Alumni Association. Ms. Chase, co-president and general counsel of Chase Enterprises, a real estate development and management company, will receive the 2017 Distinguished Graduate Award. […]

September 8, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

Gravestones at the Potočari genocide memorial near Srebrenica. (Michael Büker Photo, via Wikimedia Commons)

Professor’s New Book Examines Link Between Speech and Violence

Are political leaders liable for inciting their followers to persecute religious minorities or ethnic and racial groups? What responsibility do media owners have for disseminating hate speech during widespread social conflict? From Nazi Germany to Rwanda and Bosnia, courts have struggled to hold the public figures who foment hatred accountable for the ensuing violence. In […]

August 29, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

Karen DeMeola

Karen DeMeola Installed as CBA President

Karen DeMeola ‘96, assistant dean for enrollment and students at UConn School of Law, took on an additional set of responsibilities on July 1, 2017, when she became president of the Connecticut Bar Association. She leads a team replete with UConn Law alumni. Jonathan M. Shapiro ‘01, a partner at Shapiro Law Offices LLC in […]

July 5, 2017 | Jeanne Leblanc

American flag and fence. (Alxey Pnferov via Getty Images)

UConn Group to Spend Spring Break Assisting Asylum Applicants

A team led by UConn Law's Asylum and Human Rights Clinic will spend the break at a detention facility offering free legal help and social work assessments and support to female detainees from Central America.

March 8, 2017 | Tracy Gordon Fox