Coach Rebecca Smith captured this image of Ali Bronsdon, a member of the Blewett School of Law’s National Environmental Moot Court team, during a virtual competition this semester |
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Blewett School of Law National Moot Court Teams Adapt to Virtual Competitions
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National moot court competitions across the nation have been held virtually over the past year due to COVID-19, and Blewett School of Law moot court teams and coaches competing in both the Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Moot Court Competition and the National Native American Law Students Association (NNALSA) Moot Court Competition have faced new challenges in adapting to remote preparation and competitions this semester. Despite being unable to prepare with in-person courtroom briefs and face-to-face practices, teams developed new skills and discovered a silver lining to the digital format. Although accomplished Zoom-users by the time they began to prepare for the Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Moot Court Competition, students had the difficult task of simulating the courtroom in a virtual space. In order to mimic the moot court experience as much as possible, the team employed “virtual courtroom kits” to set up virtual courtrooms in their homes. Each kit consisted of a lectern, adjustable shelf to hold the computer camera at eye level, professional photography light, green screen and wireless mouse to operate Zoom from behind the lectern. “The students adapted and operated flawlessly with this setup at the competition,” said Rebecca Smith, National Environmental Moot Court coach and adjunct professor of law. Teams benefited greatly from holding practices over Zoom by being able to bring in guest judges from outside Missoula. National Environmental Moot Court recruited public interest environmental lawyers who had never previously guest-judged to lend students their expertise. Both public interest environmental law firms in Montana, Earthjustice of Bozeman and Western Environmental Law Center of Helena, participated. “This was so helpful to the students that I plan to offer some remote guest-judging options in the future,” said Smith. Read more |
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Gabrielle Broere and Jhevon McMillan (right) are two students earning an affordable law education at the University of Montana. The painting depicts the law school’s namesake, Alexander Blewett III. |
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UM Law School Ranked No. 4 Nationally for Affordability
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Best Value Schools recently released a national list of the 20 Most Affordable Law Schools, and the University of Montana’s Alexander Blewett III School of Law ranked fourth for its low cost of tuition. “Without the added pressure to make ends meet or to pay back exorbitant student loans, I’ve been able to keep a healthy life balance and stay focused on learning the law,” said second-year law student Jhevon McMillan. “The cost put me at ease when deciding to come to Missoula,” he said. “The affordability will no doubt inspire more people like me to attend, creating greater diversity in the Montana legal community.” Besides the reasonable tuition, McMillan said, the true value of his Montana legal education is the relationships he has formed with professors, fellow students and staff members that would have been more difficult at a larger school with a bigger price tag. “In my experience, our unique community allows us to easily interact with one other often,” he said. “Because of that, I’ve become friends with everyone. The feeling is ‘We are all in this together.’” Read more |
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Join UM and Law School Alumni in the BIG GIVE March 24-25
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The scholarships that make our law school affordable and the hands-on learning experiences from Moot Court to the Baucus Climate Scholars program are all made possible by generous gifts from alumni and friends. On March 24, join law school alumni – and the broader University of Montana community – for a special day of giving back. The BIG GIVE is an opportunity for our community to come together and make a collective impact for our students, particularly during this challenging time of the pandemic. Your gift, no matter the size, will help add up to something big. Learn more |
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Alumni Spotlight: Matthew Lunder
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Matthew Lunder graduated from the University of Montana School of Law in 2006. He is the author of "The Concept of Ordered Liberty and the Common-Law Due-Process Tradition." Like all who enter any field of theory and practice, law students possess to varying degrees concretized notions of professional ambition. Many of my classmates had at least semi-solid plans for their professional futures. I did not. I didn’t know where I'd end up when I began law school. But this |
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this doesn’t set me apart. Does anyone really know where they’ll end up when they start anything? Don’t all of our actual experiences occur within a universe of infinite potentiality? I came to law school with a background in political science, a lifelong interest in philosophy, and a desire to better provide for my then young family – to explore a career that would take me farther than had a decade in the building trades. My second-year business organizations professor told us a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was accepting applications for law clerks, for the term beginning the year after graduation. I applied. This judge, I learned, had been pleased with clerks who’d attended small state schools in the Pacific Northwest. I was fortunate enough to eventually work with him, where he explained that he’d hired from all over the country, and had no complaints about the quality of work from anywhere – from Harvard, Stanford, and Yale to Idaho, Montana, and Washington. But the folks from the smaller state schools were often more grounded and well suited for the collegiality essential to the proper administration of justice. Judge Trott had been a U.S. Attorney and Associate Attorney General of the United States – he was a federal prosecutor before he was a judge. In his chambers ego took a back seat to intellectual and institutional integrity. Reading the transcripts of proceedings in the trial courts, we law clerks would ask from our naive perspectives at the appellate court: “How’d they let that happen?” I learned a lot listening to his answers, however unable I was then to appreciate their significance to my own career. In criminal cases where the conduct of the government was under scrutiny, his insight into the role of a prosecutor, what it is and what it requires, would later be a guiding light. Read more |
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Join Us for Montana Law Week
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Our annual Montana Law Week will be held March 22-26, 2021, in conjunction with the Montana Supreme Court’s oral arguments in Montana v. Staker, a case addressing expectations of privacy in text messaging. The week features a panel discussion, Staker: A Katz-tastrophe by Law Enforcement, or the Beginning of a New Era in the Digital Age, from 6-7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23, followed by the oral argument from 9-11 a.m. on Friday, March 26. An introduction to the argument will be given by law student Forrest Crowl, who wrote a preview of the case. All activities will be held virtually, with Zoom information to be provided. More upcoming Law Week events: |
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Professor Cathay Smith’s Essay on “Copyright Silencing” Published by Cornell Law Review Online
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Cathay Smith’s essay "Copyright Silencing" was published in volume 106 of the Cornell Law Review Online. In this short essay, Smith highlighted the copyright dispute in Netflix’s "Tiger King" docuseries to illustrate an action that she calls “copyright silencing,” in which copyright owners assert their copyright in order to silence criticism or suppress facts instead of to protect their legitimate interests in their copyrighted works.
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Professor Sandi Zellmer Contributes to Climate, Energy, Justice Report and Video Series
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As part of the Center for Progressive Reform's Climate, Energy, Justice video series, Professor of Law and Director of Natural Resources Sandi Zellmer discussed public lands policy. Watch the video |
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Tax Notes State Publishes Professor Pippa Browde’s Article on SALT Policies in Indian Country |
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Professor Pippa Browde recently published "SALT Policies to Reduce the Disparate Impact of COVID-19 in Indian Country" in Tax Notes State in the publication's new column on The Search for Tax Justice. In the essay, Professor Browde suggests ways in which state and local governments could shape their own tax policies to support both the revitalization of Tribal economies and long-term growth of state and local economies as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. This essay is a condensed version of a longer article forthcoming. Read the essay |
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Updates from the Baucus Institute and Department of Public Administration and Policy
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Baucus Institute Announces Inaugural Cohort of 2021 Climate Scholars
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Modeled after the successful Baucus Leaders program, the Baucus Climate Scholars program builds off of Senator Baucus' long and distinguished bipartisan legislative record in environmental and natural resources matters, including, notably, his sponsorship of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and his leadership in protecting wild lands along the Rocky Mountain Front. This new program honors and continues his legacy by providing opportunities to students with a passion for the environment, natural resources and the climate to work on the frontlines of these issues. The Baucus Institute is pleased to announce its inaugural cohort of Climate Scholars this year. In summer of 2021, four University of Montana students will serve as Baucus Climate Scholars with national organizations working on climate and environment issues. Scholars will receive a $5,000 stipend to cover living and travel expenses during their internships. These fellows are: Jared Gibbs will be working with the American Enterprise Institute. Gibbs is a senior studying economics and philosophy, and will graduate with a master’s in environmental philosophy next spring. His AEI internship will include meetings with various scholars, professional development discussions, projects working on state-level clean energy policy research, as well as research into the conservative case for climate change policy. Audrey Glendenning will be working with the Brookings Institution. Glendenning is a first-year graduate student pursuing an M.S. in resource conservation. At Brookings, Glendenning will be part of the Brookings summer internship program and will be working primarily with Adele Morris, the leading global expert on the design of carbon pricing policies. Morris also studies climate change, energy and tax policy, Raina Woolworth will be working with Ernst & Young. Woolworth is a senior majoring in environmental science and sustainability with minors in climate change studies and Spanish. At EY, her work will be shared between the Global Sustainability Tax team and the Global Sustainability team in Europe. Aspen Ward will be working with The Nature Conservancy. Ward is a first-year law student with a B.S. in natural resource conservation. She will work on determining the best practices around policies such as air quality as it relates to smoke and liability that can be implemented at appropriate local, state and tribal levels in Montana. Ward will be developing specific policy recommendations along with draft legislation and regulations. |
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Cara Grewell is a student in UM’s Master of Public Administration program, which recently placed fourth nationally on a list of the “Best 25 Masters in Public Administration Schools in 2021.” She credits the UM faculty for student success. |
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UM’s Master of Public Administration Earns Another Top Ranking |
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Best Value Schools has awarded a second top ranking this year to the University of Montana’s Master of Public Administration program, placing it fourth nationally out of the Best 25 Masters in Public Administration Schools in 2021. UM bested a number of other top universities in the country, including Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, University of Southern California, Texas A&M and Clemson. “We have some of the best faculty in the nation,” said Dr. Sara Rinfret, chair of UM’s Department of Public Administration and Policy. “They are committed to student success and want to ensure a quality, affordable education for our students.” In the ranking, Best Value Schools spotlighted the practical experience students receive. With guidance from faculty, they build portfolios detailing their professional growth, public administration-related research and ability to work cooperatively in team settings. “I have been encouraged to take initiative on several research projects – both in coursework and through research assistant positions,” said MPA student Cara Grewell. “Faculty in the program do a great job setting us up for success and are always available if help is needed.” Read more |
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Alexander Blewett III School of Law University of Montana - 32 Campus Drive Missoula, MT 59812 406-243-4311 | www.umt.edu/law |
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