COPY - 2021-09-15 LAW Barrister eBrief Sept

UM Alexander Blewett III School of Law Barrister eBrief graphic

Fall 2021 Dean's Update

UM Law Dean Paul Kirgis provides an update on the start of our in-person fall semester, including credentials and demographics of our entering class, bar passage and employment rates of our recent graduates, and some big upcoming events.

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Photo of woman and child on horseback crossing a stream

Photo credit: Rebecca Drobis

39^th Public Land Law Conference Now Virtual

This year’s Public Land Law Conference, "Forging a Climate of Justice: Reconnecting People and Place," will be held fully online as a virtual conference.

Since its founding in 1980, the Public Land and Resources Law Review has encouraged discourse on issues surrounding public lands, natural resources, environmental and Indian law. On a biennial basis, the Law Review convenes a Public Land Law Conference to enhance this discourse and provide a forum for national and international dialogue and scholarship.

This year, as a tribute to Margery Hunter Brown, who initiated the natural resources and Indian law programs at the Blewett School of Law and founded the Public Land and Resources Law Review, the conference will focus on issues related to tribal and federal Indian law and environmental justice, highlighting voices historically marginalized or silenced in environmental and natural resources law.

Thursday, Sept. 30, will feature an opening evening keynote address by Danna Jackson, senior counselor to the director at the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management. Friday, Oct. 1, features a noon address by Dr. Len Necefer, the founder of Natives Outdoors, and panels on tribal knowledge in natural resources management, youth voices in climate advocacy and the right to water. Christian Takes Gun Parrish (stage name Supaman), an Apsáalooke rapper and fancy dancer, will deliver the closing address and performance.

Lawyers seeking 6.5 CLE credits may register for a fee of $150.

Learn more and register

Law Student Uses Fellowship to Advocate for Workplace Justice

Noah Goldberg-Jaffe grew up with a father as a teacher and spent his life watching his dad benefit from being a union member. Then when he was 26, Goldberg-Jaffe worked to organize unions for the Oregon American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). This summer, he walked picket lines, held strike signs and developed a deep and meaningful understanding of what it means to advocate for working people.

“It was an ‘ah-ha’ moment when I was going to work and making an impact on my community,” he said. “I realized that unions are a conduit for social change and improving the lives of working people.”

Now a third-year law student at the University of Montana, Goldberg-Jaffe spent 10 weeks this summer making a difference by advocating for workplace justice and fair labor practices after earning a prestigious Peggy Browning Fellowship.

The fellowship provides stipends to law students who dedicate their summer to advancing the cause of workers’ rights by working for labor unions, worker centers, labor-related not-for-profit organizations, union-side law firms and other nonprofit organizations.

Through these unique and challenging work experiences, Fellows gain practical skills while the host organizations and their clients benefit from the services they provide.

When Goldberg-Jaffe came to the Blewett School of Law, he applied to the Peggy Browning Fellowship and received the award for 2021.

“I always knew I wanted to do union law,” Goldberg-Jaffe said. “I’ve benefited my whole life from unions and worker movements.”

The fellowship partnered Goldberg-Jaffe with his top-choice organization, Service Employees International Union. The union represents 2 million diverse members in health care, the public sector and property services and is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with local offices throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

“I worked for the general counsel office doing a wide range of research and writing – classic legal intern clerk skills – but I did get to go to strike and learn what it’s like to practice law outside the office, too,” Goldberg-Jaffe said.

He was involved in a strike in Kalispell by an SEIU union representing 650 nurses at Logan Health. The nurses walked off the job June 1 after more than a year of contract negotiations, as well as staffing and retention issues. He shadowed an SEIU attorney there to support the workers, held signs and walked the picket line alongside the nurses.

“That is how the summer started for me,” he said. “Technically, my work was based in D.C., but I was really excited to be able to connect that work in D.C. with people on the ground in Kalispell.”

As a kid growing up in Billings, I most admired those businesspeople, educators, athletes, artists, professionals and others in my life who sought out bold opportunities to better themselves and more importantly, their communities. At the time, I didn’t quite understand how these incredible people successfully navigated all the risk that comes with great opportunity – risk to oneself, to one’s reputation and career. I later realized that none of these folks took on those risks alone. Most had support from their loved ones, their colleagues and their communities.

Of course, building a community of support cannot be instantaneous, forced or contrived; it must be organic, and it takes

time. Luckily, law school allows us to forge strong and lasting friendships. Through the shared anxiety of exams and shared relief of Fridays at Five, it didn’t take long to recognize the relationships created in law school would sustain and support us all throughout our careers.

I noticed it starts to happen 3L year. Armed with encouragement from our classmates and advisors, I put my name in the hat for editor-in-chief of the Montana Law Review – and a friend and I were both selected! Our peers gave us a platform to lead Law Review staff, increase circulation, and modernize the Review by taking it online. Having that shared support and taking that risk led us down an amazing path where everyone on Law Review that year wound up connecting with state legislators, state officials, Congressional members, prominent community leaders, lawyers, ranchers, and outfitters; some of whom who are still a part of our legal support community to this day.

Attend the Montana Tax Institute in Person or Remotely

The 69th Annual Montana Tax Institute will be live and in person Oct. 15-16, 2021, at the Holiday Inn Downtown, but you have the option to register to attend remotely! The program features a distinguished faculty of national tax practitioners and scholars addressing a broad range of current tax topics.

Learn more

Join Us for the Homecoming Alumni Tailgate

Join fellow School of Law alumni and friends outdoors at our annual Law Alumni Homecoming Tailgate. The event will place at the law school from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25, before the Griz take on Cal Poly.

Kirsten Gerbatsch, a third-year UM law student, was selected as a Wyss scholar for her interests in environmental and American Indian law.

Two UM Law Students Named Prestigious Wyss Scholars

Four University of Montana graduate students have been named Wyss Scholars for Conservation for the American West. This prestigious program provides financial support to UM graduate students who are committed to careers in Western land conservation through a federal or state land management agency or at a nonprofit in the region.

The scholarship program is funded through the Wyss Foundation, a private charitable organization dedicated to supporting innovative, lasting solutions that improve lives, empower communities and strengthen connections to the land. Wyss scholarships significantly reduce the cost of graduate school attendance at UM.

Sawyer Connelly from Hardwick, Vermont, is a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in environmental studies at UM while dually enrolled in a juris doctorate at UM’s Alexander Blewett III School of Law and UM’s Natural Resource Conflict Resolution Program, in the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation. Connelly said he wants to protect the natural world and increase accessibility and equity by helping shape tomorrow’s conservation funding mechanisms and policy.

Kirsten Gerbatsch from Oakland, New Jersey, is a third-year student in UM’s Alexander Blewett III School of Law, with a concentration in environmental and American Indian law. Gerbatsch is passionate about reimagining the future of natural resource protection and wants to forge new legal models to conserve natural and cultural resources by promoting Native self-determination efforts and tribal conservation practices.

Dr. Brad Hall Joins Law School to Support Native Law Students

The Blewett School of Law is pleased to announce that Dr. Brad Hall has joined the law school as an affiliate. He is assisting in tribal outreach and recruitment efforts. Holding office hours in the law school on Thursdays from 1-3 p.m. each week, he is serving as a student support advocate for Native law students and working on initiatives to assist in the integration of Indian Education for All (IEFA).

Alongside his part-time appointment at the law school, Hall serves as the tribal college and high school outreach specialist at the University of Montana, where he works to provide Native students access to four-year degrees and beyond through pathways designed in collaboration with tribal colleges and high schools around the state.

Hall is a Blackfeet educator and historian who was raised on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation outside of Browning on his family's ranch. He has committed his career to improving education systems on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Updates from the Baucus Institute and Department of Public Administration and Policy

UM's Department of Public Administration and Policy is the first of its kind in Montana. Located within the Alexander Blewett III School of Law’s Max S. Baucus Institute, DPAP’s mission is to provide a cutting-edge public sector education and advance careers in public service.

Baucus Institute Speaker Series to Feature Al Gore and Max Baucus

The Max S. Baucus Institute is excited to announce A Climate Conversation featuring former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and former U.S. Senator and Ambassador Max Baucus. This event will be held virtually at 7 p.m. (MST) on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021.

The Baucus Institute brings global thought leaders in the areas of economic development, foreign policy and politics to Montana for public discussions about issues of critical importance to the future of our country. Thanks to the generous support of donors, "Speakers Series" events are free and open to the public.