School of Law Dean Blake Morant is among the 24 legal educators and one legal education public policy advocate that The National Jurist has named to its 2012 list of the most influential people in legal education.

Law professor Michael D. Green was named as a co-winner of the 2012 John G. Fleming Memorial Prize for Torts Scholarship. He will jointly deliver the Second Fleming Lecture at the UC Berkeley School of Law on Monday, Nov. 5.

One year after the execution of Troy Davis, whom many believe was innocent of shooting a police officer, several Wake Forest groups will discuss whether wrongful executions occur. Events on Sept. 20-21 include a documentary screening and a news conference at the School of Law’s Innocence & Justice Clinic.

The American Bar Association Law Student Division has announced that the School of Law’s Veteran Advocacy Law Organization is the recipient of the Judy M. Weightman Memorial Public Interest Award. The award recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to underrepresented groups or public interest causes outside the law school.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be a guest lecturer during the School of Law’s Venice and Vienna Study Abroad Programs in the summer of 2012. “We are thrilled that Justice Ginsburg has so graciously agreed to once again share her expertise with our students in our study abroad programs,” said Dean Blake D. Morant.

Have you thought about studying law as a way to continue your liberal education and cross a bridge into the professional world? The Wake Forest School of Law plans to offer a one-year Master of Studies in Law (MSL) program beginning in the Fall 2012 semester. There will be an informational session for prospective students at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15, in Room 1134 of the Worrell Professional Center.

In addition to putting his best foot forward, Doug Tsao is now putting his best face forward, too.

A first-year law student, he created his LinkedIn profile after hearing about it during orientation in the fall. Now he’s getting a professional head shot at a LinkedIn photo booth the Office of Personal & Career Development (OPCD) set up in the law library.

“I’ve been using it mostly as a resume, but it’s more valuable as a way to connect with potential employers,” Tsao said. “I’ve had a few informational interviews turn into job interviews, and I have established more personal connections through LinkedIn.”

Another photo booth at the spring internship and job fair in February helped nearly 400 students, including first-years and sophomores, add a great professional looking headshot to their LinkedIn profiles. For the uninitiated, LinkedIn is a social networking site. But unlike Facebook or Twitter, which often feature fun, humor and parties, LinkedIn focuses on professional connections and networking.

“Students call LinkedIn ‘a professional version of Facebook’ and have no trouble using it,” said Ladd Flock, associate director of College To Career Community Partnerships in the OPCD. “It’s really our students’ first professional network. We are teaching them how to leverage this ‘electronic Rolodex’ to connect with alumni, faculty, employers and other professionals who can help them take the first steps with their careers.”

But imagine a Rolodex holding 4,000 names and adding a new card or two every day. The ever-growing LinkedIn Wake Forest University Career Connectors group includes about 3,000 alumni and 1,000 students as members. Wake Forest parents, faculty and staff also are invited to join the private group, which serves as a great place to initiate conversations about career paths, seek advice or request informational interviews.

“We encourage our students to browse through the group members’ profiles to look for perspective and inspiration about a variety of career paths,” Flock said. “They can see how someone with a liberal arts degree like history can carve a career path into marketing, or what entry level positions and titles these successful role models took to get started. They can explore, connect and engage right from their residence halls.”

Building this LinkedIn group is just one of many new innovations created by the OPCD. This is not the college career services office of years past. Structuring the office to include not only career and professional development, but also mentoring; innovation creativity & entrepreneurship; leadership development and the family business center enables students to explore their interests and develop the  necessary competencies and experiences to achieve post-graduate success.

The OPCD is focused on building a “College-to-Career Community” that stretches beyond the boundaries of the office space. Inviting alumni and parents to join the LinkedIn group helps surround a student with great career advice from all directions.

Flock said young alumni have been a driving force behind the LinkedIn group and seem particularly interested in sharing what they’ve learned since graduation. “They’re telling us that mentoring through LinkedIn is a meaningful way they can give back to the University – by offering tips and advice as they launch their own careers.”

In April, the OPCD team will launch a major outreach to students that will teach them how to use LinkedIn to jumpstart their career development process. Matthew Moran, (’12) a history major, just received an offer to join global public relations firm, Edelman, headquartered in New York City, after beginning his job search with LinkedIn training from Flock.

“I knew I wanted to work in New York, so I looked for Wake Forest alumni who worked there in the public relations and marketing fields on LinkedIn,” Moran said. “I pulled up 20-30 names and started connecting with alumni who gave me great advice about tailoring my resume and the hiring climate at their firms.”

Moran’s LinkedIn connections helped him interview and start down the path toward a position at one firm before he ultimately decided to accept an offer from Edelman. He starts his new job in June.

Moran says he found the Wake Forest alumni very willing to connect with him and offer useful advice. So what will he do when next year’s seniors start emailing him?

“I’ll pay it forward. 100%.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas visited the School of Law, meeting with students, faculty and alumni, visiting a class and lecturing on professional responsibility. He was interviewed by Marc Rigsby (JD ’12) in front of a 350-plus audience in the Worrell Professional Center.

Law student Kelly Amell recently received a community service award from the Coalition for Drug Abuse Prevention in Winston-Salem. She was nominated for her volunteer work with the students at the Hanes Hosiery Community Center through the School of Law’s Youth Advocacy Group and the Sports and Entertainment Law Society.

It started with a dragon made from recycled packaging materials. Michael Greene, who works in the Professional Center Library, had twisted the brown paper and added some colorful details to create the 8-foot long mythical beast.

His colleague, Maureen Eggert, an associate director of the library, saw it and enlisted the help of Angie Hobbs, reference coordinator, to figure out how discarded books and other library materials might be creatively recycled.

Thinking this would make a fun team-building project, Hobbs challenged the Professional Center Library staff to transform outdated law books and other materials into decorative and useful items for display in the library during the holiday season.

The results:  More than 25 projects ranging from a holiday wreath made with 700 pages from an obsolete version of the U.S. Code to an iPod “safe” created by hollowing out small rectangular-shaped spaces in a 1924 legal reference book.

“Some are silly and fun,” Hobbs said. “Some are quite pretty.”

Holiday chains made from microfilm decorate the central staircase. Gift wrap and gift bags made from dust jackets and book pages were created by Hobbs and acquisitions coordinator Gina Jarrett. Hobbs also used one volume from the “Federal Supplement,” a set of reference books that are updated whenever changes in the law occur, to create a one-of-a-kind purse. Staff member Isbel Cruz-Chaundry created a hanging sculpture made from microfilm and microfilm reels. Reference Librarian Liz Johnson created a calendar planner using the rich maroon cover of a discarded book.

Stacks of books were used to make a lamp and a children’s reading table. Folded pages from a book became a gold-tinted Christmas tree-shaped table decoration. Eggert used the “enter” key from a discarded keyboard to make a key chain.

As more and more resources are available in electronic form, libraries are pulling from the shelves more books and other materials they no longer need, Hobbs said. When the staff began culling outdated materials from the library’s collection this summer, they started planning and creating.

Hobbs says the project was a fun way to engage the staff and students in thinking creatively about sustainability, but was not meant to replace their normal book-recycling program. The Professional Center Library and Z. Smith Reynolds Library contract with a company that recycles discarded books into newsprint and gray cardboard.

The display also features legal books on sustainability and facts about book recycling, noting that every ton of paper that is recycled can save 17 trees and 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.

Just before Thanksgiving, the staff built a large tree of books for the center of the rotunda. Library staff have been decorating it with small ornaments ever since.

The items will be on display through January.

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Angie Hobbs and the book tree