We are a law school on the rise.
Last week we received great news that C|M|LAW rose 14 places in the U.S. News Rankings, the fourth highest increase among the nation’s 194 full time ABA accredited law schools. Only 3 law schools in the country had a larger increase in national ranking. In addition, our longstanding part-time program ranked first in Ohio. See Cleveland State University C|M|LAW Rises; Case, Akron Drop in U.S. News Law School Rankings
We are a law school that lifts others up.
Almost every week one or more members of our faculty is quoted in the local, state, or national news. Just yesterday, Professor Doron Kalir was quoted in the New York Times concerning a recent opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit holding the termination of an employee because of her transgender status in violation of civil rights laws. Transgender Workers Gain New Protection Under Court Ruling The Court cited an amicus brief on behalf of Equality Ohio, co-authored by Professor Kalir and Professors Matthew Green, Kenneth Kowalski, and Carolyn Broering-Jacobs. Alana Jochum’10, serves as Equality Ohio’s Executive Director.
We are a law school that holds true to its mission and values.
Our message to our students is ‘hello’ not only when they enter C|M|LAW, but also when they graduate. At Commencement, we don’t say ‘goodbye.’ We are committed to the lifelong success of our students. We are their law school for life. In addition, we feature Commencement speakers and Honorary Degree recipients who reflect our mission and values.
Announcing Our 2018 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients
Once again, we have secured a Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree recipients who epitomize our mission: Learn Law. Live Justice.
On Sunday, May 13, our Commencement Speaker will be Carmen Twillie Ambar, President of Oberlin College. She is the first African American President in Oberlin’s 184-year history. President Ambar is a lawyer, having earned her J.D. at Columbia Law School. Since our Commencement is on Mother’s Day, it’s particularly fitting that she and her husband are parents of 11-year-old triplets, Gabrielle, Luke, and Daniel.
Cleveland-Marshall was the first law school in Ohio to admit women and one of the first in the country to admit African-Americans. Oberlin is even more historic–it was the first predominately white college in the country to admit African Americans and the first predominately male college in the country to admit women. I’m a proud graduate of Oberlin College and served on the Board of Trustees for many years, so I’m particularly excited that President Ambar will be speaking.
As an attorney, President Ambar previously worked in the New York City Law Department as an assistant corporation counsel. She also has a master’s degree in public affairs at Princeton University, and a BS in Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Prior to Oberlin, Ambar served as the 13th president of Cedar Crest College from 2008-2017. Prior to her time at Cedar Crest, Ambar had a highly successful tenure as vice president and dean of Douglass College at Rutgers University, where she was the youngest dean in the university’s history. Before Rutgers, Ambar served as assistant dean of graduate education at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
In addition, we will awarding honorary degrees to Judge Patricia Blackmon ’75 and Judge Melody Stewart ’88. Both are Judges on the Ohio Court of Appeals for the 8th District, and 2017 inductees in the C|M|LAW Hall of Fame.
Judge Patricia A. Blackmon ‘75
Judge Patricia Blackmon, a magna cum laude graduate of Tougaloo College, was born in Oxford, Mississippi. During the 1970s, in an effort to increase its African-American student population, Cleveland-Marshall sent then-Professor and fellow Hall of Fame honoree Ann Aldrich south to recruit promising students studying at historically Black colleges. Blackmon, with majors in African-American Studies, Political Science, and History, was such a student, bound to excel. And she has-both in law school and, notably, as Chief Prosecutor for the City of Cleveland and as Assistant Director of the Victim/Witness Assistance Program. She was elected to a Judgeship on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals in 1991, the first African-American woman in Ohio to serve on any of the state’s appeals courts, and is now serving her third term with distinction. Judge Blackmon was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame and received the Law Alumni Association’s 1996 Recognition Award.
Judge Melody J. Stewart ‘88
Judge Melody Stewart’s career is as distinguished in academia as it is in law. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and as a law student she was awarded a prestigious Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship. Following graduation she served as an assistant law director for the cities of Cleveland and East Cleveland, eventually returning to C|M|LAW as a lecturer, adjunct instructor, assistant dean, and full-time faculty member. She also taught at the University of Toledo College of Law and Ursuline College, and was Director of Student Services at Case Western Reserve University School of Law where she earned her doctorate as a Mandel Leadership Fellow at the Mandel School of Applied Sciences.
We are rising. We are lifting up. We are staying true to our mission and values.
Have a great week.
For copies of past messages, please go to this link: Monday Morning Messages.
My best,
Lee
My views in all my Monday Morning Messages are my personal views alone and do not reflect the views of our Law School or our University.