National Policy Board Discussion: The Infilaw Value Proposition

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Charlotte School of Law hosted four distinguished leaders within the higher education and legal communities and within the Infilaw Consortium on January 7, 2015. Laura Palmer Noone and Carolyn Warner, members of the Infilaw National Policy Board, Shirley Mays, Dean of the Arizona Summit, and the Honorable Shirley Fulton, member of Charlotte School of Law’s board, participated in a series of targeted conversations during the day.

All members of Team Charlotte were invited to attend an interactive conversation entitled “The Infilaw Value Proposition: Growing the vision through entrepreneurial leadership.” During the discussion, the panel shared their personal connection to Infilaw’s mission and experiences of using their individual skills, talents, and backgrounds to drive innovation and move forward Infilaw’s vision. The goal of the session was to inspire each member of Team Charlotte to use their individual leadership skills to foster innovation and entrepreneurial growth within the organization.

In addition to the open discussion, the panel led intimate sessions with key CharlotteLaw faculty, staff, students, and alumni. The first, “Lean in, Push Back, or Lay Low?” was a round-table conversation discussing the personal challenges and triumphs as women leaders. The second, “The Infilaw Value Proposition: Building the Next Generation of Future Legal Leaders” each member of the panel shared their perspective, as leaders within the Infilaw Consortium, of the Infilaw value proposition and Infilaw’s role in developing future legal leaders.

Aretha Blake, Director of CharlotteLaw’s Center for Professional Development noted “The experience we at CharlotteLaw had with these exemplary leaders impacted our desire to achieve the mission as well as rejuvenated our vision for the future.”

The entire day proved to be successful in connecting CharlotteLaw faculty, staff, students, and alumni to the mission and vision of the Infilaw Consortium.

Below are brief biographies of the guests:

Laura Palmer Noone possesses more than 26 years of experience in for-profit higher education including serving as the Chief Academic Officer and President of University of Phoenix. She then became President and CEO of Saras Education, Inc., where she provided professional management and consultation to institutions of higher education, including enrollment and retention support, technology and distance learning capacity. Most recently, she served as President and CEO of Potomac College in Washington DC, where she brought the college to profitability and gained approval for the college’s first master’s degree.
Carolyn Warner, president and CEO of Corporate Education Consulting, has been active for more than three decades on both state and national levels as a respected and knowledgeable public policy and educational leader. Warner has a comprehensive understanding of the relationship of fiscal, social, political and educational issues to key concerns of government, business and the nonprofit sector. She currently co-chairs the Arizona Skill Standards Commission and her fourth book – The Words of Extraordinary Women – was recently published.
Shirley Mays became Dean of Arizona Summit Law School in August, 2010, after serving a lengthy tenure as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. Mays currently serves on the boards of The Greater Phoenix Urban League and Tanner Community Development Corporation and is ex-officio on the Board of Governors for the State Bar of Arizona. She is an active member of Links Inc., Jack & Jill of America and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
The Honorable Shirley L. Fulton spent over 20 years in the Mecklenburg County Court System as Senior Resident Superior Court Judge, Resident Superior Court Judge, District Court Judge and Assistant District Attorney. While on the bench, Shirley led the courts in developing a system-wide strategic plan, successfully campaigned for bonds to build the current Mecklenburg County Courthouse, and developed programs to address the needs of non English speaking court participants. A well-respected community leader, Judge Fulton has served on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Task Force, as Chair of the Board of Advisors for the Charlotte School of Law and as President of the Mecklenburg County Bar.

New Resource in the Library: Hein’s National Survey of State Laws

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The library is excited to announce a new addition to the collection: Hein’s National Survey of State Laws in both print and electronic format. The survey focuses on the more controversial and popular legal topics in the United States. The print edition is organized alphabetically by category and then alphabetically by subtopic within the category.

The electronic version is packed with functionality, including the ability to browse laws by category, subtopic, and the ability to browse all previous print editions. Additionally, the electronic version contains a searchable database which includes all previous editions.

Below are a few examples of why a researcher would want to use this resource.

Suppose you want to know what the civil statutes of limitations are on breach of contract for a client who does business in different states. With one click on the topic for “civil statutes of limitations” in the electronic database, you can see this information for all 50 states. What is particularly helpful is that you also get the citation information for each statute.
Perhaps you are a faculty member doing research on capital punishment and want to see what states have a death penalty statute and what language variations exist between the statutes. Furthermore, you might want to know any changes in the statute language over a period of time. A researcher can easily see this information by viewing previous editions of the survey which are readily accessible within the topic.
This resource is not only a tremendous time saver but also offers an easy to navigate platform to gather needed information.

To browse other electronic resources you can access through the Charlotte School of Law Library, check out our ResearchGuide Going Digital: Electronic Research Resources. And, as always, contact the LUX desk if you have any questions or need any assistance!

Holmes and Jobs: Lessons for and about Charlotte School of Law

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Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. noted that “[t]he best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.” Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919)(Holmes, J., dissenting). Coupled with his observation “that time has upset many fighting faiths,” Justice Holmes illuminated the path that new ideas typically must travel as they vie for acceptance and predominance. Implicit in this premise is the understanding that the viability and utility of an idea are measured not by the moment but over the course of time.

Charlotte School of Law, in the most fundamental sense, is an idea. It is an idea whose time came because of legal education’s slow response to the dramatic changes that are transforming the legal profession. The model for what became Charlotte School of Law was conceptualized and developed by legal educators who have responded to the legal profession’s plea for law schools to become more closely aligned with the new realities of law practice. What has emerged is an institution more centered on facilitating student success, enabling professional readiness, and providing opportunities for qualified students who too often have been denied opportunity due to a perverse obsession with an increasingly outmoded ranking system. Our mission has attracted the support and engagement of recognized leaders in legal education and the legal profession.

Professor Bill Henderson (recognized by National Jurist as the second most influential person in legal education) has observed that, as most law schools struggle to adapt to new market realities, leadership in legal education is “up for grabs.” Schools that best adapt invariably will capture the mantle of leadership for the 21st Century (which, incidentally, is our mission). Noting that new leadership in legal education will emerge within the next two decades, Professor Henderson has characterized us as “people who could make a difference.”

As we pursue our mission of leadership through change, it is worth recalling Steve Jobs’ observation that “people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” Our objective is to change not the entire world but the world of legal education. The path for change leadership is not a straight line or without its speed bumps or setbacks. New ideas also encounter resistance and detractors. The reason that our “idea” ultimately will prevail in the “competition of the market” is because it represents what the market itself has been demanding. As judgment becomes increasingly informed about us, and so long as we maintain the courage of our convictions and commitment to continuous improvement, some of today’s “fighting faiths” will become unsettled. It will be these developments over the course of time, as opposed to any given moment, that establish our leadership and consequent appreciation in the value of the education we provide.