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CHASE CLOSED: All day and evening NKU classes cancelled for Tuesday, Feb. 9

Classes cancelled due to snow.

Feb 09, 2010 - Northern Kentucky University is closed on Tuesday, Feb. 9, due to inclement weather. All day and evening classes are cancelled beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Nancy L. Allf '82 Receives Outstanding Alumna Award

Nancy L. Allf '82

Feb 08, 2010 - The NKU Alumni Association presented its annual Outstanding Alumna Award for Chase College of Law to Nancy A. Allf '82. The award was presented at the University's annual alumni banquet on Friday, Feb. 5 in the Student Union Ballroom on campus.

Ms. Allf practices in Las Vegas, Nevada, and served as the President of the State Bar of Nevada in 2007. She has practiced in the areas of commercial litigation, business law, and bankruptcy for the past 27 years. Until November, she practiced with the law firm of Gonzalez, Saggio & Harlan, where she was Chair of their Bankruptcy Practice Group. Nancy recently opened her own law practice in Las Vegas and is currently a candidate for District Judge in Clark County, Nevada.

Nancy previously served as President of the Clark County Bar Association and the Clark County Bar Foundation. She has been the recipient of many awards, including honors from Super Lawyers Magazine, In Business Magazine, the Clark County Pro Bono Project, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Women Business Owners, and the Outstanding Young Woman of America. During the Las Vegas Centennial Celebration in 2005, she was named one of 300 women who shaped the history of Las Vegas. She is actively involved in civic, charitable, and non-profit organizations, and is a frequent speaker.

Congratulations to the Winners of the Grosse Moot Court Competition

Barry Spurlock, Lawrence Hilton, Christopher Allesee, and Loree Stark

Feb 05, 2010 - The W. Jack Grosse Moot Court Competition was held on Saturday, Jan. 23 in the Student Union Ballroom in front of a packed house of peers, professors, family, and friends. Lawrence Hilton took first place in the competition, and Barry Spurlock placed second. Christopher Allesee and Loree Stark tied for third place. This is the second intramural moot court competition win for Mr. Hilton - he also won the 2009 Bettman Moot Court Competition this past spring.

The students argued a fictitious case about a legal secretary who won $10 in a sexual harassment/hostile work environment lawsuit. The students addressed whether the work environment was sufficiently hostile under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and whether the secretary's attorney should have been awarded $125,000 in fees when the client won only $10 in damages.

Mr. Spurlock and Mr. Allesee represented the law firm, and Ms. Stark and Mr. Hilton represented the secretary.

The competition was judged by United States Magistrate Judge J. Gregory Wehrman, Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Michelle Keller, and the Honorable Donald C. Wintersheimer, former Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court.

All four students will be competing in upcoming competitions. Mr. Hilton and Mr. Allesee will be teammates in the 2010 Wagner Labor & Employment Law Moot Court Competition in New York City. Mr. Spurlock will be competing in the Rendigs Products Liability Moot Court Competition at the University of Cincinnati. Ms. Stark will be competing in the Adoption and Child Welfare Moot Court Competition in Columbus.

Chase Student Earns Multiple Convictions in Jury Trials

Kelly Harwood

Feb 03, 2010 - Third-year student Kelly Harwood served as the Special Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney with Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders to prosecute a drug trafficking case on Jan. 27. The jury found the defendant guilty and recommended a five year prison sentence. The defendant is due back in court this month for final sentencing.

This is Harwood's second jury trial conviction making her one in ten law student externs at the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office to win a conviction in a jury trial and one of two externs with multiple convictions in jury trials. Her last conviction was in December when she worked as second chair with Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Casey Burns. For both cases, Harwood was practicing as part of Chase's Kentucky Criminal Justice Externship program.

Chase Competes at the Invitation-Only Moot Court National Championship

Christen Steimle, Danielle Ravencraft, and Benjamin Lewis

Feb 02, 2010 - Chase College of Law was one of only sixteen law schools around the country to be invited to attend and compete in the Moot Court National Championship in Houston, Texas. The competition was held Jan. 27-30 and is hosted by the University of Houston Law Center. Teams are invited based on moot court results from the previous academic year. This is the second consecutive year that Chase has been invited to compete.

Chase was represented by Benjamin Lewis, Danielle Ravencraft, and Christen Steimle, and the team advanced to the quarter-finals of the competition. Additionally, Ms. Ravencraft was the recipient of the 2010 Best Speaker award, which is awarded to the student judged to be the best advocate in the competition.

All three Chase students have proven their moot court skills with past competitions. Mr. Lewis was on the winning team for the 2008 Robert F. Wagner Labor and Employment Law Moot Court Competition and was on the second place team in that competition in 2009. Ms. Ravencraft and Ms. Steimle won the national championship at the 2009 National Moot Court Competition in Child Welfare and Adoption Law where Ms. Ravencraft was also recognized as being the best advocate in the final round.

Tax Clinic Wins Tax Court Case of Importance to Low-Income Community

Professor Ljubomir Nacev

Feb 01, 2010 - In a case of importance to the low-income community, the NKU/Chase tax clinic successfully litigated the issue of who has the burden of proof in the case of lender reporting of debt cancellation. Generally, when a taxpayer has his or her debt canceled by the lender, the taxpayer has gross income in the amount of the debt canceled. The amount of debt canceled is reported by the lender on IRS Form 1099-C, and the form is issued by the lender to both the taxpayer and the IRS. If the taxpayer does not report the cancellation event on his tax return, the IRS will act, based on the form received from the lender, and will assess a tax against the debtor-taxpayer.

The case litigated by the NKU/Chase tax clinic raised the question of whether the IRS can rely solely on the Form 1099-C as prepared by the lender to assess the tax or whether the IRS must produce additional evidence to substantiate the Form 1099-C in circumstances when the taxpayer challenges the validity of the Form 1099-C. In ruling in favor of the taxpayer, the Tax Court affirmed that the burden of production will shift from the taxpayer to the IRS (and the lender) when the form did not properly identify the date of the cancellation, the date that triggers the cancellation event and the issuance of the Form 1099. This is an important issue for the low-income community since taxpayers in this community have greater difficulty than most taxpayers in dealing with lenders and with the IRS Automated Program that reacts to third-party (lender) reporting, such as Forms 1099. Based on the ruling in this case, the usual presumption of correctness that applies to an IRS notice of tax deficiency does not apply to a notice that is solely linked to a Form 1099-C that is infirm.

The case is Linkugel v. Commissioner, T.C. Summary Opinion 2009-180 (Dec. 1, 2009).

Chase Alumna Sworn in as Family Court Judge

Judge Gayle Hoffman

Jan 27, 2010 - Judge Gayle Hoffman '80, was sworn in as a Campbell County Family Court judge in November. She earned her Juris Doctor from Chase College of Law and began practicing with her father at The Hoffman Firm in 1980. For 29 years, she has practiced in the area of family law as an advocate for husbands, wives, parents, grandparents, and children.

She received the Roy Taylor Pro Bono Award in 1987 from Northern Kentucky Legal Aid; she was named Pro Bono Panel Member of the Year from Children's Law Center; and she was selected by The Supreme Court of Kentucky as a panel chair for Northern Kentucky Bar Association Arbitration Programs. She is also a member of numerous other professional associations and organizations.

Judge Hoffman is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and the United States Supreme Court.

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Chase Professor Wins AALS Award

Associate Professor Michael Mannheimer

Jan 25, 2010 - Professor Michael Mannheimer's paper, "Not the Crime but the Cover-Up: A Deterrence Based Rationale for the Premeditation-Deliberation Formula," was selected as the winner of this year's Association of American Law Schools Criminal Justice Section Junior Scholar Paper Award. The competition was open to any section member who has been a full-time law school faculty member for six years or less, and submissions were evaluated anonymously by the section's officers. Mannheimer gave a brief presentation of the paper at the Criminal Justice Section luncheon on Saturday, Jan. 9.

Mannheimer is an associate professor of law at Chase and has published articles on the federal death penalty, coerced confessions, and the Establishment, Free Speech, Confrontation, and Self-Incrimination Clauses. He received his J.D. in 1994 from Columbia Law School, and for the five years before coming to Chase, he served as Appellate Counsel and then Senior Appellate Counsel at the Center for Appellate Litigation in New York City, where he represented indigent criminal defendants on appeal from their convictions and in related collateral proceedings.

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Chase Associate Dean Presents Paper at AALS Annual Meeting

Professor Michael Whiteman

Jan 25, 2010 - Associate Dean Michael Whiteman presented his paper, "The Death of Twentieth-Century Authority," at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law Schools held Jan. 6-10 in New Orleans, La. His paper was selected as part of a call-for-papers and was included in the panel presentation titled, "Law Librarian as Scholar: Legal Authority and Research in an Age of Accessibility." The other members of the panel represented law schools from UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Kansas, University of Illinois, Georgia State University, John Marshall Law School, and the University of Virginia.

Whiteman is a professor of law and associate dean for law library services and information technology at Chase College of Law. He received his B.A. from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, his Juris Doctorate from the University of Louisville, and his Master's of Science in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and has worked in law libraries since 1993.

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Chase Alumnus Sworn in as 2010 NKBA President

Jeff Aylor, Chase alumnus and 2010 NKBA president

Jan 25, 2010 - Jeffrey R. Aylor '90, was sworn in as the 2010 president of the Northern Kentucky Bar Association at the Silver Bells Holiday Dinner Dance held in December. The event took place at the Airport Marriott in Hebron and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the NKBA.

A President's Reception was held prior to the event to recognize all past presidents as well as Aylor and the president-elect. The incoming 2010 board was sworn in by Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Wil Schroder.

The NKBA president's responsibilities include presiding at all meetings of the association and of the board of directors; and performing all duties ordinarily relating to the office and recommending action as the president sees fit.

Chase Student Serves as Second Chair to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney

Brett Renzenbrink and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Casey Burns

Jan 25, 2010 - Chase third-year student, Brett Renzenbrink, sat as second chair to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Casey Burns during a two-day trial for a felony case in which the defendant was charged with second degree burglary. Renzenbrink and Burns tried the case successfully, and the jury found the defendant guilty and recommended a sentence of five years in prison.

Through the Kentucky Criminal Justice Externship program, Renzenbrink interviewed witnesses and conducted the opening statement. He also conducted direct examination and cross-examination of several witnesses.

"I would strongly urge anyone interested in becoming a trial lawyer to not only participate in one of the clinics offered by Chase, but to also aggressively pursue the opportunities they offer," Renzenbrink said. "There are some things you simply cannot learn in a book."

Chase Professor Profiled for Work with the Constitutional Litigation Clinic

Visiting Professor David A. Singleton

Jan 14, 2010 - David A. Singleton, visiting professor at Chase College of Law and executive director of the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, was recently profiled in the Harvard Law Bulletin. His alma mater talks about Professor Singleton's work creating the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Chase, which offers eight law students a hands-on experience litigating civil rights cases on behalf of prisoners and former offenders in Ohio state and federal courts. The Ohio Justice & Policy Center created this clinic in partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and Chase College of Law. Students handle all aspects of cases, from client interviews through trials and appellate brief writing and argument.

Click the link below for the full profile.

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Chase Student Tries Murder Case

Erin Melchior

Jan 11, 2010 - Erin Melchior, a third-year student and a Chase National Trial Team member, tried a two-week murder case as co-chair with Kenton County Commonwealth's First Assistant, Jim Redwine, through the Kentucky Criminal Justice Externship program. Melchior was approached by Redwine in April when he asked for her assistance in preparing for the trial. She then co-chaired at the trial, which put her up against defense attorney and Chase alumna, Margo Grubbs.

The opportunity for a law student to participate in a murder trial is rare, but because of the skills Melchior has obtained throughout her studies at Chase, the prosecutor was confident in her ability to assist him with this case. Throughout the trial, Melchior conducted direct examinations of witnesses as well as prepared the cross-examination of the defendant using experience and approaches learned through her involvement with the National Trial Team and the Kentucky Mock Trial Competition. She also investigated the defendant's activities and was able to assist the detective and attorney in locating vital witnesses.

"I think there is truth to the fact that part of being a good trial lawyer is instinct and art, but the rest is a science, a certain set of skills you have to fundamentally learn in order to present that flawless set of evidence to a jury," Melchior said. "Those are the kinds of skills that Chase is teaching its students - the dos and don'ts of trial work - as well as the set of skills needed to legally lay down a case. I am so grateful for the opportunity given to me by Mr. Redwine. To assist in a murder case as a law student is something very rare."

Through the Kentucky Criminal Justice Externship program, students actively participate in the criminal justice system on a "limited license" basis under the supervision of a licensed attorney. They perform the functions of a prosecutor or public defender through all facets of prosecution, including filing charges, performing investigations, responding to discovery, handling motions and hearings, and conducting jury and nonjury trials. Through a combination of experiential learning and classroom instruction, students further develop core competencies in advocacy skills and substantive knowledge required to serve as prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Chase Students Win Felony Convictions as Part of Externship

Brett Renzenbrink and Kelly Harwood

Jan 11, 2010 - Brett Renzenbrink and Kelly Harwood both tried and won cases as part of Chase's Kentucky Criminal Justice Externship Program.

Renzenbrink, a third-year student, prosecuted a felony drug trafficking case as second chair with Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders. The defendant was charged with a first-degree felony of trafficking in a controlled substance. Despite the defendant's defense that he never intended to sell the drugs, Renzenbrink and Sanders argued that the amount of crack cocaine and the circumstances of the crime all pointed to his intent to sell. The jury agreed with Renzenbrink and Sanders, and the defendant was convicted of first-degree trafficking. He was also found to be a persistent felony offender, which enhanced his penalty range resulting in a sentence of 15 years in prison.

"I am immensely appreciative of the opportunity that the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has given me in this trial," Renzenbrink said. "To sit second-chair with Rob Sanders and argue on behalf of the commonwealth of Kentucky was a very educational and rewarding experience."

Kelly Harwood, a third-year student, obtained a felony conviction in a jury trial through her participation in the externship program. Harwood worked as second chair with Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Casey Burns to prove that the defendant was guilty of trafficking in a controlled substance. The two-day trial resulted in a conviction on the trafficking charge. Final sentencing is scheduled for January.

"The externship has been beneficial because it has allowed me to get out of the classroom and into a real-life legal setting," Harwood said. "Working closely with the attorneys at the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has taught me lessons that a case book cannot."

Through the Kentucky Criminal Justice Externship Program, students actively participate in the criminal justice system on a "limited license" basis under the supervision of a licensed attorney. They perform the functions of a prosecutor or public defender through all facets of prosecution, including filing charges, performing investigations, responding to discovery, handling motions and hearings, and conducting jury and nonjury trials. Through a combination of experiential learning and classroom instruction, students further develop core competencies in advocacy skills and substantive knowledge required to serve as prosecutors and defense attorneys.

"Trial by jury is the bedrock of our American justice system," professor Kathleen Johnson, director of clinical programs, said. "The ability to advocate on behalf of a client is a skill that every attorney should possess. Chase's Kentucky Criminal Justice Externship Program gives every participating student the skills needed to handle a case from start to finish."

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