Charlotte Attorney's Informative Blog

A Swedish study just released suggests a person’s commute time increases the chances the person will separate or divorce by 40%. The results indicate a long commute is tougher on women and than men and is usually highest during the first few years of a commute.

New Yorkers seemed to have escaped the phenomenon, which is relatively new to Swedes: New Yorkers have the longest average commute in the US, but they also have one of the lowest divorce rates, suggesting other factors affect the deterioration of a marriage.

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According to a new report released by the US Census Bureau, more Americans are waiting longer to get married, with many living together and others just getting choosier. In 2009, about 47% of women aged 25-29 have never married, almost double the 26% reported in 1986. The “most noticeable changes in marital patterns” is in the increase in the age of couples at their first marriage.

The youngest brides were most likely to be Hispanic, with only about 35% aged 25-29 reporting never marrying; black women were the least likely to marry between 25-29, with less than 30% reporting marrying.

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Seven UNC School of Law students were selected from about 1,900 applicants to participate in 2011 Equal Justice Works Summer Corps, a program that connects law students with low-income and underserved communities, where legal assistance is critically needed. Summer Corps is a project of Equal Justice Works, a non-profit public interest organization based in Washington, D.C. Equal Justice Works collaborates with law schools, law firms, business partners, and non-profit organizations to improve access to legal expertise in the most vulnerable communities, and to help attorneys acquire the training and skills needed to be effective advocates serving those communities.

The 2011 Summer Corps members from the UNC School of Law are:

Jean Abreu, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Durham, N.C.
Marc Allen, ACLU of Michigan, Detroit, Mich.
Sarah Chang, Disability Rights North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.
Christopher Dodge, Wake County Public Defender, Raleigh, N.C.
Shonaka Ellison, Wake County Public Defender, Raleigh, N.C.
Courtney Salzer, Wake County Public Defender, Raleigh, N.C.
Allegra Sinclair, Fair Trial Initiative, Durham, N.C.

-June 14, 2011

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What happens when a divorced parent decides not to stay in their kid’s lives? This sad outcome of divorce makes children innocent victims. Here’s how to help.

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In a decision that overturned a lower court’s ruling, Massachusetts’ Court of Appeals ruled earlier this week that a retired Air Force officer’s pension should be treated as a marital asset, rather than as income in cases of divorce. In his ruling, the judge ruled that retired USAF Lt. Col. Michael S. Casey’s after-tax pension of $867 per week should be treated as income in his divorce from his wife of 17 years, Deanne E. Casey.

In their decision, the Appeals Court noted that the US Supreme Court leaves states to decide whether to treat pensions as income or a marital asset. The justices Ms. Casey, a nurse, sacrificed her career for her then-husband, who spent much of his career as a NATO staffer in Europe.

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Last month, Missouri lawmakers unanimously passed what is the first major overhaul of domestic violence laws in the state in four decades. Changes to the bill, which the House passed 138-0, and the Senate voted 33-0, followed most recommendations of the domestic violence task force, specially created by the attorney general’s office.

Included among the bill’s changes are that people seeking protection orders will no longer be charged filing fees, and judges will be able to customize terms of an order according to the situation.

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Durham County (NC) Judge Nancy Gordon has surprised many by awarding custody of two children to their father because their mother was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer. “The course of her disease is unknown. Children who have a parent with cancer need more contact with the non-ill parent,” Gordon write in her ruling.

The children, aged 11 and 5, will be relocating to Chicago, where their father resides. The move and the ruling trouble 33-year-old Alaina Giordano. “The judge knows that I don’t have the means to be flying to Chicago to visit them, pay for a place to stay, or to fly them here on any sort of regular basis.

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Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a new bill that would ban parents from “conducting a dating or sexual relationship” within their home until their divorces are final. The bill’s sponsor, Robert Leclair, who reportedly went through a contentious divorce himself and is the former president of the disbanded Fathers United for Equal Justice, argues the bill is intended to prevent domestic violence and shield children until the parents have resolved their divorce.

Critics of the bill argue that it takes away parents’ rights and could be unconstitutional.

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First-year law students at UNC School of Law are testing their mettle this summer as they participate in programs that support diversity in the legal profession. Six students have been accepted into competitive diversity summer programs.

“We live in a diverse society and the legal workplace needs to reflect that diversity,” explains Maria J. Mangano ’82, director of career services for the school. “In fact, clients are starting to demand that the lawyers who work on their cases are just as diverse as their clients and the world we live in. These programs are critically important in identifying the best and brightest diverse law students and giving them the opportunities they deserve.”

Mangano works closely with career counselor Lynn Hudson Boone to promote the many diversity programs and then to identify and prepare eligible first-year students to compete for these and other internships and training programs.

The students who are participating in the programs for first-year law students this year are:

	Amit Bhagwandass will be working with Fresh Market in Greensboro, N.C., through the NC Bar Association Minorities in the Profession Committee Summer Associate Program and with Nelson Mullins in Raleigh, N.C.
	Uttara Kale will be working with the AT&T Summer Legal Internship Program in Atlanta, Ga.
	Syed (Yasir) Latifi will be working at Mayer Brown and Compass Group as part of the Charlotte Legal Diversity Clerkship Program, which matches eligible students with firms in the Charlotte, N.C. area.
	Whitney Nebolisa will be working with K&L Gates in Raleigh, N.C., as part of the NC Bar Association Minorities in the Profession Committee Summer Associate Program.
	Fallon Speaker received a 2011 Nexsen Pruet Diversity Scholarship. Fallon will be working with the NC Justice Center in Raleigh, N.C., on housing issues and as a research assistant for Charles Daye, Henry Brandis Professor of Law and deputy director of the Center for Civil Rights.
	Tansy Woan will be working with Dorsey & Whitney and UnitedHealth Group, both in Minneapolis, Minn., through the Twin Cities Diversity in Practice Annual 1L Summer Rotation Clerkship Program. Tansy also received a 2011 Nexsen Pruet Diversity Scholarship.

“The legal profession, both in North Carolina and nationwide, is making efforts to identify, attract, hire, and retain historically underrepresented groups,” says Mangano. These summer programs for first year law students are among the many efforts that large law firms and corporations organize for this purpose.

“Carolina Law’s class of 2013, like its predecessors, has achieved great success in these programs and the career services office is extremely proud of these accomplished students,” says Boone. “In fact, our students are in such demand that at least two of them received offers from more than one of these programs and had to choose between them; another student was selected to interview in the Minorities in the Profession program but received and accepted an offer from a major Atlanta firm prior to her interviews.”

Boone notes that there are a number of diversity programs available for both first- and second-year law students, and that the most comprehensive resource for finding out about them is the career services office.

-May 24, 2011

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