advocacy

A Tool for Accountability and Justice: Meet Leena Alasaad

/ Sangeeta Kishore / Leave a comment

There are numerous roads to law school, and no one-size fits all path to a successful legal career. Follow along with our series highlighting BC Law students and how they got here! 

Previous entries: Sara Womble (Winston Salem, NC); Elias Massion (Nashville, TN); Samina Gagné (London);Alvin Synarong (Murfreesboro, Tennessee); Ruchita Jain (Edina, Minnesota); Nicole Bauer (Michigan);Carlos Robles-Cruz (Puerto Rico); Taha Din (Naperville, IL); Timothy St. Pierre (Brunswick, Maine); Tobias Wilcken Jørgensen LLM ’25 (Denmark).

Leena Alasaad

Name: Leena Alasaad

Hometown: Dracut, Massachusetts

Educational Background: Undergraduate degree in Political Science, with a minor in Philosophy and Law, University of Massachusetts Boston

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Building on Advocacy and Compassion: Meet Timothy St. Pierre

/ Sangeeta Kishore / 2 Comments

There are numerous roads to law school, and no one-size fits all path to a successful legal career. Follow along with our series highlighting BC Law students and how they got here! 

Previous entries: Sara Womble (Winston Salem, NC); Elias Massion (Nashville, TN); Samina Gagné (London); Alvin Synarong (Murfreesboro, Tennessee); Ruchita Jain (Edina, Minnesota); Nicole Bauer (Michigan); Carlos Robles-Cruz (Puerto Rico); Taha Din (Naperville, IL).

Name: Timothy St. Pierre

Hometown: Brunswick, Maine

Educational Background: Swarthmore College (2021, Political Science, French & Francophone Studies)

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Discovering Advocacy Before the Courtroom: My Journey to Law School

/ Isabella Calise / Leave a comment

One Monday morning in the summer of 2022, I was greeted at work by my boss eagerly telling me today I would be meeting the defendant in the self-defense case I just started working on. After anxiously waiting until lunch, I watched with surprise as a young boy—barely five foot seven and still sporting a baby face—walked through my door and told me he was just seventeen yet was being tried as an adult for second-degree murder. 

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How My Grandmother’s Escape from Persecution Helped Me Discover My Own Path

/ Rebecca Carcieri / Leave a comment

Ilovik, Croatia, is a sparsely developed island with a compact area of just five square miles. With only 60 permanent residents and a modest influx of expatriates each summer, Ilovik’s way of life is characterized by its isolation and limited resources. The idyllic beauty of the island belies the history and complex legal struggles of many of its inhabitants. I have spent most of my childhood summers visiting my Baba, Croatian for grandmother, in Ilovik. During these visits, as I listened to Baba’s poignant recollections of her time on and off the island, I discovered my calling to pursue a career in law.

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Coercion will Fail, but Trade will Endure

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

This guest post by BC Law Professor Frank Garcia originally appeared in the Cambridge University Press blog.

The first year of Trump’s second term has been a chaotic one for trade, as for so much else. Before inauguration, the President had already threatened tariffs against Denmark to force a “sale” of Greenland. Within days of taking office, he began threatening or imposing illegal tariffs against Colombia, China, Mexico, Canada, all steel and aluminum exporters, the EU, and now virtually all nations that trade with us. Each of these blows is a stark reminder that we live in a time when economic coercion masquerades as trade policy. 

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Sticks and Stones: Handling Confrontation Like a Lawyer

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

Today’s guest post is written by Glenn Cunha, a Boston College graduate, BC Law adjunct professor, a former managing attorney of the Criminal Bureau in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and retired Massachusetts Inspector General. He is currently serving as a special prosecutor to the Suffolk County District Attorney.

Please note that today’s post contains language and situations that may be upsetting.

As lawyers, we sometimes take for granted the skills we hav‌e honed over the years during law school and in practice. I wanted to become a lawyer when I realized I could have a career based on talking, arguing and going after bullies. It’s just who I am.  Teachers, family members, coaches and friends would always tell me that I would make a good lawyer someday.

The legal skills we use — advocacy, quick thinking, level headedness — are skills I’ve had my whole life. I certainly refined them as a law student and throughout my career but because they are so natural to me, I tend to think everyone has them. After a situation this past summer, it became apparent to me that this isn’t necessarily true.

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An Inside Look at BC Law’s Academic Competitions

/ Courtney Ruggeri / Leave a comment

One thing that I’ve really loved about BC Law is the opportunity to develop lawyering skills outside of the classroom. Right now, 2Ls are in the midst of competing in the prestigious Wendell F. Grimes Moot Court competition. In honor of this notable law school experience, I sat down with Sarah Nyaeme, President of the Board of Student Advisors (and my roommate), to learn more about the competitions offered at BC Law.

Tell us a little bit about the Board of Student Advisors and what role the BSA plays in law school academic competitions.

The Board of Student Advisors is the student-led organization that helps facilitate and run the various advocacy programs at BC. These programs include the ABA Negotiation and Client Counseling competitions, Moot Court, and Mock Trial. The BSA includes both 2L and 3L co-chairs who are assigned to specific competitions. In addition, we have 1L representatives who shadow the co-chairs and assist with the behind-the-scenes work.

Can you provide us with an overview of the various competitions?

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Introducing Just Law: A Podcast

/ Thomas R. Blakely / 2 Comments

I am pleased to announce the launch of Boston College Law School’s podcast Just Law. 

I am 1L Tom Blakely and will be hosting the show alongside 3Ls Lea Silverman and Kevin O’Sullivan, and fellow 1L and Section 3er (the best section) Joanna Plaisir. 

We are very much appreciative of our tremendously talented editor and producer 3L Mark Grayson, and the institutional support from Boston College, specifically Director of Marketing and Communications Nate Kenyon.

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The Pandemic, Prisoners, and the Commonwealth: Cruel and Unusual?

/ Devon Sanders / Leave a comment

Today I am hosting a guest blog from third-year student Eric Jepeal.

This past August I was fortunate to be appointed to serve on the Massachusetts State Advisory Committee (SAC) to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR). USCCR is a federal agency established by Congress to advance “civil rights through objective and comprehensive investigation, research, and analysis on issues of fundamental concern to the federal government and the public.” USCCR is Congressionally mandated to have SACs in each state and the District of Columbia. The members of these SACs advise and facilitate the work of the USCCR, and are colloquially referred to as the “eyes and ears” of the USCCR. 

Prior to my time at Boston College, I interned for the USCCR and worked on various projects related to solitary confinement, bail reform, and fair housing. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, our SAC released a statement of concern regarding incarcerated persons. As you may be aware, the Supreme Judicial Court recently issued an opinion regarding litigation in Massachusetts brought by prisoners’ rights advocates and organizations to provide relief to incarcerated persons in the Commonwealth (CPCS v. Chief). Unfortunately, the SJC found it lacked authority to provide relief to prisoners who are more than sixty days into serving their sentences. 

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