Law school launches inaugural Academic Exchange Experience
2L Aabid Shivji spearheads a new way to share scholarly projects
Law students learn very early in their educational journeys that research and writing is essential for a successful legal career. First-year students will spend anywhere from 10 to 40 hours on a single memo, with several hours dedicated to perfecting a paragraph.
So whether it’s a memo, brief, seminar paper or written exam, law students are constantly producing prose. They’re always turning their research and ideas into text—before quickly moving on to the next assignment.
But sharing that prose with one another? Not so much.
Ruminating on the efforts they expend on research and writing each year, second-year law student Aabid Shivji had an idea—or rather, an idea for the exchange of ideas.
In conversation with his fellow students, Shivji noticed there was an interest among them in sharing the results of their intense focus and hard work.
“I started asking myself: How could we give people an opportunity to stay engaged with their work?” he said. “It struck me as odd that we had never had a student symposium that was open to all of the students at the law school, so I wanted to float the idea to administration.”
He approached Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Jennifer Cupar with the concept of the CWRU Law Academic Exchange. The informal event, he explained, would allow second- and third-year law students to present their scholarly projects—completed as part of their curricular writing requirement—to the law school community.
Cupar not only gave him the green light; she advocated for the event. They began planning,
and held the inaugural symposium at the School of Law on March 27 when 18 students presented to an audience of their peers, faculty, family and friends.
“The range of topics was remarkable and it was clear how much effort the students invested in both their papers and their presentations,” said Cupar, who is also a professor of lawyering skills at the law school. “It was fun to see how excited they were to present their work!”
Second-year student Kayli Bardy, who presented on book removals from public libraries, shared that it was important to be aware that this is a trend on the rise, and that courts have to play in it.
“In a time when gathering reliable information is more important than ever,” Bardy explained, “we need to be sure our courts are properly safeguarding the role that public libraries play in information access to communities.
In her presentation, 2L Jennie Parrish explained how “strategic storytelling” has shaped constitutional doctrine and public perception.
“My research points out a pattern in civil rights litigation in which careful plaintiff selection and strategic storytelling often lend itself to narrower doctrine being produced with the Supreme Court,” Parrish said. “I hope to provide considerations for advocates as they continue to seek broader equality under the laws themselves.”
Shivji, who presented his research on legal ethics in artificial intelligence, hopes the Academic Exchange becomes a lasting initiative at the law school.
“I can't thank Dean Cupar enough,” he said. “She understood the potential this event had to promote and strengthen student scholarship. The support from the administration of the law school and faculty—and the commitment of the students to their scholarship—is what made this experience so fulfilling and successful.”
Cupar, for her part, agreed. “We’re looking forward to building on the success of this year’s program and making this an annual celebration of student scholarship.”
