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Monday Morning Message 8.28.2017
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” – President John Quincy Adams
In my welcoming remarks to our first-year class, I asked them to dedicate their first year at C|M|LAW to three special women who recently passed away:
Monday Morning Message 8.21.2017
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night….The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.” – Victor Hugo
This past week we welcomed the light of our first-year class and today we welcome the light of all our students - amidst the darkness of Charlottesville.
Monday Morning Message 8.14.2017
“Come to the edge” he said. They said, “We are afraid.“ “Come to the edge,” he said. They came. He pushed them…and they flew.” – Guillaume Apollinaire
“Study while others are sleeping, decide while others are delaying, prepare while others are daydreaming, begin while others are procrastinating, work while others are wishing, persist while others are quitting” - Anonymous
We are excited that our first year class (C|M|LAW Class of 2020) will be arriving tomorrow for orientation. Below are excerpts from my welcome message.
Monday Morning Message 8.7.2017
Every year on my birthday (and many days in between), I have a chocolate milkshake, my favorite guilty pleasure since childhood. This year, my birthday milkshake takes on a new meaning.
On Friday, July 28, 2017, Emily Pomeranz ‘95 passed away after a long battle against cancer. Born in Cleveland, Emily grew up in Cleveland Heights. After graduating from Laurel School and Kenyon College, she earned her law degree at C|M|Law in 1995. She worked for many years as an attorney for the Board of Veterans Appeals in Washington, D.C., and as recently as last year, she was a donor to our Annual Fund.
Monday Morning Message 7.31.2017
“ I have been a door-opener, because some Americans did not believe fundamentally in the respect of the individual as our Constitution enunciates.” – Judge Jean Murrell Capers ’45
Cleveland Law School, the predecessor to Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, was the first law school in Ohio to admit women and celebrated Elizabeth Williams as its first female graduate in 1908. Ever since, we have been a “door-opener” law school not only for women but also for many women and men who have broken gender, race, ethnic, and generational barriers to achieve great success.
Monday Morning Message 7.24.2017
The Ohio Bar Exam is this week - July 25-27 in Columbus. Since 1738 when Delaware created the first bar exam, law graduates have gone through this rite of passage. Our graduates have worked very hard to get this far. I want them to know that we believe in them…… so with apologies to Reinhold Niebuhr, author of the Serenity Prayer, I’ve taken the liberty of writing the following:
Serenity Prayer for C|M|LAW Bar Takers
Monday Morning Message 7.17.2017
Pursuing your dreams is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” – Anonymous
Monday Morning Message 7.10.2017
“You can be a master, Don't wait for luck. Dedicate yourself and you goin' find yourself, Standing in the hall of fame…. Cause you burn with the brightest flame. And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame.” - "Hall of Fame", The Script
Monday Morning Message 7.3.2017
"The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism." --Wole Soyinka
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” -Thomas Jefferson
I have just finished reading two of my “summer reads”- John Adams by David McCullough, andThomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham. Adams and Jefferson were distinguished lawyers and two of the five Declaration of Independence authors. (Note: four of the five Declaration of Independence authors were lawyers.)
Monday Morning Message 6.26.2017
"Don't work for recognition, but do work worthy of recognition." -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
One of the many rewarding parts of my job is receiving positive notes every week about our outstanding work. I love sharing them.
Hon. John J. Russo ’92, Administrative and Presiding Judge, Cuyahoga Court of Common Pleas; Adjunct Professor, C|M|Law