CLE Programs

Presented by the Forrest Weinberg Memorial Fund

Professor Jelani Jefferson Exum joined the University of Toledo College of Law faculty in 2011 as an Associate Professor of Law. Prior to joining the UT Law faculty, she was an associate professor at the University of Kansas School of Law and a visiting associate professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

Exum has also been a Forrester Fellow and Instructor in Legal Writing at Tulane Law School. Before joining academia, Professor Exum served as a law clerk for the Honorable James L. Dennis, United States Circuit Judge for the for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Honorable Eldon E. Fallon, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana. She teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Comparative Criminal Procedure, Federal Sentencing, and Race and American Law. Exum writes mainly in the area of sentencing law and policy, but her research interests also include comparative criminal law and procedure and the impact of race on criminal justice.

She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College.

Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich has been an assistant professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law since 2009. Before joining the faculty, Witmer-Rich practiced at the Federal Public Defender's Office, where he represented defendants charged with a wide range of federal crimes. He also represented several detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in habeas corpus proceedings.

Witmer-Rich's research focuses on criminal procedure and criminal law theory. His articles have appeared journals such as the Florida Law Review and Criminal Law and Philosophy. He teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, and law and terrorism.

In 2010 he received an Ohio Faculty Innovator Award from the Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents for innovative and cost-saving use of digital classroom materials. Witmer-Rich serves as counsel to the Criminal Rules Committee of the Ohio Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedure.

Witmer-Rich earned his undergraduate degree from Goshen College and his JD from the University of Michigan. Following law school, Witmer-Rich clerked for Judge M. Blane Michael on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and for Judge Joseph R. Goodwin on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. He then worked as a litigation associate for three years at Jones Day in Cleveland.

The Friedman and Gilbert Criminal Justice Forum Lecture

Paul Wright - "Prisons, Power, and Policy in the Twenty-First Century"

Paul Wright is the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center. He is also editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), the longest-running independent prisoner rights publication in U.S. history. He has co-authored three PLN anthologies, The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry (Common Courage, 1998); Prison Nation: The Warehousing of Americas Poor (Routledge, 2003); and Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Imprisonment (New Press, 2008). His articles have appeared in over 80 publications, ranging from Counterpunch to USA Today.

A former prisoner, Wright was imprisoned for 17 years in Washington state until his release in 2003. During and since his incarceration he has successfully litigated a wide variety of censorship and public records cases against prison systems around the country, both as a pro se plaintiff and on behalf of PLN.

Wright is a former military policeman, a graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in Soviet History, and the former National Lawyers Guild Jailhouse Lawyer co-vice president (1995-2008). He is a 2005 Petra Fellow, the Freedom Fighter of the Month for High Times magazine in July 2006, a 2007 recipient of the James Madison Award from the Washington Coalition for Open Government, the 2008 inaugural recipient of the National Lawyers Guild's Arthur Kinoy award, and a 2011 recipient of the Distinguished Public Interest Service Award from the City of New York Law School.

Criminal Justice Forum - Professor Deborah Tuerkheimer, "Rape Law for the Twenty-First Century"

Deborah Tuerkheimer teaches Criminal Law, Domestic Violence, and Feminist Jurisprudence at DePaul University College of Law and was previously a professor at the University of Maine School of Law, where she also taught Criminal Procedure and Evidence.

Tuerkheimer has published a number of articles addressing how the U.S. Supreme Court’s transformation of the Confrontation Clause uniquely impacts the prosecution of domestic violence. Her scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, Indiana Law Journal, North Carolina Law Review, Arizona Law Review, George Washington Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Texas Law Review on-line, and the Op-Ed page of the New York Times. Tuerkheimer’s article, “The Next Innocence Project: Shaken Baby Syndrome and the Criminal Courts,” appeared in a 2009 issue of the Washington University Law Review, and received national and international attention. She is a co-author of West’s Feminist Jurisprudence casebook and the author of Shaken Baby Syndrome, a monograph to be published by Oxford University Press.

Tuerkheimer earned her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Harvard College and her JD from Yale. After clerking for Alaska Supreme Court Justice Jay Rabinowitz, Tuerkheimer served for five years as an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office, where she specialized in domestic violence prosecution.

Civil Rights Activist and Renowned Author to Discuss Race in America at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

Author of “Ghosts of Jim Crow” to speak on his recent book during Constitution Day lecture

Civil rights author F. Michael Higginbotham will give the Constitution Day lecture at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law (1801 Euclid Ave.), Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 5 p.m.

Higginbotham will discuss his recent book, “Ghosts of Jim Crow: Ending Racism In Post-Racial America.” In the book, Higginbotham argues that America remains far from the imagined utopia hoped for when Barack Obama was elected as the first African-American president.

During his lecture, Higginbotham will discuss how America has maintained notions of white superiority and black inferiority and how the United States remains separate and unequal, while offering a practical prescription to improve the race problem.

Higginbotham is the Wilson H. Elkins Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. He teaches courses on constitutional law and race, and has recently served as a guest on CNN and MSNBC discussing race and the law.

Higginbotham received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Brown University in 1979, a Juris Doctor degree from Yale University in 1982, and a Master of Laws degree with honors from Cambridge University in 1985. 

The one-hour dialogue, co-sponsored by The City Club of Cleveland, includes a 30-minute lecture, 15 minutes of conversation with a moderator, and a 15-minute question and answer session. This lecture is part of daylong festivities throughout CSU, honoring the nation’s heritage and celebrating the adoption of the United States Constitution.

The event is free and open to the public, and offers attendees one hour of free CLE. Preregistration is not required.

Ghosts of Jim Crow Research Guide

3rd Annual Entertainment and Sports Law Association Symposium - "Construction and Contractual Agreements: How to Maximize the Revenue of Sport and Entertainment Venues." 

Register at the door beginning 8:30 am. Preregistration is not required.\

Moderators:

Featured Speakers:

Jeff Appelbaum, Managing Director, Project Management Consultants, LLC, Partner/Chairman, Construction Law Group, & Partner, Thompson Hine LLP - For over 30 years, Appelbaum has served the construction industry in the varying roles of trial and transactional attorney, project counsel, project management consultant, mediator and partnering facilitator. Currently, he serves as Project Counsel-Representative Projects for the Gateway Complex, the Golden State Warriors Arena, and the San Francisco 49ers NFL Stadium. He also serves as Project Management Counsel-Representative Projects and Partnering Facilitator – Representative Projects for many other sports arenas and non-sports complexes. Applbaum received his Juris Doctorate and Bachelor’s Degree from Cornell University.

Sashi Brown, Esq., Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Cleveland Browns - Hired in January as the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Browns, Brown served as the GC of the Jacksonville Jaguars for seven years. Prior to joining the Jaguars, Brown was an attorney with Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr, a private law firm based in Washington, D.C. As a member of the firm’s corporate law practice group, He advised companies in a variety of business transactions. Brown earned an undergraduate degree from Hampton University in 1998 and a Juris Doctorate degree from Harvard Law School in 2002. Brown is a member of the New York, District of Columbia and Florida bars.

Chris Harrington, Executive Legal Assistant, Brooklyn Nets & Barclays Center - A Cleveland-Marshall graduate, Harrington has served as the Executive Assistant of the Great Lakes Sports and Entertainment Law Academy, a Research and Teaching Assistant for Professor Peter Carfagna, Esq., a Summer Associate at The Madison Square Garden Company and an intern at Innovative Artists and Literary Agency and UBS Financial Services, Inc. He currently serves as the Executive Legal Assistant for the Brooklyn Nets & Barclays Center.

Bryan McCall, Performance Director, Michael Johnson Performance Training Center at SPIRE Institute - Working in Human Performance Enhancement for the past 13 years, McCall is currently the Director of the Michael Johnson Performance Training Center in Geneva. McCall has trained athletes of all sports in Texas and Florida, and is now operating the extension of MJP. Working with Nike, performance equipment manufacturers, and athletes, McCall was vital to arranging the necessary contracts and construction operations needed to build and operate the MJP multi-purpose training facility.

Jeff Orloff, Chief Operating Officer, SPIRE Institute - A graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Orloff served as the Senior Vice President-Operations for IMG working as the Director of IMG’s Worldwide Fashion Events most recently. Orloff currently is the owner of ReCreation LLC, a sports and entertainment consulting firm, and the Chief Operating Officer of SPIRE Institute in Geneva.

Ivan Schwarz, Executive Director, Greater Cleveland Film Commission - Ivan Schwarz has over 20 years of experience in the film industry. He was co-producer for the popular HBO mini-series, Band of Brothers with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. He also served as Location Manager for several television productions and movies, including Entourage, My Name is Earl, The Comeback and From the Earth to the Moon, again working with Tom Hanks. Schwarz was recruited to work at The Greater Cleveland Film Commission in October of 2006, and took over as Executive Director in August of 2007. Among the many things that attracted Schwarz to Cleveland was the opportunity to help build a lucrative film industry and give back something that could help the community. He has played a significant role in bringing films such as The Avengers, Captain America 2, Alex Cross and others to Cleveland.

Heather Stakich, Associate, Thompson Hine LLP - Stakich focuses her practice on representing owners, developers, contractors, architects and other construction professionals in all aspects of construction and development projects. A graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law and Cornell University, Heather was included in the Rising Stars by Ohio Super Lawyer magazine in 2013.

CMLAA-CLE seminar - Principles of Cross Examination/Update on DUS Law

For information contact the C|M Law Alumni Association, 216-687-2368

CMLAA-CLE seminar - Elder Law

For information contact the C|M L:aw Alumni Association, 216-687-2368.

CMLAA - CLE seminar - Ethics, Professionalism & Substance Abuse

For information contact the C|M Law Alumni Association - 216-687-2368