Professor Heinz Klug and students Elise Alexandria Ashley, Etiosa Emmanuel Ojomo, and Von Dickens Abero Ulsa have been named speakers for the University of Wisconsin Law School's annual Hooding Ceremony. They will join keynote speaker Justice Rebecca Frank Dallet in addressing Law School graduates, friends, and family at the event. The ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. Friday, May 13, at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center Exhibition Hall, One John Nolen Drive. At the ceremony—a special recognition for students receiving law degrees—faculty members place the hood over the head of the graduate to signify their success in completing their law degree. The hooding event is in addition to, and does not replace, the university-wide commencement. View the livestream of the Hooding Ceremony.
Professor Heinz Klug
Heinz Klug, the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Law at UW Law School, grew up in Durban, South Africa. He participated in the anti-Apartheid struggle, spent 11 years in exile and returned to South Africa in 1990 as a member of the ANC Land Commission and researcher for Zola Skweyiya, chairperson of the ANC Constitutional Committee. He was also a team member on the World Bank mission to South Africa on Land Reform and Rural Restructuring. He has taught at UW since 1996.
Klug has presented lectures and papers on the South African constitution, land reform, and water law, among other topics, in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Germany, South Africa, the Netherlands, and at several U.S. law schools. His research interests include constitutional transitions, constitution-building, human rights, international legal regimes, and natural resources. His current teaching areas include comparative constitutional law, constitutional law, constitution making, human rights and humanitarian law, property, and natural resources law.
Elise Alexandria Ashley
Elise Alexandria Ashley was born and raised in Milwaukee. She received her bachelor's degree in political science and criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As an undergraduate student, she participated in the Law School Admission Council Prelaw Undergraduate Scholars Program at UW Law. Additionally, Ashley served as an intern with the Wisconsin State Public Defender's Office.
As a law student, Ashley served as a 1L representative and co-executive director of the Black Law Students Association. She also served as the senior articles editor for the Wisconsin Law Review and worked as a clinical law student with the Eviction Defense Clinic. She is a member of the Moot Court Board and competed in the New York City Bar Association Moot Court Competition. Additionally, she participated in the LawMeets Mergers and Acquisitions Bootcamp. In 2022, she received the Bruce Beilfuss Memorial Award for outstanding service to the law school and the Gwynette E. Smalley Law Review Prize for special contributions to the Wisconsin Law Review.
Etiosa Emmanuel Ojomo
Etiosa Emmanuel Ojomo was born in Benin City, Edo State Nigeria. He received his bachelor's degree (LL.B.) in law from the University of Benin and thereafter proceeded to the Nigerian Law School where he was called to the Nigerian Bar. At the University of Benin, he was a parliamentarian at the Student Representative Council and chaired a Constitution Drafting Committee. Ojomo represented the school at various Moot Court competitions and was chosen as head of the Charles ED Moot court society.
Prior to attending UW Law School, Ojomo worked as a commercial associate in Lagos, Nigeria, in the fields of corporate law and regulatory compliance. As a volunteer, he assisted the legal aid corp group, which provided pro-bono representation to criminal defendants and people facing eviction. At UW Law, Ojomo was a student advocate in the Unemployment Appeals Clinic, and completed his LL.M. in Spring 2021. He was a member of the Black Law Students Association.
Von Dickens Abero Ulsa
Von Dickens Abero Ulsa was born in Tuguegarao City, Philippines. In 2009, he and his family moved to Honolulu, Hawaii. He graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2016, earning a triple bachelor's degree in American studies, English, and history, with a minor in Filipino language and literature. A lover of obscure and intriguing histories, Ulsa received numerous grants to conduct research from medieval archives in Seville, Spain, to major museums across the East Coast.
Ulsa worked at a small business law firm in downtown Honolulu prior to attending law school. He also built a successful career as an international artist. At UW Law, Ulsa served as the co-president of the Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi American Law Students Association during his 2L year. He also competed at the 2022 Jaffe Transactional Moot Court Competition in Detroit, Michigan. Ulsa had never been to Wisconsin prior to moving to Madison in 2019. He is grateful to find the aloha spirit in his classmates and professors who helped him thrive—especially during the long winter months.
Submitted by Law School News on May 13, 2022
This article appears in the categories: Features, Faculty, Students
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