Rebecca L. Smith, a third-year student at the University of Wisconsin Law School, has been named the recipient of the 2006 Leonard Loeb Scholarship in recognition of both academic excellence and a strong interest in family law.

The Loeb Scholarship was created by the family of the late Leonard Loeb, a 1952 graduate of the UW Law School.  Loeb served as President of the State Bar of Wisconsin and was a recognized leader in family law.

Smith is president of the UW Law School Mock Trial Team and both Articles Editor and Symposium Editor for the Wisconsin Women’s Law Journal.  She is a 2004 graduate of UW-Madison, where her majors were Women’s Studies and Theatre and Drama.

Smith’s work as a student attorney with the Law School’s Family Court Assistance Project (FCAP) included helping low-income individuals with family law issues, expanding the scope of the clinic from its original focus of divorce to include other family issues, and creating an additional clinical program to respond to the growing number of domestic violence victims who turned to the clinic for help. Collaborating with the local agency Domestic Abuse Intervention Services and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Smith and other FCAP clinic members created a Restraining Order Clinic at the Dane County Courthouse, serving close to 70 victims in the course of the school year.  The clinic is now an established presence at the Courthouse, with assistance from law students, undergraduates, and interns.

Smith will receive the Leonard Loeb Award at the Law School’s spring 2007 awards ceremony.  This is the fourth year the Leonard Loeb Family Law Scholarship Committee of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and Fellows has presented the award.

Submitted by on December 19, 2006

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