The 39th annual banquet of the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Legal Education Opportunities program (LEO) brought approximately 400 people to the Concourse Hotel in Madison on April 12, 2008.
Keynote speaker for the event was Judge William J. Haddad, the first Arab-American full Circuit Court judge in Chicago’s Cook County.
Attendees included including faculty, staff, alumni, current students, and admitted students. Many LEO alumni make an annual trip to Madison for the event, to reconnect and celebrate the achievements of the organization whose mission for four decades has been to recruit and support students of color on their way to becoming legal professionals.
Hosting the evening were members of the newest LEO group, the Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA), taking their first turn at planning the banquet.
Twelve law firms and other organizations sponsored tables at the event:
Foley & Lardner LLP
Godfrey & Kahn S.C.
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP
Quarles & Brady LLP
Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c.
Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P.
Smith Amundsen
Stafford Rosenbaum LLP
State Bar of Wisconsin
UW Law School East Asian Legal Studies Center
Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C.
Wisconsin Asian Bar Association
Co-chairs of the Friends of LEO organization, alumni Cory Nettles ‘96 (Partner, Quarles & Brady) and Eric Jackson ‘93 (Partner, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi), reported that contributions to the LEO Enrichment Fund to support LEO fellowships showed a substantial increase over the past year.
After the event, Professor Peter Carstensen, chair of the LEO Committee, commented, "This was a wonderful and very successful banquet, and the MELSA students who organized it did an outstanding job."
Carstensen also noted with appreciation the growing number of firms who sign on to sponsor tables, thus contributing financially to the organization and showing support in attending the event. "I see this as a further step by firms in Wisconsin and adjacent states to support their commitment to have a diverse workforce," Carstensen said.
Anyone interested in learning more about the UW Law School’s nationally prominent LEO organization is invited to visit http://law.wisc.edu/LegalEducationOpportunitiesLEO.htm or to request a copy of the LEO newsletter, On the Rise, by sending an e-mail giving your mailing address to Susan Sawatske, sawatske@wisc.edu.
Submitted by on April 16, 2008
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