More than 200 members of Omaha’s legal community gathered Wednesday for a luncheon marking the annual celebration of Law Day with the presentation of awards and a keynote address on this year’s theme, “Free Speech, Free Press, Free Society.”
The Omaha Bar Association recognized several community outreach efforts organized as part of Law Day, including an annual mock trial, classroom visits by lawyers and judges, and essay and poster contests for area students.
Would the Big Bad Wolf prevail in his tort claim for damages that he filed against Curly Pig after he was injured falling into a vat of boiling water at Pig’s home? One hundred fifth-graders from OPS’s Liberty Elementary School watched the (mock) trial held in their gym, with 12 of them serving as jurors, at the Omaha Bar Association’s 2019 Law Day Mock Trial.
Legal Aid of Nebraska: To the Muddy Rescue and Beyond
The water came from everywhere and it seems few, if any, were ready for what happened in the middle of March. Historic flooding ravaged much of Nebraska. Federal disaster relief came, but so much more was needed.
That need was, and is, one that could not wait. Legal Aid of Nebraska – the organization that provides free civil legal help to eligible low-income clients – was ready.
Each year, the Omaha Legal Professionals Association (OLPA) sponsor the Law Day essay contest to area eighth-grade students and the Nebraska Paralegal Association (NePA) gives area fifth graders a chance to win with a poster contest. Both competitions feature the Law Day theme for the year.
Journalists might take for granted their right to report utterances made in open court, but they have the organized efforts of Nebraska media outlets to thank for a landmark Supreme Court decision establishing that right.
The media coalition came together to fight a North Platte judge’s order in 1975 to stop the publication and broadcasting of accounts of a confession or other facts “strongly implicative” of guilt in a Sutherland murder case.
Displaying a middle finger is so mundane that it has its own emoji.
Yet the vulgar gesture, along with some derogatory language, sparked a political firestorm at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, igniting a debate over freedom of expression that lingers nearly two years later.
The result has been condemnation by national advocacy groups, challenges to university policies and political pressure to further protect conservative values at UNL.
It’s a subject Danielle Conrad and Amy Miller often find themselves addressing, but let’s be clear: Free speech needs to be defended.
It’s true, and somewhat surprising, that an organization which has been around 99 years – and for more than 50 years in Nebraska – the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) often is more than a little understood.
Miller, the ACLU Nebraska’s legal director, feels the confusion stems from people not understanding the organization is nonpartisan.
Karisa D. Johnson knows she will be volunteering on the second Monday of every month, but she was surprised when that few hours of commitment each month translated into recognition for her impact on the legal community.
Johnson is the recipient of this year’s Alfred G. Ellick Lawyer Referral Award for her volunteer efforts over the past decade and for helping to establish that referrals for limited scope representation are permitted through the Omaha Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service.
Fifty years ago, wives of local lawyers and judges decided to band together for camaraderie and support. They created the Omaha Lawyers’ Wives organization and elected Patty Buckley as their first president.
They submitted their original article of incorporation as a nonprofit on Feb. 20, 1969. Seven years later, almost to the day, they changed the group’s name to the Omaha Law League Foundation Inc. in order to better reflect their membership, which included judges, lawyers and others interested in their mission