Bar members are encouraged to participate in the 2006 “A Lawyer and Judge in Every School” day on Friday, May 5, 2006, also known as Law Day.

The 2006 Law Day theme is “Separate Branches, Balanced Powers.” This theme enables Law Day participants to show how the branches have their separate spheres and separate powers, but work together for the common good. The theme also is central to building understanding of the rule of law, which has always been a primary purpose of Law Day.

Through the NHBA’s Law Related Education department, Bar members can be paired with classrooms throughout the state to discuss concepts of law, rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and additional legal issues consistent with student interest and the course curriculum. School requests are coordinated by one designated person in a school who receives match-up information from LRE Coordinator Valenda Morrissette. Through Morrissette or by visiting the Law Related Education pages at www.nhbar.org Bar member volunteers can find resources and sample lesson plans for any age group and on many specific or general topics.

Bar members volunteering to visit schools can choose their own topics, or coordinate with the classroom teachers on a mutually agreed-upon topic.

Attorneys who choose the “Separate Branches, Balanced Powers” theme, can find resources on separation of powers issues at the ABA’s Law Day Web site at http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawday/schools/lessons/home.html.

The NHBA LRE page also has links to the Center for Civic Education (which develops the “We the People – The Citizen and the Constitution” competition curriculum), the National Constitution Center, and other civics and legal education Web sites.

NHBA LRE to Travel Overseas

US Army Captain Brad Gwillim  recently contacted the Bar Association from The Netherlands Law Center seeking help for a Law Day program he was developing for children of US military personnel in The Netherlands. In an e-mail to LRE Coordinator Valenda Morrissette, Capt. Gwillum, although not an NHBA member,  asked for specific programs, including Mock Trial, which he had read about on the Bar’s Web site. 

The Law Day will take place in May for the students of soldiers at the AFNorth International School in Brunssum.  Gwillim writes, “We won’t be doing a competition…[but] probably the lawyers in my office will take a half day to give something back to the students of our service men and women and present something fun for the kids.”

The requested materials are being sent to him by Morrissette and Gwillum will send back pictures with an account of their use at Law Day.  He says the Armed Forces Network also may film the program.

Did you know?

Students in the Bar’s Mock Trial program are fortunate to have the enhanced experience of competing in real courthouses. In most other states, these competitions take place in hotel banquet halls or other meeting facilities.

The Mock Trial program is able to offer this real-world component, thanks to the enormous cooperation of the state’s judicial branch and the county sheriffs’ departments providing security, as well as the considerable efforts of the Bar staff lining up and staffing multiple locations and multiple dates, and to the financial support of the New Hampshire Bar Foundation.

This year, many judges, including active and retired members of the bench (from the supreme, superior and district courts) will be participating as presiding or scoring judges, along with scores of attorneys (assisting as judges or as coaches.)

This year, 37 teams from 32 middle and high schools across the state are competing in the Mock Trial program. This year, for the second time, upper elementary school students also will be competing head-to-head at a courthouse location in April.

The Mock Trial state finals, for middle and high school students, will be Saturday, April 1, at Hillsborough County Superior Court-North in Manchester.

Special thanks this year to the staffs of the Plymouth, Dover and Portsmouth district courts, and the Rockingham, Strafford and Hillsborough North and South superior courthouses for their assistance in making the Bar’s Mock Trial program truly special.

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