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The University of Pittsburgh's School of Social Work is sponsoring an Intergroup Dialogue workshop, which will take place this weekend (Saturday, February 16th & Sunday, February 17th) from 9-4 on both days. 
The School of Social Work can only accommodate 30 students for this workshop. Interested attendees must e-mail Cindy Vicente (cjv33@pitt.edu) to register. A light breakfast and lunch will be provided. Those who attend both full days will also receive a certificate of completion. Workshop participants must be able to attend BOTH full days to register. 
If anyone has questions please feel free to contact Cindy Vicente directly (cjv33@pitt.edu) or at 412-624-6304.

About IGD: 
Intergroup Dialogue is a "face to face facilitated conversation between members of two or more social identity groups that strives to create new levels of understanding, relating and action. Through this training, students will learn how to engage in appropriate and successful intergroup dialogue, which they can use in their future professions. 
Stage 1: Creating a Shared Meaning of Dialogue
This stage focuses on group formation and trust building. Participants learn how to dialogue and what differentiates dialogue from debate. The conversations acknowledge participants’ multiple identities and recognize the particular identity that will be the focus of these dialogue sessions.
Stage 2: Identity, Social Relations, and Conflict
The sessions in this stage invite participants to explore identity on both a personal and group level. The material helps folks identify not only inter- and intra-group differences, but also the similarities of their experiences. Conversations also address differences in group privilege and discrimination, particularly when groups are comprised of individuals with greater and lesser degrees of privilege. Stage 2 also addresses structural racism and related social justice issues.
Stage 3: Issues of Social Justice / Hot Topics
Stage 3 delves into “hot topic” real-world issues that tend to be divisive. Participants generate possible hot topics based on relevant subjects that are controversial or ways in which they feel misunderstood. One of the overarching lessons of this phase is that groups-allying-together is not simply a matter of allying as friends; it is often a matter of allying together even when self-interests differ. How can we be in community together even when someone else’s perspective on a topic irritates me? Can I still listen to you and remain in dialogue mode with you even during moments when I may be upset by your viewpoint? The “hot topics” often produce divisions and provide opportunities for participants to work through conflicts.
4. Stage 4: Alliances and Other Next Steps
The sessions in this final stage invite participants to consider ways in which they see the groups working together productively. Questions that the participants consider include: What would that look like? What kind of allying would be helpful and productive? What specific steps can we take to work together in a positive manner? Participants are challenged to move beyond the insights they have gained and use/build upon their new understandings.

Equal Justice America is pleased to offer fellowships of up to $4,000 to students at the law schools listed below who work full-time during Summer 2019 for organizations providing direct civil legal assistance for the poor. Students must secure a full-time (minimum 35-40 hours per week) placement for Summer 2019 working at least 10 weeks for a legal services organization.
Summer fellowships may take place anywhere in the United States (please check the website for exceptions). The hiring organization must be a non-profit organization providing direct civil legal services to the poor. PLACEMENTS WITH PUBLIC DEFENDER OFFICES AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES DO NOT QUALIFY.
The deadline for students to apply for an Equal Justice America Summer 2019 Fellowship is March 18th.
For more information, please see PittLawWorks or visit http://equaljusticeamerica.org/summerapplication.htm.

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EXPLORE EXCITING LEGAL CLINIC OPPORTUNITIES AT PITT LAW!
Fall 2019 Clinic Pre-Registration Meeting
Attendance is a Mandatory Pre- Requisite
Pitt Law provides upper level law students with exciting opportunities to learn and apply lawyering skills.  The in-house Legal Clinics provide an unparalleled opportunity for students to represent clients and to gain practical skills.  Come to one of these meetings to learn more about these experiential learning opportunities, what kind of commitment is required, how you will benefit by participation and how to enroll. 
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 @ 12 noon – 1:30 pm
Thursday, March 21, 2019 @ 12 noon – 1:30 pm
Meetings will be held in the Legal Clinics Offices, Suite 420
Pizza will be served.
Because Clinics are in the nature of a professional commitment, we require attendanceat one of these informational meetings prior to registration in the clinics.  If you are thinking about or plan to enroll in a clinic next year (or are curious about what it is like to take a clinic) you mustattend one of the clinic informational sessions prior to registration. This applies to enrollment in the following clinics: the Civil Practice-Elder Law Clinic, Civil Practice-Health Law Clinic, Environmental Law Clinic, Family Law Clinic, Immigration Law Clinic, Low Income Tax Clinic, and Securities Arbitration Clinic. Additionally, it applies to enrollment in the PA Practice Practicum.
Enrollment in the Clinics and PA Practice Practicum will be monitored for compliance with this requirement.  If a student enrolls in a clinic without attending a session, he or she will be automatically dis-enrolled in the clinic by the Registrar.
If you attended one of the clinic informational meetings held in October 2018 for the 2019 Spring Registration and signed the attendance sheet, you need not attend again to register for this fall semester. These informational meetings are offered every semester before registration begins. If you have questions regarding any of the clinics please send an email to lawclin@pitt.edu.

The Community Police Engagement panel discussion scheduled for Thursday, January 21, at 5:00 pm at Pitt's Alumni Hall, has been POSTPONED due to a scheduling conflict. We hope to have a new date for this important conversation soon.

When Vivian Curran spoke at a recent panel event with Jeannette South-Paul, she highlighted the connections between her own work in comparative law and South-Paul’s work in family medicine.
“She has done so much ground-breaking work on the use of language in medicine and how physicians need to address the language of their patients,” said Curran, Distinguished Professor of Law.
South-Paul, the Andrew W. Mathieson Professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine, surprised audience members when she noted the two had first met as freshmen in high school.
“You couldn’t have two more different preteens meeting in an all-girls academic public high school in Philadelphia who became great friends,” recalled South-Paul. “It wasn’t until I was selected for the position of chair, and the first person who wrote me and said ‘Congratulations — we’re going to get to be together again!’ was Vivian.”
South-Paul and Curran were joined on the panel by Gretchen Bender, assistant chair and director of undergraduate studies in the History of Art and Architecture in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and assistant dean of academic affairs in the College of General Studies, as part of an event honoring women faculty members promoted during the 2018 calendar year.
The third annual Celebration of Newly Promoted Women Faculty was held on March 6 in Wesley W. Posvar Hall and was hosted by Laurie Kirsch, vice provost for faculty affairs, development and diversity, and the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Women’s Concerns. The event drew 55 attendees, including 11 women faculty members who were promoted during the year.
Along with Kristin Kanthak, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, and Anne Robertson, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science in the Swanson School of Engineering, Kirsch led Pitt’s IDEAL-N initiative, which this year comes to a close.
“It’s just been a pleasure to collaborate with Anne and Kris and others to continue our efforts to foster an environment at Pitt in which all faculty can thrive and be successful,” said Kirsch.
Kanthak and Robertson moderated this year’s panel, which featured discussion about the panelists’ drive for their work, the importance of mentors and the power of resilience.
On passion and drive
“My work is my passion,” said Curran, studies differences in international law systems. She recalled a moment of realizing that when you read and speak in different languages, concepts are embedded in something much bigger. “It has really been the basis for what I would call all the intellectual adventures of my life.”
“I have worked to show what we share, as opposed to what differs between us,” said South-Paul. “And the things that unify us, rather than the things that divide us. Because if we are going to build societies that work well together, it is going to be so important.”
Bender mentioned that her dissertation was on a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, but noted, “I don’t think that’s really what I do. At a fundamental level, I teach art. This is not just a vocation; it’s who I am and what I do.”
On mentoring and the value of networks
When asked about mentoring, South-Paul discussed approaching those with different experiences. “When you’re mentoring someone who is different, try and understand the journey,” she said. “So that when you’re sitting down to meet with them, you don’t assume — because those assumptions create divisions between you and the person you’re trying to mentor.”
Bender echoed South-Paul’s advice to try to understand the perspective of those you’re mentoring. “Everything I learned about mentoring I learned from being an advisor of undergraduate students,” she said. “You have to bring humility to mentoring. If you just sit in a position of authority and dictate to people what they need to do, that’s not a mentoring relationship. The first thing you have to do is understand where they’re coming from, what challenges they’re facing, what their needs are, and only then can you actually begin to work to give them some advice.”
Curran spoke about the benefit of joining professional organizations, in her case the American Society of Comparative Law, of which she is now honorary president, which enabled her access to a global network of colleagues. “They were so kind, so generous, and many of them gave me great help.”
On resilience and overcoming perceived setbacks
Curran recalled that as she began to practice law, she saw that she wasn’t happy. “Teaching is what always made me happy. I’d been a teaching assistant all the time I’d been a graduate student,” she explained, and she used that experience to begin teaching law as a professor.
South-Paul noted the importance of access to resources and the value of colleagues who can help navigate what’s in those resources — and what’s not. “Because the things that really make the difference between whether you survive, or thrive, are all of the other things that are not in the handbook.”
Bender acknowledged that it took her time to reconcile her status as a non-tenure-stream faculty member with her own expectations of her professional trajectory. She recalled her process for coming to terms with that by considering her strengths: “It took me not too long to realize that my strengths were my passion. I gave myself at a certain point permission to fully embrace the role of being the teacher, and to not be so hard on myself.”
She also spoke of Pitt in particular as a place where the people she’s encountered in her career “care about what you do, who you are as a person, what you contribute on a regular basis to whatever it is the team is doing, and they treat you with the utmost respect. They are colleagues who would do anything they could possibly do to help me advance and to become a better person.”

The University of Pittsburgh has awarded Assistant Professor Matiangai Sirleaf the Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award for 2019.
The Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award annually recognizes outstanding scholarly accomplishments of members of the University of Pittsburgh’s faculty. Awardees include faculty members who, by virtue of the exceptional quality of their early contributions, have demonstrated great potential as scholars and have achieved some international standing.
Sirleaf is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University Pittsburgh Law School. She previously served as an assistant professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, a Sharswood Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and as a lecturer for the International Human Rights Exchange Programme run by Bard College and University of the Witwatersrand, teaching courses in international law, criminal law, human rights and transitional justice. Her work focuses on remedying the accountability and responsibility gaps that exist in international law. Her current research agenda analyzes the disproportionate distribution of highly-infectious diseases and the role of law in facilitating this result. 
From 2010 to 2012, Sirleaf worked in private practice with Cohen, Milstein, Sellers & Toll in Washington, D.C., where she represented plaintiffs in numerous international human rights cases litigated in federal courts. Prior to that, she served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, as a fellow with the International Center for Transitional Justice, and as a summer associate with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City, and as a law clerk with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia. She received her JD from Yale Law School in 2008 and her MA from the University of Ghana (Legon) in International Affairs in 2005. In 2014, she received the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award from New York University.

PITTSBURGH—Classes begin in August 2019 for a new online graduate certificate program from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law that tackles the legal issues that sometimes arise in the human resource industry. Applications are currently being accepted for enrollment in Human Resources Law Online. The courses, taught over 40 weeks, will explore the practical applications of the law within human resources, and will be taught by Pitt Law’s expert faculty and employment law practitioners.
Students will learn key negotiating skills to help improve their ability to manage difficult workplace situations, such as employee contract negotiations, workplace accommodations requests, and employee terminations.
Pitt Professor of Law and director of Online Legal Programs Alan Meisel says the curriculum is aimed at non-lawyers. “We’re trying to provide a legal education for people already working in the industry,” he said. “Legal problems can arise but people don’t realize it’s a legal problem until they need a lawyer. With the knowledge gained through these courses, one can head off serious legal problems.”
Human Resources Law Online Program Director Joseph Hornack adds that human resources, like many areas of business, has become more complicated. “Artificial intelligence has been playing a larger role in hiring, work evaluation, and termination decisions at some of the larger companies,” he said. The algorithms are established in ways that may contain biases.”
Core courses of Human Resources Law Online include:
Introduction to the Legal System of Human Resources: Hiring and Firing
Wages, Hours, and Benefits
Working Conditions
Anti-discrimination Law
Students must already have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. The new certificate is ideal for those already working in HR, those moving to that field from another career, business school graduates, and other professionals who wants to know the legal issues related to HR. It is possible that an employer may extend a tuition benefit.
For more information, contact Joseph Hornack at jsh18@pitt.edu.
 

Craig Dietz was born in 1974, in the rural Pennsylvania town of St. Marys. Despite being born without limbs, he had a very active childhood, bowling in a league, hunting, fishing, playing percussion in the high school band, and graduating high school on the honor society.
Dietz graduated from Duquesne University in 1996, with a BA in Political Science. While at Duquesne, he was very active with the Campus Ministry and a member of the Delta Chi Fraternity. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1999, and passed the PA Bar Exam on his first attempt without any special accommodations. Dietz worked as an Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Harrisburg from 2000 - 2006. From 2006 -2010, Dietz worked as a litigation attorney for the City of Pittsburgh.
In addition to bowling, hunting, fishing, skiing and playing volleyball, Dietz always had a passion for swimming. But it wasn’t until 2008 that he decided to start training for long distance open water swimming and finished the 1500 meter Allegheny River swim in 40:20 as part of a relay team in the Pittsburgh Triathlon. That one race was all it took for him to become hooked on the competition of triathlon and open water swimming.
Dietz has competed in the Pittsburgh Triathlon every year since 2008. In 2012, he finished the swim in 29:14, faster than more than 150 able-bodied competitors. Also in 2012, he became the first quadruple amputee to swim across the Chesapeake Bay, finishing the 4.4 mile rough water swim in just under 3 hours. In 2013 Dietz finished a 1.5 mile “escape” from Alcatraz swim in 54:37. In the Summer of 2016, Dietz completed his first 10K (6.2 mi.) open water swim, and in 2017 he competed in the Midmar Mile swim in South Africa, swimming a total of 7 miles over 2 days.
His parents, two sisters, and brother have been extremely supportive of all his activities throughout his life. His family was particularly instrumental in getting driving lessons for him and purchasing a van equipped for him to drive. Dietz has lived independently since graduating from high school, and currently resides in Harrisburg, PA, with his wife, Christy and their dog, Rocco. His story has been featured on the Marie Osmond Show, Fox News, ESPN’s television show, E:60, as well as ESPN The Magazine and several local print and television news media outlets. For more than 10 years, Dietz has been challenging and inspiring audiences with his life story of perseverance, and his unique blend of humor and candor.
Learn more at craigdietzspeaks.com.

Have you applied for or accepted a non-paying summer legal position with a public interest organization? Will you be a student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law next year?
Each year, Pitt Legal Income Sharing Foundation (PLISF) awards summer scholarships to Pitt Law students working in unpaid public interest positions aiding marginalized, oppressed, and underserved populations at nonprofits and government entities in Pittsburgh, throughout Pennsylvania, and across the nation. This year, PLISF will be granting scholarships with funds it raised as well as funds the School of Law has committed to support public interest.
Applications for the PLISF Scholarship will be distributed on Friday, March 8th at 12pm and applications will be due no later than Tuesday, March 19th at 12pm. On March 8th, the application will be sent out through email to the student body. The application will also be available on PLISF’s TWEN page, its Facebook page, and at www.plisf.org.
PLISF invites all interested applicants to attend a meeting on Thursday, March 7th from 12:30-1:30pm in Room 107. PLISF will describe the scholarship process and answer any questions you may have. If you have any questions before then, please reach out to Alayna Bartko at president@plisf.org.