lawyer

Professor Margaret Drew receives research award for cross-college project.

UMass Law Associate Professor Margaret Drew, Director of Clinics and Experiential Learning at the Law School, has been named a Bellow Scholar by the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and received a research award to support a cross-college project that will assess the unmet legal, medical and other needs of HIV-positive individuals living in the SouthCoast region in Massachusetts.

The AALS Clinical Section's Committee on Lawyering in the Public Interest (the Bellow Scholar Committee) awarded fellowships to five clinical law teachers as 2015-16 Bellow Scholars. The program recognizes and supports projects undertaken by clinical law teachers that reflect the ideals of Professor Gary Bellow, of Harvard Law School, who was a pioneering founder of modern clinical legal education.  Every two years the Bellow Scholar program seeks innovative proposals designed to improve the quality of justice in communities, to enhance the delivery of legal services, and to promote economic and social justice.

"Building Community Capacity for HIV-Positive Individuals in SouthCoast, Massachusetts" is the project for which Margaret received the fellowship.  The project is a partnership between Dr. Caitlin Stover of UMass Dartmouth's College of Nursing and UMass Law Lecturer Jason Potter Burda.  The research will determine the community and legal needs of SouthCoast individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Research will involve surveying diagnosed individuals and their providers to determine unmet needs.  The goal of the project is to assess if meeting the legal needs of the targeted population will lead to more favorable health outcomes.

Projects that involve collaboration between lawyers and other professionals or those employing empirical analysis are encouraged by AALS. These projects become the focus of information-sharing, discussion, and critique at the annual AALS Clinical Conference and Workshop and in annual workshops organized by the Committee.  The Bellow scholars receive research support from current and former scholars. Research and the accompanying scholarship typically run over the two year period. Bellow Scholars serve on the Lawyering in the Public Interest (Bellow) Committee for a total of four years.

Associate Professor Margaret Drew (B.A. University of Massachusetts Boston; J.D. Northeastern University School of Law; LL. M. Boston University) teaches Field Placement and Advanced Field Placement and is Director of UMass Law's Clinics and Experiential Learning. Her fields of interest are domestic violence, including the intersection of HIV/AIDS and domestic violence, trauma based advocacy, human rights in the United States, and law school clinical teaching and learning. Prior to entering academia full-time in 2005, Professor Drew practiced law in Massachusetts for twenty-five years. Prior to coming to the University of Massachusetts School of Law, Professor Drew taught domestic violence clinics at the University of Alabama Law School, Northeastern University School of Law, and the University of Cincinnati College of Law where she was Director of Clinics and Experiential Learning.

Professors Stover and Potter Burda also come to the project with impressive histories of working with HIV-AIDS infected populations, particularly within the LGBT communities and have conducted research and written on this and related topics.

The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit association of 178 law schools. Its members enroll most of the nation's law students and produce the majority of the country's lawyers and judges, as well as many of its lawmakers. The mission of AALS is to uphold and advance excellence in legal education. In support of this mission, AALS promotes the core values of excellence in teaching and scholarship, academic freedom, and diversity, including diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints, while seeking to improve the legal profession, to foster justice, and to serve our many communities--local, national and international.

UMass Law, located at UMass Dartmouth, is the only public law school in Massachusetts. The law school was established in to provide a high quality, affordable legal education focused on creating justice-centered lawyers. UMass Law is especially committed to increasing the diversity of those who practice law in the Commonwealth and encouraging students to become professionally engaged in their community through pro bono service, clinics, and internships while they study.