Law Students Give Help for Haiti

Over the past two weeks, the law school community has come together to generate aid for Haiti. On January 12, the country was hit by a catastrophic earthquake that caused major damage to the capital and surrounding areas of the island. Reports by CNN indicate that between 100,000 and 200,000 people may have been killed and millions more have been affected by the earthquake.

In the wake of this devastating event, the GW community has launched a multi-faceted response, offering many fundraisers and other opportunities to give help to the victims in Haiti. On Thursday January 21st, the University announced the formation of a Haitian Response Group to coordinate the relief efforts. Administrators and student leaders will work with the provost and vice president for health affairs to coordinate events.

The law school has also participated in events to help collect money and resources to send to Haiti. On January 18th, law students helped out in the basement of the GWU hospital at the "Kids Against Hunger Meal-Packing Event." Participants prepared over 18,000 meals to send to Haiti. One of the participants was Professor Lawton Cummings, a visiting professor who teaches commercial paper. Professor Cummings brought her children to the event to give them an opportunity to view the importance of engaging in public service. "Many organizations have a minimum age for volunteers, which is frustrating as a parent who is trying to instill public service values in her kids!" When she was told about the event, she "jumped at the chance to help provide aid to Haiti."

Says Cummings about the day: "The event was very well run.  While this shipment of food is going to the people of Haiti, the sponsoring organization uses volunteers to prepare food packages for impoverished children around the world.  We will definitely volunteer with them again!"

Dean Susan Karamanian, Associate Dean for International and Comparative Legal Studies, solicited help from her international students for the relief drive. "We are all saddened by the suffering in Haiti. We feel the need to do more than write checks. Getting goods, boxing them and knowing that the next time they are touched it would be by a person in tremendous need conveyed the sense that we were making a difference."

On the Saturday before the drive, she ran into a 2006 LL.M. graduate from the Domincan Republic at her local grocery store. The student told her about the drive and Dean Karamanian sent an email to students, asking if they wanted to help. Within 24 hours on the holiday weekend, students responded and came out to the event. "Our international students are very generous. Many come from countries that have endured substantial hardships, whether economic, political or social ones.  Their societies back home tend to be supportive.  They bring here a strong sense of community."

John Sorrenti, President of the Student Bar Association, is not surprised by the law school community's quick and dedicate d involvement in helping raise money and resources for Haiti. "Even though as law students we have significant debt and many of us are without a job after law school and still looking and have our own financial concerns, the generosity shown by the GW Law community was awesome.  People came up and gave anywhere from $5 to $50 of their own money just to help out with our efforts.  I know that Section 13 itself raised over $1700 in donations!  That kind of support and willingness to help out is incredible and says a lot about our classmates and the community we create here at GW Law."

According to Sorrenti, over 100 GW Law students attended the Kids Against Hunger event and many more have been volunteering on their own, despite no personal link to Haiti or its people. "I think it's extremely important to get involved in the fund raising/help for Haiti.  What happened with the earthquake there is a terrible tragedy and the images we've seen are heartbreaking and can only evoke significant sympathy for the suffering that the Haitian people are going through.  While we all have our own cares and concerns they seem much less important when you realize what the people in Haiti are going through and how much their lives are affected by this.  Anything we can do as a community to help them out is, in my mind, a must."

Sorrenti also said that the SBA hosted a table in the hard lounge last week which raised $419 for Haiti relief efforts. "The SBA wanted to get involved as soon as possible and we decided that raising funds was the best way to start.  I believe it's still tough to get supplies down there but we are keeping track of what's going on and if we can do it, we're going to collect more tangible items to send down.  Right now the organizations we looked at said money was the best way to help so that's what we went with."

More opportunities to raise aid for Haiti are on the immediate horizon. Lexis and Westlaw have created a program through which students can donate to Haiti relief through giving points. Natalie Timmers, the school's Lexis representative, said that Lexis actively encourages students to give their points to charity. "Since August 2008, LexisNexis has encouraged law students across the country to donate the Rewards points that they earn to charity.  There are six national charities that students can choose from, as well as a number of local (school-specific) charities, including the GW Equal Justice Foundation." Timmers noted that such a program is consistent with the goals of Lexis as a company involved with charity overall. "When employees voiced the desire to go above and beyond the normal amount of giving for the extreme devastation in Haiti, the company responded in several ways. More charities were approved for matching funds, the matching funds limit was increased, and in just a few short days more than $120,000 was donated to various relief efforts on the corporate level by LexisNexis employees and the company itself."

For Haiti relief, Timmers explained how the program worked: "Through March, all Rewards points donated to the Red Cross will be channeled directly to Haiti.  Students can donate by signing-on at www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool, and clicking either the "My Rewards" tab or the "Help Haiti" banner that rotates through the top of the page.  For every 250 points that students give, LexisNexis donates $4.  Students can earn additional Rewards points by researching on LexisNexis (15 points/day, 7 days/week), attending live training classes at GW (schedule posted at www.lexisnexis.com/myschool), completing online tutorials, and attending online webinars."

The Lexis donation program has been very successful, according to Timmers. "As of January 21st, law students across the country have donated approximately $70,000 in LexisNexis Rewards points to the Red Cross since the earthquake struck Haiti on January 12th."

Though the community continues to raise significant donations for Haiti aid, the rebuilding efforts in Haiti have only just begun. Sorrenti noted,"The SBA would like to thank everyone who has helped so far and we look forward to finding more ways to help the people of Haiti as they work through this horrible tragedy.  Giving back to those in need is a beautiful thing that helps put things in perspective and creates a community filled with caring, thoughtful, and considerate people.  The SBA supports building that kind of community and the support we've received from the student body at GW Law has been tremendous."