Philly Cares Day

October 22 -- On Saturday October 22, the Read Chapter was invited to participate in "Philly Cares Day." We traveled to Blaine Elementary School in Northwest Philadelphia, and along with students and faculty participated in several projects. Some of these projects included: painting, cleaning, and organizing science classrooms, organizing closets and working in the student-managed garden.

The members who worked in the garden, cleaned out the shed and organized the tools, they also trimmed plants and weeded the greenhouse. The garden was a three-time award-winner in the horticulture society's Philadelphia gardens competition, and the Read Chapter wanted to help the students win another year. The chapter was fortunate enough to meet many local students who were working toward their service hours, which are necessary in the Philadelphia school system to rise to the next year of school and other volunteers, including several members of PAD from Rutgers Camden.

Phi Alpha Delta takes service to the community seriously and we believe that it is important to give back whenever we are given the opportunity.

Phi Alpha Delta Hosts a "Professional" Mock Trial

October 25—Vale Moot Courtroom was filled with more than two-hundred excited students, faculty and guests waiting for the event to begin. Booklets were provided by Themis which contained biographies on the guests and the facts of the case. The booklets also contained a schedule of the events and an invitation to the reception following the mock trial.

Clint Orem, Justice of the George Read chapter of Phi Alpha Delta walked out and introduced those participating in the mock trial “showdown.” The first guest was Fortunato “Fred” Perri, high profile Philadelphia defense attorney. He was representing Legan Arabach, portrayed by Dominic Carrera, George Read Chapter Marshal. The second guest was Carlos Vega, Assistant District Attorney, homicide division of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office. The final guest was Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes, former homicide judge in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and now CEO of the American Red Cross’s Southeastern Chapter of Pennsylvania.

The trial began with Judge Hughes thanking the jury for their participation. The “jury” consisted of the executive board of Moe Levine and the SBA, including student representatives.

The prosecution took its turn giving an opening statement, A.D.A Vega thanked the jury for their participation and explained what the facts of the case were according to the State and laid out the issues the prosecution planned to prove throughout the trial. Vega closed by asking for a guilty verdict.

Fortunato “Fred” Perri, Defense

Carlos Vega, Prosecution

Next the defense gave its opening, explaining to the jury that Mr. Arabach has no burden of proof, that the prosecution doesn’t have a body, and can not even prove that the “victim” in this case is dead. Perri concluded by asking the jury to find his client not guilty.

The questioning became heated when each side crossed the testifying witness. Witty comments were exchanged by counsel who made for an entertaining and educational trial. It became apparent once the trial began that the attorneys were treating this as a real case with a real victim and the goal was to put a murderer behind bars and to free an innocent man for the prosecution and defense respectively. The students could see the dedication and commitment that they invested into the trial.

The trial was concluded with a brief question and answer portion, where students were given the opportunity to ask what certain strategies were employed, why the judge ruled the way she did and if the demeanor the attorneys reflected their common courtroom practices.

Once the mock trial was over the guests, students and faculty adjourned to Barrister’s Club for refreshments including, beef wellington, bacon-wrapped scallops, shrimp and  grilled vegetables. Half of the funds for this event were provided by the ABA and the other half by the SBA at Widener.

This Phi Alpha Delta event was one of the most successful to date and the executive board wants to thank everyone who contributed to make it great.

Largest Initiation Class to Date for the George Read Chapter

On Saturday, September 10^th, the George Read Chapter of Phi Alpha Delta held its bi-annual initiation ceremony, welcoming to its fraternal family its greatest number of initiates to date.  Eager to start writing a new chapter in their lives as Phi Alpha Delta members, students began filing into the main law building at Widener University School of Law hours before initiation was set to begin.  At six o’clock p.m., Dom Carrera, Phi Alpha Delta’s Marshall, commenced the initiation ceremony by escorting the soon-to-be members into the Vale Courtroom.  With over 60 new initiates, family, friends, distinguished guests, and several current Phi Alpha Delta members, the courtroom was filled nearly to capacity.  George Read’s Executive Board, led by Justice Clint Orem, proceeded to conduct the initiation ceremony in accordance with the formal requirements as prescribed by Phi Alpha Delta’s initiation rituals manual.  The objective of this formal initiation ceremony was to impress upon all those attending the ideals and principles of Phi Alpha Delta.

After the George Read Executive Board members conducted their respective parts of the initiation ceremony and the initiates signed their names into the Official Roll, the floor turned to a Phi Alpha Delta alumni- the Honorable Joseph R. Slights III of the Superior Court of Delaware.  Judge Slights welcomed the new members and shared with them his inspirational story about how he gained motivation to thrive within the legal profession. He referred to a book that he read towards the end of his law school career about Learned Hand, the infamous second circuit judge.  Judge Slights was enthralled with Learned Hand’s dedicated work ethic and passion for the law and Judge Slights became determined to emulate these traits in his legal career.  He urged the new members to find inspiration and embrace the legal profession as he did.

When the formal initiation ceremony adjourned, the current George Read Executive Board took the opportunity to present to Andrew Quietmeyer and James Lewis their awards given to them by Phi Alpha Delta international.  Andrew Quietmeyer, former Justice of the George Read Chapter, and James Lewis, former Vice Justice of the George Read Chapter, achieved the Alex A. Hochkiss Award and the Outstanding Vice Justice of the Year Award respectively for the 2010-2011 academic school year.  It’s safe to say that the current executive board has some big shoes to fill. 

With such a successful initiation ceremony and great start to the academic school year, the George Read Chapter of Phi Alpha Delta is well on its way to another amazing school year.

George Read Takes Widener Law by Storm

Table Day

Table Day at Widener University, School of Law gives the incoming students an opportunity to see what organizations are active in the school as well as the chance to speak with members to find out where they might fit or what they might be interested in. The event began at 9AM and ended at 7PM.

This year Phi Alpha Delta had a color collage of distinguished members as well as a display of the honors it has received in the past year. In addition to this, there were always three or more brothers and sisters at the table, talking points, candy and homemade cookies.

The event was extremely successful, as 176 incoming an current students signed the interest sheet and the executive board was handed 20 completed membership applications by the end of the day.

Info Sessions

The week after table day the executive board organized several information session for students to attend who had questions or comments about the fraternity.

There were two meetings held where Justice, Clint Orem discussed the benefits of becoming a member of the fraternity and answered along with the executive board any questions the students posed.

The executive board and former Justice, Andrew Quietmeyer shared stories of the relationships they developed and the opportunities afforded to them from becoming PADs.

“It’s not just something you put on your resume, said Quietmeyer, it really does give you an opportunity to get involved with the school and meet people you never thought you would.”

Students asked about social aspects, academic assistance, networking and the outline bank.

The final question of the information session, posed by a student, was “Why wouldn’t you join?”

George Read Score Big at Regional Conference Meeting

This past weekend the George Read chapter executive board traveled to Hartford, CT for the first regional conference. This conference invited seven districts to meet and discuss fraternal business. During this meeting those districts shared ideas and discovered ways to make the chapter and the fraternity as a whole better and more productive. Additionally, several members of the international board were in attendance, including the international justice, Rhonda hill. The conference was lead by Jon Bassford, Director of Law Operations.

The conference began with a social event, where the executive boards from the Northeast region were given the opportunity to meet and speak with each other in a relaxed social setting.

The next day began the conference. The conference touched on many topics, including Programming, leadership, fundraising, networking, alumni relations, and recruitment. Many different chapters had creative and exciting ideas that they shared during this part of the conference, also antidotal and “What not to do,” stories.

This past year, many changes were made to the George Read Chapter and these changes did not go unnoticed by the international executive board, as the George Read Chapter was awarded several honors this year, including: National Awards, such as the Stanley H. Kohn Award for Most Outstanding Chapter, the Alex A. Hotchkiss Award for Most Outstanding Justice, awarded to Andrew Quietmeyer, the Most Outstanding Vice Justice awarded to James Lewis, and place for Most Outstanding Community Service Project, and District Awards, such as the Merit Award, the Most Outstanding Chapter award, and the Meet or Beat Award, meaning that the chapter met or beat is past recruitment numbers.

Overall, the event was very successful and the executive board took away great tips to make the fraternity even bigger and better this year.