UW Law Student Diana Wempen Takes Third in National Writing Contest
Diana Wempen (Class of 2008) took third place in the Fourth Annual Law Student Writing Competition: Domestic Violence and the Law. The competition is sponsored by the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence and is made possible through the generous contribution of Lois Beekman Oliviera. Law students are invited to submit articles addressing domestic violence and the law from a national or international perspective.
The Commission will publish Wempen's paper, Four-Footed and Largely Forgotten: Exploring the Connections Between Animal Abuse and Domestic Violence, in its Quarterly eNewsletter which will come out in October. The Commission's enewsletter is a resource designed for practicing lawyers who represent victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. For each issue, the Commission chooses a topic and the theme for the October issue is the link between animal abuse and domestic violence.
Wempen will receive her J.D. from the University of Wyoming College of Law in May 2008. She worked in the UW Domestic Violence Legal Assistance Project (DV Clinic) this past summer and hopes to work in the clinic again next spring. She is currently the teaching assistant for Deb Person's Legal Research Sections 1 and 2. Wempen plans to take the Colorado Bar Exam in July of 2008 and hopes to practice family law in Colorado thereafter.
Wempen says she is "very excited" and sends special thanks to Dona Playton, Director of the DV Clinic. Wempen wrote the paper for Playton's DV class and Playton looked over the paper again prior to Wempen submitting it to the Commission.
Photo: Diana Wempen.