Student Bar Association President Shallum Atkinson on Wednesday vetoed a bill unanimously passed by the senate at its last meeting.
The bill had asked the National Conference of Bar Examiners and the D.C. Bar, the District’s mandatory bar association for lawyers, to eliminate an exam question that asked students if their current mental health condition could affect their ability to practice law in a competent, ethical and professional manner. At a special meeting Wednesday, Atkinson advised the bill’s sponsors to direct the request to only the D.C. Bar, which has the power to add or remove the mental health question from its specific exam, and not the NCBE, which recommends the question as an option for regional bars to adopt.
The bill’s sponsors, SBA Sens. Elan Reisner and Elya Nassaj, requested to table the bill so they could revise the legislation and call a second senate vote at its next meeting, instead of requesting the senate overturn Atkinson’s veto. The senators introduced the bill late last month in an effort to end a stigma toward mental health issues and emphasize the SBA’s commitment to equity and inclusivity in the legal field.
“We appreciate his edits, and there’s a couple little things in there like assess to access, things like that, that we agree should be taken a look at,” Nassaj said. “We’re going to motion to table this and then we’re going to present it back at the next meeting.”
Senators also unanimously endorsed the Justice, Rights & Policy Forum as an official journal of the law school and encouraged the law administration to approve the journal. Julian Kosmides, one of the journal’s founders, said after the founders sent a survey to law students last week to gauge interest in the journal, more than 300 students said they were interested in joining.
Andrew Nettles, one the journal’s founders, said the team has been in contact with GW Law’s Associate Dean for Public Interest and Public Service Alan Morrison about the journal’s creation. Nettles said Morrison has been involved with the process and was “so absolutely excited” that Nettles and Kosmides sought the SBA’s endorsement because he believes that public interest law “cannot wait.”
Reisner said he trusts Morrison because he recently won the National Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement award and has argued cases in front of the Supreme Court.
“They have Dean Morrison, who is really just a remarkable professor, and a wonderful mentor, and I think that is going to really establish George Washington as a school where this journal is going to last for a long time,” Reisner said.
The senate passed four ad hoc bills to provide additional funding to the Music Law Association, Evening Law Student Association, GW Law Softball and Women of Color Collective. SBA Sen. Arpitha Gorur said the SBA has about $7,000 left in ad hoc funding for the current senate’s last three meetings.
SBA Sen. Akhil Kambhammettu, who chairs the SBA Finance Committee, said there are two more ad hoc funding requests for the Native American Student Association and the Music Law Association that will be discussed after spring break.
SBA Executive Vice President Kaitlin Fontana said the failure to meet a quorum at Tuesday’s meeting was “wildly frustrating.” She added that members of the senate are drafting impeachment resolutions against senators who are not showing up to meetings in response.
“It is very important to me to make it clear that you are elected to do this, and you chose to run and your peers count on you to speak their voices and show up,” Fontana said.
The senate tabled a bill introduced by SBA Sen. Nigel Walton that would add the professional development fund started by Atkinson in November into the bylaws of the SBA due to the legislation’s inaccurate format and language for addition to the bylaws. SBA Sen. Charlie Schmidt recommended tabling the bill until the next full senate meeting in order to “tinker” with the language to ensure it was right.
“These bylaws last for a really long time,” Schmidt said. “I just think it’s better to take our time with it.”
The professional development fund provides money to GW Law students to attend professional and career-oriented conferences and events.
Senators will hold the next SBA Senate meeting Tuesday, March 19 at 9:15 p.m. in LLC 009.
