8/17/2016

Delaware Law School has many quality activities and events that benefit its students, and the new Student Bar Association president wants to boost turnout at them this year.

“My overarching goal is inclusion and participation, attendance and involvement,” 3L Morgan Madden said.

Madden has officially served as SBA president since April, but her tenure really gets going as students arrive for the fall semester. She said she has been impressed by the programs available during her first two years of law school – from panel events with gold-star speakers to networking possibilities at professionalism programs to fund-raisers like the Public Interest Law Alliance auction and community diversity events like the Black Law Students Association macaroni and cheese cook off.

“I really want to encourage involvement by students and faculty,” Madden said. “And it’s important to the students to see faculty there.”

She also supports an approach that will get like-minded student organizations partnering on events. Sharing responsibilities lightens their planning workload and boosts the potential audience pool, she said.

Madden graduated from Penn State University in 2013 with dual degrees in political science and public relations. She worked for Pennsylvania Sen. Gene Yaw, a lawyer by training, in her home district after graduation, knowing she still wanted to further her education. After watching Yaw and encouragement from her family she enrolled in law school.

Madden said she values the access to her professors and the dean that Delaware Law students enjoy. She has friends at other law schools who don’t have those unique kinds of relationships.

She enjoys litigation and arbitration, making oral arguments and is interested in criminal or possibly torts areas of law for a career. She spent part of the summer working in the Delaware Department of Justice criminal division.

Madden said she and the entire SBA board will strive to be accessible and approachable to all students. “They are the SBA. Without the students, there is no SBA,” she said.

The executive board includes:

John Buchanan, vice president of student and alumni relations
Matt Casale, vice president of academics and community service
Ashley Taragna, secretary
Mason Hall, treasurer
Frank Grieco, evening division student liaison
Jennifer McCracken, American Bar Association student division liaison