MSA approves first Amicus Curiae
Law student Phil Raine will assist students with handling conduct issues.
Published Dec. 3, 2010
First-year law student Phil Raine was approved by the Missouri Students Association on Wednesday night as the organization's first Amicus Curiae. The position was created by MSA last semester to assist students with handling issues that concern the Office of Student Conduct, MSA Senate Speaker Evan Wood said.
"I'll be advising students as they go through the court process," Raine said. "I'm excited to see what I can do with this position."
Wood said he had been working on adding this position since last spring.
"The M-book says you have the right to an adviser when dealing with the Office of Student Conduct,” Wood said. “It made sense for MSA to provide a person for that. Students need someone who is well trained and has good experience."
The position was determined by presidential appointment. Wood said he helped MSA President Tim Noce with interviewing the two Amicus Curiae applicants.
"Since this is the first time we were putting someone in this position, we were needing someone to set a precedent and go above and beyond with the position,” Wood said.
Both applicants were law students. Wood said being in law school was a positive asset for the applicants to have.
Wood said they were looking for someone who would be able to hold the position for a long time, as well as be logical and pragmatic with the advice he or she gives.
After Noce appointed Raine, he still had to be approved by other MSA entities before he could go on with the job.
"Phil needed to be approved by the Operations Committee and the full Senate,” Wood said. “He also needed to be trained by the Office of Student Conduct and Student Legal Services.”
Before he could be approved by the Senate, Raine had to go through the training process the position required.
"During training, I was shown how to handle cases by Student Legal Services and the Office of Student Conduct,” Raine said. “I trained for a couple weeks. It was a simple process and not difficult to work through."
Raine said his knowledge from law school would help in the position.
"I'll probably use the skills I learned in law school to help me with the cases,” Raine said.
In the future, Raine said he would like to help students by making it unnecessary for students to have to go to the Office of Student Conduct for conduct issues.
"I'd like to eventually work on preventing conduct issues from happening in the first place,” Raine said.