2012 year-in-review: LL.B. to LL.M.

In the year since graduating from the University of Edinburgh much has happened in my life. I have gone from law student to campaign manager to youngest elected city council member of my home town to working for the leading NGO on maritime piracy to once again being a law student. In this time I have met and visited with the president, vice president, GOP challenger, a retired US Supreme Court justice, the highest judges from New Hampshire, Texas, and New York, along with visiting with Colorado's governor, New Hampshire's governor, Texas' governor, the junior US senator from South Dakota, and a former US senator from Pennsylvania, not to mention having lunch with a former governor of New Hampshire and a former US senator from Colorado. Life has also been challenging, I was present when my aunt Clara passed away and not long after that I received the letter saying I had been denied admittance to sit the New York bar. This resulted in me having to step down as trustee and pursue an LL.M. degree, which is one of the new requirements for sitting the bar. I also experienced the economic downturn, but applying to over 50 businesses and hearing no responses. Perseverance and no matter the odds, never give up, have become daily mantras. The following is a year in review:

27 November 2011 - graduated from University of Edinburgh with an LL.B. in Law

December 2011 - launched exploratory committee for a possible bid for the Colorado House of Representatives, Dist 61

January 2012 - began campaign manager for Bruce Hovde's re-election campaign for Delta County Commissioner, Dist 2

February 2012 - began campaign for Orchard City Board of Trustees

3 April 2012 - elected Orchard City's youngest Trustee

April - October 2012 I served on the Orchard City Board of Trustees. 

April 2012 - became campaign manager for Mark Roeber's Delta County Commissioner Campaign, Dist 3

May - August 2012 - maritime piracy legal researcher (intern) with Oceans Beyond Piracy, which is an NGO that provides research on the economic and human costs of piracy at sea, along with engaging stakeholders to find a governance based solution to countering piracy. Working included revising and enhancing counter piracy matrix, editing law reports, following pending criminal and tort cases, and providing information for diplomats, the military, and industry. 

September 2012 - begin LL.M. in Intellectual Property (IP) Law at the University of New Hampshire's School of Law (Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectually Property)

September 2012 - visited Portland, Maine; Kennybunkport, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; Mount Washington, New Hampshire; the White Mountains of New Hampshire; Newport, Rhode Island

October 2012 - shook hands with President Obama in Portsmouth, NH; visited with Vice President Joe Biden in Concord, NH; talked constitutional law with form US Supreme Court Justice David Souter in Concord, NH; and gave words of encouragement to Mitt Romney in Manchester, NH.

October 2012 - travelled to New York City for the first time since I was 12 years old. Met up with my former Edinburgh flatmate and good friend, Fabio Pucci. We were flatmates for nearly 3 1/4 years. He was in NYC to present a paper at the Rockefeller. We went to the top of both the Rockefeller Center (Top of the Rock) and the Empire State Building. I stayed the first night in Harlem and the second in Times Square. Whilst walking in Central Park, I thought to myself Manhatten Island is crazy, fun, and looking at the buildings might injure my neck ;-) I also went to the cite of the World Trade Center attacks. I was disappointed that there were venders (including the National Commission) selling goods, profiting off of the dead of nearly 3,000. Fabio put things in perspective by saying the towers were about commerce and free enterprise, capitalism, and trade. "If there weren't venders selling goods and making money on the very site where so many died, then the terrorists would have won." 

October 2012 - sat the Multi State Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE), this exam, along with the Bar Exam, is required to be admitted to practice law.

October 2012 - visit Montpelier, Vermont

October 2012 - elected as a "write-in" to the Board of Governors of the New Hampshire Student Bar Association 

November 2012 - hung out with the Supreme Court Chief Justices of New Hampshire, Texas, and New York; in addition to having lunch with former New Hampshire Governor Steve Merrill.

Trustee Soper's resignation letter

Dear Mayor and Board of Trustees:

This letter is to intimate my resignation from the Board of Trustees, effective upon the swearing-in of a lawful replacement. This past July complications with the New York Court of Appeals arose regarding my qualifications to be called to the bar under newly enacted regulations. These regulations were in response to the financial crisis and were designed to protected American legal jobs for American lawyers. Unfortunately for my situation, I studied outside the United States, which means I fall under these new regulations. Prior to this summer, the regulations allowed anyone who had studied at least three years of law within a common law jurisdiction to pay the fee and sit for the New York Bar Exam. Providing a candidate passed the bar and an ethics check, and then they would be admitted to practice law.

After being informed of the situation, I launched an appeal, based on legitimate expectations and the grandfathering clause. My appeal ultimately failed and I am required to complete an LL.M. (master of laws) degree at an American Bar Association (ABA) law school. The program must be taught in-person and certain course work completed before admittance to sit the bar will be granted. I applied to the University ofNew Hampshire, School of Law and was accepted. They have a continual admission process right up until classes commence. Once I have completed this degree, I will then sit for the bar exam in July 2013.

The entire affair has come as a surprise and it is with great sadness that I must step down from my seat on the Orchard City Board of Trustees. Since I will no longer physically be in the jurisdiction of the town, I will not be able to be an effective representative for my constituents. I have been honoured to represent my fellow citizens for the past six months and it has been a privilege to hold this position of esteem trust. I believe the good people of Orchard City will understand that since I already have a substantial educational investment in becoming an attorney, I cannot afford to do anything but comply with the new regulations.

In these past six months I have learned much about municipal government - especially in relation to water. As the author of the mosquito resolution, concerning the EPA's and Agenda 21 's attack on aerial spraying, I was pleased to see our board send a strong message to our congressional leaders. Helping repeal the water conveyance rule, which took water away from farmers in good years only to sell it back to them in drought years, was an accomplishment

which helped loosen the regulatory barriers imposed by local government. Voting for our hydropower- unit and voicing concern over our engineering firm was about due diligence and looking out for town's future. Most importantly, I proud to have played a role in the Centennial celebration of my town- in the town play I portrayed the Cory postmaster (ironically, a position my cousin held for many years).

I have one request to make of the board. I'd recommend the Board of Trustees fill my vacancy with an individual with similar characteristics as me. The electorate voted for certain values and characteristics, which I brought to the Board of Trustees and it is only fair to the people to maintain these elements. In other words, I am recommending against making my vacancy the subject of spoils and patronage.

Orchard City is a great town and a place where I plan on raising my family, practicing law, and retiring someday. Being an advocate for my neighbours and representing them has truly been rewarding. Orchard City's Board could teach representatives in Washington, DC a lot about governing, namely how to do more with less and balancing a budget. I am pleased to say that in this half-year together we have upheld the public trust and managed the best interests of the town to such a degree that our founders would be proud.

Thank you and God bless,
            /s/
Matthew Soper,
BA, LLM, LLB
Trustee, Town of Orchard City,
State of Colorado

Matt Soper awarded LL.M. degree from the University of Edinburgh

On Friday, Nov. 27, Matthew Soper was conferred with the degree of master of laws (LL.M.), international law, at the University of Edinburgh’s winter graduation ceremony.

The ceremony followed the time honored traditions which can be traced back to the founding of the University of Edinburgh in 1583.

The Senatus Academicus met immediately prior to the ceremony to recommend the degrees to be awarded. Following this meeting, the academic procession gathered and proceeded into McEwan Hall. The procession was led by the staff bearer followed by members of the academic staff, including the rector and members of the university court. They were followed by the bedellus carrying the university mace and leading the vice chancellor.

Prior to the School of Law’s confirmation, the University Choir sang “Where’er you walk” and “O Gin I Were Where Gadie Rins,” both in their original Latin verse.

The names of the graduands were announced by the head of the School of Law, Professor Douglas Brodie, and the vice chancellor, Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea (the university’s principal), acting on behalf of the chancellor, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, conferred the degree by touching the head of the graduand with the graduation cap.

Popular legend has it that the cap was originally made using the cloth from the breeches of John Knox, although other rumors attribute those breeches to the famous Scottish scholar George Buchanan.

Matt Soper now joins the alumni of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Law, which includes John Witherspoon and Benjamin Rush (signatories of the U.S. Declaration of Independence), author/lawyer Robert Louis Stevenson and Alexander McCall Smith, along with countless diplomats, advocates, solicitors, and government officials, including current U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

See: Delta County Independent

See: The Scotsman

In Tennis, love is nothing

The taught portion of the LL.M. in International Law has now finished and all of the postgraduate students are in the middle of researching for their dissertations, which are due on 21 August 2009. Some LL.M. candidates have opted to conclude their course work from their home states, while others find Edinburgh and the law library at Old College an ideal work place for dissertation research and drafting. The long summer time days and warmth of the sun which seemed vacant during the winter and spring months is a both a blessing and a curse for dissertation research, as being outside is far more appealing than a law library filled with leather bound volumes.

I have found time to venture away from my studies and play tennis with some very good friends of mine. Diane and Ségo, from France - Paris and Versailles respectively - and a third friend, Charles from near Heidelberg, Germany have been my gracious tennis opponents in weekly singles matches on The Meadows’ courts. The former is not nearly as attractive as the latter two, but then again what guy can concentrate on a tennis ball when the tall French girl on the other side is physically and intellectually beautiful, in addition to being a good friend. It seem appropriate to be playing with the French, as tennis originated from a 12th Century game played in France, called paume (meaning palm).

Paume used the hand to hit the ball instead of a racquet. By the beginning of the 1400s, a racquet had been added to the game, giving rise to Real Tennis. Shakespeare even mentions tennis in Henry V, where the King Charles VI of France sends three tennis balls to Henry V and states that the ‘ball is in your court’. It was this scene which led to the great Battle of Agincourt in Northern France in 1415.