AASU Professors Receive Liberty Bell Award

Savannah, GA—The Young Lawyers Division (YLD) of the Savannah Bar Association has awarded the Liberty Bell Award to Armstrong Atlantic State University professors John Kearnes and Richard Nordquist. The Liberty Bell Award recognizes non-lawyers for promoting a better understanding of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights and encouraging an appreciation of the U.S. system of law and the courts.

Members of the YLD presented the award to professors Kearnes and Nordquist during their annual Law Day Awards ceremony . The award recognizes individuals who have contributed to legal education and provided service to the community. These contributions typically involve issues of constitutional, administrative, and state and local government law.

"The award recognizes the professors' efforts to promote moot court competitions and public forums at Armstrong Atlantic," said Matt Mills, president of YLD. "The programs provide undergraduate students with a real sense of what it is like to be an attorney working on a case, but also provide them with greater
knowledge of how our legal system works."

This year professors Kearnes and Nordquist advised a student team that advanced to the second round of the National Undergraduate Moot Court Tournament held at the University of Texas-Arlington. Participation in the highly competitive tournament was a first for AASU thanks to generous financial support from Hunter, Maclean, Exley & Dunn, P.C. Sixty schools from Virginia to Texas were represented at the event.

"The competition provides good, real world experience in legal reasoning and methodology," said Kearnes. "The format is intellectually rigorous and demands that students both speak well and demonstrate in-depth knowledge of a subject."

Kearnes is spearheading an effort to start a moot court and debate club at the university. The club will give pre-law students and those interested in leadership positions the chance to sharpen their skills in the areas of legal argumentation, rhetoric, and debate.
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Professor John Kearnes has been teaching since 1988 at AASU. His courses include Political History in America and Georgia, American Government, Constitutional Law, State and Local Government, and Administrative Law.

Richard Nordquist, professor of English, has been teaching at AASU since 1980. He currently teaches rhetoric and literature courses at the university, while also serving as director of faculty development and director of the General Studies Program.