Chase Cuts the Ribbon on Its New Courtroom

The past is shaping the future at Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law with the opening of a new, state-of-the-art courtroom named for the legacy foundation created 70 years ago to support Chase when it was an independent, private college.

In the present, Chase formally opened the Chase College Foundation Courtroom with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 20.

From the past, the Chase College Foundation, which was established in 1954 and which has continued to support Chase financially since its 1972 merger with Northern Kentucky University, provided the major funding for the project on the first floor of Nunn Hall. Alumni and college friends provided additional financial support for specific features, such as the judicial bench, counsel tables and other aspects.

For the future, the courtroom will provide students with opportunities for trial advocacy classes and mock trials in a setting with the type of technology and features they will be likely to encounter in practices. In addition to its use by students, the courtroom will be available for sessions of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, the Kentucky Court of Appeals, other commonwealth and federal courts, and community groups.

Among courtroom features: a judicial bench for up to seven members of a court, jury box, 100-seat gallery, judge’s chambers and jury deliberation room.

“We are thrilled to unveil our brand-new courtroom and student center after four years in the making,” Dean Judith Daar says of the project that includes adjacent student study and gathering spaces. “Our students can now learn in a space befitting the Chase reputation for training practice-ready graduates who ably assist clients at the earliest stages of their careers. We are enormously grateful to the more than 125 alumni and friends who generously supported this project, making our dream of a state-of-the-art advocacy center a reality.”

The new courtroom emerged from, and replaced, an initial plan to remodel an existing courtroom on the fourth-floor of Nunn Hall. The convergence of an availability of designated facility money from the Commonwealth of Kentucky and structural factors in the building shifted the project to an all-new, state-of-the-art concept. From there, the funding for the courtroom rippled outward.

“I want to give thanks to our naming gift that came from the Chase College Foundation. They believed in us early on, and they gave us a gift that allowed us to name the courtroom in their honor,” Dean Daar told benefactors and alumni who gathered at the courtroom for the ceremonial ribbon-cutting. “Over the past four years, we’ve been so buoyed by 125-plus supporters of this project, from alumni and from supporters all around the region.”

For alumni who spoke at the ceremony – Supreme Court of Kentucky Justices Michelle Keller and Robert Conley, Warren County Attorney Amy Hale Chandler, who funded the judicial bench in the courtroom, and Jim Frooman, who represented the Chase College Foundation – the courtroom was both a reminder of and a contrast to their student years, pointing to a future:

• Justice Keller: “This courtroom looks a lot different than the one I did my first oral argument in [as a student], but I feel just as excited today as I did then. … I’ve always felt like Chase was my legal home. Now, I hope, Dean Daar, you won’t mind if Chase will also be an alternate home for the Kentucky Supreme Court.”

• Justice Conley: “When I walked in here, I was, ‘Wow, what planet am I on?’ It doesn’t look anything like the school I graduated from in 1984. … This courtroom is first class. It’s going to be invaluable to the students, in teaching them trial-practice for a changing profession. The technology is just mind-blowing.”

• Ms. Chandler: “Driving in, I felt like when I first came to Chase, all of the excitement surrounding me. … I remembered my trial advocacy class. We really learned how to try a case and how to truly practice law. I remember [the courtroom] did not look like this. In fact, I remember moving chairs around to fit everything in for a jury box, and all of those things. But I’ll tell you what, I learned how to present the case, which has helped me so much in my career. … A space like this is absolutely invaluable to students. They can refine their skills long before the stakes are high, And the students can begin to see themselves as true and real advocates.”

• Mr. Frooman: “It’s a privilege to stand here today as we celebrate this opening of this remarkable courtroom, a space that will shape the next generation of Chase lawyers, and carry forth a legacy more than a century in the making. On behalf of the Chase College Foundation, I want to express how deeply honored we are to help make this courtroom possible.”  

Along with the importance of the courtroom for students in the repurposing and reconstruction of the first floor of Nunn Hall is the adjacent Chase Student Center.

The transformation of the Chase Law Library – like that of most other law schools – from primarily a repository for bound volumes to a hub for accessing digitally stored information opened the first floor of the two-floor library for other uses. Now on the reimagined first floor: the Chase College Foundation Courtroom and adjacent Chase Student Center.  

The center includes nine glass-wall-fronted study rooms, multiple carrels and booths for study, boardroom-length tables and a common area for relaxing or gathering.

Together, the courtroom and center are a real-time fusion of past, present and future.