MEDIA ADVISORY
Jan. 24, 2006

CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu

CHARACTER COUNTS! FOUNDER TO VISIT DRAKE LAW SCHOOL FRIDAY

Michael Josephson, founder and president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics and the popular CHARACTER COUNTS! program, will visit the Drake University Law School on Friday, Jan. 27.

Josephson will speak to 140 first-year law students on ethics and professionalism at 9 a.m. in room 213 of Cartwright Hall, 2621 Carpenter Ave. He will be available for media interviews beginning at 10 a.m. in the Dean’s Conference Room. He will also tour the Drake Law School facilities and have lunch at noon with Law School faculty during his visit.

Drake Law School is the first law school in the country to partner with CHARACTER COUNTS! Scott Raecker, executive director of the Iowa Institute for Character Development at Drake, met with first-year law students several times during the fall semester.

Josephson is the founder and president of the Josephson Institute, which he named for his parents after retiring from successful careers in business, law and education.

A graduate of UCLA and the UCLA School of Law, Josephson had a 20-year career as a law professor and businessman. In 1985, he sold his legal publishing company and national bar exam preparation chain, left academia and devoted himself to the institute, which he serves today without a salary.

Through the Institute, Josephson founded CHARACTER COUNTS!, the nation's leading character education system. It now reaches 5 million youngsters through the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition, a widespread partnership of schools and youth-serving organizations.

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