DePaul Law News

Moot court students enjoy record-breaking season of success

Associate Dean Howard Rubin and the Institute for Advocacy & Dispute Resolution are proud to announce that the 2011-2012 DePaul moot court programs enjoyed record-breaking success this year with the most team championships and finalists in recent history. The Moot Court Society anticipates that it will rank among the nation's top 20 programs once all national rankings are finalized.

Dedicated students under the guidance of Legal Writing Instructor Christopher Evers, Professor Barbara Bressler, and several other faculty and alumni coaches produced these record-breaking results:

Whittier National Juvenile Law Competition
Team: Patrick Viktora & Kelly Olivier 
Result: champion

National IP LawMeet
Team: Michael Comeau & Julie Krupa
Results: champion & best term sheet award

Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition (Patent)
Team: Nicholas Restauri & Rachel L. Schweers
Results: National -- runner-up; Midwest Regional -- first place, best appellant brief, best appellee brief

ABA Client Counseling Competition 
Team: Brandon Baseman & Zariah Udeh 
Results: National -- third place; Regional -- first place

Fordham Securities Law Competition
Team: Andrew Cunniff & Melinda Wetzel 
Results: semifinalist, best respondent brief, best preliminary round oralist - Melinda Wetzel

Vanderbilt 1st Amendment Competition
Ream: David Porter & Anna Esfeld
Result: semifinalist

Charleston Constitutional Law Competition 
Team: Erik Nelson & James Maruna
Result: semifinalist

Wagner Labor and Employment Law Competition
Team: William Alzugary & Mark Sliwinksi
Results: quarterfinalist, best petitioner brief

George Washington National Religious Freedom Competition
Team: Aaron Dozeman & Rachel Brown
Result: quarterfinalist

Study recognizes DePaul law faculty's scholarship

DePaul University College of Law ranks highly in a recent faculty productivity study measuring scholarly output in top law journals.

The study, conducted by Roger Williams University School of Law, provides updated data to assess the strength of scholarly research by schools that fall outside the U.S. News & World Report top 50. Applying the methodology used by Professor Brian Leiter to measure faculty publications in top legal journals, the study is the basis for "Per Capita Productivity of Articles in Top Journals, 1993-2011: Law Schools Outside the U.S. News Top 50." Roger Williams law faculty completed the study in academic year 2011-2012 and included law schools that are ABA-accredited, Association of American Law Schools members, and below the 50th spot in the 2012 U.S. News rankings.

More information about the study and its methodology is available from the RWU Law website.

 

Professor Terry Smith offers timely exploration of black politics

DePaul University College of Law Distinguished Research Professor Terry Smith's new book, Barack Obama, Post-Racialism, and the New Politics of Triangulation, examines black voters’ relationship to the political process and to the first black president in a prematurely post-racial America.

Using interviews with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, empirical data, news accounts, academic literature and case law, Professor Smith argues that the price of black electoral success outside of traditional majority-minority settings has become the triangulation of the post-racial black politician’s African-American constituency. The book is broad-ranging in its examination of how black politics has become so susceptible to marginalization even in a nation governed by its first black president. It also brings attention to the electoral calibration that post-racial black politicians such as Obama must perform between identifying with black-centric concerns and retaining the support of white voters who are averse to race talk, even when it is in the name of racial equality.

Barack Obama, Post-Racialism, and the New Politics of Triangulation (2012) is available at the Palgrave Macmillan website, discount code P356ED. Download Triangulation Flier

For course consideration inquiries, please contact Abigail Naqvi at abigail.naqvi@palgrave-usa.com.

Professor Terry Smith embarked on a career in teaching and voting rights scholarship
after graduating from New York University Law School, where he was a Patricia Roberts Harris Fellow, clerking for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, and practicing law in Washington, D.C. A nationally recognized expert on voting rights, his scholarship has appeared in the Columbia Law Review, Duke Law Journal and North Carolina Law Review, among others. Professor Smith's opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Huffington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times and Providence Journal.

Professor Livingston to have article published in Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Professor Margit Livingston’s article entitled "Copyright Infringement in Music Cases: Determining Whether What Sounds Alike Is Alike" (co-authored with musicologist Dr. Joseph Urbinato) will be appearing in volume 15, issue 2 of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law, to be published in December 2012.

Professor Alberto Coll contributes op-ed as Chicago Council on Global Affairs' thought leader

Why Europe Still Matters

By Alberto R. Coll

Over the past decade it has become fashionable to write off Europe and downgrade its importance to American interests. The arguments are familiar. Supposedly, Europe is an economically declining and politically dysfunctional entity of increasing strategic irrelevance in a world where the likes of China, India, and Brazil should be accorded a much higher priority. The implication is that the United States should pay less attention to Europe and reduce the diplomatic and political resources it allocates to our transatlantic relationships, including NATO, even as we look for closer alliances with the new rising states. Europe’s current economic woes have only reinforced this view. The post-1945 vision in which Europe was America’s vital ally—and in which the United States actively encouraged closer European integration—has given way to a mixture of indifference, skepticism, and outright bipartisan condescension toward Europe and its apparent inability to get its act together.

While Europe’s relative global standing is gradually shrinking as the new emerging economies of Asia and Latin America grow, it would be a mistake for the United States to neglect a group of closely connected countries—members of the European Union—whose combined GDP equals that of the United States and whose population numbers close to half a billion people ... read more.

Op-ed posted March 29, 2012, on Chicago Council on Global Affairs website.

Professor Sarnoff quoted extensively in a recent BNA BioTech Watch article

Professor Joshua Sarnoff was quoted extensively in a recent BNA BioTech Watch article on the remand of the Myriad gene patent regarding the application of the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in a case that found a medical treatment method not be to patent eligible subject matter, High Court's Mayo Standards Applicable To Myriad Remand Despite Case Differences, and was also quoted in a BNA Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal article in regard to medical treatment method case, High Court's Unanimous Mayo Decision Provokes Mixed Reactions From Stakeholders.

DePaul law students, faculty, staff and alumni volunteer as judges at Pritzker Elementary School history fair

(Pictured: Dean Gregory Mark and Professor Wayne Lewis)

On Monday, March 19, A.N. Pritzker Elementary School held its annual History Fair for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students.  DePaul law students, faculty, staff, and alumni volunteered at the fair, judging projects and talking with students about their research.  The History Fair projects focused on Chicago history and ranged from well-known topics, such as Prohibition and Soldier Field, to lesser known historical events, such as the Lager Riots and the Eastlander Disaster.  Pritzker students were excited to present their projects and were well-prepared.  DePaul volunteers, which included College of Law Dean, Gregory Mark, and Professor Wayne Lewis, were impressed with the sophistication and depth of many of the projects and enjoyed interacting with the Pritzker students. 

(Pictured: Student David Porter ('12))

A.N. Pritzker Elementary School is a Chicago Public School located in Wicker Park. Pritzker has a strong relationship with DePaul College of Law.   Pritzker is one of the Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative’s partner organizations and DePaul law students are involved with the school in a variety of ways. In addition to assisting at Pritzker’s History Fair, DePaul law students teach lessons on constitutional law and tutor struggling sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students.   Further, DePaul law students “donate-a-day” of service to Pritzker to help with school beautification projects. In fall 2011, nearly 60 law students spent the day at Pritzker painting a science lab and classrooms and planting a courtyard garden. On March 30, Pritzker sixth graders will visit DePaul College of Law to learn about law school, the legal profession, and to observe a mock trial put on by DePaul law students.

For more information about DePaul’s pro bono program and its involvement with Pritzker Elementary School, contact Cheryl Price, Director of the Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative, at cprice13@depaul.edu.

Harvard Law Professor Kenneth Mack to deliver annual Enlund Lecture at DePaul

As DePaul University College of Law's spring 2012 Enlund Scholar-in-Residence, Harvard Law Professor Kenneth W. Mack will deliver a lecture titled "A Civil Rights History in the Age of Obama" on Thursday, April 12 at the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd., Room 8005, Chicago.

Professor Mack will discuss ways to reframe the conventional methods of teaching and writing the history of the civil rights movement, with a particular emphasis on the legal history of the African American civil rights movement. He will suggest that the “Age of Obama” makes such a reframing imperative at our present moment.

The lecture and reception are free and open to the public, but a reservation is required by April 9, 2012. To register, please visit law.depaul.edu/enlund. 

DePaul University College of Law is an accredited Illinois MCLE provider. This lecture has been approved for up to one (1) hour of CLE credit.

Professor Sarnoff presents at Emory and Oxford Universities

On February 9^th, Professor Josh Sarnoff presented developing work on government choices for innovation in technology development and transfer as part of the Thrower Symposium at Emory University School of Law and on February 23^rd at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University.

Professor Gerstenblith speaks at conference on Military Cultural Heritage Resource Management

 On December 9, DePaul law professor Patty Gerstenblith spoke at a conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The one-day conference focused on the U.S. military’s efforts to develop cultural expertise.

While the military has made the goal of increased cultural knowledge and awareness a priority since the mid-2000s, these developments have yet to be accounted for as part of a broad interagency conversation among military and nonmilitary stakeholders. The increasing relevance of the military’s approaches to cultural challenges to the work of other government agencies and nongovernmental actors, including diplomacy, development and humanitarian relief, makes the present moment opportune for a fruitful exchange regarding the relationship of culture to security.

Professor Gerstenblith’s panel focused on Military Cultural Heritage Resource Management. A webcast of the conference is available from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.