DePaul Law News

Professor Kellman wins distinguished Fulbright award

College of Law Professor Barry Kellman has been named Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Public  International Law to Lund University in Sweden. Kellman was selected for one of the most prestigious Fulbright appointments, with only two such positions awarded worldwide. Fulbright is the U.S. government’s premiere international educational exchange program.

Kellman, who also directs the College of Law’s International Weapons Control Center, will teach and lecture in the areas of public international law, international criminal law and weapons control. He also will present three public lectures to the Lund University community during his semester-long appointment that begins January 2014.

“I look forward to the opportunity to present my ideas and interact with students and faculty at Lund University,” said Kellman, who received a Fulbright Lecturer Award to Fudan University in Shanghai China in 1986. “International law was founded four centuries ago to reduce the horror of warfare. Threats of mass violence have changed drastically, yet understanding the legal principles and mechanisms that support global peace and security has never been more imperative.”

Kellman is a known authority on issues of global weapons control and security and has worked closely with entities such as the United Nations, the U.S. government, and the European Union. His scholarship has focused on areas such as weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism, biological terrorism, Middle East arms control and nuclear nonproliferation. He is the author of BIOVIOLENCE—PREVENTING BIOLOGICAL TERROR AND CRIME, which presents a comprehensive strategy for averting intentional infliction of disease. He also has written reports on topics related to biological and chemical
threats on behalf of the U.S. and has organized more than 20 major international workshops on biological security policy.

Journal for Social Justice hosts affordable housing-focused symposium

The DePaul Journal for Social Justice hosted its annual symposium on April 17, 2013, which focused on housing issues as they affect low-income populations in Chicago. The symposium was co-sponsored by the Center for Public Interest Law and supported by the Vincentian Endowment Fund. Take Shelter: Keep Shelter, the theme of the event, provided information and discussion on the mortgage foreclosure crisis, the creation of affordable housing, and the Chicago Housing Authority’s one-strike eviction policy to more than 70 attorneys, law students and community members.

During the first panel, speakers discussed the mortgage foreclosure crisis, including its history, lasting effects and proposed solutions for working with clients who have been hardest hit by the crisis. Daniel Lindsey, supervisory attorney for the consumer practice group at Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, started the panel with an apt comparison of the mortgage bubble to the creation and ultimate demise of the infamous Titanic.

Students take a glimpse inside Cook County's criminal justice system

As part of the College of Law’s Institute for Advocacy & Dispute Resolution, six students shadowed judges at the Criminal Division of the Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday, April 11.

Students spent the morning session on individual assignments in judges' courtrooms. They also had the opportunity to meet and ask questions of acting presiding Judge Clay, and to hear Judge Fox talk about the specialty courts over lunch.

“I thought the shadow a judge event provided an excellent insight into the criminal justice system here in Chicago,” said Aidan Forde, an Irish exchange student. The students also observed a variety of evidentiary and status hearings, 402 conferences, and several felony jury trials, including one with a double jury.

“There is so much going on at that courthouse,” said Sarah Gorham (’13). “It's hard to believe that, during my time at DePaul, I had never been there.”

Events take place every spring and fall semester. Please contact Natalie Taylor at ntaylor4@depaul.edu or (312) 362-8312 if you are interested in participating in the fall 2013 program.

Professor Havel's Dublin lectures cap IALI's successful year

Professor Brian F. Havel, academic director of the International Aviation Law Institute, delivered his first lecture as newly-appointed visiting professor of law at Leiden University Law School in the Netherlands on May 13.

The topic was sweeping, The Legal Regime Governing Trade in International Air Services, and effectively allowed Professor Havel to review an entire semester's worth of material in an intensive three-hour session. The students are enrolled in the Advanced Master of Laws (LL.M.) Program in Air and Space Law at Leiden's International Institute of Air and Space Law. Professor Havel will return to Leiden to give further lectures in September and November 2013. 

Professor Havel will be in Dublin, Ireland, in the week beginning June 17, 2013, to present a new course in international aviation law at University College Dublin (UCD), where he was also recently appointed as visiting professor of law. The course, which he will co-teach with UCD lecturer Noel McGrath, is specially designed for aviation professionals. Ireland is one of the leading world centers of aviation corporate finance and also the home state of the international aircraft registry established under the recently-effective Cape Town Convention. As well as presenting a complete overview of trade in international air services, the course will include modules that are specifically focused on the acquisition and disposition of  aircraft under that convention.

In mid-July, Professor Havel will complete his historic two-year term as Keeley Visiting Fellow at Wadham College, University of Oxford, before returning to Chicago.

 

DePaul celebrates launch of the Chicago Public Interest Staycation

By Adrienne Packard, Assistant Director, CPIL

Most agree that the time we spend in law school provides an opportunity to learn the letter of the law, make lifelong friends, and gain invaluable experiences in our field of interest. It is also important to take advantage of the opportunity to learn the practice of law and to experience the full benefit of providing service to those in need.

Several law students learned this firsthand during the inaugural Pro Bono Staycation held over spring break in Chicago. Rather than spend their spring break relaxing or traveling, Kevin O’Donnell (’13), Brooke Tucker (’14), Jennifer Thomas (’15) and Sylvia Zarski (’15) decided to work with the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services and The Center for Disability and Elder Law (CDEL). The students started off the week at the Legal Aid Society where they assisted the family law practice group in wrapping up their open files and shadowing attorneys in court. By having the students close cases, attorneys were able to focus more of their energy on the advocacy aspect of their work, rather than the administrative. They also provided the students opportunities to see firsthand the daily work of legal aid family law attorneys.

College of Law alumni make mentoring work for new attorneys

Mentoring has a natural place in today’s connected culture. Global organizations like IBM are implementing e-mentoring programs for young employees, and emerging online exchanges like PivotPlanet connect career changers to accomplished industry professionals. Increasingly, social networking platforms are used to maintain career connections outside of the office.

As the professional world becomes more socialized—and accessible— the new work force is benefitting from direct interaction with higherups. Protégés can easily initiate contact with experts in a field of interest, becoming active learners who direct the mentoring process.

Yet, modern mentorships don’t easily produce results. Mentees might not know what questions to ask. Shared ground also plays a big role, with research showing that the more a mentor and protégé have in common, the more they will invest in the relationship. And the benefit of face to-face meetings is almost essential in establishing rapport.

Responding to the need for effective mentorships, the College of Law recently integrated a program that takes great measures to ensure time well spent. In 2012, DePaul’s Institute for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution (IADR) launched the Lawyer-to-Lawyer (L2L) Mentoring Program, which operates under the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism. It wrapped up its first year this past January.

Led by IADR Assistant Director Natalie Taylor, DePaul’s L2L program furthers the court’s efforts to change the legal culture in Illinois “one-on-one.” The program works by pairing new attorneys with seasoned professionals through careful recruiting, orientation and training, a highly structured outline and incentive for both parties to complete the program. 

"Law matters," Richard M. Daley to DePaul University law graduates

 

Richard M. Daley, who served as mayor of Chicago for 22 years, delivered the commencement speech May 19 at DePaul University’s College of Law. Daley earned his law degree from DePaul in 1968 as well as a bachelor’s degree in 1964. He cited his DePaul education as “the foundation on which my career has been built.” (Photo by Thomas Vangel)

In remarks to graduates from DePaul University’s 100-year-old College of Law, Richard M. Daley described the law as “the rulebook for society.”

The former Chicago mayor, who earned a law degree from DePaul in 1968, told graduates “When you change the rulebook, you can literally change how the world works.”

He noted that the law “is more than statutes and rules and regulations and proceedings. It is the architecture that determines how we interact with one another. Like any other kind of architecture, if you change the design, you change the outcome. Do you want to change the world? Then you change the law.”

Citing his 22 years of experience as Chicago’s mayor and nearly 10 years as the Cook County State’s Attorney, Daley used the issue of gun violence to illustrate that there are “intriguing legal questions” at the core of some of today’s social challenges.

“In the time since I received my DePaul law degree, over 100,000 children and teenagers have been killed by guns in the United States of America…. I’m not going to tell you that there are easy answers to the problem of gun violence. There are not. But I will ask you some legal questions.

“Should it be easier to buy a gun than it is to buy a car? Why is the gun industry shielded from liability when no other industry enjoys such protection? If some other product were killing thousands of children every year, would Congress and its citizens issue the manufacturers of that product blanket immunity? If a gun shop repeatedly sells guns that end up in the hands of criminals, should that be a criminal offense?” Daley posed.

“These are obviously difficult and divisive questions,” Daley said. “My message today is simple: How you answer these legal questions will affect who gets killed on our streets. The law matters.”

He continued, “Those of us who study law — including all of our new graduates here today — must recognize that laws have consequences. They shape society. They determine how we interact with each other and with the rest of the world.

“You graduate today as our nation is facing a new set of challenges…. You will leave here today with more than a graduate degree. You will leave here with an understanding of the most powerful lever that we have for improving America and the world,” Daley said. “And that is the law.”

Conferring law degrees on 314 graduates was the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, president of DePaul University. Introducing Daley was Gregory Mark, dean of the College of Law, which is celebrating its centennial.

 

Article reprinted from DePaul Newsroom.

Click here for photos of the 2013 College of Law Commencement Ceremony, or view a webcast of Sunday's event.

Justice Ginsburg speaks at DePaul's tricentennial celebration

From left: Interim Provost Patricia O'Donoghue, Dean Donald Casey (Music), Justice Ginsburg, Dean Ray Whittington (Business), Dean Gregory Mark (Law).

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in Chicago May 10 to help DePaul celebrate the centennials of three of its schools -- law, business and music -- at an evening event featuring live opera selections and discussion about how law is portrayed in them.

Ginsburg, an opera aficionado who has appeared onstage in cameo opera roles and studied the intersection of opera and the law, provided commentary for the event at the Chicago History Museum.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Ginsburg's presentation in its coverage of the centennnial event.

 

Alumna named Lawyer of the Year by DuPage County Bar Association

Wendy Musielak (BUS '99, JD '03) was named DuPage County Bar Association's Lawyer of the Year in recognition of her long-standing commitment to the DuPage County Bar Association (DCBA) and DuPage Association of Women Lawyers.

Musielak is a partner at Esp Kreuzer Cores LLP where she concentrates her practice in family law. 

Musielak received the award at the 2013 President's Ball at Danada House in Wheaton. "Wendy has been invaluable to the DCBA," said outgoing DCBA President Sharon Mulyk. "When it came time to make a decision for Lawyer of the Year, the choice was an obvious one."

She also serves as chair of the membership committee and a member of the planning committee for the DCBA. Musielak is a director for the DuPage Association of Women Lawyers and a fellow with the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois.

Restorative justice: a path to resolution through rounded discussion

For the past five years, Elizabeth Vastine and Peter Newman have invited College of Law students to sit in a circle and talk.

Vastine and Newman teach a course at the College of Law in restorative practices, a process that has been gaining ground in the legal community as an effective alternative dispute resolution possibility.

It’s a process that encourages both communicating and listening in a safe, responsible and effective manner. The process works whether the participants are merely discussing ideas or options, or are resolving conflicts. “Restorative practices are about helping to create safe space for whatever the dialogue might be,” said Vastine.

The philosophy has roots in many ancient and indigenous cultures. The process first gained currency in Illinois in connection with criminal and juvenile matters, and is often spoken of in terms of victims and offenders and, occasionally, forgiveness. Yet, as Vastine and Newman contend, the process is much, much more.