Professor Copelon to be Honored by Women's Medical Fund

Professor Rhonda Copelon, director of the International Women's Human Rights Law Clinic at CUNY Law, is to receive the Women's Medical Fund's 2008 Rosie Jimenez Award at its annual spring reception on Thursday, May 15.

In 1980, as an attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, Copelon argued the landmark case of Harris v. McRae before the U.S. Supreme Court. This was the ultimate challenge to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of Medicaid for abortion.

The Women's Medical Fund provides direct financial assistance and other support to low-income women and girls in Southeastern Pennsylvania who wish to terminate an unwanted pregnancy but cannot afford a safe legal abortion. The Women's Medical Fund also raises public awareness of the devastating impact of denying access to safe legal abortions.

The Women's Medical Fund was formed by women's health activists in 1985 in response to this crisis in reproductive freedom for low-income women and teens. Since its inception in 1985, the Women's Medical Fund has ensured the right to choose for almost 10,000 poor women and teens by disbursing over $1.2 million in financial assistance.

To learn more about the award and the fund, visit http://www.womensmedicalfund.org

Professor Kirchmeier Appears on Regional News Network

Professor Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier appeared on April 14 on the Richard French Live TV show on RNN Regional News Network talking about the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court arguments in Kennedy v. Louisiana. The case concerns the constitutionality of the use of the death penalty for child rapes not involving homicide. To view the video, visit http://www.rnntv.com. Then under "Richard French Live Videos," select: "Should a Child Rapist Get the Death Penalty?"

Professor Bratspies To Speak April 12 and Launch New Book

Professor Rebecca Bratspies will speak at the American Society of International Law in Washington, D.C. on April 12 as part of a panel that is a launch of her new book, co-edited with Russell Miller, entitled Progress in International Law.

A description of the panel, "The Politics of Progress in International Law," follows: The idea of progress has been offered to justify international law to the discipline's skeptics, and to position international law as an engine for change. Manley O. Hudson's 1932 book Progress in International Organization offered a defining articulation of this progress narrative. Drawing its cue from Hudson, the new book Progress in International Law and this related panel attempt a survey of the field of international law for our times, providing a benchmark for another generation's consideration of international law's progress. The panelists are the editors and some of the contributors to the book.

The panel will be moderated by Tom Farer of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

Panelists include:

• Betsy Baker, Vermont Law School
• Rebecca Bratspies, CUNY School of Law
• Florian Hoffmann, Law Department at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
  
• Alexandra Kemmerer, University of Würzburg
• Russell Miller, Washington & Lee University School of Law
• Abraham Sofaer, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Professor Loffredo Appears on W-ABC News

Professor Steve Loffredo appeared on the 11 p.m. edition of W-ABC's Eyewitness News on Feb. 14 discussing New York State's efforts to recoup money from poor people who win the lottery.

An Eyewitness News investigative team found that, in the last five years, the state has intercepted nearly 24,000 lottery winners who were welfare recipients, taking from them more than $22 million even though most had to work for their welfare checks.

Loffredo discussed the plight of a man who won $10,000 only to have the state reclaim much of it.

Here is a print version of the story.

At the top of that page is a link to the video clip of the story tagged "Watch Video."

Professor Burton Authors Book Chapter on Judge Fritz Alexander II

Associate Professor Angela Burton has authored a chapter on the late Judge Fritz Alexander, II, for the book Judges of the New York Court of Appeals: A Biographical History, edited by the Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt (Fordham University Press, 2007).

The first of its kind, the book features original biographies of 106 chief and associate judges, other important Court figures, hundreds of illustrations, full case citations, bibliographies, and a listing of judges' progeny. According to Fordham Press, the book "fills a major gap in the literature that will be a resource not only for the New York legal community but also for scholars, students, and practitioners of the law around the country." Noting the influential role that the New York Court of Appeals and its judges have played in shaping American law, Fordham Press observed that "this important reference work finally provides a comprehensive, authoritative guide to 160 years of this important legal legacy."

Each entry features a full personal and professional biography, and concise coverage of landmark cases, key opinions, and a detailed context for understanding the legacy of each jurist. The entries range in length from concise portraits to extended discussions of such leading figures as Benjamin Cardozo and Irving Lehman, from the Court's first term under Chief Judge Freeborn G. Jewitt to the current term under Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye.

First Black on Court of Appeals

Judge Alexander, the first black American to be appointed to a full 14-year term on the Court, was nominated to the position by former Gov. Mario Cuomo. He served from 1985 to 1992, when he stepped down from the bench to work in the mayoral administration of his former law partner, David N. Dinkins.

Professor Burton became intrigued by Judge Alexander long before she wrote the chapter, one of the most extensive in the new book. Burton clerked for Alexander during the Court's 1991-1992 term, after graduating from New York University School of Law. A primary reason for her decision to apply for a clerkship with Judge Alexander was that he, too, had graduated from NYU Law. According to Burton, the opportunity to work with an African-American judge in New York who was also a fellow NYU Law alum and a member of the state's highest court "was, quite frankly, a dream come true – a dream that I hadn't ever even contemplated." The clerkship, Burton's first post-law school job, provided her, she said, "an excellent opportunity to hone my research, writing, and analytic skills, and was a fantastic introduction to law practice from the other side of the bench." She added, "I'll always cherish the experience of working with Judge Alexander, who taught me so much about clear legal thinking and writing."

Both as she worked for the jurist and later, as she continued her work for the book, Professor Burton uncovered a number of interesting details about the judge. Like her, for instance, Alexander graduated from high school at the tender age of 16 and started college immediately thereafter. "We were both nerds at an early age," Burton said.

She learned that Alexander was one of only four black students in his college class (the class that started at Dartmouth College in 1944). At Dartmouth, he was on the football and wrestling teams, was a member of student government, and wrote for the college's student newspaper. For an article for The Dartmouth in 1948, Alexander interviewed Duke Ellington and wrote an article about Ellington's upcoming performance on campus. The piece was called "Duke Promises Variety of Selections Tomorrow Night."

Member of "Secret" Fraternity

Burton said she was also interested, though not altogether surprised, to find that Alexander was a member of Sigma Phi Pi, the oldest black Greek letter fraternity in the country. This once "secret" fraternity, also known as "the Boule", was founded by W.E.B. DuBois; its members have included such influential African-American men as Ralph Bunche, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Bill Cosby, Judge A. Leon Higginbotham (for whom Burton was a research assistant as a law student at NYU), Jesse Jackson, Dinkins and others.

Burton's research and writing for her chapter of the book took place over the course of about nine months and was completed while she was on leave from the CUNY School of Law during the Fall of 2005. For Burton, the project brought back fond memories of her time with the judge, who died in 2000, and deepened her appreciation of the magnitude of his accomplishments. "All in all, it was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the judge, who was not only my employer, but a great mentor and role model as well, and, in this small but important way, to memorialize his legacy," she said.

Prof. Jenny Rivera Appointed Special Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights

On December 19th, Attorney General-elect Andrew Cuomo and his Transition Committee announced the names of the four attorneys who will serve on his newly formed "dream team." CUNY School of Law Prof. Jenny Rivera was named as Special Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights.

Prof. Rivera will be joined by Robin Baker as Executive Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice, Eric Corngold as Executive Deputy Attorney General for Economic Justice, and Mylan Denerstein as Executive Deputy Attorney General for Social Justice.

Prof. Rivera, a member of the CUNY School of Law faculty since 1997, holds an A.B from Princeton University, a J.D. from New York University School of Law and an LL.M from Columbia School of Law.

A legal expert in civil rights and former administrative law judge in the New York Division of Human Rights, Prof. Rivera currently serves on the New York City Commission on Human Rights. She has published many articles on civil rights, domestic violence and women's rights issues in a variety of journals such as the Columbia Journal of Gender & Law and the Fordham Urban Law Journal.

In the Latino community, Prof. Rivera has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Puerto Rican Bar Association's Flor De Maga Award in recognition of her work on women's rights.

Prof. Rivera will be taking a leave of absence from the law school beginning in January 2007 when she assumes her new position.

CUNY Central Features Ruthann Robson in New Article

CUNY Distinguished Professor Ruthann Robson is the subject of a new article on the CUNY Central Web site devoted to distinguished professors. The piece focuses on Professor Robson's fiction and non-fiction works and on her philosophies as an expert in lesbian and gay jurisprudence as well as pedagogy.

To see a list of all distinguished professors, and read profiles of many of them, visit: http://www1.cuny.edu/academics/oaa/distinguished/view.html?college=all

Dean Gomez-Velez Featured in Puerto Rican Bar Association Newsletter

Associate Dean Natalie Gomez-Velez is the featured personal profile in the Nov. 7, 2007 newsletter of the Puerto Rican Bar Association (PRBA). The story hinges on the dean's recent appointment in academic affairs at CUNY Law and explores her journey to become a lawyer and a dean. "I hated my first semester as a student at NYU Law School and I almost quit," Dean Gomez-Velez told the newsletter. "There was a lot of pressure to pursue a career in corporate law and I realized that my passion was not there." She said she survived with the help of peanut butter sandwiches and the encouragement of friends in the Puerto Rican Bar Association, graduating from NYU Law in 1989. She also discusses her passion for the CUNY Law mission of training lawyers to serve in the public interest.

The PRBA has grown from a handful of attorneys since its 1957 founding to more than 500 members representing the interests of attorneys, judges, law professors and students of Latino descent.

To read more about the Dean on the CUNY Law Web site, click here.

Professor Bilek Named Fellow on Teaching Ethics and Professionalism

Professor Mary Lu Bilek has been named a 2007 Fellow of the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism (NIFTEP). The institute was established in 2005 as a consortium of five nationally-recognized centers on ethics and professionalism:

• The Louis Stein Center for Law & Ethics at Fordham University
• The Mercer University School of Law Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism
• The Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough Center on Professionalism at the University of South Carolina
• The Stanford Center on Ethics
• The W. Lee Burge Endowment for Law & Ethics at Georgia State University
  

NIFTEP conducts annual workshops that bring together leading academics and practitioners involved in promoting the teaching of ethics and professionalism. NIFTEP is also sponsored by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Professionalism and the Georgia Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism.

Professor Bilek applied for the fellowship several months ago. The fellowship work, which will take place over a weekend, is an opportunity for exchange among thoughtful academics and practitioners whose focus is on professional responsibility, Bilek said. The fellowship, she added, "gives me the opportunity to refine and develop ideas about the teaching of professionalism and the nurturing of professional habits and values that can be integrated into our program."

The professor also was one of 55 educators who participated in a conference, "Legal Education at the Crossroads," from Nov. 2 thru Nov. 4, 2007 hosted by the University of South Carolina School of Law in Columbia.

This invitation-only conference was designed by Professor Roy Stuckey, lead author of the Clinical Legal Education Association's study, "Best Practices for Legal Education," and Judith Welch Wegner, Burton Craige Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law and co-author of the Carnegie Foundation lawyer education study.

Their goal is to bring together inspired leaders from across the range of legal educators in order to explore the possibilities for reform incorporated into these two studies, and to consider fresh forms of peer collaboration that might enhance individual institutions' own efforts to engage in innovative, high-quality education.

Professor Rossein Quoted and Cited on Work in Employment Law

Professor Rick Rossein's treatise, Merrick T. Rossein, 2 Employment Discrimination Law And Litigation (2007 ed.) was cited by two federal court decisions (Fifth Circuit and Southern District of Mississippi.) published in September, 2007. The Fifth Circuit decision, Palasota v. Haggar Clothing Co., --- F.3d ----, 2007 WL 2503997 (5th Cir. Sept. 6, 2007), cited the treatise multiple times, both in the text and footnotes. The case involved issues of damages and cited Professor Rossein's work on the commencement of liability and the continuing violation theory, which allows civil rights litigants in certain instances to introduce evidence outside the statutory time limit.

The case in the Southern District of Mississippi is Durham v. Advance Stores Co., Inc., Slip Copy, 2007 WL 2903206 S.D.Miss., Sept. 30, 2007. The text of the decision cited the Professor's treatise in a motion to dismiss or, alternatively, for appropriate sanctions where there were allegations that plaintiff's counsel directly violated Rule 4.2 of the Mississippi Rules of Professional Conduct by communicating with two former store managers of the defendant employer without the consent of defense counsel.

Meanwhile, Professor Rossein was quoted Oct. 5, 2007 in Employment Law360, a daily news service distributed to more than 20,000 legal professionals, on the settlement of an age discrimination suit affecting 32 former partners at the intercontinental law firm, Sidley Austin LLP, which has more than 1,700 lawyers in 16 offices on four continents. The lawyers argued that they had been forced to retire or were otherwise dismissed because of their age. Professor Rossein said that the law firm's admission that it had improperly categorized the status of the partners as owners who were not protected by Age Discrimination Employment Act provisions might lead to future litigation at other firms.

Professor Rossein on Oct. 15, 2007 also was quoted in an article in The New York Post, "Taking a Chance on Love-Rethinking Office Romance." Rossein told the newspaper, in an extensive story, that his advice to companies is to issue a strong prohibition against sexual harassment and provide "strong, interactive" training during which employees can discuss their feelings about being approached for dates, and how to clearly say no.

The Professor has been busy on television, too. He appeared live on Oct. 3, 2007 on "Fox and Friends" discussing the Isaiah Thomas/Madison Square Garden jury verdict, explaining what is unlawful harassment and retaliation.

He also was quoted by ABC News on Sept. 21, 2007 concerning the lawsuit by Dan Rather against CBS News.

Congratulations to all!