MEET THE CLASS

Florin Ivan grew up in Romania, a European country that forms the meeting place of the Eastern European, Central European and Balkan cultures. When he immigrated to the United States at a young age, he saw the transcontinental journey as both an exciting adventure to explore the West, as well as a somber realization that he would deeply miss his friends and the ancestral motherland. When it came time to decide on a career, Ivan was at a crossroads. “Law and business both had an intrinsic appeal for

me,” Ivan said. “It was difficult to choose. For practical reasons at the time, I chose business.” After completing his B.S. in information systems, Ivan joined the front lines of the dot.com revolution as part of an emerging software firm. Then, realizing that the Internet would soon transition from an emerging busi-ness medium to one with strong potential for traditional brick-and-mortar firms, he pursued an MBA and sought opportunities to bring technology and traditional business together. After joining a Fortune 100 credit card company, he played a key role in enabling company business processes to take advantage of the Internet. “Rising through the management ranks of a Fortune 100 was both excit-ing and professionally rewarding,” Ivan said. “But the love of law was still a flame I carried in my heart throughout this time.” Ivan said that several recent events rekindled his interest in the law: negotiating several major deals involving intellectual property, doing management consulting for a local law firm “on the side,” and getting a real estate agent license “for fun.” When his former business-law professor and mentor from graduate school asked him whether he ever considered going to law school, he fig-ured someone was trying to tell him something. And the rest, as they say, is history.

SUMMER EXPERIENCES

Ryan Turner, 3L, explored military service and developed his legal skills through an in-ternship with Army JAG Corps in Würzburg, Germany. “During the internship, I lived and worked on an active Army post and was truly immersed in the military way of life,” Turner said. “My clientele included soldiers, retirees and their dependents. While working for the Legal As-sistance Office, I helped prepare wills, living wills and powers of attorney. Additionally, I researched state-specific intestacy guidelines for the casualty assistance officer. During less busy periods, I availed myself to the Trial Judi-ciary. I researched evidentiary legal issues and briefed Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

opinions for Judge Masterron. “The most memorable and gratifying assignment I had was supporting the Pre-Deployment Program for the Second Stryker Calvary Regiment. I spent an entire week at Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany, assisting close to 3,400 soldiers with wills, powers of attorney, living wills, and miscel-laneous legal issues that had to be resolved before the regiment deployed to Iraq.”

DEAN WHITE ANNOUNCES MOVE TO TEACHING

Dean Patricia White has announced that she will step down at the end of June. White, who became dean in January 1999 and was the first woman law dean in Arizona, said she informed ASU President Dr. Michael Crow of her decision in August. She plans to remain as a faculty member at the College after a sabbatical next year. “I will have served in this position for nine and a half years,” White said. “My own view is that no one should be dean for more than a decade, and I am certainly no exception.” Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, for whom the College was renamed in 2006, praised White’s work. “Dean White has been a superb dean of the law school,” O’Connor said. “She will be difficult to replace, but she will leave the law school stronger and more promising than ever before. We owe her our warmest thanks and appreciation.” Crow commended White. “During her tenure, the College of Law embodied the idea of the New American University and its tenants of excellence, access and impact,” Crow said. “The college is exceptionally strong because of Dean White’s leadership, and she has positioned it to move on to even better things.” Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano said White elevated the College. “Dean White has been pivotal in transforming the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law into a world-class law school,” Napolitano said.

C O N S T RU C T I V E NOTICESeptember 25, 2007 Volume 21

“Her contributions to the ASU com-munity as dean will surely be missed.”

White presided over the renaming of the College, the first time nationally that a law school was named for a woman.

While White has been dean, the College of Law’s faculty has nearly doubled, its research and publications have gained national prominence, and there has been enormous growth

in interdisciplinary programs in philosophy, psychology and interna-tional law. Its Indian Legal Program is renowned, the Center for the Study

of Law, Science, & Technology is the largest and most comprehensive law and science center in the country, and several unique joint programs have been established, including the M.D./J.D. program with the Mayo Medical School, and the Master of Real Estate Development with three other ASU colleges and schools. At the same time, the quality and diversity of the student body improved, with more than twice the financial aid and scholarships provided, a result of more than doubling the College’s endowment and increasing annual giving 20 fold. The College’s community outreach has greatly expanded with four new clinical programs – the Indian Legal Clinic, the Immigration Law & Policy Clinic, the Lodestar Mediation Clinic and the multidisciplinary Technology Ventures Clinic – and a Pro Bono Program in which students last year con-tributed 73,000 hours, conservatively valued at $7.3 million, to low-income and underserved populations that otherwise would have no access to legal assistance. “I feel privileged to have played this role for so long,” White said. “I have learned a great deal, had a lot of fun, and, together, with the help of many talented people, we have brought the school a long way.” Alan Matheson, who has been with the College since its founding in 1967 and has served as dean or acting dean five different times, called White “a phenomenal dean.” “She has strengthened all aspects of the College: faculty, academic programs, connection to the community, student bodies and fundraising,” Matheson said. Ernest Calderón, a member of the Arizona Board of Regents and head of Calderón Law Offices, said he is disappointed White is leaving the leader-ship of the College. “Look at everything she’s accomplished,” Calderón said. “She’s taken the College of Law to a higher strata than it’s ever been while enhancing its out-reach to poor people and those less fortunate. She’s a national leader in that. “She recruits people from less fortunate communities who go on to em-power themselves and empower their communities.” Patricia Lee Refo, an attorney at Snell & Wilmer in Phoenix and co-chair of the College’s group, Arizona Women Lawyers Honoring Justice O’Connor, said White will be missed as Dean. “She made history with the renaming,” Refo said. “Under her extraordi-nary leadership, the law school, its faculty and its students have flourished. And she has invited the legal community in this wonderful city – many, like me, with no connection to the law school – to be a part of this remarkable institution. “We are thrilled that she will be here teaching.” Paul Eckstein, a partner at Perkins Coie Brown & Bain, called White, “inspired and inspiring.” “Seeking permission from Justice O’Connor to name the school for her was inspired,” said Eckstein, co-founder of the College’s Council of 100, a group of attorneys who provide support and advice for the dean. “People will do anything for her. So when she asked us to form the Council of 100, she was inspiring enough that we did it.” Marilyn Seymann, chairman and CEO of the International Institute of the Americas, who served as the College’s associate dean of development before leaving in June, said White created a strong partnership with the legal community. “She built significant bridges with the legal community,” Seymann said. “These groups have been a support to the law school, a source of job place-ment and faculty recruitment and a way to better understand the communi-ty’s needs.” Rebecca Berch, Vice Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court and an alumna of the College, said ASU has been well served by White’s deanship. “Under her leadership, the faculty has grown, contributions to the school have flourished, and the school has increased in national stature,” Rebecca Berch said. “But her most important accomplishment must surely be the renaming of the law school in honor of retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.” White, a nationally recognized expert in tax law and bioethics, is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. In addition to her professorship at the College of Law, she is an affiliated professor in the Department of Philosophy. She is a national leader in legal education, is secretary/treasurer of the American Law Deans Association and a former long-term member of the Board of Trustees of the Law School Admissions Council. A national search will be conducted for White’s successor.

Dean Patricia White celebrates the renaming of the College with retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Dr. Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University.

Ryan Turner at the German capitol.

Florin Ivan

WEINSTEIN RETURNS FROM ENGLAND

Professor James Weinstein returned this semester from a year’s sabbatical leave as a Visiting Fellow Commoner at Trinity College and a Visitor at the Faculty of Law at Cambridge University in England. While there, he helped organize a joint Cambridge/ASU conference on extreme speech, which explored whether restric-tions on extreme speech such as glorifica-tion of terrorism and Holocaust denial are compatible with free speech in a democratic society. He also delivered a lecture, “Hate

Speech and Democracy: A Comparative View,” as part of Trinity’s Gates Distinguished Lecture Series, the first time someone from the field of law was invited to speak. Additional talks on free speech throughout the year included Univer-sity of Edinburgh, the University College, London; Central European University (Budapest); Le Ecole Nationale de Magistrature (Paris); Trinity College, Cambridge; Law Faculty, Cambridge; University of Hull; Queens University (UK branch), and Matrix Chambers, London.

WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS EXPLORED IN FILM, DISCUSSION

A film about wrongful convictions followed by a discussion with an Arizona man wrongfully imprisoned for eight years will be held at 6 p.m. on Sept. 27 in Room 105. In addition, a bill drafted by ASU law students to compensate wrongful-ly convicted Arizonans will be discussed. The bill soon will be introduced into the Arizona Legislature. The film, After Innocence, tells the story of seven men imprisoned for decades and their efforts to rebuild their lives after DNA evidence proved their innocence. “The men are thrust back into society with little or no support from the system that put them behind bars,” according to the film’s Web site. “While the public views exonerations as success stories – wrongs that have been righted – After Innocence shows that the human toll of wrongful imprison-ment can last far longer than the sentences served.” The film features Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, founders of the Inno-cence Project, which has helped to exonerate more than 200 people freed through the use of DNA testing in the last decade. It also highlights the work of human-rights activist Dr. Lola Vollen, co-founder of the Life After Exoneration Program. Following the film, Ray Girdler, a Prescott man who spent eight years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of arson and murder in the deaths of his wife and daughter, will discuss his experience. Girdler will be joined by his attorney, Larry Hammond, who eventually proved the fire was accidental, securing Girdler’s release. Hammond, of Osborn Maledon, and others founded The Arizona Justice Project in 1998, making it the fifth organization in the United States set up to help inmates overturn wrongful convictions. Today, there are more than 40 similar organizations throughout the country. Professors and students at the College of Law work closely with The Arizona Justice Project, volunteering countless hours to work on cases of those believed wrongfully convicted. Thursday’s event, sponsored by the project, is free and open to the pub-lic. For more information, contact Professor Michael Saks, (928) 282-0813, or michael.saks@asu.edu.

SPEAKER TACKLES ISSUES IN TELECOM LAW

Danny E. Adams (Class of 1975), a partner and founding member of the Kelley Drye’s Telecommunications Practice, will discuss “Issues in Telecom Law: Consumer Protection, Internet Competition Policy and Broadband Regulation,” at 12:10 p.m. on Sept. 25 in Room 114. Adams has practiced in the telecommunications field for more than 30 years and represents Internet service providers, MVNOs (Mobile Network Virtual Operator), wireless carriers, information service providers, long distance companies, broadband companies and others on both federal and state regulatory matters, as well as in contract negotiations and related matters. He also assists clients in specialized telecommunications litigation, including defense of Federal Trade Commission and State Attorney General enforcement actions. Adams will cover the jurisdictional wrestling match between the FCC, the FTC and the State Attorneys General over broadband service and consumer protection; the battle of the titans between Google/Yahoo vs. ATT/Verizon/Cox over “net neutrality;” and the constantly changing rules for competition in local telcom services that have undone most competition and destroyed billions of dollars of investment.

LIBRARY STARTS BLOG

The Ross-Blakley Law Library blog is a way to keep you informed about library services and announcements without overburdening your e-mail boxes. It also provides research tips, news and reviews of legal information sources, library podcasts, online tutorials and more. To subscribe, go to the library’s home page, law.asu.edu/library. Participate by adding a comment to an entry on the blog or e-mailing sug-gested topics. Watch for opinion polls, an invitation to submit your photos for the Law Library’s “Law Dog or Law Cat of the Week,” and chances to win prizes.

NEW LAW LIBRARY STUDY SKILLS COLLECTION

In an effort to make it easier and more efficient for students to find books to help them succeed in law school, the Ross-Blakley Law Library staff has created a Study Skills Collection. Located in the Reserve Reading room on the first floor of the Law Library, the collection brings together an array of study aids, legal research and writing texts as well as exam and bar exam materials. All the materials in the Study Skills Collection may be checked out for one week and are renewable twice. If you have any questions about or suggestions for the new collection, contact Leslie A. Pardo, head of access services, (480) 965-3579.

CAREER SERVICES

Students now have access to the Online Career Library of Vault, pro-moted as the world’s leading source of career information. It will simplify and make efficient your efforts at researching employers, industries, career subjects and practice areas. The resource contains more than 30 download-able guides, more than 1,100 career advice articles, industry and occupa-tional profiles, access to the Vault message boards for insider information and more. Our Vault Online Career Library is a different product from that found on the public Vault site. Students must access it through the Career Services page of the College’s Web site. To get the most use of Vault, we recom-mend you view the Vault Law Tutorial.

BRETT ASPEY SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED

Alane Roby, Class of 2007, is the first recipient of the Brett Aspey Memorial Scholarship. Aspey, who graduated from the College in 2003 and was a criminal prosecutor in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, died of a gunshot wound at his Phoenix home on Dec. 18, 2004. Police have yet to make any arrests in the homicide. Roby, who works in the County Attorney Office’s Fraud and Identity Theft Enforcement Bureau, received the $3,500 scholarship. Its orga-nizers, which include some of Aspey’s classmates, hope to award it annually to a graduate of the

College of Law who is interested in public service and is an Arizona native, as was Aspey. Roby, who has never lived anywhere but Arizona, earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from ASU and then worked at the Arizona Attorney General’s office, where she assisted crime victims by explaining to them their rights and the workings of the courts. “I found it so rewarding, but I was very limited, because you had to be an attorney to file the motions, and attorneys had the ability to make the victims’ experiences in the criminal justice system the best that it could be,” she said. So, Roby came to law school, with an eye on returning to the public sector someday. She enjoys assisting not only victims, but also criminals, working to get them help “rather than just throwing them in jail. “I think you can make a difference by being reasonable,” said Roby, a single mother of one child. “Sometimes you get black and white, and it’s `our side or their side,’ and I don’t ever want to be like that. I want to focus on the work, rather than how much work I have to do.” Brad Shwer, a classmate of Aspey’s who helped establish the scholarship, described him as a smart, personable young man who was always interested in public service. “I think that always says something about people, that they are a bit selfless, they are willing to put others before themselves, and serve the community as best they can,” Shwer said. “We were all shocked and upset by Brett’s death, and we hope graduates will be willing to support the scholarship as a way of giving back to the school and, more importantly, keeping his memory alive.” Roby, who put herself through law school while caring for her three-year-old daughter, Gabriella, said she will use the scholarship money to help pay off her debt. To contribute to the Brett Aspey Memorial Scholarship contact Shwer at (602) 616-4820 or e-mail bshwer@fclaw.com , or e-mail Cindy Kelley, the College’s Director of Alumni Relations, at cynthia.kelley@asu.edu.

LST TO HOST IP CONFERENCE The College’s Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology is co-hosting the 2007 Intellectual Property and Critical Information Confer-ence, Oct. 2-3, in Armstrong Hall. “Identification, Valuation, & Protection of Critical Information and IP” will teach participants how to identify and protect their intellectual prop-erty and to leverage those assets to increase productivity. The conference, also sponsored by the OPSEC Professionals Soci-ety, will be held in Rooms 105 and 118. It is free for students; $550 for practitioners, with 10 to 12 general CLE credits available. For details, go to www.aegisjournal.com or contact L. Burke Files at (480) 838-1728 or LBFILES@aegisjournal.com. Students should contact Sandy Askland at (480) 965-2465.

Professor Weinstein delivering the Gates Lecture at Trinity.

Alane Roby