WE ARE NEW YORK’S LAW SCHOOL

Faculty/Student Presentation Day

Wednesday, april 2, 2014

Welcome to New York Law School’s sixth all-day, in-house symposium, a day set aside for faculty and students to engage with each other in the process of creative and insightful work—from the application of lawyering skills to client needs to the writing of scholarly articles. You’ll have the chance to encounter a range of the perspectives of our faculty in the sessions today, but the name of the day—Faculty/Student Presentation Day—reflects our emphasis on the work of New York Law School’s students as well. In fact, as you’ll see as you look through the program, most of today’s presenters, over 50 in all, are NYLS students.

We hope you will join us for the Day’s events. Come to the panels, but not just to hear your teachers and fellow students speak—as much as we expect you’ll enjoy that. Come ready to engage with them, to make comments and ask questions, so that this Day isn’t just a day of “no classes” but a day for insight, understanding and fun!

Dean Anthony CrowellProfessor Stephen EllmannProfessor Frank Munger

Faculty/Student Presentation Day

Wednesday, april 2, 2014

First session: 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Advising Start-ups in Silicon AlleyThis panel will focus on providing legal, business, and financial advice to New York City-based start-ups. Each panelist will identify a problem faced by start-ups operating in New York, provide an overview of legal and business rules and concepts relevant to the problem, and then apply that body of knowledge in providing concrete advice.

– Professor Houman Shadab, moderator

– Zach Davison 3L

– Eliot Lief 3L

– Helen Quigley 3L

– Joshua N. Stanfield 3L

Detention in the War Against Terrorism“Detention in the War Against Terrorism” is a project-based learning course focused on U.S. detention policies and practices in Afghanistan. For this session, the members of the class will each present work they have done on this topic. Many of the presentations will also include excerpts from interviews the class members have conducted with lawyers in the United States and elsewhere who have worked on detention issues.

– Professor Stephen Ellmann, moderator

– Lauren Conway 2L

– Michael Di Paolo 2L

– Melissa Jangl 2L

– William Kostas 3L

– Cong Li 3L

Faculty/Student Presentation Day

1

PROGRAM

second session: 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Reflections on Studying Law: American Business Law LL.M. Candidates Speak About Law and LawyeringNew York Law School welcomes foreign-educated attorneys to its American Business Law LL.M. to qualify them to sit for the New York State bar exam and re-start their legal careers in this country or extend the range of cases they can handle in their home countries. Each of these LL.M. candidates has a unique experience: beginning a legal career in his or her homeland, coming to the United States, and once here, entering a new system of professional education. In addition to their personal stories, these NYLS students will provide an overview of the legal systems in their home countries, and discuss the differences and similarities between American legal education and the legal training they received in those nations.

– Professor Lynn Su, co-moderator

– Hazel Weiser, Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs, co-moderator

– Roberth Angeles (Peru)

– Aleksandr Iovel (Ukraine)

– Sarai Korpacz (Nigeria)

– Ardita Kraja (Albania)

– Sampada Solapurkar (India)

Building a Disability Rights Information Center for Asia and the Pacific: How a Website Can Promote Social Justice This year, New York Law School is offering a new clinic, Building a Disability Rights Information Center in Asia and the Pacific. The clinic is an outgrowth of Professor Perlin’s ongoing pro bono work, seeking to create a Disability Rights Tribunal for Asia and the Pacific (see, e.g., Promoting Social Change in Asia and the Pacific: The Need for a Disability Rights Tribunal to Give Life to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 44 Geo. Wash. Int’l L. Rev. 1 (2012)). In this Clinic, seven students are responsible for collecting statutes, judicial decisions, regulations, and advocacy efforts from 14 nations in that area and, eventually, uploading them onto a dedicated website we have created for this purpose. Four Clinic students will speak briefly about their work, how they have gone about doing their research, and what they see as the ultimate aims of this project.

2

– Professor Michael Perlin, moderator

– Catherine Bareeda 2L

– Katherine Davies 2L

– Stephanie Mendelsohn 2L

– Barbara Wheatle 2L

Skills Education: New DirectionsThis panel brings together faculty and students to talk about skills education, with a particular focus on public policy—the making of public policy in clinics, the creation of a new public institution (a charter school) in part through clinical work, and the making of public policy about clinics and legal education more generally.

– Professor Frank Munger, moderator

– Professor Carol Buckler: Working with the Bar on Legal Education Issues

– Professor Richard Marsico: Building a NYC Charter School on Law and Justice

– William Lemon 4L: Lobbying and Legislative Strategies for Public Interest Lawyers

– Nicole Reustle 4L: Community Organizing for Lawyers

third session (with lunch): 12:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

The Same-Sex Marriage Cases: Reflections and Perspectives on United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. PerryOn June 26, 2013, the United States Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in United States v. Windsor, 133 S. Ct. 2675, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, a federal statute providing that only the union of a man and a woman would be considered a marriage for all purposes of federal law, violates the Fifth Amendment. Writing for the Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that this statute deprived same-sex couples of “equal liberty” guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment, and that the Court had jurisdiction to hear the case even though the Petitioner, the federal government, actually agreed with the decision below by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  On the same day, the Court ruled 5-4 in Hollingsworth v. Perry, 133 S. Ct. 2652, that the official proponents of Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative passed in 2008 that amended the California Constitution to say that only the union of one man and one woman would be valid or recognized as a marriage in California, lacked standing to appeal a district court ruling that Proposition 8 violated

3

the 14th Amendment.  The line-up of justices in the two cases was different, with Justice Kennedy writing the dissent in Hollingsworth, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor (who was part of the majority in Windsor), Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas (dissenters in Windsor). Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the Court, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia (a Windsor dissenter), Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan (all in the Windsor majority). Both opinions quickly generated law review commentaries, debate in the popular media, and striking real-world consequences, including the recognition of same-sex marriages by the federal government, the resumption of same-sex marriages in California, and an unbroken string of decisions by federal and state courts ruling that states could not deny same-sex couples the right to marry and/or recognition of their marriages contracted in other states.  Within six months of the June 26 rulings, more than 40 lawsuits about same-sex marriage had been filed or were pending in federal and state courts.  During 2013, the number of states in which same-sex couples could marry doubled, and this trend in court rulings continued in 2014, with the issue to be argued in the courts of appeals beginning on April 10.  It seems nearly certain that the issue of same-sex marriage will be on the Supreme Court’s docket soon, perhaps even during the 2014-15 Term.  The panelists will address a range of topics related to these cases, touching on issues of substantive constitutional law; federal court practice; the relation of law, politics and society; and the role of judges, lawyers, and advocates in social change movements.  

– Dean Anthony Crowell, moderator

– Professor Arthur Leonard

– Professor Kris Franklin

– Professor Doni Gewirtzman

– Professor Edward Purcell

– Professor Ari Waldman

Fourth session: 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Your Legal Education: What Should It Look Like?This roundtable discussion will bring together students and faculty to consider the ways that law is learned and taught. The discussion will be interactive, and audience members will be encouraged to participate. We will look at current models and future options, and in particular at these wide-ranging topics:

• First-Year Education

• Developing Legal Expertise—both learning skills and acquiring subject-matter expertise

• Designing Your Own Law School—within the limits set by the ABA and the New York Court of Appeals

4

– Dean Anthony Crowell

– Associate Dean Deborah Archer

– Professor Stephen Ellmann

– Professor Kris Franklin

– Professor Doni Gewirtzman

– Professor Anne Goldstein

– Maria Luna 2L

– Jeffrey Meyers 2L

– Eugene Schlesinger 2L

Information Law and TechnologyThis panel will present an array of legal innovations that look to harness the disruptive potential of the modern information-based economy.

– Professor Ari Waldman, moderator

– Professor Michael Botein

– Professor Bryan Choi

– Professor Richard Chused

– Professor Houman Shadab

Scholarship by NYLS StudentsIn this session, four New York Law School students present the scholarly work they have created, dealing with topics from financial regulation to Obamacare to pension law.

– Professor Michelle Zierler, moderator

– Zach Davison 3L: Minding the Gap: A Call for Standardization in Regulating Pre-Dispute Arbitration Clauses in OTC Swap Transactions

– Chris Ferreira 2L: Free Exercise Rights, Corporations, and the Affordable Care Act’s Contraceptive Mandate

– Erik Lane 2L: Cologna v. Board of Trustees (urging a liberal interpretation of a pension statute in favor of a former Marine turned police officer with PTSD)

– Helen Quigley 3L: Kicking the Can down the Road: Dodd-Frank’s Attempted Reform on Broker-Dealers

5

From Doctrine to Digital Communication:  How the NYLS Sports Law Blog Taught Me How to Talk About the LawProfessor Jodi Balsam will describe the blogging assignment her Sports Law students complete.  Then the student panelists will each describe their process in selecting a blog topic, and researching, drafting, and polishing the final published post.  The focus will be on how writing for a practitioners’ sports law blog helped the writers to become better communicators on legal topics. In addition, the students will describe how the assignment helped connect their coursework to its practical application, improved their understanding of course materials, stoked their interest in other writing opportunities, and provided a résumé credential that employers value. 

– Professor Jodi Balsam, moderator

– Austin Cohen 2L

– Brayndi Grassi  2L

– Trevor Kilduff 2L

– Rick Meyer ’14

– Bretta Oluyede 2L

– Christina Teoli 2L

– Michelle Torres 3L

FiFth session: 4:15 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.

Safe Passage Project presents: Passages for Children in Immigration law– Professor Lenni Benson, moderator

– Professor Melynda Barnhart

– Claire Thomas ’11, Staff Attorney, Safe Passage Project: Introduction—The Growing Number of Children Traveling Alone: how children come to the United States, and how the Safe Passage Project works to find them legal representation

– Kara Kelly 3L

– Luisa Lebron 3L: Passages to Safety and Status—an overview of special immigrant juvenile status, asylum, and special protections for victims of crime and trafficking

– Natalie Bello 3L: Special Prosecutorial Discretion—closing removal proceedings for children and the creation of DACA but not yet the DREAM Act

6

Evidence Issues in Social and Mainstream Media Federal and state evidentiary rules permeate and inform legal storylines throughout newspapers, television, and social media. This panel will survey evidentiary issues “ripped from the headlines” in these three media outlets that pervade our daily lives.

– Professor Heidi Brown, moderator

– Matthew Bobrow 2L

– Chris Ferreira 2L

– Ashley Horn 2L

– Jeffrey Meyers 2L

– Hayley Pine 2L

A Progress Report on the Clinical Year The Clinical Year is one of New York Law School’s new clinics, and an educational experiment. It is a 24-credit course, built around three full-time, nine-week-long placements in different government and public interest law settings: the Legal Aid Society’s Civil Division, the NYC Law Department’s Division of Legal Counsel, and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Each placement is preceded by a one-credit seminar, and a one-credit seminar also accompanies each placement, but the core of this clinic is learning from the direct experience of immersion in the three rotation settings. In this session, faculty responsible for the pre-placement seminars and for the rotations, along with the students from the course, will discuss how it has worked so far and what its potential is for the future.

– Professor Frank Munger, moderator

– Professor Stephen Ellmann

– Adjunct Professor Katherine Greenberg

– Adjunct Professor Stephen Louis

– Adjunct Professor Corinne Schiff

– Erin Phillips 3L

– Samantha Schonfeld 3L

7

sixth session (with dinner): 6:00 p.m.– 8:00 p.m.

Approximately one-half hour of this period is meant for dinner; the presentations will begin by 6:30 p.m.

Abbey Center Capstone Projects: Student Contributions to Family Law PracticeStudents at the Diane Abbey Law Center for Children and Families will discuss their Capstone independent study projects.  The specific projects include a guide to Alternative to Incarceration programs available for 13- to 19-year-olds who are tried in “adult” court in New York City; an educational video concerning health care proxy and power of attorney options; a manual for law students working as weekend court interns in the Queens County District Attorney’s office; and an analysis of different models for a divorce mediation and advocacy clinic.

– Adjunct Professor Lisa Grumet, moderator

– Michael Cabasso 3L

– Janine Diljohn 4L

– Mallory McGee 2L

– Sabine Rospide 4L

European Union Competition Law: “Concerted Practices by Object” and ECJ Decision Making This presentation will examine Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, specifically looking at the issue of “concerted practices by object”—forms of collusion between firms that do not reach the level of an agreement, but are nevertheless prohibited under Article 101 if they have an anti-competitive object or effect on the market. Concerted practices by object are the subject of complex enforcement actions and large fines. They are often at the border between practices that merit and that do not merit government intervention, but the jurisprudence is not entirely clear or consistent in defining that border. Each student will focus on a different aspect of this issue and present original content that will become part of the NYLS website, EUcomplaw.com, with the goal of drawing conclusions that may help in future application of Article 101. Topics will include:

8

• The progression of concerted practices since Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd v. Commission of the European Communities (1972) to the present

• Differences between horizontal and vertical agreements related to concerted practices

• Analytical differences between objects and effects of Article 101

• The use of presumptions by the European Court of Justice (ECJ)

• Burden of proof in ECJ decision-making

• Evidentiary standards that constitute a violation of Article 101

• Error types and how the ECJ uses them

– Kelly Weiner, Fellow, Center for International Law, moderator

– Professor Lloyd Bonfield

– Golriz Amid 3L

– Jihad Hakamy 3L

– Jan Gabriel Hisugan 3L

– David Lightstone 3L

– Malvina Mardirosyan 3L

– Ian Moriarty 3L

– John Zunin 3L

9

Office of Academic Affairs185 West BroadwayNew York, NY 10013-2921

T 212.431.2310 E academicaffairs@nyls.eduwww.nyls.edu