Emory Lawyer | Summer 2015 by Emory University School of Law

SUMMER 2015

Civil rights at a new crossroads

8 Lessons and questions from Ferguson 10 Establishing a John Lewis Chair in Civil Rights and Social Justice 12 Teaching the law of war 16 Mastering law to serve the global good

DEAN’S VIEW

The changing landscape of civil rights in America Landmark cases — those that fundamentally alter the way citizens relate to one another and to their government — are not common. The ones that truly define a generation are rare. Accordingly, it has been a time of great activity in the legal community, as we have been witness to a Supreme Court ruling that broadens the definition of marriage by lifting bans on same-sex unions. Still, cases like this are about more than marriage. They are game-changing civil rights cases the likes of which have shaped laws and legislation during the past four decades. At Emory Law, we enthusiastically participate in the conversations that advance the rule of law and shape our country today. Our faculty members have written extensively on the Supreme Court’s recent opinions, sharing varying viewpoints that lead to illuminating scholarly discussion. In this issue, faculty members and noted alumni address the changing landscape of civil rights, taking us down the road from Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) and beyond. As the rights of disenfranchised groups are being recognized, are their experiences? While we, as legal scholars, explore these cases that have defined civil rights in America, many of our communities are grappling with claims of police brutality and law enforcement’s abuse of citizen rights — a civil rights debate that is being played out in the media and the court of public opinion as much as it is in courtrooms and in the halls of the Department of Justice.

If, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, we must ask ourselves if justice is being threatened in communities like Ferguson, Missouri, and others recently in the news. In a thought-provoking piece within these pages, visiting professor Fred Smith recounts his experiences while visiting Ferguson soon after the unrest there. Smith references a time in our history during which our country was reminded of its duty to “guard the rights of the most humble and unorthodox.” During the 1960s, activist and Emory honorary doctor of laws recipient Congressman John Lewis was one of those championing the cause of the disenfranchised. It is with great honor that we are able to reflect upon Lewis’s contributions to the conversation. Because of an anonymous $1.5 million gift, we will now be able to honor him in perpetuity. Read further to see how friends to Emory Law are helping to fund a John Lewis Chair in Civil Rights and Social Justice. Through this issue of Emory Lawyer, we hope to inspire deeper conversation about civil rights — and the broader discussion of human rights, as well. As always, we encourage you to share your comments with us.

Robert A. Schapiro Dean and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law

Contents

Emory Lawyer

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SU MM ER 2 01 5 ABOUT EMORY LAWYER Emory Lawyer is published semiannually by Emory University School of Law and is distributed free to alumni and friends. ADVISORY COMMITTEE Robert B. Ahdieh, Vice Dean and K.H. Gyr Professor of Private International Law Susan Carini 04G, Executive Director of Communication, Communications and Marketing Cecily Craighill, Director of Alumni Relations Timothy Holbrook, Professor of Law Joella Hricik, Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations DEAN Robert A. Schapiro ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Susan Clark EDITORS Susan Carini 04G A. Kenyatta Greer ASSISTANT EDITOR Breckyn Wood CONTRIBUTORS Lisa Ashmore, Susan Carini 04G, Dana Goldman, A. Kenyatta Greer, Stacey Jones, Mary Loftus, John Maggio 96L, Fred Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Christine Van Dusen, Cameron Welborn-Wilson 99L ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN Winnie Hulme

Getting us over

Much has transpired in the 60 years since Brown v. Board,

but there are many hurdles — from equal pay to LGBT rights — still ahead.

Lessons and questions from Ferguson, Missouri

Visiting professor Fred Smith Jr. shares his experiences from the frontlines of America’s fight for racial equality.

John Lewis Chair in Civil Rights and Social Justice

An anonymous donor has given $1.5 million to establish the John Lewis Chair in Civil Rights and Social Justice.

Teaching the law of war

PHOTOGRAPHY John Amis, Alyssa Ashdown, Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc., Phuc Dao, Bradley E. Dixon, Emory Photo/Video, Corky Gallo, Gary Meek, Bryan Meltz, Scott Olson/Getty Images, Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images

From Guantanamo Bay to the United Nations, students resolve issues of humanitarian law around the world.

COVER ILLUSTRATION Edel Rodriguez

Contact us: We welcome your comments and suggestions. Please send letters, news, story ideas, and class notes to Susan Clark at lawcommunications@emory.edu or Emory Law, 1301 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta GA 30322. Send changes of address by mail to Office of Development and Alumni Records, Emory University, 1762 Clifton Road, Suite 1400, Atlanta GA 30322. Website: law.emory.edu

Departments 16

STUDENT VOICES

LLM Student Tsering Choedon 15L, an India-born Tibetan, is using an Emory Law education and her own life experiences to further the cause of stateless people.

CLASS NOTES

• Bill McFee 78B 78L: Scholarship honors beloved alumnus • Laura Rodriguez 15L: Immigrant Justice Corp Fellow • C ameron Welborn-Wilson 99L: A modern network 23

ALUMNI PROFILES

• Lee P. Miller 82L: A new trustee with an eye for things old • Greg Doody 94L: From boardroom to vineyard • John Dowd 65L: Historic Dowd Report comes to Emory Law

WORTH NOTING

Become a member of Emory Law’s Ask an Alum program. Help students explore career paths without leaving your computer. To volunteer, join the Emory Law Ask an Alum Program group on LinkedIn.

Civil rights at a new crossroads BY SUSAN CARINI 04G

Our march is not yet finished, but we’re getting closer. . . . Our job’s easier because somebody already got us through that first mile. Somebody already got us over that bridge. — President Barack Obama, remarks at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, March 2015

We are 50 years beyond the conditions that led to a brutal police assault on civil rights demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, now known, in historical shorthand, as “Bloody Sunday.” The survivors who commemorated the Selma anniversary this spring — including Georgia Representative John Lewis 14H, who absorbed the first blows of that day — have the slower gait, reknit bones, and thinning hair to reflect the passage of decades. A FULL 50 YEARS HAVE PASSED.

Seeing them again made Americans rejoice. Current headlines nevertheless evoke the fear and despair of that era: the gunning down of nine people at a historic Charleston, South Carolina, AME church; the shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri; Eric Garner’s death after being arrested in Staten Island, New York; and the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of Baltimore police. With disturbing frequency, the echoes of an earlier period continue to resound. In this light, how far are we from that first mile the president counted off? Much has transpired since that fateful day in Selma: Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s; the Stonewall riots (1969) launched the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights movement; and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978) provided protection for pregnant women in the workplace. But what are the other significant guideposts as we have moved along this path toward greater equality? Many scholars — including Dean Robert Schapiro, a leading constitutional authority — underscore the primacy of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which required the desegregation of public schools and established that separate is not equal. Schapiro says, “Brown began to make real the promise of the Fourteenth Amendment. It also became a kind of paradigm for recognizing other rights.” Timothy Holbrook, professor of law, is staggered by Brown’s reach, which has extended to cases advancing the rights of LGBT persons as well.

Another approach has been offered by Martha Albertson Fineman, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law and a renowned scholar of feminist and critical legal theory and family law, who has sought to expand the rights paradigm beyond identity-based claims. As the founding director of Emory’s Vulnerability and Human Condition Initiative, Fineman has led inquiry into not just questions of discrimination, but a focus on the institutional structures that produce both current and pervasive social injustices. Even as Brown became the moral center of countless civil rights suits, later cases widened that first ripple of justice into a stream. Former Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears 80L mentions Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the case establishing the right to counsel for defendants unable to pay for an attorney. Three years later came Miranda v. Arizona, in which a defendant’s responses to interrogation while in police custody are admissible only if he or she was informed of the right to counsel before and during questioning. For Michael Perry, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), in the same era, was a pivotal Supreme Court decision regarding press freedom. Perry notes, “Nothing is as critical to a democracy as the ability of the press to participate in a robust, uninhibited way.” New cases and new judgments throughout the second half of the 20th century felt like victories and seemed to signal an American society becoming fairer and more inclusive. But were they? EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

Justice Leah Ward Sears 80L views the same-sex marriage case as proof that “the country is changing and the legal landscape with it.”

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CIVIL RIGHTS

THE SECOND MILE Asked if current events felt

like regression to her, Justice Sears responded, “Not regression — illumination. Today’s problems highlight that we haven’t come as far as we thought. Smartphones now capture what has been happening all over the place through the years.” As American society approaches a demographic shift in which people of color will become a majority by 2042, white fears of losing power may explain some of the resistance to the march of civil rights. Holbrook sees a similar mindset at work in those who would limit the advances of the LGBT community. “Is it 2015 or 1963?” That was Perry’s question as he considered the cases dominating the news. In all of them, the question has become, Is there a culture of taking the laws seriously and enforcing them? “There are certain places,” Perry asserts, “like the Baltimore police department — but not limited to it — where the whole mindset is on being an occupying force.” Today’s problems highlight that we American cultural senhaven’t come as far as we thought. sitivities are better attuned than in the Selma era. The Smartphones now capture what has challenge now is to tease been happening all over the place out implicit racism — the through the years. kind, says Holbrook, that — Leah Ward Sears 80L results in demonstrations in Ferguson and Baltimore being deemed “riots,” while property loss and injury following a Super Bowl get called “overzealousness.”

ONE MAN, ONE VOTE . . . ONE ISSUE STILL UNRESOLVED Schapiro

acknowledges that, however solid the rampart established by Brown and other cases, “We must come back to these issues. They are not resolved forever.” Witness the history of voting rights. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 systematically prohibited a series of practices that prevented people — particularly African Americans and Latinos — from voting. It changed the shape of the electorate and politics, particularly in the South. But, says the dean, “The issues are different now. Current access issues are more subtle.” Requiring a photo ID, for instance, doesn’t target a particular group but has a disparate impact on traditional Democratic voters, some of whom are poor, black, elderly, and may not have a driver’s license. Justice Sears estimates that this restriction affects some 21 million people. Georgia’s law is among the most restrictive. Holbrook offers, “Given that there is such little proof of voting fraud, these laws are not necessary. The vote is central to being a citizen; if in doubt, let people vote.” 4

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

That this issue is very much alive was made clear in a recent speech by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who called for Americans to be automatically registered to vote at age 18, recommended 20 days of early voting as a nationwide standard, and urged Congress to strengthen the Voting Rights Act.

OBERGEFELL V. HODGES (2015) “No longer

may this liberty be denied,” wrote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on June 26, 2015, in a landmark case that reverberated worldwide, making same-sex marriage the law of the land. Kennedy went on to call marriage “a keystone of our social order,“ adding that the plaintiffs were seeking “equal dignity in the eyes of the law.” To some onlookers, the legalization of same-sex marriage occurred in a headlong rush. Scholars, though, caution against thinking that things changed overnight. According to the dean, “Marriage and family law are the closest to people in their daily lives,” which kept a warming flame under this issue. Holbrook — who is gay and married — long has worked for this liberty. For instance, he joined with John A. Dragseth and NFL players Chris Kluwe, Brendon Ayanbadejo, and Scott Fujita in 2013 to file an amicus brief in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the federal case that legalized same-sex marriage in California, and in Obergefell. The “first case ever where the Supreme Court acted to protect gays and lesbians,” Holbrook notes, was Romer v. Evans (1996), in which the Court invalidated a constitutional amendment in Colorado that had stripped all rights for LGBT individuals at the local level. In Holbrook’s opinion, Romer led directly to another key case — Lawrence v. Texas (2003) — in which the Supreme Court struck down the sodomy law in Texas and, by extension, in 13 other states, making same-sex sexual activity legal in the United States. That decision was preceded by a cultural shift. For example, Ellen DeGeneres came out on the cover of Time magazine. Her announcement made a difference, not as much for her star power as for the fact that suddenly everyone realized a connection to someone who was lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Adds Holbrook, “Most LGBT individuals are born into straight families. It is difficult to wall us off and treat us as other.” As the New York Times coverage of the same-sex marriage case noted, “The decision . . . set off jubilation and tearful embraces across the country, the first samesex marriages in several states, and resistance — or at least stalling — in others.” The Court’s ruling undoubtedly set the tone for a July 16 ruling by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission affirming that discrimination against

employees based on sexual orientation is prohibited under Title VII. According to James Esseks, American Civil Liberties Union LGBT project director, “This is a significant development because protections for gay and transgender people are almost nonexistent in federal law, and 28 states also lack state-level protections.” But in Hood County, Texas, the Court’s decision prompted backlash. Katie Lang wrote on the county clerk’s website, “I will not be issuing same-sex marriage licenses due to my religious convictions.” And the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, added, “I will do everything I can . . . to be a public voice for those standing in defense of their religious beliefs.”

“THOSE OPPOSED, SAY . . . RFRA” One tool that

may be employed by opponents of same-sex marriage will be Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs). States have been passing their own RFRAs since 1993, including two this year in Arkansas and Indiana. The latter especially has proven controversial, seeming to enable those who might want to withhold goods and services from LGBT persons based on religious objections, particularly when it comes to same-sex weddings. In Georgia this past April, an AlphaGraphics store refused to print a lesbian couple’s wedding invitations. The national company intervened, saying in a statement, “We do not condone discrimination of any kind. . . . We hope that our response conveys the level of commitment we feel toward upholding our company’s standards of inclusion.” Holbrook believes that RFRAs “will get a lot of traction” but acknowledges the need to balance the rights of LGBT persons with the religious liberties protected in the First Amendment. He says, “The challenging question moving forward will be how to strike the appropriate balance. There will be considerable disagreement as to where that balance should lie.” There is also a strong need for federal-level nondiscrimination protection for LGBT individuals, Holbrook notes. “It is a bit backwards that gays and lesbians are being allowed to marry, but in some states announcing that you got married means that you can be fired.” In the view of Justice Sears, “Nondiscrimination is a core value. So is religious freedom. We need much more civil discourse and understanding so that we find our way to balance rather than treating these values as a zero-sum game.”

A MIXED RECORD FOR WOMEN According

to Schapiro, “There really has been an evolution in the way that the Court has looked at issues of gender discrimination.” He cites the 1996 decision in United

States v. Virginia, in which the Court struck down the Virginia Military Institute’s longstanding male-only admission policy in a 7-to-1 decision. In this area as well, claims of religious freedom may pull in other directions. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores (2014), the Supreme Court ruled that closely held corporations cannot be required to pay for certain kinds of contraception coverage for their female workers, including the Plan B and Ella morning-after pills as well as IUDs, if the use of these contraceptives violates the owners’ religious beliefs. The fear of the dissenting justices and Court watchers is that this ruling opens the door for similarly minded companies to opt out of providing any form of birth control. In addition, Justice Ginsburg, in what has been termed a “scathing” dissent, listed a veritable pharmacopeia — including antidepressants, blood transfusions, and medications derived from pigs — that could trigger future objections on the part of corporations. The Lilly Ledbetter case, in which Jon Goldfarb 89L played a major role, demonstrates its own ups and downs. Ledbetter, a longtime employee of Goodyear Tire and Rubber, sued the company for paying her less than the company’s male counterparts. Goldfarb met Ledbetter after her July 1998 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filing granted her the right to sue. He describes Ledbetter as always “matter of fact” about the discrimination she suffered, which he attributes to her working around men all her life. In the district court ruling, Ledbetter was awarded $3.8 million, which was reduced to $300,000 — the cap under Title VII based on the size of the company. Goodyear appealed, arguing that Ledbetter’s reliance on a long history of violations was barred by the statute of limitations. The Eleventh Circuit court agreed and reversed the district court ruling. Goldfarb was in his thirties at the time. In light of his limited experience handling appellate work, more established appellate attorneys argued the Eleventh Circuit and Supreme Court cases. Given that the Supreme Court granted certiorari, Ledbetter and her attorneys were hopeful about the outcome. However, on May 29, 2007, the Supreme Court declined to apply the continuingviolations doctrine to wage-discrimination claims, which would have avoided Title VII’s statute of limitations and allowed each paycheck to serve as a new unlawful employment practice. EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

Jon Goldfarb 89L and Lilly Ledbetter, who together pursued an equal-pay case all the way to the Supreme Court in 2007.

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According to Goldfarb, Ledbetter was disappointed but, in her usual style, asked, “What can we do next?” What happened “next” was the enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, a law that expanded workers’ rights to take pay-discrimination issues to court.

BEYOND CIVIL RIGHTS It is precisely because there is so much ground to cover in advancing civil rights that Fineman, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law, offers a more fundamental challenge to the existing paradigm. She argues that reaching a more substantive point of equality will require us to adjust our path, by including previously excluded groups within a transformed vision of equality. Vulnerability theory presents a deep, unstinting challenge to the existing framework of civil rights. To succeed, Fineman suggests, we must look beyond individual groups and the presence or absence of discrimination. Instead, her work focuses on questions of universal vulnerability and the social production of resilience and examines the way that legal and constitutional While the [civil rights] cases spanned structures “position us in a number of specific groups and relation to each other as human beings and also involved various social institutions suggest a relationship of and relationships, the challenges responsibility between the were based on securing equality of state and the individual.” access, not changing or challenging Fineman’s work the fundamental structure or function reveals that our current institutional framework’s of those institutions. reliance on limited, — Martha Albertson Fineman, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law enumerated individual rights is inadequate. Despite the honorable lineage of civil rights warriors and their victories, the system within which they fought is fundamentally flawed. Looking back upon the decades of civil rights cases, Fineman explains, “While the cases spanned a number of specific groups and involved various social institutions and relationships, the challenges were based on securing equality of access, not changing or challenging the fundamental structure or function of those institutions.” As an example, she turns to the Court’s recent ruling on same-sex marriage. While we may celebrate that it is no longer permissible to discriminate against LGBT people who wish to marry, the decision did little to transform the institution of marriage itself. A vulnerability analysis helps us recognize that merely expanding the category of individuals entitled to marry does not alter the allocation of responsibility for caretaking and dependency; unpaid caretaking work is still located 6

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within the “private” family home. The disadvantages and costs of dependency work within an inherently unresponsive state will be borne by the individual caretaker, regardless of which gender is doing that labor. In her words, “Marriage is the mechanism whereby we privatize dependency and absolve the state and its institutions, such as the market or workplace, from sharing responsibility for it. To the extent that this decision shores up that model, it is harmful.” The American constitutional structure, which is primarily concerned with negative rights, was established around the ideal rights-holding citizen as a white, free, property-owning male. “During the 20th century, that legal subject expanded to include blacks, women, and others. However, while the identities of those previously excluded have been incorporated, their experiences have not. A 19th-century vision of a liberty-seeking, autonomous legal subject cannot adequately define the needs of real-life citizens in the 21st century. Nor should it be used to limit our notion of state responsibility.” Fineman admits, “It may be disconcerting for an American to think of himself or herself as a vulnerable being in need of a responsive state.” But she underscores what the events of recent years have proven: “With 9/11, Katrina, and the recession, it doesn’t matter what an individual does in some situations; certain things are beyond individual control and individual remedy.” Despite our rhetoric about being the land of equal opportunity, America is anything but, Fineman suggests. “We have,” she says, “indulged in the myth that inequality is all about discrimination. We should remember that in this country, we can treat everyone badly as long as we treat everyone the same.”

WHAT WAY FORWARD? Questions and uncertainties remain, but vulnerability theory’s persistent push toward a broader conception of social justice might perhaps be this century’s equivalent of diverse marchers joining hands as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Whatever the path forward, a number of Emory Law faculty agree that issues of rights and fairness resist closure for good reason: they deserve enduring scrutiny. As Perry suggests, “I am in the grip of these perennial questions. You are a fool if you think that you can achieve closure, so I stay with them.”

No article of readable length can tackle all the relevant civil rights cases. Nonetheless, several others deserve mention, including: • S helly v. Kraemer (1948). Previous to this ruling, racially restrictive covenants prevented blacks from moving into white neighborhoods. In its aftermath, state courts could not constitutionally prevent the sale of property to blacks even if it were covered by a racially restrictive covenant. Standing alone, racially restrictive covenants violate no rights. However, their enforcement by state court injunctions constituted state action in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. • L oving v. Virginia (1967). In 1958 Virginia residents Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia and returned to Virginia. The couple was charged with violating the state’s anti-miscegenation statute. They were found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail. (The trial judge agreed to suspend the sentence if the Lovings would leave Virginia and not return for 25 years.) In a unanimous decision, the Court held that distinctions drawn according to race were “odious to a free people” and were subject to “the most rigid scrutiny” under the Equal Protection Clause. • M eritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986). Mechelle Vinson sued Sidney Taylor, vice president of the bank, charging that he had sexually harassed her. She argued that such harassment created a “hostile working environment” and was covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Court held that the language of Title VII was “not limited to ‘economic’ or ‘tangible’ discrimination,” finding that Congress intended “‘to strike at the entire spectrum of disparate treatment of men and women’ in employment.”

For Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing and 19th US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Loving v. Virginia has particular resonance. Born to a black mother and white Canadian father who married two years before Loving v. Virginia, Trethewey frequently reflects on her biracial background. In the following poem, “Miscegenation,” she directly takes on Loving.

Miscegenation by Natasha Trethewey In 1965 my parents broke two laws of Mississippi; they went to Ohio to marry, returned to Mississippi. They crossed the river into Cincinnati, a city whose name begins with a sound like sin, the sound of wrong — mis in Mississippi. A year later they moved to Canada, followed a route the same as slaves, the train slicing the white glaze of winter, leaving Mississippi. Faulkner’s Joe Christmas was born in winter, like Jesus, given his name for the day he was left at the orphanage, his race unknown in Mississippi. My father was reading War and Peace when he gave me my name. I was born near Easter, 1966, in Mississippi. When I turned 33 my father said, It’s your Jesus year — you’re the same age he was when he died. It was spring, the hills green in Mississippi. I know more than Joe Christmas did. Natasha is a Russian name — though I’m not; it means Christmas child, even in Mississippi. From Native Guard (Mariner Books), © 2007; reprinted with the author’s permission.

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F A C U LT Y V O I C E S

WHAT NOW? Lessons and questions from Ferguson, Missouri BY FRED SMITH JR.

F A C U LT Y V O I C E S

he law is human. The stale term “case law” obscures the truth that every case is a portal into lives, journeys, and relationships. And the legal principles that guide cases — fairness, equality, dignity, liberty, and even federalism — are shaped by our collective visions about the world not only as it is but as it should be. When reflecting on the recent unease and unrest in places such as St. Louis, New York, and Baltimore, one of these legal principles reverberates. The United States Supreme Court asserted 70 years ago, “Only by zealously guarding the rights of the most humble, the most unorthodox, and the most despised among us can freedom flourish and endure in our land.”

American history has proven that guarding the rights of the most humble and most unorthodox is easier said than lived. We are all familiar with countless moments in the history of American law that fall far short of that standard, moments in which dissenters must remind America of its egalitarian creed. And indeed, today the protests that ring out from America’s racially segregated pockets of concentrated poverty stand as testimony that many of the most humble also feel most unseen. This nation finds itself asking the same question Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asked the year before his assassination: Where do we go from here? On a December 2014 trip to Ferguson, Missouri, I encountered thoughtful, resilient women and men attempting to shape where we go from here. This includes Alexis Templeton. A St. Louis–area resident in her early twenties, Templeton has organized and led a number of protests. After facing rounds of tear gas during these peaceful protests, she and others sued local and state government officials. With the help of attorneys from a social justice legal nonprofit called the Arch City Defenders, protestors urged that officers substantially temper the use of tear gas. The suit already has met early success. Templeton and other witnesses convinced the federal court to issue a rare immediate restraining order limiting the use of tear gas. During my days in Ferguson, I also sat in on interviews of poor St. Louis residents who had an abiding sense that the legal system rendered them invisible, or at least rendered their humanity invisible. Alec Karakatsansis, a lawyer at the nonprofit Equal Justice under Law, conducted the interviews. Each of the residents had a similar story. First came a traffic ticket and a fine that they could not afford to pay. Then came jail time resulting from their inability to pay. Then came days in jail under unhygienic, overcrowded conditions, with no official word of how long they would remain in jail. These indigent individuals, joined by others who have met the same fate, recently filed two federal suits with the aid of counsel from Equal Justice under Law,

Arch City Defenders, and the St. Louis University School of Law Legal Clinics. The suits are against Ferguson and a nearby town, Jennings. The Ferguson complaint describes how the residents “were threatened, abused, and left to languish in confinement at the mercy of local officials until their frightened family members could produce enough cash to buy their freedom or until city jail officials decided, days or weeks later, to let them out for free.” The complaint then describes overcrowded cells, lack of toothbrushes, “walls smeared with mucus and blood,” the endurance of “days and weeks without being allowed to use the moldy shower,” and the lack of “adequate hygiene products for menstruation,” among other unconstitutional conditions. For the law to retain its humanity, it requires citizens, community advocates, and lawyers to push to recognize each individual’s humanity. Witnessing individuals do precisely that in St. Louis County was one of the most inspiring moments of my life. It led me to accept a gracious request to help advise the lawyers on questions related to federal jurisdiction. It also encouraged me to retool my Federal Courts course to incorporate more contemporary legal issues related to excessive force, peaceful protests, and criminal justice. And yet, it feels like scarcely enough as new American cities erupt in passionate pleas for justice every few months. Where do we go from here? Perhaps we go to the same place Dr. King encouraged so many years ago when he said, “We must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amid a system that still oppresses . . . and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values.” Each of us must decide for ourselves where and how we assert our collective dignity and worth. But perpetual vigilance is required if the nation’s conception of dignity and values is to include every single person, including those in the shadows. Only then can freedom flourish and endure.

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Fred Smith Jr. is visiting Emory Law from the University of California– Berkeley School of Law during the 2015 – 2016 academic year. He is a scholar of the federal courts and constitutional law, and at Emory, he will teach courses on both. Smith’s research focuses on state sovereignty and representative government. He traveled to Ferguson, Missouri, as a community organizer.

Law school to establish JOHN LEWIS CHAIR in Civil Rights and Social Justice BY MARY LOFTUS

The son of sharecroppers, Congressman John Lewis 14H experienced racial discrimination as a child in Alabama, attending segregated schools and being turned away from the public library with his brothers and sisters. It did not sit well with him. As a 21-year-old Freedom Rider, he was assaulted for trying to enter a Whites Only waiting room. As a civil rights activist, he was firebombed on a bus, beaten and bloodied by the Ku Klux Klan, and jailed in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. When facing injustice, he now tells students, “You have a mandate to get out and disturb the order of things.” Lewis, Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District representative since 1987 and dean of

the Georgia delegation, is a strong advocate of using the law as a tool in the pursuit of equality. Fittingly, an anonymous donor has given $1.5 million to Emory Law to establish the John Lewis Chair in Civil Rights and Social Justice. Full funding for a named chair is $2 million, the remainder of which the law school has committed to raising through private and corporate contributions. “This gift will allow us to perform a nationwide search and name a professor who will further scholarship on these issues,” says Dean Robert Schapiro, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law. “Through this chair, we are honored to recognize Congressman Lewis’s historic achievements.” The donor noted that recent anniversaries of civil rights milestones made this a fitting time to honor Lewis and added that Lewis “exemplified the values of courage, commitment, dignity, humanity, fairness, and equal opportunity that are the hallmarks of the movement.” Even today, Lewis remains such a statesman that when President Obama launched his official presidential Twitter feed (@POTUS) in May, the header photo was from the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march in Selma last March with John Lewis standing between the President and the First Lady, clasping hands as they walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. During the time that John Lewis was marching with Dr. King, Emory Law was training its first generation of African American lawyers. Graduates from the class of 1967 included Marvin Arrington, who became president of the Atlanta City Council, a superior court judge, and an Emory trustee, and Clarence Cooper, a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals and a US district judge. In 1967 Emory opened its Community Legal Services Center, which was staffed by lawyers including Maynard Jackson, who became Atlanta’s first African American mayor. “From these beginnings until today, John Lewis has been a steadfast friend and supporter of Emory,” says

Emeritus Trustee Ben F. Johnson III 65C 14H, former chair of Emory’s board and retired managing partner at Alston & Bird. “The gift honors John Lewis and Emory in furthering Emory Law’s commitment and reach in civil rights and social justice.” Marvin Arrington sees Lewis as “a ‘doer’ who was willing to put his life on the line so that all of us could realize the true dream of being American citizens.” Lewis’s civil rights activism began when he was a college student, organizing sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville. In 1963 he was a keynote speaker at the March on Washington and was named chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1965 he was beaten as he and other protesters tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge during a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Lewis is a Medal of Freedom recipient, a Lincoln Medal recipient, and a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award winner for lifetime achievement. He holds a BA in religion and philosophy from Fisk University and is a graduate of the American Baptist Theological seminary in Nashville. “Under the rule of law, we have witnessed what I like to call a nonviolent revolution in America — a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas,” he said in his remarks at Emory Law’s commencement ceremony in 2014, where he received an honorary doctor of laws degree. “Our country is a better country and our people are a better people because of the law. “So go out there and do your best to seek justice. And never, ever turn back; never, ever give up, but keep the faith and continue to work for what is right, for what is fair, and for what is just.” Those interested in supporting the John Lewis Chair in Civil Rights and Social Justice should contact Joella Hricik, Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations, at 404.727.9172 or joella.hricik@emory.edu.

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

Through this chair, we are honored to recognize Congressman Lewis’s historic achievements. — Dean and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law Robert Schapiro

TEACHING THE LAW OF WAR Students contribute to issues of humanitarian law around the world B Y C H R I S T I N E VA N D U S E N

Room G349, an unassuming office on the third floor of Gambrell Hall at Emory Law, may seem a world away from a concertina wire – topped prison block at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp (“Gitmo”) in Cuba. But the two places are deeply connected. In this office, occupied by Professor Laurie Blank, students have been assigned research about whether detention at Gitmo is constitutional, how detainees are treated, and whether particular detainees should be imprisoned there at all. Working under Blank’s supervision, the students worked directly for lawyers representing detainees at Gitmo. They researched and drafted habeas corpus briefs to ascertain and challenge the lawfulness of a particular detention. And they wrote letters to detainees to keep them apprised of their cases and share news from their home countries. This clearly wasn’t just an academic exercise. This work, done as part of Emory’s International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Clinic, gave students the chance to get handson experience working on real cases, research projects, and training programs for courts, militaries, NGOs, and other groups that focus on understanding, applying, and upholding the law of war. Blank, previously a program officer in the Rule of Law Program at the United States Institute of Peace, is a clinical professor of law and director of the clinic since 2008. She describes the clinic’s mission as twofold: It gives students the opportunity to see what it’s like to work in the real world of international law while providing support to the staff-strapped organizations that work on issues of humanitarian law around the world. “As any quick glance at a newspaper will tell you, there is plenty to do with regard to accountability, advocacy, and training for implementation of the law and the protection of civilians,” Blank says. “For the organizations working in this area, there’s never enough manpower or resources or time to do all the work that needs to be done. The clinic marries these two goals. “This is the only place in the country where students can do this kind of work,” Blank says. “It’s a pretty unusual opportunity. Students come to Emory because they 12

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

F E AT U R E

I N T E R N AT I O N A L H U M A N I TA R I A N L A W

want to do this.” When she first started the IHL Clinic, the students worked primarily with law firms in Atlanta that represented detainees at Gitmo. Now, the clinic partners with as many as a dozen organizations, with one student assigned to an organization each semester. Students have worked with international tribunals, such as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, set up by the United Nations to investigate the assassination of the prime minister of Lebanon 10 years ago, and NGOs in the US and abroad working to prosecute perpetrators of atrocities in international and national courts.

Real-world impact

The clinic really piqued my interest. It seemed like a fascinating opportunity to learn about how national security law really functions. I quickly became enamored with the subject matter. — Ben Farley 11L, Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure

Ben Farley 11L is one of those students. He came to Emory Law armed with a master’s degree in international affairs and a strong interest in foreign policy and international law. But it wasn’t until he started working in the clinic that he really began to understand how national security laws actually work. “I did not go to law school with the intent of ending up where I am, but the clinic really piqued my interest,” says Farley, who is now the US State Department’s Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure, the senior official responsible for closing the prison. “It seemed like a fascinating opportunity to learn about how national security law really functions. I quickly became enamored with the subject matter.” Farley’s assignment in the clinic was to survey, for Amnesty International, the legal frameworks for accountability for atrocities, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other international crimes. “We were looking at foreign law for African countries and helping to fill out research that Amnesty was doing,” he says. “I assisted Laurie with a Supreme Court amicus brief on the role of accountability for torture and other abuses of POWs and detainees throughout American history, in a case on foreign sovereign immunity. The brief was filed on behalf of retired military officers in the US.” Though Farley initially thought he’d end up at a big firm, he’s glad to be working in government, where he can put into practice what he learned in the clinic. “What I do on a day-to-day basis may not be legal analysis, but all of it is informed by international humanitarian law and domestic national security law. Both topics were subject matter that I was exposed to for the first time in the clinic,” he says. “It was such an interesting experience, doubly so because it has a real impact on the course of action that the US chooses to take on a daily basis.”

Building partnerships

The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) provides assistance to victims of war and 14

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

armed violence and promotes respect for international humanitarian law. And now it pursues those goals with the help of Emory’s IHL Clinic. The clinic works with the ICRC’s delegation in Washington, DC, providing research each year on United States practice for the ICRC’s Customary International Humanitarian Law Database. Students in the IHL Clinic research and analyze US cases, legislation, military manuals, and official statements to help understand how the law is interpreted and applied, Blank says. At Marine Corps University (MCU) in Quantico, Virginia, clinic students are building relationships as well as databases. When US Marine four-star General John F. Kelly visited Emory in 2009 at the invitation of John M. Dowd 65L, Blank suggested the IHL Clinic could be a natural partner, providing research, writing, and curriculum support to members of the military. “He spoke with my students, and we talked about ways to enhance relationships between the military and civilian academic institutions, and how it’s so important to understand what the other is doing because that can enhance the way we think about the issues,” Blank says. “He was really instrumental in helping us build this relationship with MCU, which has flourished over the last several years.” Kelly visited Emory again in 2015 at Dowd’s invitation. The IHL Clinic and MCU are the perfect fit, says Dr. Rebecca Johnson, associate professor of national security affairs at MCU. “So much of what we do hinges on the law of armed conflict. To have another expert was fantastic,” she says. “There are legal restraints on what service members can do, but we had no one on staff to put those restraints into the exercises we do with the students.” Professor Blank and an IHL Clinic student visit MCU at the start of each semester, meeting with course directors to brainstorm about how the clinic student can contribute to MCU’s curriculum, for example, by creating ethical-decision-making games and scenarios — with many focusing on overlapping treaty obligations — that allow MCU students to weigh the legal implications of their actions in the field. “Our students aren’t legal experts; it’s just one element of a 10-month curriculum,” Johnson says. “But the students are starting to ask more legal questions about what they can do to figure things out and whom to talk to. There’s now more of an awareness.” This is particularly important in today’s world of armed conflict, where it’s difficult to tell the difference between civilians and soldiers and the fighting isn’t confined to a battlefield. “These issues are not going away; they’re going to continue to be important,” Johnson says. Among the clinic’s partners is the United Nations

Leaders, Blank has become an authority on international humanitarian law and regularly attends workshops and presents at national and international conferences and expert workshops. “I’m always out and about,” she says. “I speak with colleagues and say, ‘This is what we do; do you want some assistance?’ And they tell me their needs, and we come up with a way that we can help. We’ve got great students at Emory doing great work, so the IHL Clinic has a strong reputation. That certainly encourages organizations to seek us out when they need assistance as well.”

Continuing the work

During a visit in March of this year, General Kelly meets with infectious disease specialist Dr. Aneesh Mehta to tour Emory Hospital’s special isolation unit and discuss the potential for the spread of Ebola.

Committee Against Torture, which monitors countries’ compliance with the UN Convention Against Torture. Audrey Patten 12L, who received a graduate degree in East Asian studies before attending Emory Law, jumped at the chance to work with the US expert member of the committee. In 2010, she conducted research for the committee’s review of Turkey, including during its hearings in Geneva, Switzerland. “I was helping them in real time and, later, assisting in writing the committee’s concluding observations,” she says. “When it was over, I was able to follow reactions to the committee observations in the Turkish press, thereby seeing an immediate connection between the clinic project and the real world.” In 2011, Patten returned to the clinic, researching the legal framework for reparations for human rights and law of war violations for an NGO based in Washington, DC. “While our projects were for outside organizations, Professor Blank was there as the point person to help students problem-solve, to bounce research ideas off of, and find creative ways to present their research,” says Patten. “It was exciting to feel linked to the wider world of international law while still a student.” Recently, Patten was selected to serve as a clinical fellow at Harvard Law School, where she now teaches in a legal services clinic. “My belief in the importance of clinical legal education and the desire to work with students as a lawyer grew, in large part, from my positive experiences in the IHL Clinic,” she says. The clinic has been able to partner with so many organizations as a result of Blank’s own networking and expertise. As the co-author of International Law and Armed Conflict: Fundamental Principles and Contemporary Challenges in the Law of War and Law of War Training: Resources for Military and Civilian

Ryan Light 15L’s first assignment during his time with the IHL Clinic focused on a major international project on cyber warfare, researching international law and helping to draft rules for a manual on how it applies to cyber operations, even before conflict sparks. “It was a pretty unique opportunity being able to do that as a second-year law student,” he says. Light did a second tour with the clinic in his third year, this time working with military defense counsel at the Office of Military Commissions, researching legal issues for pretrial motions for the attorneys representing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Mohammed, who has been referred to as the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, is currently being held in US custody at Gitmo. “They used the information I researched and wrote,” he says. “It was an incredible experience to make a direct legal impact in the real world.” His work with the clinic will likely serve him well in his postgraduate career as a judge advocate for the US Marine Corps. “My first tour will most likely be in criminal litigation, which does not sound like it has a lot to do with the clinic. However, my second clinic assignment was on a defense team,” says Light. “I got to work directly with defense lawyers and write defense motions.” Light recently met with a prospective student who had just joined the Marines and was planning to go to law school. “I brought him to the class,” Light says. “I told him, ‘We don’t just have a professor who focuses on this stuff and teaches the class. We have a clinic set up, where you’re going to get real-world experience. If you want to be an attorney and a Marine, you should come to Emory.’” Getting a sense of what it’s really like to practice law on the global stage is an invaluable experience, Blank says, and one which sticks with students long after graduation. “They’re getting the opportunity to work on the frontpage, cutting-edge issues in the areas of international law and armed conflict,” she says. “They can see what this world is really about and make a difference.” EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

Ryan Light 15L is poised to become a US Marine Corps judge advocate. While he volunteered in the clinic, he worked with military defense counsel on a highprofile case involving a 9/11 terror attack suspect.

STUDENT VOICES

Mastering law to serve the

global good B Y A . K E N YAT TA G R E E R

She has never been to Tibet, yet she considers herself

wholly Tibetan. Her heart and her history are tethered to the country that her grandparents fled in late 1959. They escaped during the Tibetan Uprising against China, walking over snow-covered mountains to reach India, where they would raise their daughter — and where that daughter would raise hers.

STUDENT VOICES

sering Choedon 15L may be an Indian citizen

by the spirit of the law but not by the letter. Many nationals consider her a foreigner living in India. Choedon was born and raised in a Tibetan settlement in Southern India. When she was 15, she moved to Delhi and then Dharamsala. She later spent five years completing her legal education in India, a process that included basic education as well as sociopolitical training, not unlike what it would be like to attend college and law school all at once in the United States. After her schooling, Choedon worked as a licensed advocate practitioner for three years, where she found her interest in human rights law growing into a passion. She knew, though, that with her current education and citizenship, practicing law in India could limit her; she would have to become an Indian citizen to enjoy all of the privileges awarded to legal practitioners there. She was stateless and at a standstill. Choedon wanted to understand the experiences of people like her — people without a home. Her curiosity led her to the Tibet Fund, a US Department of State project that helps cover the expenses required to bring students from India, Nepal, and Bhutan to colleges and universities in the United States, where most enroll in two-year master’s programs. Since 1988, the Tibet Fund has helped 414 Tibetan students come to the US to study. “The Tibet Fund is a well-known and competitive program back home,” Choedon recalls. Tibet Fund students choose from 26 different disciplines — including international law. Choedon applied and was accepted to attend Emory Law as a student in the Master of Laws (LLM) program with a concentration in human rights law.

An LLM from Emory Law

Choedon says she chose Emory because of the thriving Tibetan community, augmented by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama’s stint as a visiting professor. She was coming from a small, close-knit Tibetan community, and she was unwilling to sacrifice that experience, even as she traveled some 8,500 miles away from home. “Of course the programs at Emory are attractive and professional,” Choedon says, “but I got to know about the China/Tibet initiatives at Emory and found a platform through which I could communicate with other students and find commonalities with them as humans. That made Emory feel like more than a great school. It felt like Emory could be an extension of home.” The Emory experience also has helped her develop her passion. Choedon says she has always had a “heart for human rights,” because she grew up hearing stories about the country back home — the home she has

never seen. Her father, whom she has dubbed “the most educated illiterate person I have ever come across,” taught her about her history, even when he had no recollection of his own family. He taught her to reflect on and seek to understand injustice, and she developed a desire to fight it, too. However, her scope has expanded since she has been at Emory, she says. “I have a bigger vision than I had before. Pain is universal. Knowing you have no place to call home is not limited to one community. It is not just about my community.” Choedon has made friends from Jamaica, South Korea, and Somalia — all people who have had work experience like her but who are seeking a better understanding of the law and how it is created and enforced across the globe. She says that these relationships are just as much a part of her education as are her classes; the way the classes are approached is an education in itself. “It is different here than back home, partly because of the professors. At home, it is mainly about getting a high score. Here, teachers recognize your determination and support you beyond their responsibility. I am very interested in laws pertaining to stateless people. Professor Polly Price 86C 86G helped me connect with people in the field just based on my coming to her office and showing interest.”

More learning to do

Opportunities through the Emory-Tibet Partnership and support from professors like Price and Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law, have prompted Choedon to extend her program. Her initial plan was to go back to her legal practice. Now she wants to “go to the depths of human rights law.” She hopes to earn a doctor in juridical science degree (SJD) to help with that quest. Choedon has been moved by the compassion of visitors to the school as well. When Ben Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg Trials, visited the law school in January 2015, Choedon made some personal decisions. “I listened to him and thought that what he said was idealistic but not impossible. It was a push. We are the new generation. We cannot sit back and think that someone else will do this. Individuals can make a difference, and I will find a way to do my bit. “Hope is my main inspiration. I want to help ease suffering and provide justice for people who are lost. Sometimes we forget how easy it is to reach out to others if we just see each other as humans and ignore everything else.”

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

I have a bigger vision than I had before. Pain is universal. Knowing you have no place to call home is not limited to one community. It is not just about my community. For more information on the Emory LLM program, visit law.emory.edu/llm. For information on Tibet Fund scholarships, visit tibetfund.org/ prog_education.html.

CLASS NOTES

80s 60s CLASS NOTES

Ben Shapiro 64C 64L of Baker Donelson now serves on the board of the Litigation Section of the Atlanta Bar Association.

70s 2

1 Steven J. Labovitz 74L, senior partner at Dentons, has been reappointed to the Executive Board of the Council for Quality Growth and has also been appointed treasurer.

Raymond Carpenter 75L recently completed lecturing at Masaryk Faculty of Law in Brno, Czech Republic, as a fellow of the Center for International Legal Studies. 3

Howard J. Weintraub 75L was featured as Attorney of the Month in the September 2014 issue of Attorney at Law magazine. Oscar C. Carr III 76L has been named a litigation star by Benchmark Litigation, the definitive guide to America’s leading business litigation firms and attorneys. Andrea D. Ascher 77L is now deputy general counsel, real estate, at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Janet C. Thorpe 78L has been reelected to the Florida Circuit Court.

Mark H. Cohen 76C 79L of Troutman Sanders has been confirmed by the United States Senate to be a United States district judge for the Northern District of Georgia.

Robert C. Kennelly 75C 80B 80L is now the chief financial officer and general counsel at BHK Capital in Jacksonville, Florida.

2 Leah Ward Sears 80L has been named the coordinating partner for Schiff Hardin’s Atlanta office. Bruce S. Sostek 81L has been named one of the “Best Lawyers in Dallas 2015” by DMagazine. Sostek, a partner at Thompson & Knight, was recognized for his intellectual property law expertise. Michael Swit 82L has joined the legal department of Illumina in San Diego, California. Keith B. Darrell 83B 83L has published the ninth edition of his book Issues in Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law. 3 Annette Kerlin McBrayer 83B 83L has joined Taylor English Duma in Atlanta, where she focuses on real estate litigation and commercial litigation. Gerry Gaeng 84L is now the head of the Litigation Group at Baltimore’s Rosenberg Martin Greenberg. Stephen Klorfein 78C 84L of the law firm Chaiken Klorfein in Atlanta, Georgia, has been recognized in Atlanta magazine as one of the top estate planning attorneys in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Ben Grumbles 85L has been appointed as secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment. Deputy General Counsel Lawrence Sandor 86L, of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, has been promoted to the new position of chief compliance officer. 4 Mark Voigt 86L is now a sole practitioner in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania.

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

Alston & Bird lawyers Della Wager Wells 86L and Brian Boone 06L appeared before the United States Supreme Court on October 7, 2014. Wells has also been named a member of the Emory Alumni Board. Greg Meece 87L, a partner at Thompson & Knight, has been selected for inclusion in the “Who’s Who in Energy” list of leaders in the energy industry by the Houston Business Journal. Robin Frazer Clark 88L has been elected as a fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society established to reflect the new face of the American bar. 5 David Adelman 89L, former United States ambassador to Singapore and former managing director at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong and Singapore, has joined Reed Smith as a partner in New York.

90s

6 Sharon A. Israel 90B 90L has been named president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association. Jonathan Sigel 91L from Mirick O’Connell was named to the 2014 Massachusetts Super Lawyers list. Ian Lloyd Levin 92L is now a partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel in its Employment & Employee Benefits Group. Kellye Walker 92L of Huntington Ingalls Industries has been elected to serve as corporate vice president and general counsel. Ann-Charlotte Dowless 95L now runs her own legal practice, Dowless Law Firm. Mark Chalos 98L has been named managing partner of the Nashville office of the national plaintiffs’ law firm Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein.

Avi Stadler 98L has been appointed as general counsel at Esquire Deposition Solutions in Atlanta.

00s

Paige Greenlee 00L has started Greenlee Law in Tampa, Florida. She practices in the areas of commercial real estate and construction litigation, along with creditors’ rights/bankruptcy. Glenn Danas 01L received a CLAY Award (California Lawyer Attorney of the Year) in the category of employment law. 7 Stacey Halpern 01L has been named partner in Broad and Cassel’s West Palm Beach office. Jean O’Connor 98C 01PH 01L has been named to the board of the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors. Christina Graham 02L of Morris, Manning & Martin has been named a 2014 Rising Star by the Daily Report. Anna Maleva-Otto 02L has been made a partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel International in the Investment Management Regulatory and Compliance Group. Jason R. Edgecombe 03L has joined Baker Donelson’s Government Regulatory Actions Group. 8 Alison Elko Franklin 03L of Dentons has been named among Atlanta’s top “40 Under 40” business leaders by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. She also welcomed a daughter, Charlotte Marie, with her husband Kenneth in August 2014. 9 Kelly L. Whitehart 03L has joined the Intellectual Property Practice Group as a partner in the Atlanta office of Duane Morris. Michael Woods 03L has joined Sol Systems, a solar energy finance and investment firm, as general counsel.

CLASS NOTES

FROM THE ALUMNI BOARD PRESIDENT

Support Emory’s tradition of academic achievement Greetings from the Emory Law Alumni Association. As we welcome the recent graduates of 2015 to our growing family, we also welcome all incoming students. We are proud that the law school continues to produce talented lawyers around the globe and continues to accept exceptional students to learn the fundamental tenets of a legal education. As detailed in this edition of Emory Lawyer, those tenets include promoting diversity and fighting for civil rights and humanitarian causes. With the establishment of the John Lewis Chair in Civil Rights and Social Justice, Emory Law recognizes the importance of training students to further social justice in their future careers. Emory Law continues to be recognized as an outstanding academic institution, and as alumni we must give back to the law school community to ensure that this tradition continues. There are so many ways for alumni to contribute. During the 2015 – 2016 academic year, Emory Law will send teams of students throughout the country to participate in moot court and mock trial competitions. We hope you will find time in your busy schedule to

welcome these students when they visit your home city. Participating in an affinity group through the law school or mentoring a student or new lawyer is another important way you can support the school. We all know that financial contributions have a tremendous impact on school operations and financial assistance to students in need, but please remember that giving your time can be equally valuable. I am privileged to lead the alumni association as we approach the law school centennial year in 2016 – 2017, and I hope to see you at a future Emory Law alumni event.

To get more involved, visit law.emory.edu/alumni. John Maggio 96L is a partner in the New York office of Condon & Forsyth. He has represented air carriers, aircraft manufacturers, and insurers in wrongful death, personal injury, and contractual litigation. He has litigated in federal and state courts throughout the US, including trials in California, New York, Florida, and Texas. He has also argued appeals in New York appellate courts as well as the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits.

11 Lauren Jenkins 04L has joined the Tysons Corner, Virginia, law firm of Offit Kurman as a principal.

Joshua Reeves 04L has been named partner in the Charleston, South Carolina, office of K&L Gates.

Sherilyn Streicker 05L earned a 2014 Democracy Award in Georgia as a State Ethics Commission whistleblower.

10 Stephanie Perry 04L has become a partner at Pasternak & Fidis.

Tyler Sande 04L and Margaret Sande welcomed their daughter, Ruthanne Darden, on August 20, 2014.

Evan Michailidis 06L has been promoted to partnership at Duane Morris.

11 Jennifer Duval Lindy 07L has joined Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Aughtry as an associate in the firm’s Atlanta office. 12 Courtney B. Statfeld 07L has been promoted to principal in the New York office of McKool Smith. 12

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

CLASS NOTES

Bill McFee 78B 78L scholarship honors beloved alumnus IT’S BEEN 10 YEARS SINCE HIS DEATH,

but

Robert D. Carl III 78L still misses his friend,

colleague, and former Emory Law classmate

Bill McFee 78B 78L. “He was just a really

good guy,” Carl remembers. “He was a very honest man who had a lot of personal integrity.” McFee, an Atlanta-based real estate lawyer, was also known as an avid runner, savvy investor, and loyal family man at the time of his unexpected death. He was active in the Decatur-DeKalb Bar Association and chair of the Real Property Section of the State Bar of Georgia. “I always wanted to make a gift in Bill’s memory,” says Carl, “and it occurred to me that now would be a good time.” To honor his friend, Carl has donated $50,000 to the William C. McFee Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund established by McFee’s family. Since

YOU DID WHAT? Send your updates to lawcommunications@ emory.edu. Class notes are submitted by alumni and are not verified by the editor. Read more about Emory Law alumni at law.emory.edu/alumni.

2008, the fund has provided a scholarship each year to one Emory Law student interested in public service. “Bill was a big believer in public service,” says McFee’s widow, Ellen McFee. “His sister (Zoe McFee Hicks 63OX 65C 76L 83L) and I agreed it would be good to help someone going into public service law because they would probably have a harder time paying back student loans. That way they can commit to the sort of law practice they would like without the same financial burden.” During the past decade, the scholarship has provided funding for students such as Shaun Yancey 10L. Yancey still remembers the moment at Emory Law when he found out that he had received the Bill McFee scholarship. “I was on the first floor of the law school checking my emails when one of the advisers called me in and told me I’d be receiving the Bill McFee scholarship,” he says. “To hear you’re going to get a scholarship as opposed to a loan — that’s always a great day.” For Yancey, the scholarship wasn’t just about the money. “It let me know someone saw what I was doing and appreciated it. That gave me more motivation and drive to achieve at Emory,” he says.

13 Jonathan Benator 08L, an attorney with Lazega & Johanson, has been named a 2015 Georgia “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers. 14 Britt-Marie Cole-Johnson 03C 08L of Robinson+Cole has accepted her nomination to serve as chair of the YWCA Hartford Region’s Board of Directors for 2015 – 2016. Maneesh Gupta 08L has joined Shvarts & Leiz in Palo Alto, California. Alexandra Hider 05C 08L has joined Exelon Corporation as assistant general counsel in the area of ethics and compliance.

R. Tina Tuli 08L has joined Klasko Immigration Law Partners in Philadelphia. Hillary Gardner 09L and Brian Spielman 09L welcomed their daughter Eva Gardner Spielman on December 10, 2014. Shijuade Kadree 03OX 05C 09PH 09L of Brooklyn, New York, has joined the New York City Council as a legislative attorney for the Housing and Buildings Committee. Rishi Kotiya 09L has joined Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton’s Silicon Valley office.

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

That drive has carried forward into Yancey’s career. He now works in Atlanta as an employment lawyer, representing employees of the federal government who may have been treated inappropriately. “If they’ve been wrongfully treated by their employers and you can do something to help, it’s very rewarding,” says Yancey. Kamber Stefany 15L found out this past November that she had been awarded the scholarship. “It really helps with the cost of law school,” she says. “It provides some relief.” Stefany has been active in the Emory Moot Court Society and hopes to pursue a legal career focused on advocacy and litigation. Now, Carl is encouraging fellow classmates to donate to the McFee scholarship fund. “The bottom line is we received a good law education. This is my way of giving back,” he says. “I’d like to encourage my fellow classmates, who are hopefully financially secure now, to think about giving as well.” After all, says Carl, “The success of one generation helps fund the success of the next.” To contribute to the fund, contact Sarah King, Assistant Director of Development, at 404.727.3616 or sarah.king@emory.edu. — Dana Goldman

Lt. Carina Podgorski 09L, a military lawyer with the US Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, was chosen as one of the Navy’s first victims’ legal counsel in the Europe, Africa, and Southwest Asia region to lead this new program. Danielle Barbour Wilson 09L has joined The Banks Law Firm in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, as a principal.

10s

Amos Davis 10T 10L of Atlanta married Jeanne Michelle Lyons on November 22, 2014. He is currently counsel for The CocaCola Company, and she writes for Southern Living and Country Living magazines. Jason Esteves 10L was included in Georgia Trend’s “2014 40 Under 40” list, which recognizes outstanding leaders in business, government, politics, nonprofits, science, conservation, and education.

CLASS NOTES

Melanie Ann Parris 10L is now an associate in the Coral Gables office of Roig Lawyers. She concentrates her practice in firstparty property insurance defense in the litigation practice group.

Gautam Reddy 13L has joined Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton as an associate on the Construction & Infrastructure Development Team in the firm’s Litigation Department.

15 Stephen Bielecki 11L is now an associate at Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolf & Cohen.

Maheen Akhter 14L is now a commercial real estate lawyer at Schulten Ward & Turner of Atlanta.

Eugene Adam Kornel 11L and Katherine Elizabeth Murphy were married September 20, 2014, at the American Club, a spa and resort in Kohler, Wisconsin. 16 Roy Richter 11L has joined Winstead PC in The Woodlands, Texas, as an associate. 17 Rick Thomas 11L, an associate in the Denver office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, has been appointed as a regional board member of Book Trust, a nonprofit for promoting childhood literacy. Stephen Vogt 11L is now an assistant vice president and assistant general counsel in the Washington, DC, office of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Jane C. Bouch 13L has joined Haynsworth Sikler Boyd as an associate attorney in the firm’s Charleston, South Carolina, office.

April Carter 14L is now serving as a medical resident at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Internal Medicine Residency Program in Memphis, Tennessee. Thomas George 14L has been named director of Employee Relations at Emory University. Betsy Hames 14L has accepted a position at Duke University as chief human resources officer for the School of Medicine and School of Nursing. Hames joins Duke from Emory University’s Office of Employee Relations. Abby Rives 14L has been chosen as the Jan Jancin Award winner by the American Intellectual Property Law Association. J. Hunter Robinson 14L has joined the Litigation and Financial Services Litigation and Compliance practice groups of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings.

Andrew C. Stevens 14L has joined Arnall Golden Gregory as an intellectual property and litigation associate. Lauren Young Brenner 14L has accepted an associate position at Morgan Law Firm focusing in intellectual property law and employment law.

IN MEMORIAM Judge Guerry R. Thornton 44C 46L of Greenville, South Carolina, on September 4, 2014. William B. Paul 48L of Conyers, Georgia, on January 6, 2015. Judge John “Jack” E. Dougherty 48C 50L of Atlanta, Georgia, on November 10, 2014.

Hubert Franklin “Jim” Owens 60L of Canton, Georgia, on October 5, 2014. Larry Perdue Jones 63L of Peachtree City, Georgia, on December 27, 2014. John Oliver Adams Jr. 65L of Stone Mountain, Georgia, on October 16, 2014.

Herman E. Talmadge Jr. 68L of Lovejoy, Georgia, on November 24, 2014. Raymond Joseph Costanzo Jr. 69L of Atlanta, Georgia, on December 14, 2014. Harold L. Marquis 70L of Snellville, Georgia, on December 2, 2014.

James Hamilton 51L of Atlanta, Georgia, on February 7, 2015.

Guy E. Davis Jr. 72L of Sandy Springs, Georgia, on December 1, 2014.

L. Travis Brannon Jr. 52L of Atlanta, Georgia, on December 4, 2014.

James Cicero Huckaby Jr. 76L of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, on September 24, 2014.

Morris Alvin Levy 52L of Atlanta, Georgia, on February 16, 2015.

Arnold W. “Woodie” Wright Jr. 77L of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, on October 2, 2014.

Delman L. “Dick” Minchew 53L of Dixie Union, Georgia, on December 21, 2014. Kenneth Murrah 58L of Orlando, Florida, on December 5, 2014.

Walter Edwin Frazier III 86L of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, on November 10, 2014. Ginny Chung 96L of Potomac, Maryland, on November 8, 2014. 16

Rodriguez 15L named Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow Laura Rodriguez 15L has been appointed as one of 25 Immigrant Justice Corps Fellows for the 2015 class. She was chosen from among 400 applicants and awarded the fellowship, which is reserved for lawyers and recent college graduates who will represent immigrants fighting deportation and seeking citizenship. Immigrant Justice Corps is a response to the research of the Study Group on Immigrant Representation,

which found that immigrants with a lawyer were nearly six times more likely to win their cases than those without. The study also revealed that immigrants often fall prey to fraudulent legal providers who charge thousands of dollars and mishandle cases with disastrous outcomes. The fellows began their intensive training course on August 31, 2015, after which they will report to nonprofit placements throughout New York and New Jersey for the two years of their fellowship. Rodriguez was assigned to Immigration Equality, a group that she says is the only national organization that primarily represents HIV positive clients and LGBT clients with their unique immigration matters.

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

CLASS NOTES

Old-fashioned loyalty and a modern network BY CAMERON WELBORN-WILSON 99L

G As useful as social media is to initially stay or become connected, I encourage you to take the time to pick up the phone.

oing through something as intense as law school bonds people in a deep way. You were in that 1l foxhole together, and that experience builds irreplaceable bonds that can help you for the rest of your life. After graduating from Emory Law and working in several different places, I founded my own accessory design company but, like the rest of the world, my business was rocked by the economic crisis of 2008. It was time to reboot. I utilized my legal and entrepreneurial experience and founded a consulting firm; however, I needed a little help from my law school friends. Emory Law alumni Rachel Brod Berger 99L, Tina Shah 99L, Scott Seamon 00L, and Jay Markowitz 99L jumped right in with advice, from hourly billing to appearing in court in another state. Time had passed since our graduation, but loyalty had not. My consulting firm led me to my current position as cofounder of ZON. ZON’s high-tech products took me into a realm where I needed assistance again, this time with patents. Classmate Danny Marti 99L* was instrumental in guiding me through a crash course in IP law and helped source ZON’s current patent attorney. (We have 15 patents issued and growing.) Vicki Williamson

Travis 00L and her husband helped make strategic

i ntroductions for our product launch. Even Emory Law staff members stepped up to help me, especially Deb Floyd, former director of student affairs. The Emory network is powerful. Although social media has made networking quicker and easier, I still apply the rules of old by being respectful to people in my network. My former classmates are all as busy as I am, and when they have taken the time to talk to me about a career question, I am grateful. As useful as social media can be, I encourage you to take the time to pick up the phone. The sound of your voice, your energy, and your Emory Law bond will reconnect you and be the catalyst for getting the counsel you might need. No matter the time or distance after law school, nothing can erase the bond you share with Emory Law and your fellow alumni.

*Danny Marti went from being the youngest managing partner with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton to his current role as US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, nominated by President Obama in 2014 and confirmed by the Senate in 2015.

Cameron Welborn-Wilson was Emory’s 1999 Marion Luther Brittain Award winner and is currently cofounder of Manhattan Beach-based ZON (zontechnology.com). ZON’s Powersol, a solar-powered mobile device charging umbrella, can be found at Emory Law and Emory main campus, as well as hotels, universities, restaurants, and business parks nationwide.

Students awarded Barnes Memorial Scholarship Roxanne Walton 15L and Lorrin Stone 17L received the 2015 Judge Rowland W. Barnes Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship is presented to nontraditional students who have had significant life experience between undergraduate matriculation and law school that helped develop leadership skills, dedication to law school education, and an ability to lead a well-balanced life. The scholarship founding committee includes the following: Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr., Superior Court of Fulton County Deputy Chief Judge; the Honorable Judge H. Clay Collins of Palmetto Municipal Court; and adjunct professor Robert G. Wellon. Judge Barnes 72L was killed in his courtroom on March 11, 2005, when a defendant in a rape trial overpowered a guard, took her gun, and shot the judge, his court reporter, and, later, a federal agent and a sheriff’s deputy. Along with the Atlanta Bar Association and Foundation, the committee created the memorial fund in 2007 to honor the memories of the victims and to support their families. Pictured from left to right are Dean Robert A. Schapiro, Collins, Bedford, Stone, Walton, and Wellon.

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

ALUMNI PROFILE

Lee P. Miller 82L

A NEW TRUSTEE with an eye for THINGS OLD

t’s the rare person who can point to a couple of acts of Congress as the unintentional impetus for their life’s work, but Lee Miller 82L can do just that. In the aftermath of the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act, her hometown, the Long Island village of Roslyn, New York, worked to create a historic district from the abundant collection of 18th- and early-19thcentury buildings in its town center, along with saving and restoring old houses for ongoing use. She volunteered with the Roslyn Landmark Society and became a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in high school when, she remembers, “I babysat for people because I liked their old houses.”

I didn’t know a lot about trusts, but for me it was three legs of the stool that I still love to this day — people and families, trust and tax law, houses and people’s things.

Miller graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, then attended Emory Law. After her first semester, she began to look for meaningful volunteer work in the Atlanta community. Her old passion found a new form when she became a legal intern for the Georgia Trust for Historical Preservation. The Tax Reform Act of 1969 had been signed into law a decade earlier, but lawyers and tax professionals were just beginning to understand and implement its provisions regarding charitable remainder trusts. Instead of working at a law firm the summer after her second year, Miller researched and wrote a paper on planned giving. Jeanne Bowden, who is married to one member of Emory’s Board of Trustees and daughter-in-law of another, introduced Miller to Trust Company of Georgia, the wealth manager for generations of Atlanta families. “I didn’t know a lot about trusts,” Miller says, “but for me it was three legs of the stool that I still love to this

B Y S TA C E Y J O N E S

day — people and families, trust and tax law, houses and people’s things.” Now a managing director at Glenmede Trust Company, Miller works with high-net-worth individuals on estate planning and trust administration, educating them and their families on issues of financial literacy and philanthropy. She has worked with some of her clients through three or four generations. She advises families to communicate with one another, sharing stories around their “tangible legal property”— artwork, rare books, or everyday knickknacks —so that these objects take on more meaning for the next generation. It’s the fight over things, not money, that brings the most discord to heirs, she says. Miller lives in Manhattan and in Stamford, Connecticut. She is a trustee director of the Preservation League of New York State and has been a docent at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than 30 years, leading tours in its American wing and Islamic galleries. She married a trust and estates lawyer who was also a rare-book collector. He died from cancer in 2003, but Miller fondly recalls their first date — to an antique flea market, she says. A longtime volunteer for Emory Law and a member of its advisory board, Miller is one of Emory’s newest alumni trustees. Current Law School Advisory Board Chair Allan Diamond 79L has known Miller for nearly 40 years. Emory couldn’t have picked a better trustee, in his opinion. “She’s loyal and out there doing all kinds of good things for Emory to spread its goodwill and its reputation,” he says. “When you combine her personality, her skills, and her numerous professional accomplishments, you know she’s going to make an incredibly wonderful ambassador for Emory.”

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

Lee Miller 82L brings decades of leadership and wealthmanagement experience to Emory as the newest member of its Board of Trustees.

ALUMNI PROFILE

Greg Doody 94L

From boardroom to vineyard BY MARY LOFTUS

he Wall Street Journal article on Charter Communications’ filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which ran on March 28, 2009, was small but had a photo accompanying it: a close-up of the chief restructuring officer, Gregory Doody 94L. Doody, a CPA and corporate lawyer, had proven himself the go-to guy for such intensive restructurings, and the St. Louis–based cable operator needed to reduce its debt by about $8 billion.

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

Flash forward six years. Doody, now a certified sommelier and executive vice president and chief operating officer for Vineyard Brands, is touring family vineyards around the world — in such places as the South Island of New Zealand (the Middle-earth vista from The Lord of the Rings movies) and the western cape of South Africa, with baboons cavorting about. The path from boardroom to vineyard was serendipitous, says Doody, and it makes for a good tale.

ALUMNI PROFILE

The corporate-restructuring portion of his career — pulling companies back from the brink — began in the early 2000s, after a cluster of huge accounting scandals at companies such as Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco. These high-profile financial scandals resulted in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, intended to protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices and improve the accuracy of corporate disclosures. It also resulted in tighter scrutiny of large, publicly held companies with “creative” bookkeeping. In fall 2002, Doody, an attorney at the Birmingham firm Balch & Bingham, was called in to advise independent directors of HealthSouth, the largest publicly traded rehabilitative healthcare company in the US. HealthSouth had come to the attention of the SEC for accounting, disclosure, and trading irregularities, and in March 2003 the FBI raided its corporate headquarters. “They wanted someone local to advise them,” he says. The interim CEO asked Doody to become the company’s general counsel, but Doody liked Balch & Bingham and wanted to stay with his firm. He agreed, however, to help HealthSouth clean things up. “The company had something like 50,000 employees, all worried that it was going to go out of business,” he says. “Because of the fraud, you couldn’t trust the books. We didn’t know how much money the company had or where it was.” Seventeen people ended up pleading guilty, including most of senior management. Cooperating with seven US attorneys’ offices, the FBI, the IRS, the SEC, and the Department of Justice, Doody and the team hunkered down. “We were trying to reconstruct the accounting records, put the financial statements back together, get the SEC filings done,” he says. “The company paid $600 million for all of that, not including any of the settlements. There were class-action suits and state fraud actions. It was really exhausting, but we did it.” The company survived, and Doody was asked to stay on as executive VP, general counsel, and corporate secretary. “We settled with everyone,” he says. “It seems impossible, but you just keep slogging through day by day. Someone compared it to flying a plane with no engines and blackened windows.” Finally, the Department of Justice agreed to not press charges. “They decided to let us go on about our business,” Doody says. “I think I had a reverse nervous breakdown. I could not wipe the smile off my face.” The next call came from Calpine, an electrical generation company that, says Doody, was a “solid business with great employees which had racked up way too much debt thinking they could grow into it.” Two years later, he

had brokered a deal with all necessary constituents and had steered the company from near insolvency to full recovery. Then came Charter Communications, which was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy with $21 billion in debt. Doody became its general counsel and spent three years restructuring the company. Rescuing Fortune 500 companies was lucrative, he says, but the “traveling is crazy and the pressure is pretty intense. I decided to step back and do something completely different.”

It’s such a cool business. We have relationships with some of the wineries that date back to the 1930s and have suppliers in all of the major wine-growing regions of the world. For some successful corporate lawyers, that might mean time relaxing, enjoying their vacation home. But for Doody, it meant attending the French Culinary Institute in New York, where he finished top of his class, became accredited in the first two levels of the Court of Master Sommeliers program, and took over business affairs for Vineyard Brands importer, which represents more than 60 growers of estate-bottled wine from around the world. “It’s such a cool business,” he says. “We have relationships with some of the wineries that date back to the 1930s and have suppliers in all of the major wine-growing regions of the world.” From Australia to California, Italy to Argentina, Doody has spent the past few years traveling the globe to meet the company’s suppliers. “These people are farmers, and the vineyard has often been in their family for generations,” he says. “The locations are all completely different but spectacularly beautiful, and the people are so amazing. They want to entertain you and show you who they are and how they live, because that’s what wine is all about — a lifestyle.” The company also has sales representatives in all 50 states and sells to distributors who supply restaurants, wine shops, and grocery stores. “We’re employee-owned, so no one ever leaves,” Doody says. “The pressure is just to do a good job for you, your colleagues, and your suppliers, not for Wall Street or your investors. I’m happy to be in this new life.” EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

ALUMNI PROFILE

John Dowd 65L donates historic collection

“Dowd Report” comes to Emory Law BY LISA ASHMORE

s baseball springs eternal, so do some fans’ hopes that Pete Rose might finally make it into Cooperstown. The reason he’s never been on the Hall of Fame ballot is the 1989 Dowd Report by John Dowd 65L — 225 pages of proof that as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, Rose gambled large sums daily on baseball, including on his own team.

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

ALUMNI PROFILE

Dowd gave his record of one of baseball’s biggest scandals to Emory Law earlier this year. His signed copy of the report is accompanied by nine volumes of supporting exhibits and another four volumes of court filings from Rose’s lawsuit against Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, former president of Yale University. It is one of a few copies that were bound for those close to the Rose investigation, including the investigators and the late commissioner. It is now housed in Emory’s Hugh F. MacMillan Law Library, and a related exhibit ran in July. “I have a great affection for the law school,” Dowd says, explaining why he decided to have the hard copies of the report housed at Emory Law. The gift entered the law library’s rare books collection about the same time news broke that Rose was again appealing his lifetime ban. Rose would likely be a first-round Hall of Famer if judged solely on performance: “Charlie Hustle,” a switch hitter, is the all-time Major League Baseball (MLB) leader in hits, games played, and at-bats. He won three World Series rings. In a recent interview, Dowd remained adamant that the Reds player doesn’t belong in any clubhouse or the Hall of Fame. He also pointed out new MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s affirmation of the importance of the no-gambling rule. In April, Manfred promised a “full and fresh look” at Rose’s request. Fans who think Rose should be reinstated, Dowd says, likely haven’t read the report, which contains Rose’s phone and bank records, betting slips that an FBI expert testified were in Rose’s handwriting, and transcripts of tape recordings of “conversations made by witnesses where they talk very openly about betting on the Reds and betting on baseball,” Dowd says. Dowd recently told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he believes Rose’s gambling debts may have been as high as $500,000 at the time of the investigation. During the course of three months in 1989, Dowd and two investigators interviewed about 110 witnesses. The deposition Dowd took from Rose himself runs more than 350 pages. Giamatti made the unusual decision up front that Dowd would share all evidence with Rose’s lawyers once a week. “I thought Bart’s approach was very smart,” Dowd says. “He just wanted Pete in the position where he could never deny knowing all the evidence. He could never say, ‘They never told me that. They never showed me that.’” Because of the furor surrounding the case, Dowd and Rose set up on April 20, 1989, in the basement of a parochial school in Dayton, Ohio. The nearly eight-hour deposition was taken over two days.

They developed a rhythm — Dowd would tell Rose an allegation, Rose would deny it, and Dowd would present evidence it was true. “I just marched him chronologically through all of the events, evidence, testimony, etc., and gave him an opportunity to respond,” Dowd says. Through a lawsuit filed against Giamatti, MLB, and the Reds, Rose tried to have the report and deposition sealed, and the trial judge agreed. Dowd thought Rose was trying to conceal the truth about his conduct from the public, so they appealed and the report and deposition were made public. For nearly 15 years following the ban, Rose continued to deny he gambled on baseball. Then in his 2004 autobiography, Rose did an about-face, saying he bet on the Reds but never against them. Soon after the book’s release, he appealed for reinstatement again. Dowd says beyond the passage of 26 years, nothing’s changed to warrant Rose being welcomed back to baseball. “Pete has done nothing to redeem himself. He’s done nothing to reconfigure his life,” Dowd says. “The issue is the integrity of the game. When someone places their financial interests ahead of the team, they compromise the game. To me, it’s a very simple and wise rule.” The rule is 21 (d)(2): “Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.” It’s posted in every MLB clubhouse. It is the result of the 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” cheating scandal where the Sox threw the World Series, which led team owners to appoint the game’s first commissioner in 1920. Giamatti tried hard to resolve the matter, Dowd says. They had an agreement with federal prosecutors not to try Rose for tax evasion. There were also informal inquiries through FBI agents “with a loan shark in New York, to see if he would take a one-time payment,” Dowd says. “Bart also had all kinds of doctors lined up at Yale to work on the addiction,” he adds. But Rose’s lawyer refused. (Rose was found guilty of tax evasion in federal court the next year and served five months in prison.) The final sentence in Giamatti’s August 24, 1989, statement to the press was “Let it also be clear that no individual is superior to the game.” The position of Reuven Katz, Rose’s attorney, was that “Pete was a legend.” That hubris was Rose’s eventual downfall, Dowd says. “Bart reminded him that the game was a legend, not Pete.”

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

The issue is the integrity of the game. When someone places their financial interests ahead of the team, they compromise the game.

WORTH NOTING

HUGH F. MACMILLAN LIBRARY

More to check out than you think

Mark Engsberg came to Emory Law in 2008 with a vision to “reconnect library staff with their profession.” He supervises MacMillan’s 18-member staff.

he gift of the Dowd Report was a boon to the rare collections at Emory’s MacMillan Law Library — the second gift to the library in 2015. The first was a rare and valuable edition of Edward Coke’s influential treatise Institutes of the Lawes of England (1637), donated by Elliott Levitas 52C 56L. Both are currently housed in the library’s Donald W. Fyr Rare Book Room. Fyr holds a small but select assortment of volumes that includes a collection of European dissertations from the 16th and 17th centuries — a gift from Emory’s Pitts Theology Library. Separate from the rare books, the library’s archives feature historical treasures as well, including the Catherine Roraback papers. Roraback was the civil rights attorney who represented Estelle Griswold in the historic Griswold v. Connecticut case — the precursor to Roe v. Wade. An eclectic group of artifacts appears in the gallery spaces, such as Thomas Jefferson’s personal copy of the Declaration of Independence, contributed by an alumnus who collects Americana. There is also a portrait of Lord Grey — one of three members of the House of Lords who voted to allow the colonies to become independent — and, most unusually, a lock of George Washington’s hair.

A new role for the library

Mark Engsberg, library director and assistant professor of law, along with the staff at the MacMillan Law Library, constantly looks for new ways to engage students beyond traditional library roles. Those roles have evolved tremendously over the years to include wellness issues as well as different ways of using the library’s space. An evolution has occurred among staff members as well. Certainly, the staff help students locate the legal texts they need among the library’s 331,921 titles, but they also teach courses, present papers, publish articles, and

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

serve in leadership positions at local, regional, national, and international levels. Engsberg is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Legal Information, published by the International Association of Law Libraries, and in the 2015 – 2016 academic year, law librarians will teach eight courses at the law school. This is, in part, due to Engsberg’s influence. When he came to MacMillan from Yale in August 2008, he had big plans: “I was determined to reconnect the library staff with their profession and allow them to assume the leadership roles that I knew they could inhabit,” he says. Richelle Reid, assistant law librarian for student services, used that opportunity to help students manage stress during exam time, creating an innovative Stress Busters program, which includes a relaxation and meditation room, a table for coffee and snack breaks, and even visits from therapy animals. In 2014 MacMillan Law Library won the American Association of Law Libraries

We care a great deal about our students . . . If our program can help students reduce exam-related stress, then we have been successful. — Richelle Reid, assistant law librarian for student services

Excellence in Marketing Award: Best Campaign for this programming. “We care a great deal about our students, and we want to participate in their well-being. If our program can help students reduce exam-related stress, then we have been successful. Feedback suggests that we have,” Reid says. Engsberg explained that the 18-member library services staff is more concerned with evolving the facility and holdings than expanding them. Where copy machines were once housed, small study rooms now exist. They may discard some volumes that are not used anymore or that now come in another format. Where hard copies used to be the primary means of accessing information from legal texts, now much more information is digitized. “As the world changes, we do, too,” Engsberg says. “But attorneys and academics alike still need to use books, and the law library is here to help them do that.” — A. Kenyatta Greer

WORTH NOTING

Sheffey takes the helm of public service initiatives RITA SHEFFEY, A VETERAN LITIGATOR with a career-long commitment to public service, has been named Emory Law’s assistant dean for public service. The first to fill this position, Sheffey is building upon the law school’s well-established public service programs. She advises the Emory Public Interest Committee, oversees the law school’s Pro Bono Program, advises students with career interests in government or public interest organizations, and coordinates the school’s judicial clerkship program. Sheffey long has been a champion of pro bono work. Before joining Emory Law in January of this year, Sheffey had a long career at Hunton & Williams, where she for 20 years logged more than 100 pro bono hours each year and led the Atlanta office’s Pro Bono Committee since 2005. She created Hunton & Williams’s Southside Legal Center pro bono clinic in 1995; in 1996 she partnered with the Fulton County Juvenile Court to develop a program that allows firm attorneys to serve as guardians ad litem in Children in Need of Services cases. She lobbied for the creation of a second full-time pro bono fellowship at Hunton & Williams’s Atlanta office. It allows a recent law school graduate to work exclusively on pro bono cases for two years. Since its establishment, three of seven fellows have been Emory Law graduates. For this and much more, Georgia State University (GSU) College of Law recently recognized Sheffey with the Ben F. Johnson Jr. Public Service Award. The award is given each year to a Georgia attorney whose accomplishments reflect selfless public service. As part of her appointment, Sheffey is charged with establishing the Emory Law Center for Public Service. As she settles into her role as assistant dean, she contemplates what the scope and focus of the center will be. “I wouldn’t presuppose to come into this role and, after a few months, dictate a bunch of changes,” she says. “I’m assessing to see where I can add value.” As part of her assessment, Sheffey is doing a lot of active listening. “I’ve gained some great insight. The students and my colleagues have been very open, and that motivates me.” Though there are no immediate wholesale changes in the works, Sheffey set some big goals for herself over the summer. She began working on the center’s processes and internal structure, with hopes of having the framework

B Y A . K E N YAT TA G R E E R

in place and the center functional by June 2016, when she also begins her presidency at the State Bar of Georgia. Even as she seeks to gain more recognition for the law school’s good works, Sheffey does not desire any of that attention for herself: “If I’ve done what I intend to do, people will focus on this center and what it stands for — and what the grads stand for. I want Emory to be known for graduating lawyers who have a passion for service. When someone meets an Emory alum, they will know that service is part of what that person contributes to society.”

Rita Sheffey, assistant dean for public service at Emory Law, receiving the Ben F. Johnson Jr. Public Service Award from Steven J. Kaminshine, dean of GSU’s College of Law.

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

WORTH NOTING

Student wins reflect Emory Law’s interdisciplinary success B Y A . K E N YAT TA G R E E R

D Team Bioletics offers their winning pitch at the 2015 Georgia Tech Startup Competition. The team, from left to right: Yogi A. Patel 16PhD (Tech), Hassan El Majidi 16MBA (Tech), Sarika Mathur 16L (Emory), Mark Luo 16L (Emory), and Maggie Lovatt 16MBA (Tech).

uring the 2014 – 2015 school year, students participating on the law school’s various competition teams brought home regional, national, and international wins. Teams won in mock trial, transactional law, moot court, and start-up competitions, reflecting not only student effort and preparation but also the success of the school’s programs in integrating theory and practice into student education. The Black Law Students Association (BLSA) mock trial team scored a second-place trophy at the National BLSA (NBLSA) Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition. As one of the top teams in the regional competition in January 2015, the team was asked to represent Emory at the national competition in Portland, Oregon, which was held in conjunction with the NBLSA General Convention, which took place March 11 through 15. Emory’s team consisted of Ashley Breaux 17L, Ka’Nea Brooks 17L, Jewel Quintyne 16L, Mark Turner 16L, and their coach, Allyson Lumpkin 15L. Turner was also honored with the National Outstanding Advocate Award.

On the heels of impressive regional wins, the Transactional Law Program Negotiation Team won Best Draft, Semifinalist, and National Champion honors (seller’s side) at the 2015 National Transactional LawMeets. The competition, held in New York City, featured 14 teams from law schools across the country, seven for the buyer and seven for the seller. LawMeets 30

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

is a moot court event for students interested in transactional law. The winning team members were National Champions (sellers) — Jenn Greene 16L and Sarika Mathur 16L; Alternates — Abby Gao 15L and Jili Xue 15L; Semifinalists (sellers) — Zhiqian Chen 16L, Vivian Wang 16L, Liu Chen 16L, and Jasmine Johnson 16L; Alternate — Yoojin Kim 16L; and Best Draft (sellers) — Zhiqian Chen 16L, Vivian Wang 16L, Liu Chen 16L, Jasmine Johnson 16L, and Yoojin Kim 16L. Emory’s team won an international law and religion moot court competition in Venice, Italy, prevailing against 14 teams from four continents. Students presented arguments on a problem inspired by Hobby Lobby, Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, Title VII, and other major cases, as well as on free speech and privacy. Emory’s team included three students who previously demonstrated a deep interest in law and religion: Chris Manzer 15L earned a JD/MTS and led Emory’s nationaltitle-winning team in 2014; Matt Cavedon 15L also earned a JD/MTS and was an oralist at an earlier law and religion moot court competition at George Washington University; and Audra Savage 15L, an LLM student who won a national religious liberty student writing competition. Five enterprising students and their implantable device for pets won first place at the 2015 Georgia Tech Startup Competition. The first-year TI:GER team beat out 11 other finalists with their pitch for a device that will monitor and, ultimately, regulate blood glucose levels in cats and dogs. Yogi A. Patel is in the third year of his PhD studies at Tech and has been working on the device — dubbed “Stability” by the team — for more than a year. Sarika Mathur 16L (Emory), Mark Luo 16L (Emory), Maggie Lovatt 16MBA (Tech), and Hassan El Majidi 16MBA (Tech) constitute the remainder of the “Bioletics” team. Another TI:GER team, “Viapore,” won the April TiE Atlanta Young Entrepreneurs University Competition with their medical device for spinal implants. Brad Schweizer 15L 15B and his Tech counterparts placed first among the seven finalists. Viapore is developing a medical device to improve the outcomes of spinal surgery by replacing current implant technology with a more porous device that would aid in recovery by allowing bone to grow through the implant.

WORTH NOTING

A CALL TO DEBATE

Human rights scholar rejects idea of the Islamic state

ABDULLAHI AHMED AN-NA’IM, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law, has launched a scholarly website and blog that takes controversial concepts from his various publications and opens them up to global public debate. Building on An-Na’im’s book Islam and the Secular State, the Future of Sharia Blog tackles complex issues about government secularism and sharia (Islamic law). In addition to the blog calling for debates on Islam, the state, and politics in local languages of Islamic societies, the website features translations of the book in eight different languages, making the information accessible to various Islamic populations across the globe. As an

online resource, An-Na’im suggests, this discussion of human rights can be accessed in places that his books would never be allowed. “I’m challenging the very idea of the Islamic state,” An-Na’im says. “I’m turning the fundamentalist claim upside down. I used to think secularism was hostile to religion. Now, I have come to appreciate that it doesn’t have to be. In a secular state (like the United States), people have the freedom to practice their religion, and the state stays neutral.” He deliberately campaigns against making sharia the law of the state and provides people with what he calls “good, persuasive scholarship” to support that position. Through a “Call to Debate” section on the new site, An-Na’im asks people who agree with him to offer their support through intelligent dialogue — and for people who disagree with his position to help readers understand why. He calls the effort an “educational public advocacy exercise.” An-Na’im understands that his position is not without its critics. He welcomes them. “If someone can show me that I’m wrong, I will listen. I believe that my argument is truly Islamic. I seek out resistance. If I’m not resisted, I’m not relevant.” Join the scholarly debate by visiting the Future of Sharia Blog at scholarblogs.emory.edu/aannaim. — A. Kenyatta Greer

I’m challenging the very idea of the Islamic state. I’m turning the fundamentalist claim upside down. I used to think secularism was hostile to religion. Now, I have come to appreciate that it doesn’t have to be.

UnitedLex partnership creates practical opportunities for graduates

mory Law has partnered with UnitedLex, a leading global provider of legal services, to implement an innovative “legal residency” program. Recent graduates who participate in the two-year UnitedLex residency program will learn to use cutting-edge technologies and processes to provide legal services to corporate legal departments and law firms. Those selected for the residency program each year will receive rigorous classroom instruction provided by senior attorneys, serve in a supervisory capacity, and work directly with clients to deliver legal services. Practice areas that students will work in include litigation, contract and IP management; e-discovery; cyber

security; patent licensing; and immigration law. At the end of the residency, some residents will remain on UnitedLex’s legal staff. “This program with UnitedLex will offer our graduates new opportunities to master emerging areas of legal practice, working with the support of experienced attorneys and industry experts,” says Robert Schapiro, Dean and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law. “They will build on their law school training, acquiring new skills and knowledge that will benefit them throughout their careers.” The UnitedLex program is similar to a medical residency in that it provides both paid full-time employment and rigorous, handson training. UnitedLex has already hired two

recent Emory Law graduates and will hire more as the program grows. “Our legal residency program was created to address challenges facing the legal industry, including the lack of training opportunities for recent graduates and the ever-increasing costs for both the providers and consumers of legal services,” says Daniel Reed, CEO of UnitedLex. Affiliated law schools will receive a portion of the proceeds from UnitedLex, which they will use to fund scholarships and other student-oriented programs. To learn more about United Lex services, contact Allan Congrave at 770.238.7759 or allan.congrave@unitedlex.com.

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

2015 COMMENCEMENT

“I challenge you to make this a better world not just for your family, friends, and neighbors, but also for those who are unborn — those who need to see the kind of justice America is founded on.” — Shirley Franklin, former Atlanta mayor

EMORY LAWYER SUMMER 2015

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Sara Toering 06L 06T has represented detainees in Guantanamo Bay and educated tenants in Brooklyn about their housing rights. Today she is the general counsel for the Center for Community Progress, a national nonprofit that helps communities transform abandoned properties into housing, parks, and retail spaces that stabilize neighborhoods. A scholarship made her Emory Law education—and her career choices—possible. “My scholarships have given me the freedom to follow a vocational journey unencumbered by the type of student loan debt that can cripple calls to service,” she says. Support scholarships with your

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$1 million gift for religious freedom work

Emory Law’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion received an anonymous $1 million gift that will fund a four-year project: “Restoring Religious Freedom: Education, Outreach, and Good Citizenship.” The project will provide students with practical experience — including internships, externships, and competition opportunities — to prepare them for careers in law and religion. Mark Goldfeder 12L 13L, Spruill Family Senior Fellow at the center and senior lecturer at Emory Law, will direct the project. Emory Law won an international law and religion moot court competition last spring. The gift will enable the school to train more law and religion moot court competitors. Left to right: Goldfeder, coach; Audra Savage 15L; Matthew Cavedon 15T 15L; Christopher Manzer 15T 15L.