Pitt Law in review 2014 by Kelly Sjol

Barco Law Building 3900 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15260 law.pitt.edu

IN R EVIEW

U N I V E R S IT Y O F P IT T S B U RG H SC H OO L O F L AW

2013â&#x20AC;&#x201C;14 year in review

4 1

PERMIT NO 511

PITTSBURGH PA

PAID

US POSTAGE

NONPROFIT ORG

W E L C O M E T O I N R E V I E W ,â&#x20AC;&#x160;

a snapshot of the 2013â&#x20AC;&#x201C;14 academic year at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and an opportunity to share highlights with you related to teaching and scholarship in three important areas: health law, innovation and technology, and social justice. I am more impressed than ever by the talent, successes, and commitment of our students, faculty, and staff. Our faculty continues to be one of the most productive in the nation (see HIgh-Impact Faculty Scholarship, page 10). Pitt Law alumni and members of the legal community continue to demonstrate their support of Pitt Law (see Gismondi Donation, page 18). Building the necessary core competencies that enable our students to succeed as global leaders in the legal profession is truly a collaborative project enhanced by our many partnerships with the bench, bar, business community, and nonprofit agencies. I look forward to keeping you apprised of our progress in the coming year.

WILLIAM M. CARTER JR.

de a n a n d prof e s sor of l aw

T H E U N I V E R S I T Y ’ S C E N T E R F O R B I O E T H I C S A N D H E A L T H L A W

No. 1

housed in Pitt Law, is recognized as a leader in empirical research on such topics as informed consent, organ donation, and longterm care, as well as scholarly research on issues ranging from conscientious objection to global health and human rights to the right to die.

H E A LT H L A W

AT THE EPICENTER OF HEALTH LAW

R O F E S S O R O F L AW A N D P SYC H I AT RY A L A N M E I S E L FO U N D E D

Pitt’s Center for Bioethics and Law back in 1988. “It wasn’t that long ago that what passed as health law was medical malpractice,” Meisel says. “We’ve progressed through laws regulating the health care industry to the Medicare and Medicaid spending boom and now, the Affordable Care Act (ACA).” The resources of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Bioethics and Health Law add immense depth to the curriculum of Pitt Law, which offers a rigorous health law concentration. Collaborations among law professors, the University’s prestigious School of Medicine, and the Graduate School of Public Health have kept Pitt Law at the epicenter of health law. That’s appropriate. Pitt is arguably the birthplace of health law, defined as the bodies of law that regulate the nation’s largest industry. Meisel, an end-of-life decisions expert, and Nathan Hershey, professor emeritus of public health and member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, collaborate often with a leading set of scholars addressing questions of bioethics, health care equality, and related business issues, such as antitrust and nonprofit law. Options in three different tracks — administration, finance, and governance; bioethics; and public health — permit students further concentration. All students take a clinical or practicum experience, fulfill upper-level writing requirements by choosing a topic in their field, and have opportunities to attend health law institutes and conferences to keep pace with topics in this rapidly changing field. Topical symposia and challenging case law, in health law and elder law clinics, enrich the academic offerings. Joint degree programs, offered with Pitt’s bioethics program, the public health program, and Carnegie Mellon University’s health care policy and management program allow students to earn their master’s and JD s simultaneously. For Meisel, the major ethical questions looming in the implementation of the ACA are the right-to-die issues he has studied throughout his career. As an international authority on end-of-life decision making and informed consent to medical treatment, he is the principal author of The Right to Die: The Law of End-of-Life Decisionmaking, now in its third edition. He served on the President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine under President Reagan, and on the Ethics Working Group of the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform during the Clinton administration.

“The biggest question, I think, will not arise immediately,” he observes. “It’s the question of whether, in a system in which serious efforts to reduce the costs of health care are increasingly being implemented, patients near the end of life will be encouraged or pressured or even compelled to forgo life-sustaining medical treatment; some might say, will be encouraged or pressured more than they are now. Looking even further down the line, the question will arise as to whether public resistance to legalizing physician-aid-in dying (i.e., physician-assisted suicide) will diminish as a way of controlling end-of-life costs rather than as a way of enhancing patient self-determination.” Meisel says he will update the syllabus for his Health Law and Policy course to reflect other practical issues posed by the ACA. “Prime among [the topics] is the individual mandate, especially whether young people purchase insurance or pay the penalty — and the employer mandate — how businesses react. Do they lay off some employees to get the [staff] number under 50 so they don’t have to comply? Do they pay the penalty rather than providing insurance? In Medicaid expansion, what happens in the states that don’t adopt it? What happens in the states that do? Will it save them money or cost them money?” He will also address the ACA’s effect on primary and specialty care. “With perhaps 20 million more people having health insurance, is it possible to get to see your doctor, or will the docs be swamped?”

No. 2

SOCIAL JUSTICE

VETERANS LEGAL PRACTICUM LAUNCHED

H O U R S P R O V I D E D B Y S T U D E N T C L I N I C V O L U N T E E R S I N D I R E C T C L I E N T R E P R E S E N T A T I O N O F M O R E T H A N 1 9 0 L O W - I N C O M E I N D I V I D U A L S

12,000+ A N D O R G A N I Z A T I O N S .

O D E LE D O N S U CC E SS FU L PR O G R A M S AT TH E U N I V E R S I TY O F

Detroit Mercy School of Law and Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary, the Pitt Law veterans’ practicum debuted in the fall of 2013. It is designed to help returning soldiers make initial VA claims, appeal rulings, and request discharge upgrades while building student skills with the military process. Adjunct faculty for the course includes attorneys Jim Coletta, ’83, and Jason Manne, ’79. Pitt Law’s practicum aims to resolve problems in veterans’ claims before the VA denies them. Because first-time claims can’t be filed by paid attorneys, veterans depend on pro bono assistance. “Law schools are in a position to help,” says Manne.

After a 30-year career in state government in administrative law, Manne joined the faculty this year. “I’m not a veteran. I got interested because it’s very different from my previous work in administrative law,” he explains. “It’s a fascinating system. From a legal standpoint, it’s like playing in a sandbox. The Court of Appeals for Veterans’ Claims has been in existence for 25 years, but has rendered only a couple hundred decisions. The federal courts reviewing Social Security Administration claims, by contrast, issue a couple hundred decisions in a month. There are lots of novel arguments lawyers can raise in the veterans’ system. It’s the Wild West, in terms of judicial review. What’s not fun are the delays: It can take three years to get to the court of appeals. But once a case is in court and moving, it’s interesting.” Well-publicized delays in the VA bureaucracy motivated Dave Coogan, ’14, and Leigh Argentieri, ’14, to press the practicum proposal. The Pittsburgh region has one of the largest veterans’ populations in the country, including thousands of the 2.5 million Americans deployed since 2001. In late 2012, an investigative report by the online Public Source described the resulting problem: Pittsburgh’s backlog in processing claims made it one of the slowest regional offices in the country. In 2013, the average wait time for the Pittsburgh VA Regional Office was 372.7 days. And locally as nationally, filings continue to pour in: Currently, the total number of claims received at the VA that require development and a decision surpasses 558,000. Backlogged claims total another 274,039. Coogan says the backlog has forced VA offices to “rush to deny” initial claims, resolving some cases but prompting many veterans to resort to the appeals process. Pitt Law students will not only handle appeals, they will also assist veterans in filing and processing their initial claims. This fall, seven students will work on more than a dozen active cases, from vets who served in the Vietnam era and post-2001 conflicts. The practicum will also undertake court appeals referred from the national Veterans Pro-Bono Consortium Project. Coogan has spread the offer of the practicum’s free services through local universities’ veterans’ affairs offices, as well as agencies like Veterans’ Place, which serves homeless veterans. “You have to plug into the social service network to connect to veterans,” he explains.

There are lots of novel arguments lawyers can raise in the veterans’ system. It’s the Wild West, in terms of judicial review.

No. 3

H E A LT H L A W

WHEN THE LAW AND PUBLIC HEALTH INTERSECT

HERE ARE SO MANY NEW QUESTIONS [SURROUNDING THE

Affordable Care Act] that no one knows how to answer,” observes Pitt Law Professor Mary Crossley. “HHS and other agencies are in the process of turning out regulatory guidance, and as they create structure, parties can respond. The role for attorneys is in figuring out what the regulations should be, and then, figuring out how to comply. And there’s absolutely no way to anticipate what all the questions will be.” An expert on issues of inequality in health care, Crossley says that health care law increasingly confronts issues of public health. Hospitals are now required to conduct community health needs assessments and responds to the needs identified. And as governmental officials like New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg attempt to legislate health behavior, banning smoking in public spaces or oversized soft drinks to prevent disease, questions on government’s role are “timely and provocative,” she says. The prospect of collaboration between public health and traditional providers is of special interest to Crossley. During summer 2013, she worked with the San Francisco Department of Public Health to identify innovative ways in which California health officials can use their legal authority to address the epidemic of chronic diseases, like diabetes and heart disease, through interventions targeting risk behaviors and social and economic factors that impact health. Her work was part of Scholars in Residence, a program sponsored by the Network for Public Health Law and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that paired experts with public health departments in tackling pressing public health law issues. This past summer, Crossley was one of six legal scholars from across the country selected to serve as a faculty mentor with the Future of Public Health Law Education Faculty Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Georgia State University College of Law, its Center for Law Health & Society, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Pitt Law Adjunct Professor Elizabeth Bjerke was one of the 10 faculty fellows selected nationally for the program. Bjerke, who holds a joint appointment at Pitt Law and Pitt Public Health, worked with the center fellows to create a practice-based course related to preventive services under the ACA. She will teach the course during the spring 2015 semester.

ja son m a nne, ’79

S T E P H A N I E D A N G E L

a former Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Supreme Court clerk, teaches the Law, Entertainment, and Social Enterprise Practicum. Students learn how to create a social enterprise corporation, negotiate strategic alliances, protect the fair use of intellectual property, and draft a Private Placement Memorandum. They then work with industry professionals to launch an entertainment investment fund.

No. 4

T E C H N O L O G Y A N D I N N O V AT I O N

INNOVATION PRACTICE INSTITUTE

I TTSB UR GH IS INCUBATING THE COMPANIES T H AT W I L L P OW E R

the 21st-century economy. Pitt Law’s Innovation Practice Institute (IPI) connects students with the city’s vibrant entrepreneurial sector. IPI trains new lawyers to partner with innovators and teaches lawyers to be innovators. IPI coursework includes copyright and trademark law, law and entre preneurship, understanding the legal services marketplace, and commercializing new technologies, offered with the University’s Katz School of Business. IPI places students at dozens of innovation enterprises in the region, for example, Pitt’s Innovation Institute, Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation, and the Coulter Program at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. Pitt Law students compete in the University-wide Big Idea Competition, which annually awards $20,000 prizes to fledgling firms. IPI also leaps campus boundaries with opportunities to network with fascinating partners. A few examples: S TA R T S M A R T

Start Smart is a collaborative program developed by IPI in partnership with Project Olympus, a Carnegie Mellon University incubator that launches students’ high-tech ideas. It is open to law students, entrepreneurs, and start-up firms in the Pittsburgh region, teaching the basics of business law and business formation. The program’s mix of practical advice and exciting projects stimulates new partnerships and is free and open to all. I N N O VAT O R S , E S Q .

Innovators, Esq. is a lunch-and-learn series at which law students have the opportunity to meet attorneys pursuing successful careers in new fields in and beyond the law. IPI LEADERSHIP FORUM

The IPI Leadership Forum is an intensive five-week course in leadership development for Pitt Law students, faculty, and staff who believe they are Pittsburgh’s Next Big Thing.

B O O K S A N D B O O K C H A P T E R S P U B L I S H E D

H I G H - I M PAC T FAC U LT Y S C H O L A R S H I P Peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed articles in law reviews and journals published at the top 50 schools.* Also included are books and book chapters published by presses at leading schools and leading schools at which Pitt Law faculty presented during the same timeframe.

S E L E C T E D S C H O L A R LY

VIVIAN CURRAN, Review of

ANTHONY INFANTI and

P U B L I C A T I O N S

Gilles Cuniberti, Grands systemes de droit contemporains. 61 A m . J. Comp. L. 721 (2013).

B. Crawford, A Critical Research Agenda for Wills, Trusts and Estates, ____ R eal Prop. Tr . & E st. L.J. ____ (forthcoming 2014).

I N L E A D I N G L A W J O U R N A L S

ELENA BAYLIS, What Internationals Know: Promoting the Effectiveness of Post-Conflict Justice Initiatives, 14 Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev. ____ (forthcoming 2015). ELENA BAYLIS, Function and

Dysfunction in Post-Conflict Justice Networks and Communities, 47 Vand. J. Transnat ’l L. 625 (2014). DEBORAH BRAKE and

J.L. Grossman, Unprotected Sex: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act at 35, 21 D uke J. G ender L. & Pol’ y 67 (2014). DEBORAH BRAKE, Retaliation

in an EEO World, 89 I nd. L. J. 115 (2014). DEBORAH BRAKE,

Discrimination Inward and Upward: Lessons on Law and Social Inequality from the Troubling Case of Women Coaches, 2 I nd. J. L. & S oc . I neq. 1 (2013). WILLIAM M. CARTER JR.,

The Thirteenth Amendment and Constitutional Reform, ____ N.Y.U. R ev. L. & S oc . Change ____ (forthcoming 2014). WILLIAM M. CARTER JR. and VIVIAN CURRAN,

The Use, Abuse, and Non-Use of International Law in the United States and France, No. 02/14 Jean Monnet Working Paper Series of the Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law & Justice at NYU School of Law (2014).

I N L E A D I N G P R E S S E S

JESSIE ALLEN, Reading

Blackstone in the 21st Century and the 21st Century through Blackstone, in R e-I nterpreting B lackstone ’s Commentaries , 215 (Wilfrid Prest ed., 2014) (published with Hart). RONALD A. BRAND, Transaction Planning Using Rules on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments, in The Pocket B ooks of the Hague Academy O f I nternational L aw/L es L ivres D e Poche D e L’académie D e D roit I nternational D e L a Haye (Book 22, 2014) (published with Martinus Nijhoff Brill). VIVIAN CURRAN, From

Extraterritoriality, Universal Jurisdiction and the Challenge of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., 28 M d. J. I nt ’l . L. 76 (2013).

Love: Has the IRS Legalized Polygamy? ____ N.C. L. R ev. A dd. ____, (forthcoming 2014).

VIVIAN CURRAN, Mass Torts

ANTHONY INFANTI, LGBT

and Universal Jurisdiction, 34 U. Pa . J. I nt ’l L. 799 (2013).

Families, Tax Nothings, 17 J. G ender R ace & J ust. 35 (2014).

Nuremberg to Freetown: Historical Antecedents of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, in The Sierra L eone Special Court and Its L egacy: The Impact for A frica and I nternational Criminal L aw, 41 (Charles Jalloh, ed., 2013) (published with Cambridge University Press).

VIVIAN CURRAN and D. Sloss,

ANTHONY INFANTI, The

HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI,

Reviving Human Rights Litigation After Kiobel, 107 A m . J. I nt ’l . L. 858 (2013).

Moonscape of Tax Equality, Windsor and Beyond, 108 Nw U. L. R ev. 1115 (2014).

DAVID GARROW, How

ANTHONY INFANTI, The House

Roe v. Wade Was Written, 71 Wash . & L ee L. R ev. 893 (2014).

of Windsor: Accentuating the Heteronormativity in the Tax Incentives for Procreation, __ Wash . L. R ev. __ (forthcoming 2015).

VIVIAN CURRAN,

DAVID GARROW, Toward a

Definitive History of Griggs v. Duke Power Company, 67 Vand. L. R ev. 197 (2014). JASMINE B. GONZALES ROSE, Race Inequity Fifty Years

Later: Language Rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ____ A la . C.R. & C.L.L. R ev. ____ (forthcoming 2014).

ANTHONY INFANTI, Big (Gay)

JULES LOBEL with M. Chapman,

Bridging the Gap Between Unmet Legal Needs and an Oversupply of Lawyers: Creating Neighborhood Law Offices: The Philadelphia Experiment, 22 Va J. S oc . Pol’ y & L. (forthcoming 2014). JULES LOBEL, The Contradiction

HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI, Review of Kristen Stilt, Islamic Law in Action, Authority, Discretion and Everyday Experiences in Mamluk Egypt, 28 J.L. & R elig . 555 (2013).

Between Alien Tort Statute Jurisprudence and the Continued Immunity of U.S. Officials for Acts of Torture Committed Abroad, 28 M d. J. I nt ’l L. 129 (2013).

DAVID A. HARRIS, Across the Hudson: Taking the Stop and Frisk Debate Beyond New York City, 16 N.Y.U. J. L egis . & P ub . Pol’ y 854 (2013).

Cy Pres in Class Action Settlements, 88 S. C al . L. R ev. ____ (forthcoming 2014).

RHONDA WASSERMAN

N egotiating in Civil Conflict: Constitutional Construction and Imperfect Bargaining in I raq (2013) (published with University of Chicago Press). HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI, Decolonizing the Centralist Mind: Legal Pluralism and the Rule of Law, in The I nternational Rule of L aw M ovement: A Crisis of L egitimacy and the Way Forward (David Marshall, ed., 2014) (published with Harvard University Press). MICHAEL J. MADISON, with B.M. Frischmann, and K.J. Strandburg, G overning K nowledge Commons (2014) (published with Oxford University Press).

MICHAEL J. MADISON, Commons at the Intersection of Peer Production, Citizen Science, and Big Data: Galaxy Zoo, in G overning K nowledge Commons , 209 (Michael J. Madison, Brett M. Frischmann, and Katherine J. Strandburg, eds., 2014) (published with Oxford University Press). TERESA BROSTOFF and ANN SINSHEIMER, U nited

States L egal L anguage and Culture , (3d. ed. 2013)

(published with Oxford University Press).

P R E S E N T A T I O N S G I V E N A T T H E T O P 1 5 - R A N K E D L A W S C H O O L S

JESSIE ALLEN, Reconstructing

Legal Doctrine and Due Process. Presented at: The Anatomy of Autonomy: From Personhood to Personification; Seminar taught by Patricia Williams; Columbia University Law School: March 2014. JESSIE ALLEN, Pretend Property:

Legal Fictions, Scientific Inventions and the Discovery of Patent Law. Presented at: Annual Meeting of Assn for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities; University of Virginia School of Law: March 2014. KEVIN ASHLEY, Toward Integrating Computational Models and Legal Texts. Presented at: Stanford CodeX: Center for Legal Informatics; Stanford Law School: February 2014. DEBORAH BRAKE, Sex Equality, Sex Difference: Lessons from Title IX and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Presented at: Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Symposium; Georgetown University Law Center: September 2013. RONALD A. BRAND, Contract Drafting Lessons from Rules on Jurisdiction and Choice of Forum in Europe. Presented at: 2013 International Law WeekendMidwest; Washington University School of Law: September 2013.

* According to a July 2012 study of scholarly impact at ABA law schools conducted by Professor Gregory Sisk. These were accepted and/or published between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014

WILLIAM M. CARTER JR., The Thirteenth Amendment and the Legacies of Slavery, delivered as the 18th Annual Derrick A. Bell Endowed Lecture on Race in American Society at New York University Law School: November 2013. WILLIAM M. CARTER JR., The Use, Abuse, and Non-Use of International Law in the United States Legal Order: A Critique. Presented at: Paris I-NYU Workshop on the Legacy of Van Gend en Loos; Collège de France, Paris: June 2013. MARY CROSSLEY, Abortion, ART, and Disability: Commentary on Ouellette. Presented at: Workshop on Abortion and Assisted Reproductive Technology; Yale Law School: April 2014. HARRY FLECHTNER, Approaches and Philosophies of ommentaries on the CISG. Presented at: Symposium on Recent Scholarship on the U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG); New York University Law School: September 2013. HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI, Islamic Legal Realism. Presented at: Harvard Law School: June 2014 HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI, The Struggle for Iraq’s Future. Presented at: New York University School of Law: March 2014. HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI, Legal Pluralism and the Rule of Law. Presented at: Harvard Law School: November 2013. DAVID A. HARRIS, Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System. Presented at: Across the Hudson: Taking the Stop and Frisk Debate Beyond New York; New York University (Washington, D.C. campus): December 2013. JULES LOBEL, Prolonged Solitary

Confinement and the Constitution. Presented at: UC Berkeley School of Law: January 2014. MICHAEL J. MADISON, with Frischmann BM, Strandburg KJ. Governing Knowledge Commons (co-organizer). Presented at: Medical Commons and User Innovation Workshop; New York University School of Law: May 2014.

No. 5

SOCIAL JUSTICE

ONE PITT LAW GRADUATE’S PASSION FOR IMMIGRATION LAW

322

OLLY! MASICH, ’14, HAS SPENT THE PAST TWO SUMMERS WITH

nonprofit organizations, helping immigrants find ways to achieve permanent legal status. Her most recent experience was a 2013 a summer stint in the Legal Services for Immigrants and Internationals department of Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS), which provides legal help as well as humanitarian aid for immigrants and refugees in Pittsburgh. She took responsibility for 57 cases, contacting nearly 150 individuals — many of whom speak limited English — about services provided by JFCS . A public interest scholarship funded through Pitt Law student fundraising efforts of the Pitt Legal Income Sharing Foundation (PLISF) allowed her to take this nonpaid position. Over the course of the last academic year, PLISF raised $27,000 and provided 14 full scholarships to students working in non-paid positions. For Masich, finding the relief for immigrants seeking to enter or remain in the country is painstaking and rewarding task. “Everything about immigration is onerous,” she observes. “And if you make something hard, it encourages deceit.” Born on the U.S./ Mexico border in Arizona, Masich, lifelong interest in immigration issues stems from having worked to provide social services to many at-risk immigrant populations before matriculating at Pitt Law. After a previous public interest legal internship and her experience in the three-year old immigration law clinic directed by Clinical Assistant Professor Sheila Vélez Martínez, that grew into a passion. Student work on JFCS’s most complex cases frees the nonprofit’s limited staff to handle other cases. “We take referrals for criminal immigration cases. People who have a criminal history have burdensome issues,” she explains. Each semester, eight to ten students tackle the cases that other nonprofits will not touch. In the spring 2013 semester, Vélez Martínez estimates that students performed 1,600 hours of pro bono work, with good results. The clinic has won all of the cases it has shouldered since its founding in 2010. Observing the difficulties clients face has helped Masich pinpoint gaps in their understanding of their rights. “Often, immigrants make their first contact with the legal system through traffic violations, particularly DUI cases,” she explains. “A DUI violations can

T H E N U M B E R O F S T U D E N T S W H O H A V E T A K E N A D V A N T A G E O F P I T T L A W ’ S E X T E R N S H I P P R O G R A M A N D R E C E I V E D C R E D I T F O R W O R K I N G A N D N E T W O R K I N G I N T H E L E G A L F I E L D . (AY 2012–14)

Everything about immigration is onerous. And if you make something hard, it encourages deceit. m o l l y ! m a s i c h , ’ 1 4

E D U C A T I N G T O M O R R O W ’ S L A W Y E R S

The University of Pittsburgh School of Law is one of only 32 law schools in the country that are members of the Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers (ETL) consortium. Based at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, this groundbreaking collaborative serves as a platform for sharing insights; experiments; and measurement, implementation, and other techniques related to legal education models past and present. Professor Michael Madison has been designated an ETL fellow, and his Copyright Law course is included among the portfolios on the ETL website, educatingtomorrows lawyers.du.edu.

affect immigrants’ eligibility for immigration reliefs, but many aren’t aware of that penalty until after the fact.” While working for JFCS, Masich also completed a separate, for-credit externship with Vélez Martínez, researching the problem for a presentation to faith-based organizations and nonprofits that serve the local immigrant community. “One of the changes in the bill, as proposed right now, is to include a third DUI conviction as a ground for inadmissibility to the U.S.,” says Vélez Martínez of the immigration bill passed by the Senate June 28, 2013. “Members of the immigrant community in Pittsburgh have identified this as an issue. We’re creating a legal perspective on the immigration consequences, and working with criminal law attorneys, social activists, and health professionals to address this problem from a holistic perspective. The current Senate proposes a path to citizenship in 13 years for adults (five years for youth). Masich says that time frame is a significant improvement. “Thirteen years is fast. Right now, it can take up to 20 years, depending on what country you’re from. That doesn’t encourage anyone to follow the laws.” Vèlez Martinez agrees that immigrants will require continued legal assistance to reach citizenship. “The proposed process is complicated. It’s costly. It has obstacles. We have agreed that about 9 million people are undocumented and part of our economy. We’re going to let them stay, but will make it very difficult. The strength of the bill is that it recognizes that we have to deal with immigration reform in a comprehensive fashion. And it will finally allow immigrants to travel abroad to visit their families.”

No. 6

H E A LT H L A W

COUNSELING THE COMMUNITY

N I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E CO M P L E X I T I E S O F P U B L I C H E A LT H

insurance debuted last fall at Pitt Law. The two-semester offering is directed by adjunct professor Bill McKendree, supervisor of APPR ISE , a free health insurance counseling program for Pennsylvanians providing services to individuals of any age regarding Medicaid, Medicare and other health care assistance benefits, and most recently on navigating through the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace. While internships in the APPRISE program have been available to Pitt graduate students in law, public health, pharmacy and social work since 2010, the new practicum offers a formal review of the concepts, structure, function, and vocabulary of the Medicare and Medicaid systems and emphasizes the development of client counseling skills. The spring semester provides a public service opportunity, as students work with clients at Family Services of Western Pennsylvania, a private nonprofit. They answer consumer questions and offer education about Medicare, HMO s, long-term care insurance, supplemental insurance, and Medicaid benefits. A Pitt alumnus, McKendree also lectures on Medicare and oversees students from Pitt’s Schools of Pharmacy and Law who participate in APPRISE internship programs.

D U R I N G A Y 2 0 1 3 – 1 4 , S T U D E N T S I N T H E T A X C L I N I C S A V E D T H E I R C L I E N T S $ 8 7 , 6 5 0 A N D O B T A I N E D M O R E T H A N $ 2 2 , 0 0 0 I N R E F U N D S F O R T H E I R C L I E N T S . F R O M 2 0 1 2 T O T H E P R E S E N T , T H E Y H A V E S A V E D C L I E N T S M O R E T H A N $ 4 8 3 , 0 0 0 I N T A X E S ,

$87,650 P E N A L T I E S , A N D I N T E R E S T .

No. 7

SOCIAL JUSTICE

GISMONDI DONATION TO BENEFIT PITT LAW STUDENTS AND LOW INCOME FAMILIES

N FEBRUARY 2014, OFFICERS OF THE ALLEGHENY COUNTY BAR

Foundation announced the creation of the Gismondi Certified Law Student Summer Fellowship Program. The program will annually place six second-year Pitt Law students as “fellows” in law clerk positions at Neighborhood Legal Services Association (NLSA), a nonprofit, public interest law firm that provides civil legal assistance to poor and vulnerable residents of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, and Lawrence counties. The fund and the fellowship program will be financed by a $225,000 donation to the foundation by Pittsburgh attorney John P. Gismondi, ’78. A well-known Pittsburgh trial attorney and past president of the Allegheny County Bar Association, Gismondi has been an adjunct professor at Pitt Law for more than 25 years. Gismondi said the program aims to serve two important needs in the legal community. “Law students crave real-world experience, and NLSA has a critical need for more manpower,” he said. “This program should address both areas. It will allow second-year students to handle actual cases in front of magistrates or government agencies, and it will give more low-income families access to legal representation.” Once certified by the local courts, the fellows are able to handle issues such as landlord tenant disputes, unemployment compensation hearings, and other cases in front of judges or hearing officers. This past summer, those fellows were Spenser Baca, Nellie Dunderdale, Morgan Jenkins, James Lee, Dawn Walters, and Asia Woods. “I represented two clients at formal grievance hearings where the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh either terminated or denied housing assistance,” said Woods. “I won both cases, and as a law student it was a very rewarding experience since the opposing counsel was licensed and has been practicing law for many years.” Gismondi also said the program should reduce the number of people that NLSA has to turn away. “It’s a shame when those most in need can’t have a lawyer to help them with basic things like housing or unemployment benefits.” An added benefit of the program is creating additional summer positions in a very tight job market for law students. “These are new jobs,”

Working directly with clients both in and out of the courtroom and litigating on their behalf is an opportunity that, I strongly believe, has placed us — Gismondi fellows — in the forefront of our class. [It] reaffirmed my belief that I have chosen the right profession. j a m e s l e e , j d c a n d i d a t e , c l a s s o f 2 0 1 5

said Gismondi. “NLSA would not be able from a financial standpoint to hire these students if not for this program.” Pitt Law Dean William M. Carter Jr. is deeply grateful to Gismondi for funding the summer fellowship program. “This program will add further depth to Pitt Law’s range of substantive experiential learning opportunities, while simultaneously advancing the cause of providing affordable legal services and furthering access to justice,” Carter said. “John’s gift will allow our students to learn how to effectively represent our community’s vulnerable populations, thereby gaining practical experience in direct client representation that will advance their careers while also providing invaluable service to those most in need.” The Allegheny County Bar Foundation has oversight of the Gismondi Fund and fellowship program as well as the selection of fellowship awardees.

P I T T L AW FAC U LT Y TO P 2 5 S S R N D OW N LOA D S

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03 R ONALD BRAND , The Evolving Private International Law/Substantive Law Overlap in the European Union, in Festschrift Für U lrich M agnus (Peter Mankowski and Wolfgang Wurmnest, eds., 2014) (published with Sellier European Law Publishers).

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05 R ONALD BRAND , Challenges to Forum Non Conveniens, 45 N.Y.U. J. I nt ’ l L. & P ol . 1003 (2013).

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R ONALD BRAND , The Rome I Regulation Rules on Party Autonomy for Choice of Law: A U.S. Perspective, in The Rome I R egulation on the L aw Applicable to Contractual O bligations (William Binchy & John Ahern, eds., 2011).

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22 R ONALD BRAND, Consent, Validity and Choice of Forum Agreements in International Contracts, in Liber Amicorum Hubert Bocken (I. Boone, I. Claeys, L. Lavrysen, eds., 2009) (published with Die Keure).

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24 D EBORAH BRAKE , Discrimination Inward and Upward: Lessons on Law and Social Inequality from the Troubling Case of Women Coaches, 2 Ind. J. L. & S oc . Eq. 1 (2013).

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