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2013
P it t law magazine
Permit No 511
at the epicenter
How the birthplace of Health Law is helping to shape a new model of care in the U.S.
upcoming Thornburgh Disability Law & Policy Lecture
november 6, 2013 “Competitive Employment: the Last Frontier” Joyce A. Bender, CEO and President, Bender Consulting Services, Inc. University Club in Ballroom B, Oakland Mark A. Nordenberg Lecture in Law, Medicine & Psychiatry
november 21, 2013 “Return of Secondary Genomic Findings vs. Patient Autonomy” Robert Klitzman, M.D., Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Columbia University University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Courtroom
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P i t t l aw magazine
Dean and professor of law
William M. Carter, Jr. Editor
Megan O’Donnell Writer
Christine H. O’Toole contributing writers
Jan-Tosh Gerling Kelly Sjol
board of visitors
alumni association
Hon. Ruggero J. Aldisert, ‘47 Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr., ‘70 Linda Beerbower Burke, ‘73 Hon. Robert J. Cindrich, ‘68 Senator Jay Costa, Jr. Q. Todd Dickinson, ‘77 Laura Ellsworth, ‘83 Hon. D. Michael Fisher James M. Gockley, ‘80 Vincent J. Grogan, ‘60 Jo Ann Haller, ‘80 Janice C. Hartman, ‘75 Gerald T. Hathaway, ‘79 Dawne S. Hickton, ‘83 Frederick Wells Hill, ‘78 Joseph A. Katarincic, ‘60 Richard B. Kelson, ‘72 James E. Kopelman, ‘66 Hon. Lisa Pupo Lenihan, ‘83 Marvin S. Lieber, ‘58 Roslyn M. Litman, ‘52 Hon. Frank J. Lucchino, ‘64 Hon. David J. Mayernik Jack E. McGregor, ‘62 Martha H. Munsch Mark A. Nadeau, ‘81 Jack H. Olender, ‘60 Timothy D. Pecsenye, ‘87 Diane W. Perer, ‘76 Hon. Eunice L Ross, ‘51 Professor Pamela Samuelson Hon. Doris A. Smith-Ribner, ‘72
Bruce C. Fox, ‘84 President
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message Dean Carter reviews Pitt Law’s past year of intellectual accomplishment and deeper public engagement.
Joseph J. Bosick, ‘73 President-Elect Elizabeth L. Hughes, ‘04 Vice President
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Patrick Sorek, ‘84 Treasurer Stuart W. Benson III, ‘75 Ilene H. Fingeret, ‘86 Secretary
At the Epicenter of Health Law As the Affordable Care Act debuts, scholars, attorneys and providers sketch its broad impact.
Ron Basso, ‘85 Past President Harvey ‘Chip’ Amoe III, ‘03 Maximilian F. Beier, ‘99 Thomas M. Beline, ‘07 Mary Jane Bowes, ’79 Lee Goldfarb, ’10 Alan Hertzberg, ‘83 Marilyn J. Horan, ‘79 Elizabeth L. Hughes, ’04 Lisa Lenihan, ‘83 George F. Magera, ‘94 Max F. Miller, ‘93 Mike Nelson, ’96 Meredith Odato, ’11 Arnold Silverman, ’62 Christine Ward, ‘82 Jill Weimer, ’07 Roberta R. Wilson, ‘83
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Finding the Right Door A former attorney general, a feisty volunteer in elder law, and a young advocate for women’s rights find ways to leave lasting contributions.
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Why Gay Couples Hate the IRS Professor Tony Infanti says the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage makes the IRS play catch-up.
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Taking a Stand Chris Carter, ’14, walks in the Pitt Law footsteps of Derrick Bell.
Design
Landesberg Design contributing photographers
Terry Clark Scott Dietz Joshua Franzos Joshua Roberts
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take 2 Do tax credits really bring Hollywood dollars to Pittsburgh? A Pitt Law journal examines their real effect.
04 news & events 30 faculty news 36 alumni seen & notes 41 parting shot
Pitt Law Magazine is published by the Office of the Dean and the Office of Communication
Cover photo: Professor of Law and Psychiatry and Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote Professor of Bioethics Alan Meisel.
Q&A
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connections. A year after my arrival at Pitt Law, I am more impressed than ever by the talent, successes, and commitment of our students, faculty, and staff. Pitt Law alumni and the legal community have consistently demonstrated their commitment to the success of Pitt Law. We in turn continue to further integrate the law school’s academic programs with the bench, bar, business community, and non-profit agencies. Building the necessary core competencies that enable our students to succeed as global leaders in the legal profession is a collaborative project enhanced by our many partnerships. For example, we draw on ten outstanding graduate programs, both at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, for our joint degrees. Among them is the Center for Bioethics and Health Law, a partnership between Pitt Law, the School of Medicine, and the Graduate School of Public Health. That collaboration, featured in this issue, has put us at the forefront of health law programs, with a #13 ranking by U.S. News & World Report.
M. Car ter, Dean
jr.
Building the necessary core competencies that enable our students to succeed as global leaders in the legal profession is a collaborative project enhanced by our many partnerships. Let me take a moment to share with you some compelling highlights of the last academic year. >> Pitt Law was ranked 12th among U.S. public law schools
(and among the top 29 of all U.S. law schools) in the most recent QS World University Rankings by Subject (Law), which is a strong testament to our global stature and impact. >> A recent study ranked Pitt Law 39th out of the over 200
U.S. law schools in the production of partners in the nation’s largest law firms. Notably, we were ranked well ahead of schools such as Penn State, Rutgers-Camden, and Case Western Reserve University and on par with schools such as the University of Minnesota. >> Our faculty was ranked 47th nationally in scholarly
impact, and several members of our faculty published articles and books in elite venues such as the Columbia Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, the Oxford University Press, the University of Chicago Press, and the NYU Press. Our faculty also submitted several amicus briefs, were cited by federal and state courts, and testified before the U.S. Congress and at the United Nations. >> Several of our students secured prestigious fellowships,
including six Pitt Law graduates selected as semi-finalists for Presidential Management Fellowships — the most of any Pitt graduate school last year — with three being selected as finalists. >> We held our inaugural Energy Law & Policy Institute in
August 2013 in downtown Pittsburgh, in partnership with Pitt’s Engineering School and the Center for Energy, as well as major law firms, businesses, governmental officials, and academics from around the country.
>> We launched an exploratory partnership with the College
of Law and Business in Israel, which included exchanges among our clinical students. Notably, only a select group of law schools, including Harvard and the University of Chicago, have such partnerships with the College. We also continue to innovate in order to ensure that our curriculum continues to evolve in ways that best position our graduates for successful and rewarding careers. As just one example, the Innovation Practice Institute (IPI), our law and entrepreneurship program, is rapidly becoming one of our signature initiatives. The IPI has drawn local and national attention for its educational model and its synergies with the growing technology and entrepreneurship sectors in the Pittsburgh region. All of the IPI-related courses are inter disciplinary and experiential and are at the cutting edge of legal education. Our ties to the community have never been stronger. We have secured funding and personnel for our new Veterans Legal Practicum, which launched this fall and will help to fill critical gaps in services for our region’s veterans. We secured funding for our Derrick Bell Fund for Excellence in honor of the Professor (Pitt Law ’57), which will promote social justice and access to justice initiatives, and for our Hon. Gary L. Lancaster Award for Public Interest or Public Service, which will expand our Loan Repayment Assistance Program. Over 30 Pitt Law students have volunteered to mentor youth in our region in partnership with the United Way, and we will expand our community engagement and pro bono activities even further in 2014. I look forward to building on our strong forward momentum as I head into my second year as Dean, and welcome your support and engagement in that effort. •
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on campus
news & e ve n ts Pitt Law Students Awarded Prestigious International Fellowships
Four Pitt Law students were awarded fellowships for overseas internships in 2013. Elina Svistunoff, ’14, Shelley Ostrowski, ’15, and Drew Roberts, ’15, were named Nordenberg Fellows. Marlene van Es, ’15, was named a William F. Schulz Jr. Fellow. Svistunoff spent the summer with the Institute for European Studies (IES), conducting research on foreign corrupt practices. Prior to studying at Pitt Law, she worked as general counsel and head of the law department for the Priroda Group of companies, and as legal counsel for the Rostov Branch of Russian Railways Logistics Corporation. During her summer in Africa, Ostrowski took on two projects in Kenya, assisting in the development of a course on water rights law with Moi University in Eldoret as well as working on environmental and natural resources issues with Resources Conflict Institute in Nakuru. Prior to earning her undergraduate degree from Notre Dame, Ostrowski worked at Skanska USA Building Company in Atlanta, Ga., where she earned recognition as the firm’s only female superintendent in the southeast. Roberts spent time at the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo alongside MP Vjosa Osmani, LL.M., ’05, assisting her with research, legislative drafting, and the preparation of legislative reports. He studied abroad for one semester at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and has worked as an academic director at the Universal Language Exchange in San Francisco de Macorís, Dominican Republic. Schulz Scholar Marlene van Es worked with both Moi University School of Law and the Legal Aid Centre of Eldoret (LACE) in Kenya, developing material for a course on health law as well as providing legal services to HIV/AIDS patients and victims of domestic violence, respectively. She received her B.S. in
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Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources from Cornell University in 2011. She co-founded Project Leader for PALS: Partnership of African and Lansing Schools in Maseno, Kenya, in 2004, and continues to serve there as a project leader. The Nordenberg Fellowships are funded by the Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg University Professorship, held by Professor Ronald A. Brand. The William F. Schulz Jr. Fellowship is funded through the William F. Schulz Jr. Fund for International Legal Education. Stephanie Dangel Named Executive Director of Innovation Practice Institute
Social innovation and entertainment law expert Stephanie Dangel is the new executive director of the Innovation Practice Institute (IPI) at Pitt Law, effective July 1, 2013. Dangel comes to the IPI from the Steeltown Entertain ment Project, a social enterprise dedicated to building a sustainable entertainment industry in the Pittsburgh region, where she served as president of the board of directors and director of business and legal affairs. “As a social innovator herself and as a tireless member of Pittsburgh’s entertainment and business com munities, Stephanie brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to our community,” said Michael Madison, faculty director of the IPI. “The IPI couldn’t have better leadership as it begins the next stage of its development.” Dean William M. Carter, Jr., agreed. “As a unique partnership among the Law School, practitioners, and entrepreneurs, the IPI works to train students to interact with innovators and to think entrepreneurially themselves, as well as to expose students to the critical role that attorneys can play in regional economic development. Stephanie is well-suited to continue this work and to move the IPI’s strategic initiatives forward.”
A Rhodes Scholar, Dangel earned bachelor’s degrees in economics and political science and a master’s in political science at the University of Pennsylvania before earning a degree in modern history from the University of Oxford in England and her law degree from Yale Law School. She interned at what is now K&L Gates and completed clerkships with U.S. District Court Judge Pierre N. Leval and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun before returning to Pittsburgh, where she spent six years at K&L Gates as a practicing attorney. In 2003, she began volunteering at Steeltown, where she worked to develop innovative programs that connected those working in the entertainment industry to talent, content, and technology in the Pittsburgh region. She also produced two films, “My Tale of Two Cities” and “The Shot Felt ‘Round the World,” both of which received national and international attention. Haider Ala Hamoudi Named Associate Dean of Research
This past July, Professor Haider Ala Hamoudi was appointed as associate dean for research and faculty development. Hamoudi succeeds Professor David Harris. Hamoudi said he hopes to act as a mentor and guide to promising and productive junior faculty. “We remain committed to helping publish strong, cutting-edge work and to help make our scholarship better recognized across the law school and broader academic community.” Chancellor Nordenberg Honors Service to The Community and University
Professor Harry Gruener has been awarded the Chancellor’s Distinguished Public Service Award, which recognizes outstanding public service contributions by Pitt faculty. Gruener was honored for his outstanding work with the School of Law’s Family Law Clinic and its mission of access to justice.
Pictured above are Peggy Browning Fellows Kimberly Bennett, ’13, Janet Checkley, ’14, and Lea Lach, ’14. Pictured bottom left is Associate Dean of Research Haider Ala Hamoudi. Pictured bottom right is IPI Executive Director Stephanie Dangel.
Gina Huggins, program administrator for the Center for International Legal Education (CILE), has received the 2013 Chancellor’s Award for Staff for Excellence in Service to the University. Given to only five people per year, it is the highest award the University of Pittsburgh grants to staff members in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the University. The award recognizes “those whose performance consistently exceeds the standards and expectations set for their position.” Pitt Law Professors Smetanka and Luneburg Granted Emeritus Status
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he Honorable Susan Richard Nelson, ’78, United States District Court Judge for the District of Minnesota, delivered the keynote speaker at this year’s ceremony, at which 242 graduates received their degrees. “Your word is your currency,” she told the Class of 2013. “Always take the high road. Be fiercely principled.” In addition to J.D.s, 16 students received master of laws degrees and four received master of studies in law diplomas. A total of 49 students received Latin honors. Joshua Haft graduated summa cum laude. Also honored during the commencement ceremony was 2012 Robert T. Harper Excellence in Teaching award recipient Harry Flechtner. Flechtner was chosen by the graduating class of 2013 as the faculty member whose teaching has made the greatest impact on its collective academic experience.
Joseph Kapp
university of Pittsburgh s c h o o l o f L aw commencement
The University of Pittsburgh conferred emeritus status on Pitt Law professors William Luneburg and Stella Smetanka, effective July 2013. The title is granted to professors nearing retirement status who have made outstanding contributions to the scholarly mission and programs of the University throughout their careers. Smetanka, founder of Pitt Law’s Health Law Clinic, has a long history of dedicated public service and legal teaching. She previously received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Public Service Award of the University of Pittsburgh in 2004. She is a member of the board of directors of Neighbor hood Legal Services Association and a past board member of KidsVoice, and continues to volunteer at the Uptown Legal Clinic at Pittsburgh’s Bethlehem Haven, a shelter for homeless women. Luneburg has taught at Pitt Law since 1978, focusing initially on civil procedure and legislation and later focusing his research and instruction on environmental law. He became a nationally renowned researcher in environmental law, litigating environmental cases on behalf of local and regional environmental organizations in the 1990s. In 1997 he joined the EPA’s subcommittee for Ozone, Particulate Matter, and Regional Haze Implementation Programs (part of the EPA’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee), which prepared the
groundwork for implementation of tighter national ozone and particulate matter standards. Three Pitt Law Students Selected as Presidential Management Fellows Finalists
Pitt Law students Sarah Posner, Lauren McChesney, and Bryan Murray have been named finalists for the national Presidential Management Fellowship program. The three are among 663 finalists selected from over 12,000 applications. The PMF Program is a flagship leadership development program that connects students graduating with advanced degrees with federal agencies, providing early-career experience and including up to 160 hours of interactive classroom training. PMF finalists have one year to consider a position. Once they accept positions, they are considered Fellows. Pitt Law Students Awarded Prestigious Browning Fellowships
Over 500 law students from 139 law schools nationwide vied for 70 Peggy Browning public interest law fellowships this year. Three Pitt Law students were selected for summer fellowship 2013 opportunities: Kimberly Bennett, Janet Checkley, and Lea Lach. The Browning Fund provides summer stipends to law students advancing the cause of workers’ rights by working for labor unions, worker centers, the U.S. Department of Labor, union-side law firms and other nonprofit organizations. Students selected have not only excelled in law school but have also demonstrated their commitment to workers’ rights. Kimberly Bennett, a rising 3L, spent her fellowship at the Community Justice Project in Pittsburgh. She is pursuing a joint degree, juris doctor and master in international development, with a focus on management of non-governmental organizations. She is also working towards a graduate certificate in Latin American Studies. During the summer of 2012, she worked as co-director of the Legal Department at La Isla Foundation in Nicaragua, exploring the legal rights
of sugarcane workers with chronic kidney disease. Janet Checkley and Lea Lach spent their fellowships working at United Steelworkers in Pittsburgh. Checkley hopes to build a career in poverty issues and equal rights. Lach honed her research skills as an intern for the ADA Coordinator in Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning, drafting amendments to the city code that allowed business owners to make storefronts more accessible. Pitt Law Professor David Herring Named UNM School of Law Dean; Professor Lu-in Wang Accepts UNM Professorship
The University of New Mexico has named Pitt Law’s David Herring dean of its School of Law. His appointment began July 1, 2013. Pitt Law Professor Lu-in Wang, Herring’s wife, has joined UNM as a professor of law, continuing her scholarship in discrimination. Herring served as dean at Pitt Law from 1998 to 2005. Among his accomplishments as dean were leading the school’s successful capital campaign and recruiting strong teachers and scholars to join the faculty. Prior to serving as dean, he founded and served as the first director of Pitt Law School’s clinical legal education program. Wang will continue work on the relationship between social and economic stereotypes. “While the departures of Professors Herring and Wang will be a great loss for Pitt Law, we are proud of them and wish them well,” said Dean Carter. David Coogan, ’14, Selected as a Delegate to One Young World Summit
David Coogan, a rising 3L, served as a member of the Pittsburgh Delegation to the 2012 One Young World Summit. The October 2012 gathering brought 1,500 delegates aged 30 and under from 196 countries to Pittsburgh, with some sessions held at the University of Pittsburgh. Coogan is active in Pitt’s Student Veteran Association.
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J. Evans Rose, Jr. and Dick Thornburgh Prizes Awarded
Pitt Law’s strengths in international legal education, clinical legal education, and experiential learning match well with the strengths of CLB in these areas and provide for exciting opportunities for further collaboration.
The University of Pittsburgh Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law and Public Policy has presented the J. Evans Rose, Jr., Prize for Public Service and the Dick Thornburgh Prize for Legal Service to 2013 Pitt Law graduates Marco S. Attisano and Jennifer Saint-Preux, respectively. Attisano served with the AmeriCorps VISTA program and volunteered with the Pittsburgh Project to assist elderly fixed-income homeowners. As a legal intern and legal assistant, he contributed paid and voluntary services to the homicide unit of the Allegheny County District’s Attorney’s office. He also served as a judicial intern in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and participated in Pitt Law’s unemployment compensation practicum. Saint-Preux taught math with Teach for America before attending
Pitt Law. While a law student, Saint-Preux worked with the National Employment Law Project, the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project, and with the Federal Public Defenders for the Western District of Pennsylvania. She has recently accepted a position as criminal defense attorney with the Legal Aid Society in New York City. Pitt Law Establishes Brockett Student Scholarship Fund
Daniel L. Brockett, ’82, has made a financial pledge to Pitt Law to establish a scholarship fund in his name. The scholarship, which will be awarded to an exceptional student who also has demonstrated financial need, will help Pitt Law to continue to attract and retain highly qualified law school students from across the country and around the world. A partner at Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in New York, N.Y., Brockett is an accomplished trial lawyer. His practice areas include
Pitt Law Launches Exchange Program with College of Law & Business in Tel Aviv, Israel
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his summer, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law launched an exploratory partnership with the College of Law & Business (CLB) in Tel Aviv, Israel. Comprising student and faculty exchanges in areas of mutual strengths, the collaboration allows Pitt Law to expand both its global and clinical opportunities. Pitt Law is one of only a few American law schools, including Harvard and the University of Chicago, working with the College. Leading the faculty exchange effort, Pitt Law Dean William M. Carter. Jr. spent a week at CLB teaching a course on comparative constitutional law to Israeli law students. “Pitt Law’s strengths in international legal education, clinical legal education, and experiential learning match well with the strengths of CLB in these areas and provide for exciting opportunities for further collaboration,” said Carter. CLB dean and associate professor Moshe Cohen-Eliya welcomed Carter. “Dean Carter is an expert in American civil
securities litigation, intellectual property, antitrust and trade regulation, international arbitration, real estate, and financial institutions litigation. He has handled domestic and international arbitration cases before the International Chamber of Commerce and American Arbitration Association, among others. Brockett also publishes and lectures on topics of interest to commercial litigators Drew Chelosky, Pitt Law director of development, said gifts like Brockett’s are essential to the School’s vitality. “With competition for qualified students increasing among all law schools, the single most powerful recruiting tool we have remains financial aid,” said Chelosky. “In a shrinking market, it is critical that Pitt increase the scholarship funds at its disposal.” Other alumni interested in endowing scholarships individually or jointly may contact the office of Develop ment & Alumni Affairs. Donations are also accepted online. Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) To Recognize Pitt Law at 45th Anniversary Celebration
rights and constitutional law, and his visiting CLB is a great opportunity for our students to learn about the American legal system from a prominent scholar in the field,” he said. Keith Herting, ’14, was the initial Pitt Law participant in a student exchange program. He spent his time at CLB interning with the Legal Clinic for Migrants’ Rights in south Tel Aviv. He said a highlight of the experience was attending oral arguments before the Israeli Supreme Court. Herting’s scholarship was supported with a generous donation from Pitt Law alumnus Robert Whitehill, ’72, to Pitt’s Center for International Legal Education. Meital Russo, a third-year student at CLB, spent the last half of this summer with Pitt Law’s Immigration Law Clinic in Pittsburgh. “There is growing demand among CLB students to enroll in international programs, and the new collaboration with Pitt law school has added to the ‘buzz’ on campus surrounding these opportunities,” said Shachar Yanai, executive assistant to CLB’s president for international development.
For its 45th anniversary, the Council on Legal Education Opportunity has honored 45 law schools, 45 law firms and 45 individuals who have played a critical role in supporting CLEO since 2000. The University of Pittsburgh School of Law was among those recognized at a reception Sept. 26 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. CLEO was founded in 1968 to ensure an education pipeline for minority and low-income students exhibiting the aptitude and passion to pursue a career in law. Its funding was provided in part by the federal government until 2000. When its funds were reduced, the ABA Fund for Justice and Education and a
consortium of law schools, with Pitt Law as a leader, stepped in to save CLEO. Associate Dean of Students Kevin Deasy, who has been the School’s primary liaison with CLEO for almost 20 years, represented Pitt Law at the ceremony. Deasy said the School’s relationship with CLEO has been mutually beneficial, providing an entry into legal education for many qualified and deserving law students who have come through the program. “CLEO has provided us with top-notch students,” Deasy said. “Many of the CLEO Fellows we have worked with have overcome significant obstacles in attaining academic success, including students who grew up in foster care or low income housing projects, were homeless for parts of their lives, had parents who were incarcerated, or escaped oppression and fear of death or imprisonment as refugees from foreign nations in turmoil.” Pitt Law has had a close relationship with CLEO since its inception in the 1960s. It has hosted many CLEO Pre-Law Summer Institutes where Pitt’s esteemed law faculty have challenged dozens of CLEO Fellows with an intensive six-week legal program before they enter the JD program. Pitt Law has also sent faculty to serve on CLEO faculties at both Dickinson School of Law (prior to its merger with Penn State) and the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Law. “The Law School has been a good academic home for many of these students,” Deasy said, “and their talents have enormously enriched the Pitt Law community. Many of the students we have recruited through the CLEO program have gone on to outstanding legal careers, including one who is a senior attorney with Microsoft Corporation and another who is the executive director of the Newark, New Jersey, Housing Authority.”
Pitt Law Journals Now Online
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ive Pitt Law publications are now universally available online. Through agreements with D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program, the University of Pittsburgh Press, and the University Library System, student-edited law reviews are now licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoncommercialNo Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. The publications include the Law Review, the Journal of Technology Law and Policy, the Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law, and the Pittsburgh Tax Review, and the Journal of Law and Commerce. View the University Library System’s offerings at www.library.pitt.edu.
“ The Law School has been a good academic home for many of these students, and their talents have enormously enriched the Pitt Law community.”
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T h e Impac t o f t h e Pat i e n t P rot e c t i o n a n d A f f o r da b l e C a r e Ac t W i l l P l ay Ou t Ac ro s s L e g a l Sc e n e .
On the nights when her pager buzzed at all hours, Valarie Blake donned a white coat and made her way to a hospital ward nursing station. Some consultations poised the young attorney on the knifepoint of a life and death decision. After earning her J.D. at Pitt in 2009, Blake won a grueling fellowship at Cleveland Clinic. For the next two years, she was a member of a 24/7 bioethics team responding to nearly 250 annual calls for bedside consultations on the most complex ethical questions in 21st century patient care. “Most lawyers don’t spend two years wearing a doctor’s coat,” she laughs. “I’ve often seen themes from court cases play out at the hospital bedside.” The Cleveland fellowship led Blake on to Chicago for a two-year stint with the American Medical Association’s ethics group. She joins the Duquesne University law faculty this semester. 10 | 11
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“When something as big as the ACA comes along, it changes the shape of medicine. It provides an area to talk about what should be regulated by the state, and what by the profession. I’m interested in those intersections.”
v a l a r i e b l a k e , Visiting Law Professor, Duquesne University School of Law
For tertiary care centers like Cleveland Clinic or UPMC, where new lifesaving technologies meet human suffering and the law, ethical and legal consults have become an integral part of patient care. Blake enjoyed the high-pressure experience as a clinical ethics consultant. “It’s a busy service, with interesting scenarios and all sorts of cases,” says the 31-year-old Blake. “You might have parents potentially exposing children to unregulated stem cell treatment in Mexico, or patients refusing life-saving care, or patients who are considered legally dead in one state but not in another.” Those issues are a far cry from 1988, when Professor Alan Meisel founded Pitt’s Center for Bioethics and Law. “It wasn’t that long ago that what passed as health law was medical malpractice,” Meisel recalls, in his fifth floor law school office. “We’ve progressed through laws regulating the health care industry to the Medicare and Medicaid spending boom and now, the Affordable Care Act.” 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, as 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
Health Law Scholarship on Campus
“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.” alan meisel,
Professor of Law and Psychiatry and Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote Professor of Bioethics
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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 non-profit law. 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’s health care policy and management program allow students to earn their master’s and J.D.’s simultaneously. The discoveries and ethics of medical care have become more complex while its impact on the economy has grown. In the quarter-century since the founding of the Center for Bioethics and Law, health care has mushroomed to comprise about 18 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, according to the latest government estimates. It is therefore a major consumer of legal services, from in-house staffs of large providers to insurers, nursing home chains, pharmaceutical and device manufacturers and physicians. All of those groups are now mobilizing for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, with administrative regulations and case law yet to be written. “There are so many new questions that no one knows how to answer,” observes 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.”
he sea change in the legal climate of health care during the past year prompted Pitt Law scholars and students to analyze and debate its most pressing issues. As soon as the Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling on the constitu tionality of the Affordable Care Act on June 28, 2012, Professors Arthur Hellman, a scholar of the federal court system, and Jules Lobel, a constitutional expert, analyzed the decision for the media. A few months later, the Center for Bioethics and Health Law and the School of Law presented a symposium in honor of Professor Emeritus Nathan Hersey on the History of Health Law and Health Care Reform. Keynote speakers included Professor Mark Hall of Wake Forest University School of Law, Wendy Mariner of Boston University School of Law, and Peter Jacobsen, J.D., professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. The Center for Bioethics and Health Law concentrated the discussions of the 22nd annual Medical Ethics Update, organ ized by Meisel, on the subject of difficult patients: those whose behavior poses ethical and managerial challenges to their health care providers. Presenting the annual
Messer Lecture at the event was Professor Michael W. Kahn of Harvard Medical School. Pitt Law professor Stella Smetanka and experts from the University School of Medicine and UPMC hospitals led breakout sessions. Students also examined health law issues. Third years Bryan Murray, Schevon Salmon, and Brett Anthony represented Pitt Law in the spring 2013 National Health Law Regulatory and Compliance Competition at the University of Maryland, and Murray and Anthony, this time with Alison Bush rounding out the team, represented Pitt Law at the National Health Care Transactions Competition at Loyola Chicago. Murray’s essay, “Informed Consent: What Must a Physician Disclose to a Patient?” was published in July 2012 in Virtual Mentor, the online publication of the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics. Students in Prof. Meisel’s introductory course, Current Issues on Health Law, are expected to publish as well as analyze contemporary topics. Their short opinions, submitted as letters to the editors of major daily newspapers, have been selected for publication by media outlets like The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
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“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.” m a r y c r o s s l e y , Professor of Law
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 respond to the needs identified. And as governmental activists 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. Crossley compares the advent of ACA with the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid. “1965 marked the entry of the federal government into a role it had not had before. The ACA is like adding fields to the farm. With the [health care] exchanges, and support for low-income people to purchase care, the Act is certainly the biggest change in 50 years.” The ACA, Research and Ethics
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alarie Blake, who earned a master’s degree in bioethics at Case Western Reserve University after her law degree at Pitt, is particularly interested in the evolution of medical practice and research as a result of the ACA. “When something as big as the ACA comes along, it changes the shape of medicine. It provides an area to talk about what should be regulated by the state, and what by the profession. I’m interested in those intersections. The ACA is at federal level, necessarily, but as it trickles down to states, it will have to be operationalized at the clinic level.”
Blake spent a year working on clinical studies at UPMC, and says the experience of running research protocols and giving consultations on informed consent dovetailed with her later work at the AMA. She served as lead staff on updating the organization’s Code of Ethics opinions on research, examining topics ranging from placebo control trials to research using DNA databanks to international research. She also led work on innovation in medicine, including the use of medicines and procedures that fall somewhere between research and proven clinical standards. “One example is off-label prescribing. Say we have a drug that is validated for use for a particular condition but, over time, it demonstrates other benefits that would treat other conditions. So physicians begin prescribing it for the new condition, without a full scale clinical trial but without it necessarily being a ‘proven therapy’ for that new condition.” For Alan 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?”
Health Law Scholarship on Campus
F
or attorneys like Rob Holland, ’12, now an associate with Dentons US in Washington, D.C., the first steps toward a specialization in health law came upon enrolling in the health law clinic directed by Professor Stella Smetanka. “The clinic was wonderful. It taught me skills to interact with clients, get on the phone and get answers, figure out how to frame and ask the questions. They sound like simple skills, but that’s actually quite difficult,” says Holland. Holland is just one of the Pitt Law students who have undertaken pro bono work for clients since Smetanka and former professor Karen Engro created the program in 1993. Smetanka, who retired July 31, recently estimated that her students had
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Pitt law magazine
handled over 1,000 cases during that time period. Often clients seek help to become eligible for disability benefits, but the clinic also handles guardianships, health insurance, and Medicare and Medicaid disputes. Along the way, Smetanka’s students have set national legal precedents. Under her supervision, Health Law Clinic students succeeded in 2006 in changing Medicare policy to cover solitary pancreas transplants for certain individuals with severe brittle diabetes. In a 2011 case in federal district court, Judge Cathy Bissoon ruled in favor of a student’s winning argument against an insurer that had denied coverage for a nursing home stay, a case that made headlines in the New York Times. “I am convinced of the value of clinical legal education” says Smetanka, ’80, who
spent the early years of her work life as associate director of the Thomas Merton Center, Pittsburgh’s Peace and Social Justice Center, and in her legal career in government and private practice. “It’s valuable for students, of course, who learn what is involved in shouldering the legal problems of others, but also for the community. Many people can’t afford copies of their own medical records. The spirit of our pro bono legal work almost universally was met by the generosity of treating physicians and even document copy services whose assistance is vital to the legal case. That phenomenon isn’t lost on students. When they practice law, we hope they will continue in this spirit and choose to do pro bono work.”
Shaping Health Law Clinic and Careers
A
n introduction to the complexities of public health insurance will debut this fall at Pitt Law. The two-semester offering will be directed by adjunct professor Bill McKendree, supervisor of the APPRISE program in Allegheny County. APPRISE is a free health insurance counseling program for Pennsylvanians age 60 years and older. 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 train as APPRISE volunteer counselors, who work with clients at Family Services of Western Pennsylvania, a private non-profit. They will answer consumer questions and offer education about Medicare, HMOs, long-term care insurance, supplemental insurance, and Medicaid benefits.
“ On the horizon there’s more of a convergence between the health care system, providers of care, and the public health system.” y a j u a n l u,
The ACA and Medicaid
T
he Affordable Care Act was predicted to expand Medicaid eligibility to between 20 and 30 million new applicants by 2014. Though the Supreme Court decision now allows states to opt out, a major expansion is still expected. That makes Washington, D.C. ground zero for new regulatory law. Classmates in the Class of 2012, Yajuan Lu and Rob Holland, are addressing both sides of the issue. Lu, who studied medicine in her native Beijing before enrolling at Pitt Law, is completing a year as a David A. Winston Health Policy Fellow for Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA). In Senator Grassley’s personal office, she assists with managing the portfolio of Medicare and Medicaid within the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee. She has been playing an important role in early development of the Senator’s legislative agenda in health care issues, particularly long-term care supports and services within Medicaid. “The question is: how should programs be set up? When people talk about long term care, that’s not only for the poor for whom Medicare is designed,” she explains. “Every one of us has an equal chance of needing that. If [the effect of
David A. Winston Policy Fellow |
r o b e r t h o l l a n d,
the program is to] force Americans to spend down assets to afford care, is that rational? The work I’m doing goes beyond Medicaid to other public health care programs as well as the private insurance market.” Holland’s practice as an associate in the Health and Life Sciences practice of Dentons US covers the private side of the table: hospital corporations, state and private health plans, pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, provider associations, and direct implementation of the ACA in forming Accountable Care Organizations. Despite a slow-growth market for most new legal hires, he says that a concentration in health care meets a growing industry need. “There are lots of firms that are hiring health care associates or people with health care backgrounds. The demand for attorneys straight out of law school with an interest in health law seems to not have suffered as have other areas of the industry. In our firm, our group had not hired a first-year associate in health law for years. This past year, however, two out of the six first-year attorneys were hired for the health care group.”
A
The ACA and Public Health
key tenet of the ACA is the shift in the role of the primary care physicians to provide preventive services, rather than merely treating existing conditions. And as more and more chronic illnesses are tied to diet, lifestyle, or poverty, addressing those risk factors becomes an important topic in public health research. At the same time, health care reform requires hospitals to prove they adequately assess and meet community health needs. The prospect of collaboration between public health and traditional providers is of special interest to Professor Crossley. She is one of six legal scholars from across the country selected to work with a public health department in tackling pressing public health law issues as part of Scholars in Residence, a new
Associate, Dentons US
program sponsored by the Network for Public Health Law and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. During the past summer, Crossley 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. “On the horizon there’s more of a convergence between the health care system, providers of care, and the public health system,” Crossley explains. “The Affordable Care Act mandates that every three years, non-profit hospitals must do a community health needs assessment, get input from their community, including public health expertise, then put a plan together and report results. Hospitals don’t usually think of themselves as addressing public health, as contrasted with treating individual patients. They will need to figure out the issues where they could play a role — for example, in infant mortality.” Crossley is now working with Pitt Public Health faculty to identify a project that students from both schools could undertake as part of a course. The practical and ethical implications of the new model of care will pose continuing challenges to the legal community. As she returns to an academic setting, Valarie Blake says that she looks forward to guiding those discussions. “Students in law or in medicine will at some point will face something so complicated there is no right answer. But we have to make progress, and recognize we don’t always have the right answers.” •
Pitt law magazine
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public interest
Finding the
right door f o r o n e t h i r d - y e a r P i t t L aw s t ud e n t, i mm i g r at i o n l aw h a s b e c o m e a n a b s o r b i n g c au s e .
Molly! Masich, ’14, works with an Immigration Law Clinic client who has recently been granted asylum. Pitt law magazine
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Masich and Pitt Law Professor Sheila Vélez Martínez, pictured below, discuss how to care for client cases while working at Jewish Family and Children’s Services.
756,410
U Everything about immigration is . And if you make something hard, it encourages deceit.
onerous
m o l ly ! m a s i c h , ' 1 4
nited States’ Senate passage of a new immigration law in June punctuated a historic quarter century: the United States has received more immigrants in the past 25 years than at any previous period of its history. These newcomers confront daunting requirements for visas and work permits; undocumented immigrants may also be subjected to largescale immigration roundups, the denial of due process in deportation proceedings, and abusive detention conditions. As a result, efforts to guarantee immigrants’ basic rights and help them navigate paths to citizenship have grown. For one third-year Pitt Law student, immigration law has become an absorbing cause. Molly! Masich, ’14, has spent the past two summers with non-profit organizations, helping immigrants find ways to achieve permanent legal status. Her most recent experience was a 2013 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 Jewish Family and Children’s Services. A public interest scholarship funded through Pitt Law student fundraising efforts of the Pitt Legal Income Sharing Foundation (PLISF) allowed her to take the post. 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’s lifelong interest in immigration issues stems from having worked to provide social services to at risk immigrants’ 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 Prof. Sheila Vélez Martínez, that grew into a passion. Student work on JFCS’s most complex cases frees the non-profit’s limited staff to
Pennsylvania was home to 756,410 immigrants in 2011, according to the American Immigration Council, with over 52 percent of them already naturalized citizens. Unauthorized immigrants comprised 1.3 percent, or 160,00 residents, in 2011. That number includes just over 3,000 refugees resettled by the U.S. Department of State within the Commonwealth, placing it fourth after Texas, California and New York. Nationals of Burma, Bhutan, and Iraq made up almost three-quarters of the refugee arrivals nationally and in Pennsylvania.
handle others. “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 non-profits 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 violation can 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 non-profits 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.” Vélez Martínez 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 nine 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.” •
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Recognizing all same-sex marriages would clear up some tax uncertainties for couples who, like my spouse and I, are married but live in a state that doesn’t recognize their relationship. But this certainly wouldn’t resolve all of our tax issues. Under this approach, all married same-sex couples would file their federal returns as either married filing jointly or married filing separately. Yet, in states that don’t recognize same-sex marriages, these couples would be prohibited from using that same status when filing their state tax returns. They would have to prepare parallel single or head of household returns for their state income taxes. Thus they would still be faced with all of the existing uncertainty surrounding the tax status of same-sex couples. This fair and simple solution actually increases the complexity of these couples’ taxes — not to mention their tax preparation costs. It would also increase their risk for state audits because the couples’ federal and state returns would report inconsistent amounts of income, deductions and credits. More perniciously, this approach may c reate traps for unwary filers. For example, it may indefinitely force some formerly married same-sex couples into married filing separately status. There are
married same-sex couples who separate in states that refuse to let them divorce. Although the federal government can recognize same-sex marriages even when a state refuses to do so, under current tax law it can’t treat a couple as unmarried without state sanction. For filing purposes, a couple continues to be treated as married until a court issues a divorce or separation decree. Neither living apart nor a separation agreement will sever the marital relationship for tax purposes. As a practical matter, this means same-sex couples who separate but can’t divorce must either file joint federal tax returns (and be on the hook for each other’s tax bills) or file as married filing separately. Married filing separately is not an attractive option, as evidenced by the very few taxpayers who choose this filing status. The married filing separately tax rates are higher than those for a joint return and, for some taxpayers, higher than those even for a single return. If one spouse filing separately itemizes deductions, then the other is denied the standard deduction. And married filing separately results in the reduction or complete denial of a variety of tax benefits, including the dependent care assistance credit, adoption credit, earned income credit and many of the tax benefits for education. Complicated Solutions
The only simple and fair solution to these problems is for every state to recognize same-sex marriage. In the meantime, if the IRS adopts the approach of recognizing all same-sex marriages, it should ask Congress to fix the married filing separately problem. A simple amendment to the tax laws could permit same-sex couples who live apart and enter into a separation agreement to be treated as unmarried for federal tax purposes. And the least that states that refuse to recognize same-sex marriage should do is reduce both the burdens on same-sex couples and their risk of a state tax audit by retooling tax forms to address the possibility of inconsistencies between same-sex couples’ state and federal tax returns. In any event, as the IRS considers its options for implementing the Supreme Court decisions, it shouldn’t be deceived by appearances. It should think through the practical impact of its actions on the same-sex couples who will have to live with whatever approach it ultimately adopts. The IRS has the luxury of some time to wait and see what policies will work; unfortunately for married same-sex couples, their taxes are due every April. •
Juliette Borda
Unfair, Unequal
Why Gay Couples Hate the IRS
I
n the weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings on same-sex marriage, celebration has given way to the challenges of carrying them out. The complications begin with the Barack Obama administration’s own long equivocation over who should take the leading role in defining marriage: the states or the federal government. The administration’s first action in mid-July seemed to say that responsibility fell somewhere between the two. The Office of Personnel Manage ment announced the extension of spousal benefits to all married lesbian and gay federal employees, regardless of whether their home state recognizes same-sex marriage. Yet couples in legally equivalent civil unions and domestic partnerships would continue to be denied spousal benefits. The rest of the federal government now has to play catch up. The Internal Revenue Service is being urged to apply the same standard, recognizing all same-sex marriages equally at the federal level, to all taxpayers. This seems like a simple and fair solution — quite an uncommon description for any part of the U.S. tax code. Unfortunately, the reality is that it won’t be simple or fair in practice.
This opinion piece was authored by Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law Anthony Infanti and was originally published on the Bloomberg website. Used with permission of Bloomberg L.P. Copyright© 2013. All rights reserved. Pitt law magazine
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profile
ch ri stoph er
carter,
’14
stand ta k i n g a
rowing up as an African American in Pittsburgh taught me an important lesson: a person should give back to communities and institutions that provide positive learning experiences. My mother and father shared the inspirational stories of national leaders, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Bayard Rustin and James Farmer. Later I discovered the legal scholarship of Derrick Bell, whose footsteps I would follow to Pitt Law a half-century later. Family and community sparked my desire to become an advocate for the communities of my youth that lacked strong advocates for their rights and needs. I have vivid memories of going with my father to community organizing events, learning the challenges of creating lasting change. One of the problems I saw was a lack of individuals who practiced law or were even well acquainted with the law. Often, worthwhile campaigns would stagnate when an understanding of laws would have been of great benefit, but no person in the group could offer strong insight. Pitt law magazine
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After my first year in law school I read Bell’s book, Confronting Authority: Reflections of an Ardent Protester. This book focused upon Bell’s protest at Harvard and the conflicts that came with his tough stance for inclusion and against Harvard Law’s inherited bigotry as an institution. It is a great read overall, but the book made specific connections with the themes of the foundations my parents laid early in my life. Bell put a prestigious tenured position he had earned in jeopardy in order to fight for a cause he believed in. Such an act is as honorable as the sacrifices made by my historical civil rights heroes, who put their own jobs and sometimes even their lives on the line for something they believed in. One of the most touching chapters of Bell’s book outlined his outrage while serving as dean at the University of Oregon School of Law. Bell had struggled with the faculty at Oregon who would not give tenure to more minority women as faculty. Bell would resign from his position as dean when
In the second semester of my first year I was elected to be vice president of Pitt Law’s Black Law Student Association (BLSA) chapter, and the chapter decided to rename our annual Street Law Clinic the Derrick Bell Legal Community Clinic. It was a great honor for me to organize the Bell Legal Community Clinic in 2013. This year we put a lot of effort in promoting the Clinic so that more citizens of Pittsburgh could take advantage of our services, and one of those efforts was to bring Janet Dewart Bell to the University of Pittsburgh. After a brief conversation with Dean Carter, who told us that hosting Mrs. Bell was a possibility, we broke into organizing to make that a reality. When she visited, we presented her with an award so that she knew our appreciation for her husband’s legacy, and introduced her to our student community. The Clinic also gained more awareness in the community after the New Pittsburgh Courier published a story about the event. Dozens of people called our hotline to schedule a meeting with a volunteering attorney after reading the article,
my hope is that as my career takes off and i pro gress through life, i c a n h av e t h e co u r ag e o f derrick bell to stand up for what i believe in. My father never stressed that I had to be an attorney, but he did explain why he was always involved. “These people are working to better other people’s lives including yours, just as the generations that preceded ours did for us. We stand on their shoulders the same way that your generation will someday have to stand on ours and build an even stronger foundation for future generations.” When I enrolled in Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, I developed my passion in organized activism and confirmed my interest in law. As the nation’s oldest Historically Black College/ University, Cheyney emphasized education in AfricanAmerican history. It was there I first learned of Derek Bell’s protest at Harvard for the School of Law to give tenure to a female law professor and gained a strong admiration for his dedication to his beliefs. I also became more familiar with Bell’s race conflict theory in my political science studies. Outside the classroom, I was learning important lessons too. While with the student NAACP I was part of a group of students that created the largest voter turnout in the university’s recent history in the Fall 2008 elections. The following year the campus elected a student as Inspector of Elections in our local voting precinct, a position that had never been occupied by an African-American woman — let
alone a Cheyney University student. However the brightest memory was the organized student campaign to save our primary scholarship programs from state budget cuts in the spring of 2011. Governor Corbett had removed the only two full scholarship programs for Cheyney University students for graduate professional schools from his state budget proposal. These scholarship programs were provided through a settlement with the Commonwealth for grievances filed by Cheyney University and had aided hundreds of young Pennsylvanians. Had they have been removed, many students both enrolled at Cheyney University and at various graduate institutions would have had their lives drastically changed. We had to mobilize. On April 20, 2011 students participated in a campus-wide walkout that culminated with a rally on the university’s historic quadrangle. A week later, hundreds of students r allied with the campus NAACP to visit Harrisburg for a large rally that ultimately won over State Senator Vincent Hughes, who played a major part in saving both the scholarships. As a result, my Cheyney classmate Melaniesha Abernathy and I now benefit from full Bond-Hill scholarships to attend Pitt Law.
Oregon turned down Pat Chew, a current professor at Pitt Law who taught my own torts class, for a position. Bell later recalled the dilema. “For me the final straw came when the faculty voted not to authorize me to offer a position to Pat Chew, an Asian-American woman who had graduated high in her class at the University of Texas Law School … We had reviewed more than one hundred candidates and listed Chew as our third choice behind two white males with fancier credentials but, as I recall no practice experience. Both rejected our offers. In an hours-long faculty meeting, a few professors convinced a majority that ‘we could do better’ and urged that we reopen the search. All were aware of my strong support of Chew. I promised to honor the vote and not extend Chew an offer, but told them that I was stepping down so that they could select as dean someone whose leadership they were ready to follow.” Since first meeting Professor Chew, I have had a great respect for her work as a teacher and enjoyed her class and lectures at the university. The fact that Derrick Bell saw her potential and resigned from his position as dean after she was denied the position was the perfect example of who I understood Derrick Bell to be.
and thanks to student volunteers that organized and spread the word, 30 community members received free legal advice. That day, in a small way, all of us were standing on Derrick Bell’s shoulders. My hope is that as my career takes off and I progress through life is that I can have Bell’s courage to stand up for those who might not be able to advocate for themselves. Bell became a positive influence to many people with his sacrifices and his scholastic achievements. We can all honor his legacy by taking the time out to stand up for others and putting the needs of the disadvantaged ahead of our own in order to make our world a fairer environment. This theme resonates with the spirit of Derrick Bell that I have come to know through his work and the message of “giving back,” which my parents taught me well in my youth. • To honor the memory of Derrick Bell, the Bell family made a generous gift to the School, creating the Derrick A. Bell Fund for Excellence. The fund will enable Pitt Law to continue Professor Bell’s work in social justice by launching new diversity initiatives. Additional financial support is needed from the School’s friends, supporters, and alumni in an effort to bring these initiatives to fruition. Gifts in Professor Bell’s honor can be made to the Derrick A. Bell Fund for Excellence.
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The Dark Knight Rises, filmed in Pittsburgh in in 2011, is one of many movies being shot using the city as its backdrop.
Take
are blockbusters good for pennsylvania business?
I
n the Fall 2012 issue of the Pittsburgh Journal of Technology Law and Policy, author Ashley Edwards, ’13, argues that Pennsylvania’s tax credit for films produced in the state fails to achieve the goal of boosting their economic impact. It’s a position that runs counter to that of supporters of the nine-year old program, who say that generous incentives attract studios that hire local talent and support other businesses. Since 2004, the film tax credit program has offered a 25 percent credit of a film’s qualified in-state production expenses for projects spending at 60 percent of their budget in the Commonwealth. After an analysis of the revenues, Edwards disagrees. “In the 2011–12 fiscal year, 68 production companies sold, transferred or redeemed film production tax credit certificates with a total worth of $65.7 million,” writes Edwards. “Ninety-eight percent, or $64.3 million in tax credits were either sold or transferred to another entity, with just $1.4 million used by the initial tax credit recipient to reduce its Pennsylvania tax liability.” She also points out that block busters like The Dark Knight Rises and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, were shot in Pennsylvania without applying for tax credits. Citing research on the economic impact of less glamorous industries like poultry, leather and hide tanning, and fishing, Edwards notes that “a dollar spent in any of these industries would produce more spending than a dollar spent in the film industry.” Edwards, the 2012–13 editor of the Journal, used Pittsburgh’s film industry as a thematic focus for the Fall 2012 issue. “The Steeltown Entertainment Project worked with us to learn about the current ‘hot issues’ facing the legal industry as it pertains to films. Moving forward, [the Journal editors] will aim to discuss technology issues that have a particular impact on Pittsburgh while also having a national relevance,” she explains. •
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f a c u lt y
facu lty T h e f o l low i n g i s a s a mp l i n g o f p ro f e s s i o na l ac t i v i t i e s c o n duc t e d b y P i t t L aw facu lt y ov e r t h e pa s t y e a r .
“While palliative medicine has improved tremendously in the last decade or two, there are still cases in which it is not up to the task of relieving pain and suffering, and it will never be able to end the dependence and indignity of many end-of-life situations.”
pat h ways f o r
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said, “the experience of the past few years has revealed gaps and deficiencies in the regulatory regime that warrant attention.” He suggested statutory amendments dealing with three aspects of the system — transparency and disclosure, disqualification of judges, and review of orders issued by chief judges and judicial councils. Hellman has achieved a national reputation as a scholar of the federal courts. He is one of the leading academic commentators on issues of federal judicial ethics, and his unique series of empirical studies on the operation of precedent in the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. courts of appeals has been used as a basis for policy decisions at both the federal and state levels.
David Pohl
rthur D. Hellman, the Sally Ann Semenko Endowed Chair and professor of law, was invited to testify at a hearing before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. The subject of the spring hearing was “An Examination of the Judicial Conduct and Disability System.” Hellman testified that the s ystem of decentralized self-regulation that Congress established in 1980 “is sound and does not require fundamental restructuring. At the same time,” he
uch has been written that women in business and law do not rise as much as they should, or as their accomplishments justify, because they do not ask. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, makes the point in her recently published book Lean In, as did Carnegie Mellon professor Linda Babcock and her co-author Sara Laschever in their 2007 book, Women Don’t Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation — and Positive Strategies for Change. Rather than trod the path others have trod before, I want to go deeper, pointing out ways in which aspiring women lawyers or executives can strengthen their cases before they ask. Here are three planks that should be in the platform from which any request is made:
T
March 30, 2013 Alan Meisel commented on end-of-life care in the New York Times online.
A
women
itle IX is one of the few laws to have infiltrated popular culture to the point where it is more likely to be seen on a bumper sticker than in the pages of reported cases. There are Title IX shirts, mugs, caps, even a women’s clothing company named “Title IX.” (And yes, there are also Title IX bumper stickers.) It is the rare federal law that has its own veritable fan club. Title IX also has its critics, who blame the law for hurting men’s athletic teams and burdening schools with bureaucratic regulation. Despite its notoriety, the law is often mis understood, largely because of its creative and unusual approach to discrimination. In Getting in the Game: Title IX and the Women’s Sports Revolution, Professor Brake takes an in-depth, comprehensive look at Title IX’s application to athletics, using the lens of feminist legal theory to evaluate the policy choices behind the law. The book integrates traditional legal analysis, feminist legal theory, and research from disciplines outside of law (including history and sociology) to examine Title IX’s success — and its shortcomings — in transforming gender norms in sport and in society more broadly.
1
Be a problem solver. Current CEO of Archer Daniels Midland Patricia
2
Go where they aren’t. (Other women, that is.) Twenty-five years ago the correct advice was for women to avoid utilities, chemicals, metals and materials, or oil and gas. Boy, how times have changed! It’s not for everyone, but women with healthy self-confidence and financial or engineering literacy may find that the fastest route to where they would like to be might be the least obvious one. Over half the women who are CEOs today rose up in industries that were “no-go” 20 or 30 years ago: Woertz (agribusiness), Reynolds (utilities), Kullman (paint and chemicals), Elsenhaus (oil and gas), Ivey (tobacco), Fiorina, Whitman and Bartz (information technology). The same is true for practicing law: family law or estate planning may be your true interest, but you are more likely to make a bigger splash in fields men have previously dominated, like intellectual property and antitrust. The obvious areas — travel, publishing, fashion — are categorically the worst in promoting women and recognizing their talent and their contributions.
3
Take some risks. Study risks and take them only advisedly or strategically,
Woertz headed up the group planning and building a major oil pipeline from Calgary, Alberta to San Francisco while at Chevron. Paula Rosport Reynolds headed up task forces to build electric generating plants in her earlier career with utilities; she would later move onto become CEO of Safeco Insurance. But perhaps the best example of becoming a problem solver is Ellen Kullman who, while a mid-level executive at DuPont, was asked to develop safety instructions for certain DuPont products. She didn’t just simply write up those instructions, though. Ms. Kullman developed the DuPont Safety Products division, the largest generator of DuPont’s revenues today. Kullman, by the way, is another Fortune 500 female CEO at DuPont.
Stick your neck out once in a while. One perception that holds women back is that they excel as i-dotter and t-crosser enforcers but not as hands-on in the center of things. Volunteer to be second-in-command on a new, untried product line or to bill time on a long shot contingent fee matter that has come in the door. Post-2008 and the near death economic crisis, many pundits have pointed out that women are somewhat risk-averse as compared to men and that excessive risk taking (leverage) was a principal cause of the crisis. But that recognition for avoidance of risk and for hedging bets applies to women contesting for seats on corporate boards. Lower down it’s a lot different.
This opinion was authored by W. Edward Sell Professor of Business Law Douglas Branson.
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written & spoken & presented. The Pitt Law faculty ranks 47th in the nation in scholarly impact, according to the results of a July 2012 study conducted by Professor Gregory Sisk and his colleagues at the University of Saint Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minn. Utilizing the methodology of previous studies produced by University of Texas Professor Brian Leiter, Sisk ranked the 70 law faculties with the highest scholarly impact, based on both average and median impact as measured by citations per faculty member. The following lists are based upon this ranking.
Scholarly Publications in Top 50 Law Journals Deborah Brake Retaliation in an
EEO World, 89 Ind. L.J. __ (2013)
(forthcoming). Ronald A. Brand Challenges to Forum Non Conveniens, 45 N.Y.U. J. Int’l L. & Pol. __ (2013) (forthcoming). William M. Carter Jr. The Thirteenth
Amendment, Interest Convergence, and the Badges and Incidents of Slavery, 71 Maryland L. Rev. 21 (2012). William M. Carter Jr. The Thirteenth Amendment and Pro-Equality Speech, 112 Colum. L. Rev. 1855 (2012). William M. Carter Jr. Treaties, the Constitution, and the Separation of Powers, 10 Int’l J. Const. L. 261 (2012). William M. Carter Jr. The Paradox of
Political Power: Post-Racialism, Equal Protection, and Democracy, 61 Emory L. J. 1123 (2012). Pat K. Chew and Robert Kelley, Realism
of Race in Judicial Decision Making, 28 Harv. J. on Racial & Ethnic Just. 91 (2012). Mirit Eyal-Cohen Down-sizing the Little
Guy Myth in Legal Definitions, 98 Iowa L. Rev. 1041 (2013). Vivian Curran Remarks on the GJIL
Symposium on Corporate Responsibility and the Alien Tort Statute, 43 Geo. J. Int’l L 1019 (2012). Haider Ala Hamoudi Religious
Minorities and Shari’a in Iraqi Courts, 31 B.U. Int’l L.J. 387 (2013). Anthony Infanti LGBT Taxpayers:
A Collision of Others, 13 Geo. J. Gender & L. 1 (2012). Anthony Infanti Tax Reform Discourse, 32 Va. Tax Rev. 205 (2013). Charles Jalloh Kenya vs. The ICC
Prosecutor, 53 Harv. Int’l L.J. Online 269 (2012). 32 | 33
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Jules Lobel Separation of
Powers, Individual Rights and the Constitution Abroad, 98 Iowa L. Rev. 1629 (2013).
Lawrence Frolik “ERISA’s Promise of Income Security in a World of 401(k) Plans” at the Regulation of Retirement Benefits Conference held at the University of Michigan School of Business, Ann Arbor, MI, March 2013.
Peter Oh Veil-Piercing Unbound, 93 B.U. L. Rev. 48 (2013). Jasmine Gonzales Rose Language Disenfranchisement in Juries: A Call for Constitutional Remediation, 65 Hastings L.J. __ (2014) (forthcoming).
Book Chapters Published by Leading Presses William M. Carter, Jr. “The Abolition
of Slavery in the United States: Historical Context and Contemporary Application,” in Allain, Jean, ed., The Legal Parameters of Slavery, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2012. Vivian Curran “From Nuremberg to
Freetown: Historical Antecedents of the Special Court for Sierra Leone,” in Charles C. Jalloh, ed., The Sierra Leone Special Court and Its Legacy: The Impact For Africa and International Criminal Law, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Harry Flechtner “Ten Years of Decisions on the CISG Non-Conformity and Notice Provisions, with Comments on Burden of Proof,” in DiMatteo L., ed., International Sales Law: A Global Challenge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Harry Flechtner “A Tribute to John Honnold,” in DiMatteo L., ed., International Sales Law: A Global Challenge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Jules Lobel “The Rhetoric and Reality
of Judicial Review of Counter-Terrorism Actions: The United States Experience,” in De Londras and Davis, eds., Critical Debates on Counter-Terrorism Judicial Review, New York: Cambridge University Press, (2014) (forthcoming).
Haider Ala Hamoudi “The Myth of
Michael Madison “IP Things as
Boundary Objects: The Case of the Copyright Work,” in Yahong Li, ed. Searching for the Boundaries of Intellectual Property Law, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2013. George Taylor “The Later Thought of Derrick Bell,” in Golden T., ed., A Critical Derrick Bell Reader, New York: NYU Press, 2013.
Presentations Given at the Top 50 Ranked Law Schools Elena Baylis The International Criminal Court and the Dynamics of Complementarity. Presented at: 2013 Samuel Dash Conference on Human Rights: Jurisdiction for Mass Atrocities, Georgetown Law School; Washington, DC, April 2013. Deborah Brake “Masculinities in Sport
and in Relation to Gender Equality.” Presented at: Inaugural Conference of the SHARP Center; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, May 2012. William M. Carter, Jr. “The Use,
Abuse, and Non-Use of International Law in the United States.” NYU Law School-Université Paris 1 PanthéonSorbonne symposium in Paris, June 2013. William M. Carter, Jr. “The Thirteenth
Amendment, the Legacies of Slavery, and the Promises of Freedom.” The Eighteenth Annual Derrick Bell Lecture. NYU Law, November 2013.
Pat Chew Keynote Address, Univ. of Texas School of Law Excellence in Diversity Celebration, February 2013. Pat Chew “Presumed Competent” presentation at “Presumed Incompetent: The Intersection of Race and Class for Women in Academia,” Berkeley Law School, Journal of Gender, Law & Justice, March 2013. Pat Chew “Alternatives to Complex Litigation,” at London Law Consortium, hosted by the University of Iowa, April 2013. Mirit Eyal-Cohen “Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship, and the Law.” Presented at: Law & Entrepreneurship retreat; George Washington University, February 2013. Vivian Curran Symposium on Mass Tort Litigation in a Shrinking World, University of Pennsylvania School of Law, November 2012.
“The Uses of Trust Protectors” as panelist on “Trusts and Estates and An Aging Population,” AALS Annual Meeting, Sections on Trusts and Estates and Aging and the Law, New Orleans, LA, January 2013. Lawrence Frolik
Lawrence Frolik “The Need for
Rethinking Retirement Benefits” as panelist on “Retirement Planning After This Election,” AALS Annual Meeting, Section on Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, New Orleans, LA, January 2013.
the Islamic State.” Presented at: American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting; New Orleans, LA, January 2013.
Charles Jalloh “What Makes a Crime Against Humanity a Crime Against Humanity?” International Legal Studies Roundtable, Vanderbilt Law School (Nashville, TN), September 2012. Charles Jalloh “The African Union and the Future of the International Criminal Court in Africa,” Symposium on the African Union and the Future of International Law in Africa, Yale Law School (New Haven, CT), September 2012. Michael Madison “Comment on Owning e-Sports: Proprietary Rights in Professional Computer Gaming.” Presented at: Symposium: The Evolving Internet; University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, PA, October 2012. Jasmine gonzalez Rose “President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: On Questions, Doubts, and the Problems of Full Citizenship, Juror Language Accommodation in Theory and Praxis.” Presented at: 18th Annual Mid-Atlantic People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference 2013; University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, PA, January 2013. Thomas Ross “Workshop on
Mindfulness in Legal Education” sponsored by the Berkeley Initiative for Mindfulness in Law. Presented at: Workshop in Mindfulness in Legal Education; 2012 June 6–9; Univ. of CA (Berkeley) School of Law.
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n CSI, crimes are solved in the lab. Real police and prosecutors make widespread use of DNA evidence. To the casual observer, high-tech science seems to have become the handmaiden of law enforcement. But this is a myth, asserts law professor and nationally known expert on police profiling David A. Harris. In fact, most of law enforcement does not embrace science — it rejects it instead, resisting it vigorously. The question at the heart of his book is why.
essie Allen’s September commentary on the PA voter ID in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was quoted in Huffington Post and Daily Kos. “Patterson is relevant in another way. It shows that a majority of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was once led to rationalize burdensome election procedures based on generalized and biased fears about fraudulent voting. That historic mistake should make the court hesitate to uphold another election law ostensibly aimed at preventing fraud when the state has offered no evidence that any such fraud has actually occurred.” On October 2, Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson issued a preliminary injunction delayed imple mentation of the law until after the November 6 election.
David Pohl
• Traditional police lineups, in which witnesses view a group of suspects standing together, produce a significant number of incorrect identifications. Viewing suspects one at a time reduces this problem substantially. Yet most police departments resist any change to this procedure.
David Garrow, whose biography of Martin Luther King won a 1987 Pulitzer Prize, offered his perspectives during the 50th anniversary of the 1963 march on Washington. The author of Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he was interviewed by the Washington Post, National Public Radio, MSNBC and local media.
Professor Charles Jalloh lectured on the achievements and limitations of the Special Court for Sierra Leone at the University of Sierra Leone Department of Law. The event, which drew international academics, practitioners and students, was convened by the Sierra Leone Institute of International Law, directed by Ambassador Allieu Kanu. S ierra L eone
• Interrogations that include threats of harsh penalties and lies about damning evidence increase false confessions by innocent people. Even though false confessions occur in 25 percent of all DNA exoneration cases, threats and lies during interrogation remain part of law enforcement’s arsenal. • Fingerprint matching does not use probability calculations based on collected and standardized data to generate conclusions, but rather human interpretation and judgment. Examiners generally claim a zero rate of error — an untenable claim in the face of publicly known errors by the best examiners in the U.S. Failed Evidence explores the real reasons that police and prosecutors resist scientific change, and it lays out a concrete plan to bring law enforcement into the scientific present. Written in a crisp and engaging style, Failed Evidence explains where we should go from here. Only if we understand why law enforcement resists science will we be able to break through this resistance and convince police and prosecutors to rely on the best that science has to offer.
David A. Harris is Distinguished Faculty Scholar, professor of law, and author of Good Cops: The Case for Preventive Policing and Profiles in Injustice: Why Racial Profiling Cannot Work.
Dean William M. Carter, Jr. has been invited to New York University School of Law to present the eighteenth annual Derrick Bell Lecture on Race in American Society, which will be held on November 6, 2013. Carter will deliver a presentation entitled, “The Thirteenth Amendment, the Legacies of Slavery, and the Promises of Freedom.” New York University School of Law recruits top scholars to deliver this lecture and hosts a reception for the lecturer to meet members of the NYU School of Law community.
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rofessor Vivian Curran was elected to the Executive Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law at the Society’s recent annual meeting. The Society promotes the comparative study of law and the understanding of foreign legal systems and private international law. Curran is also a member of the American Law Institute, the International Academy of Comparative Law, and the Société de Législation Comparée. She was decorated in 2007 by the Republic of Austria for her work as the United States appointee to the Austrian General Settlement Fund Committee for Nazi-era property compensation, and in 2013 by the government of France for her services in promotion of the French language and culture in the United States. She is the creator of Pitt Law School’s innovative Languages for Lawyers program, in which students study foreign languages in a legal context, and of English for Lawyers, in which foreign lawyers study English in a legal context. Adding to her impressive professional accomplishments, Curran was recently named a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, the leading body of comparative law scholars in the world.
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etiring professor Stella Smetanka received the Eileen P. Sweeney Award from the National Organization of Social Security Claims Representatives. The award recognizes distinguished service on behalf of people with disabilities in America. Smetanka was a co-founder of Pitt Law’s health law clinic in 1993. Additionally, the University of Pittsburgh conferred emeritus status in July 2013. The title of Professor Emeritus is granted to professors nearing retirement who have made career-spanning meritorious contributions to the scholarly mission and programs of the University.
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alumni
alumni
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n ot e s Honorable Lawrence W. Kaplan (ret.),
was chosen by The Legal Intelligencer as a recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award. The newspaper honors noteworthy individuals who have helped to shape the law in Pennsylvania. ’53,
Pitt Law alumni turned out for organized events ranging in scope, size, and location during 2012–13. Below is a sampling of photos from the following events: the Golden Gavel Society Luncheon; Hail to … An Attitude of Gratitude Day; the Derrick A. Bell Dedication Ceremony; 2012 Reunion; PAA Philadelphia Law School event; and the Edgar Snyder Lecture. View more photos at www.flickr.com/photos/pittlaw.
Eric W. Springer, ’53, of counsel at Horty, Springer & Mattern P.C. in Pittsburgh, was honored with the A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award during the 24th Annual Pennsylvania Bar Association Minority Attorney Conference. His current service on commissions and boards includes the Falk Foundation, Steel Industry Heritage Corporation, Pittsburgh Public Theater and the Allegheny County Bar Foundation.
has joined Keevican Weiss Bauerle & Hirsch as a member. Lieber concentrates his practice on estate planning and administration, banking, corporate law, and health care.
Marvin S. Lieber, ’58,
Thomas Trimm, ’71, has joined Dinsmore’s Pittsburgh office as a partner. Trimm focuses his practice in public finance, project finance, real estate, and land use and development.
Grimm LLP in Buffalo. A 32-year member of the state bar, Gerstman serves on the executive committee as an eighth judicial district vicepresident.
Michael D. McDowell, ’73, was elected chair of the Allegheny County Bar Association’s section of labor and employment law for a two-year term that began July 1, 2012.
Larry N. Port, ’76,
has joined the firm of Dickie McCamey & Chilcote, P.C., as of counsel.
C. William Schildnecht, ’73,
was named interim CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation by Governor Scott Walker. Hall serves on numerous state boards and committees, including the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Board of Directors and Executive Committee, WisconsinEye Board of Directors, and the 7th Congressional District Health Care Advisory Council. Reed E. Hall, ’74,
is serving as the University of Pittsburgh’s general counsel, effective as of March 1, 2013. Richey previously served as chief legal officer and executive vice president of CONSOL Energy.
James Kopelman, ’66, has retired as solicitor for New Kensington, Pa. Although Kopelman is giving up his municipal clients, he will continue to practice law through the Harrison, Pa. firm of Jacques & Jacques.
P. Jerome Richey, ’74,
recently published his first book, KingdomNomics. He previously served as CEO and president of T. W. Phillips Gas and Oil Co. and Phillips Resources, Inc., both of which have since been purchased by ExxonMobil Corporation.
Kenneth Spillias, ’74,
Phil Wiegand, ’66,
has joined the business services department of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP in Pittsburgh. He has also been elected to the board of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, which awards the Carnegie Medal to civilian heroes throughout the United States and Canada. Robert J. Cindrich, ’68,
recently received the Washington County, Pa. Bar Association’s Robert L. Ceisler Professionalism Award.
Kenneth Baker, ’71,
managing shareholder of Lewis, Longman & Walker, P.A., was re-elected as chairman of the board of directors of the Palm Beach, Florida County Film & Television Commission.
has recently accepted the position of deputy county attorney in Arizona’s Pinal County. Abrams was previously chief of party of a project that worked with Kosovo’s foreign ministry to develop best diplomatic and management practices. He also led a team that assisted the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan as it modernized both case management and the process by which it considered cases and issued opinions.
Ivan Abrams, ’75,
Sharon Stern Gerstman, ’75, was elected to a one-year term as treasurer of the New York State Bar Association House of Delegates. Gerstman is of counsel to Magavern Magavern
has been appointed the position of senior vice president, corporate development, at Assurant, Inc. and will be responsible for leading mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and related activities to support the firm’s long-term, strategic growth.
M. Scott Curran, ’77, was recently elected to serve to a three-year term on the Washington County Bar Association’s board of directors. The Association presented Curran with the Humanitarian Award in recognition of his dedicated service to the association and the legal profession. Dennis A. Watson, ’77, was recently appointed to a three-year term as a commissioner of Pennsylvania’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC). The IRRC is a state commission charged with the oversight and review of all proposed and existing rules promulgated by various state agencies, authorities, courts or municipal governments.
has been re-elected as a council member for the District of Columbia’s Ward 2. Evans chairs the committee on finance and revenue, which oversees the District’s finances and tax policy. He also serves on the committee on public safety and the judiciary, where he focuses his attention on strengthening neighbor hoods and protecting peace.
Jack Evans, ’78,
has been named director of Sherrard, German, & Kelly, P.C. in Pittsburgh and is a member of the firm’s corporate services group.
Mark O. Scioscia, ’78,
Lisa Kabnick, ’80, has been named Reed Smith LLP’s chair of global financial transactions. Kabnick is a partner and a member of the financial industry group in the firm’s Philadelphia office, and coordinates the global financial transactions capabilities across the firm’s industries and practice groups.
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alumni
note s Christine Gale, ’81, a shareholder of Frank, Gale, Bails, Murcko & Pocrass, P.C. is a recipient of the 2011 Pennsylvania Bar Association Pro Bono Award. Gale received the award for her service as a volunteer family law attorney at the Uptown Legal Clinic in Pittsburgh, a pro bono legal project at Bethlehem Haven that helps homeless women regain self-sufficiency.
has been appointed to the board of directors of F.N.B. Corporation, the parent company of First National Bank. Ellsworth is partner-in-charge for the Pittsburgh office of Jones Day, where she practices across a wide range of complex litigation matters, including toxic torts, commercial disputes, product liability, insurance, intellectual property, employment, and ERISA.
Laura E. Ellsworth, ’83,
partner in the Pittsburgh office of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, has been named president of the Pitt Law Alumni Association. His term runs through 2013. Fox concentrates his practice in complex litigation in federal court, including class action, employment, environmental, civil rights, intellectual property, and commercial litigation matters. Bruce C. Fox, ’84,
has been re-elected to a fifth consecutive three-year term as global managing partner of Pittsburgh-based Reed Smith. He will lead the firm through 2015, giving him the longest tenure of any managing partner in the firm’s 136-year history.
Gregory B. Jordan, ’84,
joined the firm Dickie McCamey & Chilcote, P.C. as a principal. Her practice will include child support, custody, divorce, equitable distribution, spousal support and alimony, and protection from abuse.
Efstathia G. Alexander, ’85,
has been named executive vice president of business development, general counsel, and secretary of Black Box Corporation, a communications services and infrastructure solutions company in Lawrence, PA.
Ronald Basso, ’85,
Sam G. Nazzaro, ’85, has joined PwC as a director with the accounting firm’s forensic services practice. Nazzaro joins PwC from the Department of Justice criminal division and assists global organizations, including those operating in emerging markets, to develop threat management capabilities. Penina Kessler Lieber, ’86, a partner at Keevican Weiss Bauerle & Hirsh LLP in Pittsburgh, was elected vice president of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s board of directors. Carla M. DiCicco, ’87, has become of counsel to the firm Steptoe & Johnson PLLC. DiCicco joined the firm’s energy law team in Canonsburg, Pa. DiCicco comes to Steptoe & Johnson after serving as senior counsel for Burleson LLP, where she was responsible for reviewing, editing and writing certified oil and gas title opinions. Jeffrey Pollock, ’87,
was honored with
ZOA-Pittsburgh District’s 2012 Natalie E.
Novick Community Leadership Award for his local volunteer efforts and pro bono contributions to charitable and non-profit groups. W. Alan Torrance, Jr., ’87, has recently been elected to a two-year term as Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C.’s marketing director. Torrance also serves as co-chair of the firm’s construction group and concentrates his practice in the areas of business torts and commercial litigation, with a particular emphasis in construction and surety law.
was recently named general counsel at Planet Depos, an international court reporting service.
Gregory L. Laubach, ’88,
joined the law firm of J. F. Lehman & Company in 2011 and was recently promoted to the position of managing director of legal, administration and compliance. David L. Rattner, ’89,
has been named a shareholder of Babst Calland, where she is also a member of the firm’s business services group.
Sara M. Antol, ’90,
David J Johnson, ’90, has been named by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III as special agent in charge of the San Francisco Division. He previously served the FBI as the special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City Division. Rev. Sean O. Sheridan, TOR, ’90,
has
been named president of the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Sheridan assumed his new role on June 1, 2013. is currently serving in his third term as magisterial district judge in Lancaster, Pa. He is also a principal in the Personal Injury Law Group, also located in Lancaster. Hon. Bruce A. Roth, ’91,
has been appointed as a judge in Multnomah County, Oregon circuit court. Silver has had experience as a pro-tem judge presiding over traffic court, landlordtenant disputes, small claims, and shoplifting.
Gregory F. Silver, ’93,
Anne Burger, ’94, received the 2012 Jeffrey A. Jacobs Award at the 2012 Rochester Institute of Technology Defense Community Dinner. The award recognizes a criminal defense attorney who exemplifies fierce advocacy, dedication to clients, perseverance and a commitment to fair justice. Stacy L. Fuller, ’94, partner of Gawthrop Greenwood, P.C., has been elected to the board of directors of the Chester County Pa. Chamber of Business & Industry. Zsolt K. Bessko, ’96, has joined the law firm of Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP, based in Kansas City, Missouri.
has been named vice president of institutional advancement at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. Collins is responsible for a comprehensive fundraising and alumni relations program for the institution’s 14,000 alumni. Previously, Collins was the executive director of gift planning and stewardship at Duquesne University.
Carrie Matesevac Collins, ’99,
Matthew Collins, ’99, has joined Marcus & Hoffman, P.C. in Media, Pa., which handles all aspects of community association representation, collections, real estate, transactional work and litigation.
has been appointed master for juvenile and domestic causes for Maryland’s Second Judicial Circuit. Meta has served as a court mediator and a volunteer for the court’s family law clinic for over ten years, representing many children in contested custody matters. Jean D. Meta, ’99,
has been named managing attorney for the Law Offices of Ira Weiss. In this role, Burkardt will be responsible for managing the daily operations of the firm’s Pittsburgh-based staff.
M. Janet Burkardt, ’00,
Ann B. Graff, ’02, has been elected as a partner at Pepper Hamilton LLP in Pittsburgh. A member of the firm’s construction practice group, Graff concentrates in commercial litigation with a focus on construction-related claims.
was appointed to the Atlantic County Advisory Commission on Women, a nonpartisan organization that represents 23 jurisdictions in Atlantic County, New Jersey regarding women’s issues.
Amy Houck, ’02,
has joined the law firm of Peacock Keller, headquartered in Washington, Pa. John, who focuses on civil litigation, health and hospital matters, and insurance, has an academic as well as a trial background. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Community College of Allegheny County.
Melissa A. John, ’02,
Matthew J. Lautman, ’02, has been elected a director of Houston Harbaugh, P.C. He is a member of the firm’s litigation group and concentrates his practice in the areas of commercial, construction and bankruptcy litigation.
has been elected as partner of Thorp Reed & Armstrong, LLP as a member of the firm’s labor & employment practice group. She counsels employers on all aspects of the employment relationship, including employment agreements, non-competition agreements, discrimination, harassment, and wage and hour compliance. Cami L. Davis, ’03,
has been promoted to counsel at Reed Smith LLP. Gary, formerly an associate, is a member of the U.S. commercial litigation practice group in the firm’s Falls Church, Va. office. Brent Gary, ’03,
Mark Martini, ’03, has been elevated to partner at Robb Leonard Mulvihill LLP.
an associate at Stradley Ronon in Philadelphia, has been accepted to the 2013 Fellows Program of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. Seaman focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation, products liability and banking and commercial lending litigation.
Brian P. Seaman, ’03,
Timothy Stevenson, ’03, was elected as a shareholder at Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C. He is based in the firm’s Pittsburgh office, where he concentrates his practice in the area of business torts and commercial litigation with a particular emphasis in construction and surety law. Beverly A. Block, ’04, has been named director of Sherrard, German, & Kelly, P.C. Block also belongs to the firm’s litigation services group, the Executive Council of the Women in the Law Division for the Allegheny County Bar Association, the ACBA’s Gender Equality Committee, and the Allegheny County Bar Association. Douglas M. Grimsley, James P. Killeen,
and Jeffrey J. Wetzel, ’04, have recently been named shareholders in the firm of Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C. John J. Marciano III, ’04, has been elected to the Chadbourne & Parke LLP Firm’s partnership in Washington, D.C. Marciano advises clients on all
aspects of independent power projects ranging from small distributed generation renewable power instal lations to multi-billion dollar utilityscale plants. has started her own firm in Erie, Pa. She practices in criminal defense and provides assistance to clients seeking to file for bankruptcy.
Rebeka A. Seelinger, ’04,
Kevin M. Passerini, ’06, an associate at Blank Rome LLP, recently was elected to the board of councilors of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He is based in the firm’s Philadelphia office and is a member of the corporate litigation group. Michael R. Lobick, ’07, recently joined the Pittsburgh office of Rawle & Henderson as an associate. His practice focuses on the defense of corporations in the areas of products liability, toxic torts and environmental law.
has joined Pepper Hamilton as an associate in the commercial litigation practice group. Before practicing law, he served on active duty as an operational forecaster in the United States Air Force/Satellite Services, Inc.
James W. Pfeifer, ’07,
has joined Thorp Reed & Armstrong as an attorney. Pope is a member of the commercial, real estate, and public finance practice group. Prior to joining Thorp Reed, he represented financial institutions and other business clients at a boutique firm in Youngstown, Ohio.
Joseph Pope, ’08,
Paul A. Richelmi, ’07, teaches at the University of Memphis School of Law as an adjunct law professor. He is also a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, serving at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
has joined Pepper Hamilton as an associate in the construction litigation practice group. Prior to joining Pepper Hamilton, Stewart was an associate with Thorp Reed & Armstrong, LLP in the commercial and corporate litigation and construction practice groups.
Ryan P. Stewart, ’08,
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alumni
note s has joined the firm of Burns White and focuses her practice in professional liability and commercial litigation, defending lawyers, accountants and medical professionals against liability claims and disputes. Prior to joining Burns White, Benson was employed as an associate at Weinheimer, Schadel & Haber, P.C., where she practiced professional malpractice defense and civil litigation.
Laura E. Benson, ’09,
has joined the Pittsburgh office of Leech Tishman as an associate in the corporate practice group, where he will focus his practice on primarily on commercial contracts, business formation and entity selection, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, debt and equity financing and due diligence issues.
Chad M. Cowan, ’09,
an associate with the law firm Peacock Keller, has been elected president of the Washington County Bar Association real property, probate and trust law section. Formoso concentrates his practice in the areas of estate planning, estate administration and business law.
Donald B. Formoso, ’09,
has earned a federal clerkship on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for the Hon. Bernice B. Donald. Jerilyn Gardner, ’09,
has joined Goldberg Segalla as an associate in its Buffalo office. Pitman focuses his practice on commercial litigation and business counseling, including disputes relating to shareholder conflicts, commercial leases, sales agreements, promissory notes, loan sale agree ments, and construction contracts.
Ryan G. Pitman, ’09,
John M. Schaffranek, ’09, joined Frank, Gale, Bails, Murcko & Pocrass, P.C. of Pittsburgh as an associate. He specializes in family law.
assistant chief counsel in the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, recently testified before the House Appropriations Committee as part of the Office of Open Records budget hearing.
J. Chadwick Schnee, ’09,
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Pitt law magazine
Trevor Bannister, ’10, has joined Pepper Hamilton law firm as an associate in the intellectual property transactions and rights management practice group.
has joined Bowles Rice LLP’s newest office, near Canonsburg, Pa., and is working in the areas of energy law, real estate and corporate law, and litigation. W. Taylor Frankovitch, ’10,
Eric D. Harbison, ’10, has joined Peacock Keller, a full-service law firm headquartered in Washington, Pa., and will concentrate his practice on coal, oil, gas, shale gas, mineral and energy law.
has joined White and Williams LLP as a member of the plaintiff ’s personal injury group. Prior to joining the firm, Yanez was criminal defense attorney at the Delaware County, Pa. public defender’s office. Adrianna Yanez, ’10,
has joined the firm of Burns White as part of the energy group, handling oil and gas lease litigation, as well as title curative and certified title opinions. Craig J. Emmert,’11,
has joined Frank, Gale, Bails, Murcko & Pocrass, P.C. as associate attorney. He specializes in family law, estate administration, and government relations.
Dennis Hayes, ’11,
Meghan T. Hayes, ’11, joined The Webb Law Firm as an associate. Hayes previously interned with Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Cathleen Bubash. Necia B. Hobbes, ’11, has joined the Pittsburgh office of the global law firm Jones Day. Ellis Kunka, ’11, has joined Frank, Gale, Bails, Murcko & Pocrass, P.C. as an associate attorney. Kunka is the recipient of the 2011 Eric D. Turner Award from the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
has been appointed an associate at Cohen & Grigsby. Prior to joining Cohen & Grigsby, Kyle spent a year in Germany as a Robert Bosch
Richard Kyle, ’11,
Foundation Fellow, where he interned in the Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin and at a large law firm in Düsseldorf. has joined the law firm of Freeburn & Hamilton as an attorney at their Lebanon, Pa. office. Prior to joining Freeburn & Hamilton, McDaniel was an associate with a firm that specialized in insurance defense.
Ryan McDaniel, ’11,
Andrea Bottorff Branson and Joshua Hoffman, ’12, have been appointed associates at Cohen & Grigsby, where both had previously served as summer associates. Carl A. Frankovitch, ’12, is now an associate attorney with Frankovitch, Antetakis, Colantonio & Simon in Weirton, West Virginia. The firm was founded by his grandfather Carl Frankovitch Sr. in 1934. Gregg S. Freeburn, ’12, has joined the law firm of Freeburn & Hamilton as an attorney at their Lebanon, Pa. office.
has joined the law firm of Thorp Reed & Armstrong as an attorney. Miley, an associate in the firm’s labor & employment law practice group, concentrates her practice in employment and labor-related issues, including discrimination, labor arbitration, and compliance matters.
Sarah Miley, ’12,
has joined the Pittsburgh office of the global law firm Jones Day.
Zachary J. Mueller, ’12,
has joined Babst Calland as an associate in the firm’s litigation services group.
Ashley R. Passero, ’12,
Mar J. Passero, ’12, has joined Fox Rothschild LLP’s Pittsburgh office. Passero focuses on commercial litigation, emplyment, corporate, and healthcare law. He served as a legal intern for U.S. District Court Judge Alan N. Bloch.
has joined the firm of Frank, Gale, Bails, Murcko & Pocrass as associate attorney.
John M. Schaffranek, ’12,
pa r tin g
shot Four-time winner of the Excellence-in-Teaching award, Professor Harry Flechtner knows a thing or two about how to create an academic environment which allows law students to excel. Sometimes that means teaching in unusual, yet inventive ways. Those who have taken Flechtner for Contracts remember fondly how he delivers his end of the semester lectures: through song.