Quinnipiac Law Winter 2011

QUINNIPIAC•LAW QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW MAGAZINE

WINTER 2011

WikiLeaks controversy raises questions about freedom of speech

Secrecy Shattered

QUINNIPIAC•LAW Spring 2011 • Volume 17 • Number 1

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CONTENTS

Features

Departments

SECRECY SHATTERED

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WikiLeaks’ attempt to flood the Internet with classified government documents has raised questions about freedom of speech, the nature of journalism and the conduct of diplomacy.

HEADING THE BAR 12

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Ralph Monaco ’93, one of the Connecticut Bar Association’s youngest presidents, is leading lawyers into a new era.

A CASE OF A LIFETIME

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Stephen Longo ’83 immersed himself in a case teeming with dramatic escapes, sacrifice and betrayal in his quest to find justice in an Australian courtroom for a woman who spent 45 years in Albanian prison camps.

SETTING UP SHOP 18 On the cover: Professors and First Amendment expert Floyd Abrams weigh in on the WikiLeaks controversy.

Left photo: Frank Caruso ’94 out and about in Shenzhen, China, where he founded Caruso and Associates LTD. His firm specializes in mergers and acquisitions including joint ventures between foreign and Chinese companies, among other areas. Photo by Ken Tam

QULaw Briefs

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Faculty Focus

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Book Shelf

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Student Spotlight

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Alumni Notes & Profiles

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In Closing

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Making Connections Events Calendar

IBC OBC

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Frank Caruso ’94 built a firm in Shenzhen, China, that guides multinational companies into the booming Chinese market.

Vice President for Public Affairs Lynn Mosher Bushnell Editor Janet Waldman, MS ’09

Manager of Photographic Services Mark Stanczak Photography • Stan Godlewski, John Hassett, Robert Lisak, Ken Tam, Gale Zucker

Director of Publications & Design Thea A. Moritz Assistant Editor Alejandra Navarro Contributing Writers • Rhea Hirshman, Rita Pacheco, Donna Pintek, David Rosettenstein, Stephen P. Schmidt, MS ’11 Senior Graphic Designer Cynthia Greco

The Quinnipiac University School of Law magazine is published twice a year by the Public Affairs office of Quinnipiac University for alumni and friends of the law school. Visit us on the Web at http://law.quinnipiac.edu. Publication and editorial offices are located at the Development and Public Affairs Building, Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Avenue, Hamden, CT 06518-1908.

Quinnipiac University admits students of any race, color, creed, gender, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, and disability status to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. Quinnipiac University does not discriminate in these areas in the administration of its educational policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

Cert no. SW-COC-002556

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QULAW•BRIEFS Blumenthal visits veterans event QU senior Lorella Praeli at conference

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Blumenthal also noted n November, newly elected Quinnipiac had provided a steady U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal flow of graduates to the staff at visited the School of Law to take the Connecticut Attorney part in a Veterans Day event.

General’s Office. He held that The Veterans Advocacy Group, office for two decades. a student organization, organized The Veterans Advocacy Group the event, which included a presis gearing up for its annual entation by Rory Riley ’07, a Sleeping Giant 5k Run/Walk clerk at the U.S. Veterans’ Court Challenge on the Tower Trail of of Appeals in Washington, D.C. Sleeping Giant Mountain on She talked about the Veterans April 16. Proceeds will benefit Affairs claim process and careers the Wounded Warrior Project. in her field.

For more information, visit Blumenthal praised the work www.sleepinggiant5k.com. of the Veterans Advocacy Group and others like it that are working to improve the lives of veterans.

“It was a huge compliment,” said Brian Gregorio, a second-year law student and president of the group. “Our biggest goal is to get the word out about veterans’ issues. To have him here, saying, ‘We hear you,’ really From left, Rory Riley ’07, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal validates us and the and second-year student Brian Gregorio at an event work we are doing.” hosted by the School of Law Veterans Advocacy Group.

First LRAP grants planned

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his spring, the School of Law will choose the first recipients for grants from the Gregory A. Loken Loan Repayment Assistance Program.

Applications were accepted through January. Eligible alumni are from the class years 2006–10.

They must be working full time for a nonprofit public interest law organization, make $50,000 or less annually and be $50,000 in debt.

Professor Melanie Abbott ’84, who serves on the LRAP 2

QUINNIPIAC LAW • SPRING 2011

committee with Professor Mary Ferrari, said they expect to award up to three grants for a total of $7,500. The awards will vary from year to year.

“Greg Loken would have been very pleased to have his name attached to this. He had a long public interest and community involvement history,” Abbott said.

Anyone wishing to contribute to the fund can visit www.quinnipiac.edu/give.xml.

COMING TO AMERICA Quinnipiac senior Lorella Praeli dreams of becoming a U.S. citizen and finding a job after graduation. The Peru native, who was brought to the U.S. as a child and overstayed her immigration visa, can do neither. She and thousands of other young people are working to revive the recently failed federal DREAM Act that would allow the more than 65,000 academically achieving, undocumented high school graduates to qualify for in-state college tuition and put them on a path to citizenship.

Hers was one of the legal challenges discussed at the “Coming to America and Staying?” conference sponsored by the International Human Rights Law Society, the Latino/a Law Student Association and the Albert Schweitzer Institute in February.

Along with Praeli, other panelists described the day-to-day vulnerabilities and challenges immigrants face in the U.S. Renee Redman, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and an adjunct professor, reviewed immigration statistics and early laws. Sheila Hayre, a lawyer at the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, discussed laws protecting immigrants, such as the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. Alina Das, director of NYU Law School’s Immigrants Rights Clinic, reviewed some of today’s stringent immigration laws, such as the federal Secure Communities program that targets immigrants for deportation.

Forum explores juror roles

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n January, the School of Law hosted the “Juries and Justice” forum, which had panel discussions on Connecticut’s voir dire practices, and the role of the jury in criminal sentencing.

Proponents of Connecticut’s practice of individually interviewing prospective trial jury members argued that the responses of one juror could influence others in a group interview. Opponents said the practice is timely and costly.

Selecting a civil trial jury takes on average about 16 hours in Connecticut, but the state with the second longest time, California, takes only about four hours, said Superior Court Judge Carl J. Schuman. He was on the panel with Kevin Kane, chief state’s attorney of Connecticut; Linda K. Lager, chief administrative judge of civil matters, Connecticut Superior Court; Norman Pattis, The Pattis Law Firm; and Richard Silver, Silver Golub & Teitell.

Silver countered that the delays are caused by a lack of jurors to interview. He added that lawyers can’t ask a personal question, such as one dealing with cancer, and expect the prospective juror to answer openly and honestly in a room full of people.

Pattis said in about 100 cases, perhaps three or four would deal

with an issue that is sensitive in nature. “We are being killed by costly delays,” he said.

Lager favored an approach permitting voluntary use of a panel selection process. This allows lawyers to submit questions for the judge to ask, which could immediately disqualify potential jurors and eliminate the need for individual interviews and allow lawyers to use preemptory challenges wisely.

The second panel evaluated Connecticut trial juries’ role in sentencing. Some panelists argued that jurors should be made aware of the various sentencing possibilities of a guilty verdict. Panelists also delved into problems that could arise if juries were to play a role in sentencing, such as jury nullification. Others argued that judges should continue to mete out sentences. Pan-

SHORTS

elists in this discussion included Leonard Boyle, deputy chief state’s attorney of Connecticut; Robert Devlin Jr., chief administrative judge of criminal matters, Connecticut Superior Court; Timothy Moynahan, Moynahan & Minnella Law Firm; and Shelley Sadin of Sadin, Zeldes, Needle & Cooper, PC. Attending the forum were Connecticut State Sen. Edward Meyer, father of Professor Jeffrey Meyer, and State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield. The CBA co-sponsored the event.

Death penalty on trial — Author Bob Curley, whose 10-year-old son was killed by two pedophiles in Cambridge, Mass., shared his transformation from death penalty advocate to opponent in a fall program at the law school that happened to occur during the trial of Steven Hayes, who has been sentenced to die for his role in the murders of a Cheshire family.

Devastated by the loss of his son, Curley became an outspoken supporter of reinstating the death penalty in his state. But when the mastermind behind his son’s murder received a lighter sentence than his co-conspirator, Curley began to see the inequities in the justice system. “After the trial, I had a much more objective look at it,” said Curley, who tells his story in “The Ride.” The event was cosponsored by the school’s Willingham Abolition Society.

Bar passage — The Class of 2010 achieved an 89 percent first-time pass rate on the Connecticut bar exam last year, surpassing the statewide first-time pass rate of 82 percent. The state of Connecticut overall pass rate was 74 percent, while QU’s was 84 percent.

Top: Norman Pattis of the Pattis Law Firm discusses voir dire questioning as Linda K. Lager, chief administrative judge, Connecticut Superior Court, looks on. Center, left: Leonard C. Boyle, Connecticut deputy chief state’s attorney. Right: Superior Court Judge Carl J. Schuman with a forum attendee.

Bound for Guatemala — The International Human Rights Law Society is expanding its annual Central America Law and Service Project to include trips to Nicaragua in May, and for the first time, Guatemala. Law students will be in Guatemala from March 11–18 to meet representatives from several organizations, including the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation, to establish relationships for future service projects in the country.

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FACULTY•FOCUS Jennifer Gerarda Brown Professor Brown presented “The Expressive Value of E-Marriage” at the Modernizing Marriage Through E-Marriage symposium at Michigan State University College of Law in November 2010.

She was a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School teaching Alternative Dispute Resolution in Fall 2010.

Brown served on the Connecticut Bar Foundation’s John A. Speziale ADR Symposium Planning Committee and moderated a panel at the symposium in October 2010.

She also chaired the search committee for a health law faculty member.

Jeffrey A. Cooper Professor PUBLICATIONS “Shades of Gray: Applying the Benefit-the-Beneficiaries Rule to Trust Investment Directives,” Boston University Law Review, Vol. 90, p. 2383 (2010).

“2009 Developments in Connecticut Estate and Probate Law,” (with John R. Ivimey), Vol. 84, Connecticut Bar Journal, p.73 (May 2010).

Cooper was selected as a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Association. Election requires “demonstrated superior legal ability and devotion to the welfare of the community, state and nation, as well as to the advancement of the legal profession.”

William Dunlap Professor PUBLICATIONS “Jurors Must Follow Strict Death Penalty Guidelines,” the Hartford 4

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Courant, October 2010, on Connecticut’s death-penalty procedures.

“After Election Day Snafus, New Laws Needed,” Connecticut Law Tribune, November 2010, about the vote-tallying problems in Connecticut’s gubernatorial election.

“Human Rights During the Iraq Occupation and Transition,” Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Oxford University Press (2010).

Dunlap was chosen in January as chair-elect of the Association of American Law Schools Section on International Human Rights.

He moderated a panel, “Politics Matter,” organized by the Public Service Committee of the New Haven County Bar Association, in which the public radio host Colin McEnroe, State Rep. Rosa Rebimbas, Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson and other public officials discussed the value of political participation with high school students.

Dunlap participated in drafting an amicus brief for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in a federal case challenging the constitutionality of a Florida statute that makes drug possession a strict liability offense subject to life imprisonment. He is also a deputy editor of the “Year in Review” issue of The International Lawyer, a journal of the American Bar Association.

Neal Feigenson

Marilyn Ford

Carmen Tortora Professor of Law PUBLICATIONS

Professor

“Visual Common Sense,” in R. Sherwin & A. Wagner (eds.), Law, Culture, and Visual Studies (Springer, forthcoming 2011).

“Audiovisual Communication and Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Cognitive and Social Psychological Dimensions,” International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Vol. 33 p.336-340 (2010).

“Seeing Justice Done” (review of Daniel Stepniak, “Audiovisual Coverage of Courts”), International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, DOI 10.1007/s11196-0109195-4 (2010).

In October, he presented “Fantasies of Visual Proof: Visual Memory Reconstruction via fMRI” at the Brain Sciences in the Courtroom Symposium, Mercer Law School, Macon, Ga. Feigenson traveled to Japan in September 2010 to present “Visual Technologies in Court: Current Issues, Future Challenges,” at the International Seminar on the Psychological Impact of Visual Technology in the Courtroom, Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto and also at the Japan Association of Law and Psychology seminar, Tokyo. In August 2010, he presented “Persuasive Effects of Courtroom Visual Displays: An Overview,” at the American Bar Association annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

Robert Farrell Professor PUBLICATIONS “The Two Versions of Rational Basis Review and Same-Sex Relationships,” the Washington Law Review, Vol. 86 (forthcoming May 2011).

Mary Ferrari Associate Professor PUBLICATIONS “Congress Eases a Penalty, but Squanders Reform Opportunity” (with Toni Robinson), Tax Notes, Vol. 130, p. 333, (January 2011).

In October 2010, Ford served as cochair for the Urban League Women’s Empowerment Summit in Stamford. The honorees/speakers included Desmond Tutu’s daughter Naomi, Kerry Kennedy, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro.

Samuel Freedman Adjunct Professor Judge Samuel S. Freedman received the 2010 Sportsmen of Westport’s Citizenship Award. He is a member of the Dean’s Council.

Stephen G. Gilles Professor PUBLICATIONS “The Supreme Court and Legal Uncertainty,” DePaul Law Review, Vol. 60, (2010).

Martin Margulies Professor Emeritus “Valour Does Not Wait,” a book review of Arran Johnson, The Jacobite, No. 134:9 (Winter 2010).

Harry Mazadoorian Distinguished Senior Fellow, Center for Dispute Resolution PUBLICATIONS “ADR and Healthcare: An Overview,” Dispute Resolution Magazine (American Bar Association, Spring 2010).

In October 2010, Mazadoorian served as a faculty member at a national program sponsored by the American Arbitration Associ-

Lawyer brings cases to class KING QUOTED IN LSAT ARTICLE

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ssociate Dean David King was quoted in a Connecticut Law Tribune article on Jan. 17 about making LSATs voluntary.

An American Bar Association committee reviewing the standards is mulling whether to drop the rule that law schools require applicants to take the admissions test. King, who teaches an LSAT prep course, thinks it’s a good idea to reassess the merits of the test.

In the article, King explained that the LSAT’s purpose is to predict first-year law school grades. He said it doesn’t predict performance over three or four years of law school, what kind of lawyer someone will be or whether he or she will pass the bar exam. He also said the correlation between LSAT score and first-year law school grades is not all that high.

He favors the idea of reducing the emphasis on the LSAT and focusing on the “whole person,” mentioning that some people who have done well in college, perhaps even having earned a master’s degree, have trouble with the test.

ation on Exploring Alternative Dispute Resolution Solutions in Healthcare Disputes in Chicago, Ill. Steve Ronai, an adjunct professor at the law school, also served on the faculty.

sponsored by the School of Law and the Connecticut Bar Foundation in January. The panel discussed “Juries and Criminal Sentencing: Should Our Juries Have More Say?”

Jeffrey Meyer

John Thomas

Professor PUBLICATIONS

Professor PUBLICATIONS

“Dual Illegality and Geoambiguous Law: A New Rule for Extraterritorial Application of U.S. Law,” Minnesota Law Review, Vol. 95, p.

110 (2010).

Article on the Buddy Holly Guitar Foundation, Acoustic Guitar magazine (2011).

Linda Meyer Carmen Tortora Professor of Law PUBLICATIONS “On the Conjoining of Law and Love,” (with Martha Merrill Umphrey), Quinnipiac Law Review, Vol. 28, p. 585 (2010).

Sarah French Russell Assistant Professor Russell moderated a panel at the Juries and Justice forum

“Buddy’s 1942 Gibson J-45,” Acoustic Guitar magazine (2011).

“Running on Passion: Jackson Browne, Embedded on the Frontline with the Leader of the Guitar-Geek Nation,” Fretboard Journal (2011).

“From the Scrap Heap to Art of the Ages,” Fretboard Journal (2011).

“The Impact of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on International Cultural Musical Exchange,” Athens (Greece) Institute of Education and Research Publications (forthcoming 2011). He presented this paper in July at the Athens Institute for Education and Research.

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imothy S. Fisher, a partner at McCarter & English LLP in Hartford, is providing students with a window to the contemporary legal world this academic year.

As the distinguished practitioner in residence, Fisher is working with a half dozen faculty members, teaching a session of their classes or speaking with students in one of the clinics or externships. He has been a guest lecturer in courses taught by Professors Jennifer Gerarda Brown, Jeffrey Meyer and Emanuel Psarakis; the legal skills program directed by Susan Dailey; the civil clinic, taught by Kevin Barry; and externship classes taught by Dahlia Grace and Carolyn Kaas.

“Tim’s collaborative work with our faculty has enriched our students’ experience significantly. I know they have benefited from his insights as a lawyer in a challenging and successful practice,” Dean Brad Saxton said.

Fisher works within his firm’s real estate/construction practice

group and is an experienced practitioner in alternative dispute resolution. “The students seem to appreciate the chance to understand the practical application of a concept they are learning, and I use specific examples from my practice,” he said.

Fisher currently serves as president of the Connecticut Bar Foundation. He and Saxton met when they co-chaired a task force on the future of the legal profession for the Connecticut Bar Association. Since then, Fisher has become a member of the law school’s Committee on the Future of Legal Education, where he shares his perspectives on the changing employment market, among other things.

“Fewer law school graduates are getting jobs based solely on academic performance these days.

More jobs are going to students who can show a well-developed set of skills and professional values relevant to their employer. Big firms once liked to hire raw material—‘bright young minds’––but now they prefer lawyers who are also client-ready,” Fisher said.

Feigenson writes book chapter

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eal Feigenson, Carmen Tortora Professor of Law, has published a chapter titled “Visual Common Sense,” in R. Sherwin & A. Wagner’s “Law, Culture, and Visual Studies” (Springer, forthcoming 2011).

Feigenson begins his chapter with the following: “Visual and multimedia technologies—from digital video and photography to computer animations, from PowerPoint to specialized, interactive trial presentation software—have become an increasingly common feature of legal proceedings in the United States and other countries in recent years. In large part this is because digital technologies have

made it easier to record or, in the case of computer animations, to re-create legally relevant reality visually. It is also due to an evergreater receptivity in the culture as a whole to visual sources of knowledge.

“Pictures can indeed tell us a lot—but not as much as we tend to think they do. This pervasive metacognitive error and some of its consequences for legal decision making are my focus in this chapter. I claim that a particular common sense attitude toward pictures, naïve realism, tends to make people overconfident in their interpretations of visual evidence and less receptive to alternative viewpoints.”

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FIGHTING for Rights

NEW PROFESSOR WANTS TO SEE JUSTICE FOR PRISONERS

BY DONNA PINTEK

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WHILE WORKING AS A PUBLIC DEFENDER at the Federal Public Defender’s Office in New Haven, Sarah French Russell noticed a trend. Judges were imposing stiffer sentences for offenders who had prior drug convictions.

“For years, federal courts in Connecticut routinely imposed enhancements to sentences when defendants came before them with prior Connecticut drug sale convictions on their records,” explained Russell, a new assistant professor of law at Quinnipiac. She thought this practice resulted in sentences that were too long for her clients, and she discovered a novel way to challenge it.

In United States v. Savage, Russell successfully obtained a shorter sentence for a client who was convicted of gun possession and had a prior drug conviction.

After closely examining the language of the sentencing guidelines, Russell argued that the government needed to prove that drugs were distributed, and not just offered for sale. The sentencing judge disagreed and ordered an increased sentence. However, the Court of Appeals sided with Russell, and her work helped to greatly reduce the number of lengthier sentences imposed due to prior drug convictions in Connecticut.

Russell elaborated on the topic in her article, “Rethinking Recidivist Enhancements: The Role of Prior Drug Convictions in Federal Sentencing,” published by the UC Davis Law Review in 2010. In the article, she explained that the increases are not justified because there is little evidence that longer sentences prevent repeat behavior or deter others from committing crimes.

These days, Russell is tackling these and other issues in the classroom. She is one of two professors who head Quinnipiac’s Civil Clinic, which offers a host of legal services free of charge to lowincome individuals. She supervises a

group of students who assume primary responsibility for the cases, which range from unpaid wage battles to benefit claims, housing disputes, special education issues, child support and more.

“Students in the clinic represent real clients with actual legal problems,” said Russell, who co-teaches the Civil Clinic course with Kevin Barry, assistant professor of law. Typically, the clinic handles up to 30 cases at a time. Cases often are referred from other organizations, such as New Haven Legal Assistance Association or Connecticut Legal Services.

As certified legal interns, the students can go to court, make arguments and present evidence, with either Russell or Barry in attendance. “The students are learning to be lawyers for clients by actually doing it,” Russell said.

Prior to Quinnipiac, Russell was director of the Liman Public Interest Project at Yale Law School. She also taught in the prisoners’ rights, criminal defense and Supreme Court clinics.

While at Yale, she helped supervise teams of students who represented prisoners in state and federal conditions of confinement cases. They won a major victory in Forde v. Baird, a case in which a federal district court recognized the right of a female Muslim inmate not to be patsearched by the male guards.

“IT WAS AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE,” Russell said. “The trial only went on for a week, but the preparation was years in the making. Many different students had a hand in the research, deposition, briefs and settlement conference.”

She also worked with students who were submitting proposals for public interest fellowships. It’s an area where the need is great, but the money is scarce, she noted.

After earning both her BA and JD from Yale, Russell clerked for two federal judges in New York, then-Chief Judge

Michael B. Mukasey of the U.S. District Court, and Judge Chester J. Straub of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

When she returned to New Haven to work in the public defender’s office, she represented indigent clients facing federal criminal charges. “I was very excited to be a federal public defender. I wanted to represent clients and have contact with real people who I could try to help,” said Russell.

At Quinnipiac, Russell is looking forward to writing on a broader range of issues, and ultimately impacting policy decisions, something that she did not have as much time to do with the demands and pace of the public defender’s job. She is also excited about spending more time with students.

“I was always interested in doing the clinical side of law teaching, working on cases with students, rather than strictly focusing on the classroom,” said Russell, who is married to fellow Yale Law School graduate Sean McElligott, a trial lawyer with Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder in Bridgeport, Conn. They have two children: Charlie, 3, and Henry, 1.

Russell also is committed to improving access to justice and legal services for the incarcerated or newly released. This semester at Quinnipiac, the students in the Civil Clinic will work on a new category of cases—prisoner re-entry services.

“The idea is to help people who are coming out of prison with various legal matters in the hope that they will be able to get back on the right track and not re-offend,” said Russell. She is disappointed at the lack of support newly released individuals receive, such as finding a job or housing. “A huge amount of money is invested in locking people up, but not in helping them when they come out,” she said.

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FACULTY•FOCUS QU Law goes to outer space

By Professor John Thomas

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uinnipiac School of Law is heading to Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede. And not via space travel, but via the magic (and very hard work) of film.

Upon learning about my latest nonprofit, The Buddy Holly Guitar Foundation, the producer of the film “Alive and Well” contacted me to request that I consult on the film’s soundtrack. I recently was named an executive producer.

The mission of The Buddy Holly Guitar Foundation is to provide children growing up in challenging circumstances with a chance to express their own musical visions. A guitarist myself, I formed the foundation and am a founding member of its board. My role as executive producer is to line up artists to perform Buddy Holly cover tunes and incidental music for the film’s soundtrack.

The film is an adaptation of Bradley Denton’s 1991 awardwinning novel, “Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede.”

The book combines science fiction, comedy, political satire, and, of course, rock ’n’ roll to form the perfect platform for a movie. The film will star John Heder, who co-wrote and played the title character in 2004’s “Napoleon Dynamite.”

Molly Mayeux, who formerly worked with Stephen Spielberg and is now CEO of Dahlia Street Films, will produce it. The director is Robert Rugan, who has directed for television and film,

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BOOK SHELF

LAW ALUMNUS WRITES BOOK ON MEDIA CRITICS

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ritics of the press seldom find themselves under the microscope, but that is just where Arthur Hayes ’88 placed them in writing his first book, “Press Critics Are the Fifth Estate: Media Watchdogs in America” (Praeger Publishers, 2008).

Only a handful of books had been written on the topic, and none made a clear distinction between professional critics reviewing their peers’ work and citizens who are critical of the media they consume.

Hayes, of Stamford, Conn., wrote the book during a sabbatical in 2007 from his position as an associate professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University. Hayes began his career as a journalist and earned his law degree while writing for Tennis magazine and then American Lawyer magazine. He served as the director of the undergraduate and graduate journalism programs for Quinnipiac’s School of Communications from 2001–03.

Hayes’ book was named a finalist for the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication’s Tankard Book Award in 2009. “It combines my legal reasoning skills, First Amendment doctrine and theory, mass communications theory, and my first-hand knowledge of the newsroom and how journalists think,” Hayes said.

In the book, Hayes expands on the public sphere concept of renowned German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. Citizens should be encouraged to criticize the press, Hayes says, “despite the fact that they might have an ideological agenda, despite the fact that they may be uncivil in discourse…and it is generally a good thing for democracy to have more citizens engaged in this kind of discourse.”

Hayes created a list of notable press critics by putting potential candidates through a rigorous set of criteria, the toughest of which was whether the critic had a direct impact on changing press behavior. Although the book has cable TV satirist Stephen Colbert on its cover, Hayes said Colbert’s Comedy Central counterpart on “The Daily Show” has led all critics in this regard for years.

“There’s no doubt the most influential press critic based on my criteria is Jon Stewart, and since my book’s been published, he’s done more things to underscore the argument I made for his impact,” Hayes said. Other critics who made the list include Ben Bagdikian, Steven Brill and Jeff Cohen.

Hayes is currently working on a textbook, “Mass Media Law: The Printing Press to the Internet,” which is scheduled for publication later this year. It will serve as a prelude to a second book, “Law and Media Technology: How Law Shapes Our Use and Development of Mass Media.”—Stephen P. Schmidt, MS ’11

including the award-winning indie film “Alice’s Misadventures in Wonderland.”

As anyone who has ever set foot in the School of Law knows, our students possess an incredibly diverse array of interests and talents. We try our best to present them with opportunities that suit their skills and serve their personal

and professional goals. At least two QU law students have backgrounds that are tailor-made for this project.

Second-year student Eli Peterson, who has long written for the online music magazine Twangville, has come on board to work on all things musical, including contractual and intellectual

property law issues. First-year student Kiel Walker, a film major at Yale and several-year veteran of the film industry, will be educating and working alongside me.

Filming begins in New Mexico this summer. Check the Quinnipiac Law magazine for updates and, as Buddy himself put it, remember to “Rave On!”

STUDENT•SPOTLIGHT Family Day Awards ceremony

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ore than 100 law students were honored for outstanding academic work at the annual Family Day Awards ceremony in November.

In addition to several named scholarships that honor students in such categories as the best oral advocacy and legal writing, the School of Law gave Distinguished Academic Achievement Awards to law students who earned the highest grade point average in each section of a course during the previous academic year.

At left: Professor Robert Farrell congratulates Colleen Kozicz ’10 on her distinguished academic achievement award; Jennifer Brady, recipient of the James DeFonce Memorial Scholarship, with Robert and Roberta DeFonce; Parthiban Mathavan with his wife and daughters.

From left: Allan Song, Erin Sheets, Robert Shepherd, Chris Smedick and Jonathan Sliva with Dean Brad Saxton. They received distinguished academic achievement awards.

Team No. 1 in FINRA competition

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he Society for Dispute Resolution fielded two teams in the Second Annual Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon competition sponsored in October by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, also known as FINRA. The team of Alexandra Buenaventura ’12, Nicole Fernandes ’11 and Taryn Porzio ’12 finished first in the mediation portion, besting 21 other teams in the challenging, two-day competition that attracts law students from around the country. Quinnipiac University was matched against teams from Texas, Florida, New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania and others.

Abraham Hurdle ’10 coached the winning team. That team and a second QU team composed of Elana Bertram ’11, Caitlin McGrory ’11 and Carminia Munoz ’11 were recognized for their collaborative methods, preparation and professionalism. Cara Platt ’11 coached the second team.

FINRA challenges competitors’ advocacy skills in negotiation,

community service chairs. mediation and arbitration. The “In the alternative dispute competition focused on the securesolution community, our teams rities issues of investment suitabilhave established a good reputaity, portfolio diversification, risk tion, not only for our continued and return profiles, the fiduciary success, but also for our quality duties of a broker/dealer, conflicts demeanor toward our competiof interest arising between the tors,” said Porzio. broker-dealer and issuer, and the Porzio said the team receives obligation of broker-dealers to invaluable guidance from faculty conduct reasonable investigations advisers Carolyn Wilkes Kaas, in Regulation D offerings.

Jennifer Gerarda Brown and Porzio serves as president of Charles H. Pillsbury. the Society for Dispute Resolution Executive Board.

Other officers are Platt, vice president of external competitions; Adam Larue, vice president of internal competitions; Tiffany Sabato, vice president of membership development; Courtney Dillon, treasurer; Buenaventura, secretary; Fernandes and Alex Copp, competition chairs; and Melissa Showing off their medals, from left: Taryn Porzio ’12, Roy and Dan Schofield, Nicole Fernandes ’11 and Alexandra Buenaventura ’12.

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STUDENT•SPOTLIGHT Students clerking with Connecticut Supreme Court justices

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wo third-year law students have anything but a hazy, lazy summer ahead. Heather McKay, the lead articles editor of the Quinnipiac Law Review, will begin a clerkship in the chambers of Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers, while Katharine Casaubon, the editor-in-chief of the Quinnipiac Law Review, will begin clerking for Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Flemming L. Norcott Jr. They will take a brief break from their yearlong positions to study for and take the bar exam in July. During their clerkships, both students expect to examine briefs, hear oral arguments, research cases and compose drafts the justices may use when writing opinions.

McKay noted that some of the advantages to clerking after law school are the ability to perfect one’s research and writing skills, and the opportunity to observe appellate-level oral arguments.

A law clerk’s job is very writingintensive, and Rogers told McKay she was impressed with the writing sample she submitted in her application. McKay previously took the Judicial Clerkship Seminar taught by Professor Melanie Abbott, and used an assignment she wrote for that class as her writing sample when applying for clerkships.

An article McKay wrote— “Fighting for Victoria: Federal Equal Protection Claims Available to American Transgender Schoolchildren”—will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Quinnipiac Law Review.

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QUINNIPIAC LAW • SPRING 2011

McKay is a member of the Women’s Law Society and the Family and Juvenile Law Society.

During Fall 2010, she served as a research assistant to Professor Jeffrey Meyer. Last summer, she was Heather McKay, left, and Katharine Casaubon will clerk for Connecticut Supreme Court justices Chase T. a summer associ- Rogers and Flemming L. Norcott Jr., respectively. ate at Shipman & Goodwin LLP, internships, she interned after her Norcott will give me the perfect and during the spring semester, first year with Judge Jack W. Fischopportunity to further develop she externed in the chambers of er at the Meriden Superior Court, those skills.”

Federal District Court Judge Janet and last summer, with Judge She served as president of the Bond Arterton in New Haven.

Vanessa L. Bryant at the Federal Animal Law Society last year, and During her first year of law school, District Court in Hartford. is a member of the Intellectual she was a research assistant for Outside the law school, Property Law Society and the Professor Linda Meyer, and spent Casaubon served on the board of Women’s Law Society. In Spring the summer as an intern at the directors for the University’s Cen2010, she externed in the chamNew York State Office of the ter for Excellence and is a goverbers of Chief Judge Alexandra Attorney General and in the nor of law for the University’s Davis DiPentima at the Connectichambers of Monroe County Graduate Student Council. cut Appellate Court. For summer Court Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr. Casaubon is excited about her new role as well. She said Justice Norcott was the last of five justices with whom she interviewed, and she felt an immediate connection with him.

“I am confident that this will Third-year student Cara Platt was be a valuable learning experience, the winner of the 2010 Dean Terence and I am really looking forward to H. Benbow Intramural Moot Court working in Justice Norcott’s chamCompetition. She was recognized for bers after graduation,” she added. having the best oral argument.

Casaubon previously interned Marybeth Gordon received the in the chambers of three other award for best brief, and Platt was judges and really enjoyed it. “I find the process of assisting in drafting second. Darren Pruslow received an judicial opinions appealing. I think award for the second-best oral my strengths lie in research and argument. writing, and clerking for Justice

MOOT COURT WINNERS

Skilled translator Bio background suits future IP lawyer

By Donna Pintek s a pharmaceutical sales representative, Elana Bertram found that one of her greatest assets was the ability to translate technical product information into easy-to-understand terms for doctors and nurses.

“On the one hand, I needed to talk in medical terms with doctors, then talk sales numbers and marketing phrases with my boss. It helps to be able to translate in different directions,” explained Bertram, whose job with Boehringer Ingelheim in Ridgefield, Conn., involved convincing doctors to prescribe specific drugs.

Bertram knew that some senior citizens paid exorbitant rates for their prescription medicines. She recognized that a problem existed with the Medicaid system. The only way to fix it, she realized, would be to move into a more legislative or policy role. So Bertram did what she considered the logical thing—she decided to go to law school.

Bertram, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Mount Holyoke College, said the biology background provided an ideal springboard into the intellectual property field. “Within the IP concentration, there are a lot of engineers, some chemists and people with varied technical backgrounds, but very few with biology backgrounds.”

She found her communication skills to be an asset again.

“As an IP attorney, I will need to be able to translate from inventor to attorney and then back again,” she said. She was intrigued when she realized she was eligible to be a registered patent agent with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

“The great thing about it is you are dealing with cuttingedge technology every day—all the new stuff people are inventing, selling, licensing. I like the idea that part of my job would be to continue to learn,” Bertram said.

Bertram, who will earn her JD in May, is attending the University on a Dean’s Fellow scholarship, which covers her three years of tuition. In the spring, she will take the exam to become licensed as a patent agent. She also works part time as a lawyer referral service consultant at the New Haven County Bar Association.

For the past year and a half, Bertram has put her communication skills to work on Quinnipiac’s Health Law Journal, initially as a staff member, and most recently as editor-in-chief. In that role, she not only writes, but also edits submissions from practicing attorneys, professors and physicians.

Her paper, “How Current Informed Consent Protocols Flunk the Sham Surgery Test: A New Frontier in Medicine,” was published in the December 2010 issue.

A

Third-year student Elana Bertram with Lancelot, whom she trained in dressage.

Last spring, Bertram also took on the role of student adviser to the Gregory A. Loken Loan Repayment Assistance Program, which offers financial assistance to recent law graduates working in public service.

For Bertram, coming to law school also meant giving up one of her other passions: dressage—which she describes as “figure skating with horses.” An equestrian since the age of 3, Bertram competed in national championships in high school and college, where she won two consecutive individual national championships.

She trained her horse, Lancelot, an 8-year-old American Quarterhorse stabled in Newtown, Conn. She rides him as often as she can. Recently, Bertram has had to cut back on competitions, which are time consuming. “It’s difficult to continue in a steady program. I can barely make it to the gym, let alone the barn,” she said.

She has no regrets, however. “Law school is a great experience. It is like learning a new language,” she said.

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SECRECY

shattered WikiLeaks controversy raises questions about freedom of speech, the nature of journalism and the conduct of diplomacy

BY RHEA HIRSHMAN

“O

nce the Xerox copier was invented, diplomacy died,” lamented Andrew Young, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Carter administration.

That was more than 30 years ago. Since then, with the advent of the Internet, the photocopier has become the least of the worries of officials around the world looking to conduct government business in secret. Referencing the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, noted First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams thinks it will be more and more difficult to protect secrets, regardless of the validity of the decision to keep the information secret.

The ability of even democratically elected representative governments to keep some information under wraps has

been considered essential to the conduct of international affairs. American presidential administrations since the beginning—regardless of party affiliation— have asserted that some government activities needed to remain secret for the greater or long-term good.

Even Thomas Jefferson, an architect of democracy, “loved the sense of freedom from oversight which diplomacy gave,” wrote historian Henry Adams. Jefferson himself said, “All nations have found it necessary that, for the advantageous conduct of their affairs, at least some of these (executive) proceedings should remain known to their executive functionary only.”

Abrams acknowledged in an interview with Quinnipiac Law that WikiLeaks’ actions may sometimes have served the public interest. But, he says, “They have released an enormous amount of material

without good reason, and with the potential to create considerable harm.” Abrams represented The New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case. He was the recipient of the Fred Friendly Lifetime Achievement Award from Quinnipiac University in 2008.

WikiLeaks’ activities raise several questions about freedom of speech at home and abroad, the nature of journalism, the definition of “whistle-blowing,” the limits and possibilities of diplomacy, the intersections of the American and international legal systems, and the conduct of international affairs.

Founded in 2006 by a group led by Australian activist and journalist Julian Assange, WikiLeaks has the stated purpose of “exposing oppressive regimes,” and “revealing unethical behavior in governments and corporations by making public classified, censored or otherwise restricted SPRING 2011 • QUINNIPIAC LAW

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material it receives from other sources and that is not already publicly available.”

The site has published documents as diverse as information about toxic dumping in Africa, protocols from Guantánamo Bay, the “secret bibles” of Scientology, reports of Iranian nuclear accidents, email messages from Sarah Palin’s personal account, and 9/11 pager messages. Assange recently has indicated his intention to use data from an executive’s hard drive to take down a major American bank and reveal an “ecosystem of corruption.”

But the WikiLeaks activities getting most of the attention of late, and raising Constitutional issues here in the U.S., are the release of tens of thousands of confidential military field reports about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in July 2010, followed by the release in December of a quarter of a million diplomatic cables from 250 U.S. embassies around the world. Indepth reports based on those cables were published by The New York Times and four European newspapers.

Criminal investigation planned The release of the field reports was denounced by officials as potentially endangering the lives of both soldiers and civilians. The release of the cables has provoked consternation in diplomatic circles worldwide. The U.S. Department of Justice has stated its intention to conduct “an active criminal investigation” of Assange, looking to ascertain whether he was a conspirator encouraging the extraction of classified files, or simply the passive recipient of the information from another party.

The American law usually cited in relation to legal action against WikiLeaks is the Espionage Act of 1917. Among other stipulations, the act states that the unauthorized possession and disclosure of information respecting the national defense to be “used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation” is illegal.

The law has been subject to several challenges, but has been upheld, at least in part.

Most recently, according to Abrams, who represented The New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case, “The Justice Department took the position that it could enforce the Espionage Act against 14

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The issue is whether WikiLeaks has gone so far that the First Amendment may simply not protect it, according to Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment expert.

journalists in a 2006 case—U.S. v. Rosen— that it later dropped.” In that case, two former officials of the American Israel Political Action Committee were accused of orally giving an Israeli diplomat classified information they had been told by a Defense Department employee.

Abrams explains that the federal judge in that case concluded that “to obtain a conviction of individuals who had not worked for the government but had received information from individuals who had, prosecutors must prove bad intent; that is, prove that the defendant actually intended to harm the U.S. or to help an enemy, rather than that he was simply following a deeply held view that government secrets should be exposed. This ruling holds that action based on such a belief could be protected by the First Amendment.”

Assange’s own public statements could expose him to prosecution under this reading of the law. He is quoted in a New Yorker profile as arguing that a social movement to “expose secrets could bring down many administrations that rely on concealing reality—including the U.S. administration.” And Attorney General Eric Holder noted recently that the Justice Department is looking beyond the Espionage Act to other possible offenses, including conspiracy or trafficking in stolen property. “We have other statutes, other tools at our disposal,” he said.

Jurisdiction is cloudy If prosecution were to go forward, Jeffrey Meyer, professor of law, believes that complex jurisdictional issues would have to be resolved. He asks, “Who can legitimately assert jurisdiction with a defendant who is an Australian national, who has hidden in England and is working with authorities in Iceland, is wanted for unrelated charges in Sweden, and who published documents that were apparently provided without authorization to WikiLeaks by a U.S. citizen who was a soldier in Iraq at the time?”

Meyer says, “Jurisdictional rules have to be neutral as to outcome and not turn on the merits of underlying disputes; they are not the same as rules of conduct. The U.S. cannot assert authority simply to regulate conduct it finds offensive; on the other hand, if someone has stolen U.S. government property, others should not be free to traffic in it.”

But these guidelines, Meyer notes, do not address the extent to which provisions of our Constitution apply abroad. He asks, “Would Assange win an argument that he has First Amendment rights abroad? Does the Constitution protect people in general from our government’s doing anything constitutionally forbidden, or does it protect only U.S. citizens and/or certain conduct that occurs within the U.S? If I go overseas, I can be protected as an American citizen if I speak against the

U.S. government. But do the same protections apply to foreigners abroad involved in actions related to the U.S.?”

Additional questions involve whether a government regulates by where conduct takes place, or where conduct has its effect. “Regulating the first is easier,” Meyer says, because it is more objectively identifiable. “If you’re just over the border in Canada and shoot someone in the U.S., the venue for prosecution is pretty clear, at least in Canada.” But, he continues, “What do these questions mean when talking about the Internet, which is everywhere and nowhere, and where everything occurs simultaneously?”

Some discussions of legal issues surrounding WikiLeaks have focused on whether or not Assange can be considered a journalist. Meyer and Abrams find this issue irrelevant. “We don’t ordinarily condition First Amendment protections on the identity or condition of the speaker,” Meyer says.

Richard Hanley, director of the graduate journalism program at Quinnipiac, says WikiLeaks dumps data that may or may not yield news leads.

Abrams adds, “We all receive broad First Amendment protection. The issue is whether WikiLeaks has gone so far that the First Amendment may simply not protect it. Whoever gave them the info could be prosecuted. But WikiLeaks has both some source-like qualities and some journalistic qualities; we have never seen a case like this before.”

Chilling effect on journalism Journalists themselves are divided on the “journalistic qualities” of WikiLeaks.

Last December, syndicated columnist Clarence Page published a piece titled, “WikiLeaks Can Make Us Less Free,” in which he argues that “the biggest irony is how the consequences of Assange’s nosy revolution undoubtedly will be quite the opposite of what he says he wants.

Instead of opening up the world to more private information and honest views, he will make leaders and diplomats more cautious and less candid. With fewer guarantees of secrecy in this Internet age, it will be more difficult for national leaders and diplomats to gain the confidence that can lead to frank discussions and useful ends.”

But in the same month, nearly two dozen faculty members of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism sent a letter to President Obama and Attorney General Holder, saying, “Any prosecution of Wikileaks’ staff for receiving, possessing or publishing classified materials will set a dangerous precedent… potentially chilling investigative journalism and other First Amendmentprotected activity.

Prosecution … would greatly damage American standing in free-press debates worldwide and would dishearten those journalists looking to this nation for inspiration.”

For Richard Hanley, assistant professor of journalism and QU graduate journalism program director, WikiLeaks “shows how incapacitated the profession of journalism has become in relation to reporting on diplomacy and international affairs”— areas he says are most affected by budget cuts in mainstream news organizations.

“News outlets used to pride themselves on international coverage,” Hanley says.

“Journalists should have been all over some of the stories that those cables highlighted. Yes, some of the material in the leaked dispatches falls into the category of gossip. But those are exactly the kinds of leads that journalists follow in order to get real news. With news bureaus shut down, there is no opportunity to follow leads, to dig deeper.

What we have with WikiLeaks is a data dump. Information is not the same as news. News—good journalism—provides context and depth. Simply posting documents is not doing journalism.”

Still, Hanley is optimistic about his profession and even the lessons it can take from WikiLeaks. “I hope that what’s happened sparks a renewal of aggressive international reporting, but not from traditional news organizations. Startups will use the power of the Internet without having costs like printing presses and paper. They could post reporters around the world and package and distribute good journalism to domestic media companies.”

Susan Filan ’91, senior legal analyst for MSNBC, says she isn’t sure at this point about who wins the First Amendment argument, but hopes a new definition of right and wrong emerges from the WikiLeaks story.

Filan, also a principal in her own Fairfield County law firm, says, “We are at a place where morality, technology, policy and the law all meet up. The idea of what is best for the greater good may be moving out of the hands of governments and becoming all of our responsibility.”

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heading the

BAR As CBA president, Ralph Monaco ’93 is leading lawyers into a new era B Y A L E JA N D R A N AVA R RO

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n online search for a case might be faster, but Ralph Monaco ’93 still thinks there’s something to be gained by looking up a case in a book.

Scrolling through the pages of Shepard’s Citations for Case Law often yields an interesting case he may not have encountered using keywords in a database, explains Monaco, motioning to the weathered books that line one conference room wall at the law firm of Conway, Londregan, Sheehan & Monaco PC in New London, Conn.

“At 43, I’m probably part of the last generation that still feels comfortable doing research in books,” says Monaco, a boardcertified trial lawyer specializing in civil and commercial litigation. He is also president of the Connecticut Bar Association.

When Monaco was in law school, students shared one LexisNexis terminal. He recognizes that times have changed. When he joined the firm in 1993, it had a law library. Today, books are decorative features in the 130-year-old Victorian home that houses the law offices. To keep up with demand for information, the CBA is refining an app for the BlackBerry and iPhone that would give its members access to Casemaker, the association’s online legal library.

New technologies and online resources are changing the legal profession, in ways more far-reaching than research. The Internet has made lawyers more accessible to clients; it also has given people alternatives to hiring a lawyer.

Many people who don’t think they can afford a lawyer are turning to online legal sites that offer cheap and convenient legal documents, but with little or no legal expertise. This combination can lead to costly mistakes, explains Monaco.

Monaco and his colleagues have had clients who have used these self-help sites and prepared documents that are not accurate, appropriate, or legally valid, he says.

He has encountered small business owners who sign contracts and negotiate deals without the benefit of a lawyer.

“It’s unfortunate that people have grown

As CBA president, Ralph Monaco ’93 works to improve civic education in schools.

reliant on these sites because they are missing out on the counseling that lawyers do: counseling on which document is appropriate, why the document is appropriate, and what alternatives are available,” he says.

With the rise of pro se litigants and online legal services, Monaco has led the CBA in an effort to “unbundle” legal services, which would allow lawyers to file limited representation in court. For example, instead of handling an entire divorce, a lawyer can handle just the child custody matters.

“A challenge of the bar is to tell people how they can afford us,” says Monaco, who notes that some firms use alternative payment options instead of billable hours.

Monaco tries to be up-front about the potential costs of a case with his clients, giving a best-and-worst-case scenario of the costs, as well as the merits of the case.

“I enjoy taking on cases where there are new legal issues involved,” says Monaco.

The majority of his practice is in personal injury, medical malpractice, product liability and wrongful death in superior court and in the U.S. District Court. He also has handled appeals at the Connecticut Supreme Court, as well at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Monaco has been involved in mass tort cases involving the Dalkon Shield, a contraceptive device that caused injuries, and Vioxx, a medication that was found to cause strokes and heart attacks. He successfully participated in the 2003 Rhode Island nightclub fire litigation that resulted in a $176 million settlement. He’s currently representing families who have had a member injured by “hot bats” or high performing aluminum bats that can hit balls at speeds beyond human reaction time.

Monaco has been on the Connecticut and New England Super Lawyers list annually from 2006–10. In 2009, he received the Publisher’s Award from the Connecticut Law Tribune for challenging the state’s attempt to remove funds from the Attorney Client Security Fund.

He most appreciates helping families in need. He recalls getting a settlement for one young widow with children that provided twice the income that her deceased husband was earning, without touching the

principle. “It’s very rewarding to give a family that financial relief,” says Monaco, who has two young daughters—Abby, 11, and Anna, 9—with his wife Dina.

“I know few more passionate or appropriately focused advocates,” said friend and colleague Vincent Cervoni ’93, a lawyer at Gesmonde, Pietrosimone & Sgrignari, LLC, in Hamden. “As a leader, Ralph has a way of calmly seeing beyond the fray, organizing, delegating, and getting people to work for the common goal.”

His most recent goal is to improve civics education. It has become the theme of his CBA presidency, an endeavor inspired by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

“Surveys have shown that more people can name a judge on American Idol than can name a Supreme Court justice,” says a slightly frustrated Monaco. He has established a CBA committee that is working with educators on the issue.

“Who better to understand the importance of civics education than the people who are involved in civics day in and day out?” reasons Monaco. “It gets young people excited about government. It encourages respect for the rule of law.”

Recalling the horror of the recent shooting rampage that targeted U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, he says, “I’m reminded of how we need to do more to educate young people that government works.

Democracy requires participation and respect for different views.”

He encourages young lawyers to volunteer and join community boards as well as professional organizations, such as the CBA, to make sure their opinions are heard. He also hopes to build a connection to law school students to create a smoother transition into the profession. He plans to expand the mentor program that is currently in New Haven and Hartford.

Not everyone has supported his work.

When the CBA passed a proposal to change the statute that requires the state’s attorney general have 10 years of trial experience, he came under criticism. Monaco welcomes the debate.

“People have called to disagree,” he says with a boyish smile. “My response is ‘get involved.’”

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QUINNIPIAC LAW • SPRING 2011

CASE of a lifetime Grandson implores alumnus to seek justice for his grandmother, who spent 45 years in Albanian prison camps B Y JA N E T WA L D M A N

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tephen Longo ’83, a solo practitioner in Prospect, Conn., was hard at work one February day in 2006 when into his office walked a man in his early thirties whom Longo had met in the course of a routine commercial real estate transaction.

“I want justice for my grandmother,” said the new arrival. And thus began the saga of what both Longo and the highprofile lawyer he would team with on the other side of the world in Australia would describe as “the case of a lifetime.”

The tale of the grandmother, Sanije K. (her last name is omitted in deference to Australian court efforts to keeps parties in domestic cases anonymous), drew Longo into some of the darkest corners

Stephen Longo ’83 was part of an international legal team that represented Sanije K., at left, in a remarkable divorce/inheritance case.

Sanije’s husband, Mehmet K., former police chief in Albania, fled the country to escape prosecution, but his family suffered.

of European 20th-century history.

Elements of the case included daring escapes, horrific prison conditions, political and familial betrayals, savvy legal maneuvering, espionage and faith in the American legal system.

The case also led Longo to reach out to a QU faculty member with whom he’d had no contact since graduating, Professor David Rosettenstein. It is a story that Longo feels deserves a book, and he has taken a year off from his practice to write it. Here is Sanije’s story.

In the mid-1930s, Sanije and her husband, Mehmet K., lived in Albania.

Mehmet had fought alongside the Communists in World War II against the Nazis and also served as an escort for the British army stationed there. At the end of the war, Mehmet rose to the rank of police chief in Tirana. In 1946, the government, led by Enver Hoxha, began to suspect that Mehmet was offering secret SPRING 2011 • QUINNIPIAC LAW

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This prison in Korcë, Albania, was home to Sanije K. and her three children, who were raised here and in prison camps until adulthood.

Leila S., right, daughter of Gurie, grew up in Albanian prisons with Boris K. The friends since childhood were reunited when Leila testified in the case. At left is Sanije, Boris’s mother.

information to the British mission in Tirana. The state security office detained him, and he knew his days would be numbered. Mehmet escaped from detention through his window using bed sheets and fled to neighboring Greece. But he left behind his wife and children.

The Greeks, in the midst of a Communist insurgency bordering on a civil war, detained Mehmet upon his arrival in that county. “They knew he was a highranking officer, so they grabbed him, hoping he’d help them by testifying against 20

QUINNIPIAC LAW • SPRING 2011

his Albanian compatriots and help the Greeks in their quest to claim southern Albania for Greece, with the promise of release after,” Longo said. Mehmet testified before a United Nations Commission hearing in Salonika, Greece, on the role of Albanian Communists in smuggling arms to the insurgents. In return for his testimony and with the help of the British government, the way was cleared for Mehmet to immigrate to Australia.

When the Albanian authorities discovered Mehmet gone, they seized

Gurie S., above, befriended Sanije in prison, where Gurie was sent after her husband, Ali, fled to escape persecution. Ali managed to send Gurie money over the years, and that fact bolstered Sanije’s case.

Sanije, then 28 and seven months pregnant, along with the couple’s two daughters, and imprisoned them in Korcë, Albania. They were labeled enemies of the people, which made them social and economic outcasts. Their only crime was being related to Mehmet.

In the Korcë prison, a stone fortress built in 1916 by the French, Sanije gave birth to their son, Boris K. For 45 years, the mother and children were shuffled among prisons and labor camps. They lived in mud huts without plumbing, heat or adequate rations. They were required to perform hard labor, often working in fields without shoes, in freezing weather.

One of their more odious tasks involved digging up bodies of prisoners and reburying them. Boris suffered countless beatings, but he and the family endured.

In Albania, the sins of the father were the sins of the son and of the family. Boris married another prisoner, and they had two children, including a son named Gezim K. Once communism fell in 1991, the family was released.

New lives for all?

Shortly afterward, Sanije and one daughter journeyed to Australia for what they imagined might be a new life with Mehmet. However, Mehmet told Sanije that she was too old for him. The daughters also learned that under Australian law, only one family member would be permitted to stay with Mehmet. Sanije was “returned” to Albania while Mehmet continued to reside on his 3,600-acre farm.

She became estranged from her daughters, who sided with Mehmet.

In 1997, Gezim turned to New York Law School’s Immigration Clinic for help in obtaining political asylum in the U.S. for himself and his immediate family members, including Sanije. He and Boris toiled long hours for minimum wages as roofers, restaurant help and construction workers in Brooklyn, N.Y., struggling to attain the American dream and eventually become American citizens. Father and son saved to buy a home in Waterbury, Conn., then bought a shopping plaza in nearby Prospect and moved the family there. Gezim opened a café in that plaza.

Boris and the family help out every day.

Life was better, but something was missing. “I just want justice for my grandmother,” said Gezim. And so began Longo’s relationship with Sanije, Boris and Gezim.

From a lawyer’s perspective, the initial challenge was to identify what form justice might take. The couple was still married––Sanije was 87 and Mehmet, 95.

Was a divorce called for, or would time and inheritance laws suffice? What were the Australian divorce and inheritance rules and how would they play out in this scenario?

At this point, Longo turned to Rosettenstein. He remembered from his Family Law and Remedies classes that Rosettenstein had a background both in South African and English law. Longo hoped Rosettenstein might have a feel for the legal regimes of the British Commonwealth and, with a bit of luck, might even have some knowledge of the Australian bar.

As luck would have it, Rosettenstein had participated in a workshop at Oxford University a few years prior. Among the

participants was an Australian barrister named Richard Ingleby. Contacted by Rosettenstein, Ingleby was able to provide the name of another lawyer “on site” named Andrew Davies. Thus was formed the legal team with which Longo would work for the next four grueling years.

Longo describes Davies, whom he now considers a friend, as one of Australia’s most respected family lawyers. They communicated over the four years via email, phone and Skype, all the while confronting a 13-hour time difference.

The legal nitty-gritty An examination of the relevant inheritance laws coupled with the fact that Sanije’s health was failing (so that Mehmet could well outlive her), militated in favor of a divorce suit. But where?

Jurisdiction could be established in both Connecticut and Australia. What would each jurisdiction make of a marriage where the couple effectively had been separated for more than half a century?

Connecticut divorce law certainly recognizes a spouse’s role in contributing to the household and the children, but by and large that approach is restricted to intact households and minor children. Davies

flew to Connecticut to review state law and to compare it to what Australia had to offer. While there, he found time to sit in on one of Rosettenstein’s classes.

Davies and Ingleby concluded that Australian courts might be persuaded that Australian law should recognize Sanije’s contribution in keeping the family intact through the decades of repression, compounded by an absence of any contribution from Mehmet.

But Sanije was now 87 and delay was problematic. Australian family law requires a bifurcated trial, the granting of the divorce first and then litigation over property division. Sanije was divorced in December 2007, thereby locking in her claim. With the divorce granted, the property division case was set for trial a year later. Unfortunately, Sanije died at 89, four months before the trial. Her estate was substituted as the plaintiff, and Gezim and Boris carried on for her as she always instructed them to do.

For the property division litigation, the legal team wanted to show what an effort it required on Sanije’s part to salvage the family under the conditions that prevailed in Albania half a century ago. The legal team then hired Stephanie

Stephen Longo ’83, left, sought the advice of his former professor, David Rosettenstein, on the most challenging case of his career.

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Australia attorney Andrew Davies, whose office affords a view of the Swan River in Perth, Australia.

Schwandner-Sievers, a social anthropologist and expert in Balkan history, to detail the horrific conditions that existed in the extensive prison system implemented by the Albanian Communist regime.

The case proceeded with Longo doing research and legwork in America while Ingleby and Davies served as barrister and solicitor in court. Davies said, “My primary role was to coordinate the evidence and strategy, working closely with Steve.

He gave me background to shape and structure the case.”

Geography, the time difference, language barriers and access to old records were complicating factors. “At times it was heartache, frustration and just hard work, but Steve always maintained a sense of humor. I found him to be an incredibly talented and clever lawyer, and I was dead impressed with his work. We would not have achieved the outcome without him,” Davies said.

Longo purchased Owen Pearson’s trilogy, “Albania in the 20th Century: A History.” He gave Gezim and Davies copies as well. “Gezim called me soon after and told me his grandfather’s name appeared in the book––his testimony from the U.N. hearing in Salonika, Greece, in March 1947 … we couldn’t believe what we 22

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found,” said Longo, adding, “It went well beyond serendipity.”

The redacted testimony did not tell the whole story, so Longo contacted the U.S. and Greek ambassadors to the U.N., who sent him the original 1947 transcript in which Mehmet discussed how he knew the Albanian government was providing Greek Communists with war supplies.

“He gave dates, names, places and times and what horrible living conditions and oppression existed in Communist Albania, an Albania where his wife and three children remained. It was no exaggeration to state that he knew where all the bodies were buried. But in his testimony, he never mentioned a wife or children. For our purposes, that was highly pertinent,” Longo related.

Mehmet had never seen the testimony.

When he was confronted with it, he claimed he was not the person who testified. “This was a missile lobbed on his lap.

His lawyers claimed we were making this into a war crimes trial, which was absurd.

Basically, he told us to prove it was him,” Longo said. The U.N. had a drawer of photos from the hearing. “We scoured every one, but there was not one of Mehmet, the main witness.” They were despondent.

Around this time, with the help of an Albanian human rights organization, the legal team was put in touch with an Albanian author, Agim Musta, who had written a book about Albanian prison camps and was signing them at an event in New York City. Gezim attended and filled him in on the case and its recent roadblock.

Musta mentioned that his neighbor in Tirana might have information. Elsa Ballauri, an Albanian human rights activist and collaborator on the case, contacted the neighbor on Gezim’s behalf. “It turned out that Musta’s neighbor was a one-time member of the Sigurimi (the Albanian secret police) and that he was at that hearing in Salonika, Greece, as part of the Albanian delegation,” Longo said. He eagerly agreed to testify by affidavit. He confirmed that Mehmet was at the hearing and that Mehmet had testified against the Albanian government.

“We were surprised because he knew how harshly his family would be punished,” the testimony read. It went on to state: “There is no doubt in my mind that the initial imprisonment of Mehmet’s wife was as a result of his escape from Albania. Her continued incarceration and that of her children were … prolonged indefinitely as a direct result of his testimony and denunciation of the Albanian government in Greece at the hearing ….

He was the only one to come out as a witness against Albania.”

Contribution key to case Sanije’s contribution was one part of the case. Mehmet’s lack of contribution was the other. Mehmet’s position basically was that he could not provide support.

But, while researching the case, Longo learned that many other Albanians who had fled the country did indeed manage to send money to their imprisoned families to supplement the meager food and clothing given to prisoners.

Gurie S., whom Sanije befriended in prison, was one such recipient. Her husband, Ali S., was a known intellectual and anti-Communist. When the Communists came to arrest him, Gurie’s uncle and

brother-in-law, both high-ranking government officials—visited her and advised her to divorce Ali, put their two children up for adoption, and disassociate herself from this “enemy of the people.”

Gurie refused. Ali escaped to Yugoslavia and left his young wife behind to face the same fate that had befallen Sanije. Later, Ali returned after a false report circulated about amnesty for all.

The Hoxha regime re-arrested him, but he escaped certain death for the second time, fleeing to Europe and years later ending up in New Jersey. From there, he wrote his wife and daughters regularly, sending them money and telling them how much he loved and missed them, but that his hands were tied to free them.

Gurie saved the letters by burying them in a cornfield. Longo had them translated to bolster the case that others did manage to support their imprisoned families.

Gurie testified in the case by affidavit and her surviving daughter, Leila, attended the trial in Australia.

With the trial over, a new legal threat emerged. While Sanije’s claim was protected by bifurcating the proceedings, the entire litigation would become moot should Mehmet die before the matter was resolved. To compound the litigation team’s misery, the trial judge, having deferred the trial for a year, then took another year to render an opinion. Davies chalked up the delays to the overburdened court system in Australia.

Then came the decision, and it was a disappointment. The trial judge, in essence, had treated the suit as a form of inheritance claim and awarded Sanije essentially one-third of the marital estate.

“Our position, in accordance with Sanije's explicit instructions, was that as Mehmet’s spouse, her basic entitlement was to half the marital assets,” Longo said. Ingleby and Davies launched an emergency appeal to persuade the court that Australian law should recognize the contribution Sanije had made, albeit under the most unusual circumstances.

“If Mehmet ( then aged 98) died before an appellate court decision, then, under Australian law, we were stuck with the trial court’s decision,” Longo added.

From left, Sanije’s grandson, Gezim K., his father, Boris K., and Gezim’s children, Cleo, left, and Angelo.

The appellate brief with supporting documents was more than 700 pages.

The appellate court, in a unanimous decision, expanded the conceptualization of a spouse’s “contribution” to the family.

Recognizing the exigency involved, the court facilitated the property distribution Sanije’s estate had sought rather than returning the matter to the trial court for a new determination.

Gezim said, “It is good that we won.

We got our name back, which was important compared to any award. I don’t think anyone would have worked as hard as Steve did 24/7 for four years, thinking every second about how to move the case along.

We were on the right side of the case, and we had the truth on our side,” he declared.

For Longo, getting the story’s many twists and turns on paper has opened up

a new chapter in his career. “This case took four years of my life. I thought, ‘What do I do now, put the files away and go on with the practice as usual?

I decided to make a significant career change and dedicate whatever time it takes to tell Sanije’s entire story and what happened in the dark days of Communist Albania … there’s so much more to tell,’” he said.

Rosettenstein was invited to attend a reunion of sorts in New York City last October where everyone involved in the case gathered to celebrate the successful outcome.

“Gezim and Boris pinned their faith on the American legal system and got justice in a meaningful way,” Rosettenstein said.

“There’s a reason why American citizenship matters.”

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Setting

Frank Caruso ’94 guides companies into China

up shop F

BY ALEJANDRA NAVARRO

rom the 40th floor of his hotel room in the Chinese city of Dongguan, Frank Caruso ’94 had a view of what looked like an entire metropolis under construction.

“When I saw that, I said, ‘Wow, there’s something going on here,’” recalls Caruso, who was there in 2002 consulting on a major project in the factory city about two hours north of Hong Kong.

Caruso was then an attorney in the tech industry in Maryland when a Singaporean business associate invited him to assist in developing the world’s largest shopping mall in Dongguan, a region that produces a bulk of the country’s products, from shoes and handbags to toys and furniture.

Even as twilight fell, he remembers watching more than 80 giant cranes busily swinging and lifting materials that would build a new, more impressive skyline. And that was just on the side of the city he could see from his room.

In that same corner of the world, he, too, would begin his own construction project: building a firm that would ultimately help multinational corporations set up shop in this booming region. He founded Caruso and Associates LTD in Shenzhen, specializing in general corporate

Frank Caruso ’94 has become an expert in Chinese business and law.

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matters, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, contracts, compliance and labor and employment law. He also structures mergers and joint ventures between foreign and Chinese companies.

After the 18-month mall project was complete, owners of a Hong Kong company who were raising capital asked him to do some due diligence work. Other firms soon came seeking his technical and legal assistance, including Huawei, now one of the largest telecommunication equipment companies in the world, and Lenovo, which had bought IMB’s personal computer business.

“At the time, there weren’t many Chinese companies with cutting-edge technology and infrastructure experience, as well as legal experience. I was an English speaker with technical expertise,” he says.

Eight years later, he has become a Chinese business expert. Foreign governments, as well as Chinese provinces, have hired his firm, particularly to negotiate contracts. Although as a foreigner he cannot practice law in China, Caruso’s firm has Chinese lawyers. He has collaborated with good friend Sean Hayes ’02, a lawyer at J & S Law Firm’s International Practice Group headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. They helped South Korean companies establish offices in China.

Caruso’s services have grown to include investigative work, translating and social media consulting. He tries to be selective in the clients he takes.

“I’m really only interested in focusing on good clients with interesting projects that we know we can have an impact on,” says Caruso, who often lectures at universities in Asia. The firm keeps him jetting from Hong Kong, where he has a home, to his office in Shenzhen, China, and the U.S. He learned Chinese business and law the same way he learned Mandarin—on his own. Having served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps for 10 years, he was accustomed and eager to accept such challenges.

Chinese laws are straightforward; it is the interpretation of them and the application of the law that has Western business leaders seeking his assistance, he says.

“Chinese law wasn’t nearly as consistent as it is today,” he explains. He quickly

Caruso keeps in touch with Professor Marilyn Ford.

learned to keep his clients out of the Chinese court system that favored its nationals. Instead, he made sure all of the parties’ expectations were clearly identified in both English and Chinese before a project began. That has proven to be challenging when entrepreneurs are sprinting to get their foot in the Chinese market.

“Western companies come into the Chinese market with dollar signs in their eyes, and they often forget about the fundamentals of doing business,” he says.

China has come under criticism for its lenient intellectual property laws, but he has seen the rules improve over the past decade. Caruso encourages them to be proactive and build their own security instead of relying on Chinese laws.

“His career has been difficult but rewarding, and now he is one of a few foreign legal experts on Chinese corporate and transactional law,” says Marilyn Ford, professor of law. While in school, Caruso served as her research assistant when she represented the Eyak Tribe of southeastern Alaska in its efforts to save its ancestral land from clear cutting.

“I initially rejected the client’s request for pro bono representation,” Ford recalls.

“Frank would not let it go. On his own, he did some research and presented me with a persuasive memorandum explaining why the proposed litigation would present a ‘valuable learning opportunity’ for him and other law students who volunteered to work on the case.”

Caruso managed other students’ research and drafted court filing documents—often between midnight and 6 a.m.—to be ready for Ford in the morning, the professor recalls.

“With his extraordinary ability, tenacity and sense of adventure, it did not surprise me when Frank decided to be a pioneer— one of the first U.S. lawyers—to take advantage of opportunities in China,” Ford says. “I wasn’t even surprised when he started a China Business Blog to encourage Hong Kong-Mainland China Cross Border Trade Settlement in Yuan. That’s characteristic of Frank.”

Today, Caruso writes a more humorous blog about the quirky issues he’s encountered while doing business in China—such as the growing use of fake divorces to get a better mortgage rate. While he jests in his blog, he maintains deep respect for the country and culture. Many Westerners have misconceptions about China.

“People here are busy trying to make a living,” he says. Given that the country’s economy has grown in double digits for several years, Caruso says China is one of the greatest capitalist countries.

One of his proudest moments was being asked to consult for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He advised the Olympic committee on potential legal issues that could surface with athletes as well as spectators.

“I think they wanted to show the world there are a lot of good things in China, and I was honored to have helped them do that,” he says.

Caruso also has participated in the country’s athletic events. With little sailing experience, Caruso led a team in the first China Cup International Regatta in 2005, becoming the first American to sail into Chinese waters since leader Mao Tse-tung was in power. His team came in last, but in 2008, the group sailed into first.

It’s just another example of Caruso keeping pace with the fast-paced region that keeps his firm working seven days a week. While he occasionally gets an urge for New Haven pizza and misses good friends, including Ford, he admits, “Where China has been and where it is going, it’s really moving too fast for me to miss much.”

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Change is good Former GE executive helping to educate Central American children

By Stephen P. Schmidt, MS ’11

Photo by Stan Godlewski

T

he reaction was simple, but poignant: “Traveling to places like Argentina and Africa, you very quickly “Wow.” That was the overall sentiment move to a place of gratitude, seeing how fortunate you really have when Kate Curran ’94 told her cobeen, in part by virtue of where you were born,” Curran said. workers in 2007 that she was stepping Through the help of a career coach, she realized her next down from her post as vice president for calling: to found The Giving Project in September 2009. The external affairs at General Electric organization has raised money to build seven schools for about Money-Americas in Stamford, Conn.

1,000 students in Guatemala. The new schools, in some cases, “People were shocked,” Curran said. “People don’t resign from are replacing “dark, cold, wet dirt shacks.” In addition, the these jobs very easily.” And if they do, they usually have a plan for organization has funded a water recycling system for an the next phase of their careers. orphanage in Honduras. Curran visits the sites about every two Curran went on to found The Giving Project, a nonprofit months to make sure all operations are running smoothly. organization based in Bridgeport. Its mission is to bring “the gift After she decided to concentrate on Central America first, of quality education to the children of the developing world” by Curran called an executive of a major bank in the region, BACbuilding schools, driving the supply of learning materials, training Credomatic, which at the time was a joint venture with GE. The teachers and engaging parents. But three years ago, all she knew executive agreed to pay 50 percent of the costs for the first was that her life needed a new direction. project in each Central American country.

She and her five siblings were coping with That would be just the start of her GE THE CURRAN FILE the loss of a brother and their two parents, connections financially aiding her cause. In Hugh and Eleanor, within two years’ time fact, a significant percentage of The Giving Education — BA in English, from 2005–06. Their father had been a World Project’s funding has come through former College of the Holy Cross; JD War II fighter pilot before serving as mayor of co-workers, whose donations are then ’94, Quinnipiac School of Law. Bridgeport in the ’60s and later, a state Supematched by the company’s GE Foundation. rior Court judge. Their mother was a “remark“Part of what motivates me is creating Career — Founder, The Giving ably generous person,” in Kate’s words. really meaningful philanthropic experiences Project; former vice “They led amazing lives,” Curran said. “I for others so they can share in the benefits president for external affairs, saw a recipe of family, public service, of being generous,” Curran said.

General Electric Moneyaccomplishment and generosity.”

Curran hopes to hire staff members by Americas, Stamford, Conn.

While at GE, the Milford, Conn., resident the end of the year. Currently, she relies on a designed the company’s first large Community team of five interns, two of whom are Reinvestment Act program, overseeing more than $100 million in Quinnipiac students: Collean Toupin ’14, a public relations major community development grants and investments, a large portion and Danielle Hunter ’11, an interactive digital design major. of which went into revitalization projects for her native Bridge“She’s motivated,” Toupin said of her boss. “She gets things port. But she wanted to do more to carry on her family’s humanidone. When she puts her mind to something, the ball gets rolling tarian legacy. After all, she earned her law degree from Quinnipiac, and she makes things happen.” summa cum laude, with the intent of starting a nonprofit organizaCurran said the needs of the children she helps are daunting. tion that focused on juvenile rights.

“But I am inspired when I connect with them. A little girl named She spent most of 2008 traveling the world, visiting and learnMichaela followed me around at one school inauguration. I had a ing the cultures of places such as Argentina, Spain and Tanzania. note from her a few weeks later saying, ‘I like my new school because it is clean and there is no garbage, but I would like some books now please.’ I can’t wait to see her with books in her hands.”

Kate Curran ’94 founded The Giving Project.

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QULAW•ALUMNI —1980—

—1991—

—1996—

Donald Doyle joined VidaCura, Inc., in Farmington, CT, as an adviser and management consultant. He will work to reduce the escalating costs of medical equipment to Workers’ Compensation payors. He lives in Essex, CT.

Richard Carella, a principal with Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C., recently opened the firm’s Middletown, CT, office where he lives. His areas of practice are federal, state and local law regarding commercial, industrial, coastal, riparian, agricultural and residential land use planning and real estate development.

Lynn (Mendoker) Chiota is a tax attorney with Grill & Partners, a public accounting firm. She provides tax planning, compliance and filing assistance for their offices in Fairfield and Greenwich, CT. She lives in Fairfield, CT.

—1985— Lynne Pantalena was appointed to the board of trustees of La Rabida Children’s Hospital in Chicago, IL, where she lives.

Kerry Wisser of Weatogue, CT, has been recognized by Cambridge Who’s Who for demonstrating dedication, leadership and excellence in all aspects of legal services.

He is a principal at Weinstein & Wisser, P.C., in West Hartford, CT.

Howard Pierce is a partner with Seiger Gfeller Laurie LLP in the firm’s health care cost containment practice group in West Hartford, CT. Maria (Pepe) VanDerLaan is a partner with Murtha Cullina LLP’s litigation and health care department in Hartford. She represents clients in the areas of commercial litigation, managed care

Debra Kelly-Woodward ’97 was appointed assistant city attorney in Milford, CT. She lives in Fairfield, CT.

—1986— Pamela Jones is the first female to be judge of probate, for the 2010–14 term, in Fairfield, CT, where she lives. She is a legal and business affairs attorney with A&E and Lifetime television networks.

She also volunteers at the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm.

—1987— Edward Smith III is a director in the private client wealth services group within the tax and accounting department at Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP in Boca Raton, FL, where he lives.

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QUINNIPIAC LAW • SPRING 2011

reimbursement, insurance recovery, liability defense and mediation and arbitration. She lives in Southbury, CT.

—1994— Michael Brandt has been elected probate judge for the towns of North Haven and East Haven, CT. He lives in North Haven with his wife, Kristen (Brighindi) Brandt ’95, and children, Matthew, Kylie and Michael.

Adam Schwartzstein of Old Greenwich, CT, is a partner with Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP in the firm’s New York office. He practices in the areas of general tort liability and transportation.

John Van Lenten of Ridgefield, CT, joined Pullman & Comley, LLC, as an associate in the firm’s Bridgeport, CT, office. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and appellate matters in both the federal and state courts.

—1999— Jonathan Ciottone of Stafford Springs, CT, joined Goldberg Segalla LLP as special counsel in the firm’s Hartford office. He practices in the areas of product liability, construction law, premises liability and toxic tort.

Marc Nocera of Marlton, NJ, is corporate counsel for Holtec International, a global supplier of equipment in the energy industry.

—2001— Jared Alfin of West Hartford, CT, is an associate in the litigation department with Pullman & Comley LLC in the firm’s Hartford office. His practice deals with commercial litigation, business disputes and criminal defense.

Gregory Allen is a managing partner at Trendowski & Allen, P.C., in Centerbrook, CT. He was named one of the New England Rising Stars for 2010. He lives in Wallingford, CT, with his wife and three children.

Bruce McGuire ’91 From lawsuits to hedge funds

By Alejandra Navarro n 1998, Bruce McGuire ’91 often would get off the New York City subway at the Wall Street station, even though the next stop was closer to his job at Goldman Sachs. The stroll by the historic financial buildings, including the New York Stock Exchange, reminded him how far he had come.

“I would always think how improbable it was that I could end up working at one of the most prestigious banks in the world,” explains McGuire, a lawyer-turned-finance executive.

At the time, McGuire didn’t realize he was just beginning to make his mark in the financial industry. His career would include founding the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association (CTHFA) in 2004 and the Global Alpha Forum, an annual investment management and economic conference, in 2005. By December 2010, he climbed the ranks to vice president and senior member of the client relationship team at Mesirow Advanced Strategies, Inc., one of the world’s largest alternative investment managers.

McGuire’s father had attended law school as well. “He thought it was valuable training. It helped him think more logically and methodically, which was important in business,” says McGuire, who also found this to be true.

After earning a BA from the University of Miami and a JD from Quinnipiac, he started his legal career at Trotta and Trotta in New Haven. The firm was on the same floor as a financial services company. He was intrigued by the bustling activity— excited conversations and screens flashing financial news— that greeted him every morning before he stepped into his quiet, solitary office.

“I wanted my professional life to be more connected with the broader world, and finance seemed to do that,” says McGuire.

“Everything that happens all over the world affects the financial markets.”

In 1993, he became the legal liaison in the retirement services division at MFS, a large Boston-based mutual fund company.

He transitioned into the role of product manager for the company’s IRA and 401k products. “There is a lot of crossover between the training and skills we received as litigators and the skills necessary for financial sales,” he explains.

“At that point, Boston was starting to seem small to me,” he says with a laugh. When the president of his division left for Goldman Sachs, McGuire went too. While at Goldman, he honed his financial skills and watched many of his colleagues begin to make profits through merger arbitrage and shorting the market, and eventually launching their own hedge funds.

“I decided that I wanted to be in the growing and more dynamic part of the asset management business,” says McGuire, who lives in Darien, Conn, with his wife Anne, and two children Alex, 17, and Caroline, 14.

I

He then began working for a boutique hedge fund placement agency, and parlayed this experience into a position at Merrill Lynch. He also was becoming the ringleader of Goldman Sachs Connecticut alumni networking group, organizing happy hours.

He noticed the need for a formal networking organization for alternative investment professionals in Connecticut, home to the second largest cluster of hedge funds in the world.

He had the legal know-how to incorporate the association.

He tapped into his network to form a board of directors.

The CTHFA, which hosts educational, networking and charitable events, now has 150 members. In collaboration with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the CTHFA joined Quinnipiac Finance Professor Osman Kilic and his students to complete an investor survey. The survey found that investors were not only continuing to invest, but also looking for returns that hedge funds can provide. His group worked with former Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s office to entice more hedge funds to the state to help boost the economy.

The association’s 2011 Global Alpha Forum is expected to attract 500–600 participants from hedge funds and other financial institutions.

Given the regulatory changes in the financial industry, McGuire hopes to expand the CTHFA. “It’s never been more critical to have a strong advocate for Connecticut’s growing hedge fund industry,” he says.

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QULAW•ALUMNI Tanya (Wolanic) Bovée is a partner in the Hartford office of Jackson Lewis LLP. She defends employers in claims of discrimination, harassment, retaliation and wrongful discharge. She was named a 2010 Rising Star by Connecticut Super Lawyers. She lives in Guilford, CT.

commercial foreclosure, creditors’ rights and related financial transactions.

Donald Campbell Jr. is a shareholder of Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla, P.C., in Red Bank, NJ, where he lives. He practices in the area of bankruptcy litigation,

Jessica Grossarth of Fairfield, CT, has been named a partner at Pullman & Comley LLC, where she practices in the areas of bankruptcy and creditors’ rights.

Metta (Rehnberg) Delmore opened her own elder law firm in Kent, CT. She lives with her husband, Jonathan, and their children in Warren, CT.

She joined Pullman & Comley in 2002, and is co-chair of the firm’s orientation committee. She also serves as a member of the firm’s recruiting and diversity committees.

Jay Hershman was named a Connecticut Super Lawyers Rising Star for 2010. His practice areas are real estate law, estate planning and corporate and business organization at Baillie & Hershman P.C. in Cheshire, CT.

—2002— JOIN PROFESSOR ROBINSON IN SUPPORT OF LRAP

T

he Gregory A. Loken Loan Repayment Assistance Program provides financial support for some alumni who choose to pursue careers in public interest law. Loken was an advocate of public service work and those who chose to practice public interest law. Professor Toni Robinson feels the same way as her late colleague.

“Greg Loken could have gone to Wall Street at a high salary.

Instead, he chose to work for a nonprofit, helping homeless children and teens,” Robinson says. “His example reminds us all of the importance of providing legal services to those who are served by notfor-profit organizations.”

In June, the first awards will be made. Robinson invites you to join her in making an impact on this deserving fund. Go to www.quinnipiac.edu/give.xml to donate or contact the Office of Law Development & Alumni Affairs at 203-582-3745.

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QUINNIPIAC LAW • SPRING 2011

Joseph DiMauro is a sole practitioner in Plantsville, CT, where he lives. He focuses on tax law, estate planning and elder law.

Michelle (Mase) Morrell is a litigation attorney with the law offices of Carter Mario Injury Lawyers in Milford and New Britain, CT. She lives in Northford, CT, with her husband, Paul, and their son.

—2003— Jonathan Cerrito is a partner in the law firm Blitman & King, LLP in Syracuse, NY. He practices in the areas of benefits litigation, employment and severance agreements, fiduciary responsibility and investments, and related matters. He lives in Liverpool, NY, with his wife, Nicole.

Eric Contre of Woonsocket, RI, is an associate in the litigation department at Duffy & Sweeney, LTD, in Providence, RI.

—2004— Michael Menapace is an associate in Wiggin and Dana’s litigation department.

He works in the firm’s Hartford, CT, and New York City offices. He was recently selected by the American Bar Association to co-edit “The Handbook

on Additional Insured.” He lives in North Granby, CT.

D E A R L AW A L U M N I Robert Migliorini is an in-house intellectual property attorney at ExxonMobil Corp. He counsels clients in patent preparation, patent prosecution, patent opinions and technology contracts. He lives in North Haven, CT.

—2005— Dustin Blumenthal is an associate with the law firm Lydecker Diaz in Miami, FL, where he lives. He practices in the areas of complex commercial and construction litigation.

Richard Finkelstein of East Hampton, CT, is a patent attorney. He recently opened his own law firm, the Law Office of Richard S. Finkelstein, LLC, in Glastonbury, CT, to provide patent procurement for solo investors and small businesses.

Jennifer (Gottlieb) Elazhari of East Lyme, CT, has been appointed program center coordinator for the Office of Public and Indian Housing Division at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Hartford.

—2006— Tamarah Evanko and her husband, Robert, announce the birth of a daughter, Victoria Lynn June, on Jan. 28, 2009. The family lives in Hamden.

Michael Harrington of Stamford, CT, is a sports reporter for the Fairfield Patch (www.fairfieldpatch.com), a website devoted to news and events occurring in Fairfield, CT. Kruti Patel joined Tarshis, Catania, Liberth, Mahon & Milligram, PLLC, in Newburgh, NY, as an associate. Her practice areas are corporate and commercial transactions. She lives in New Paltz, NY.

I

t’s hard to believe it’s been just about a year since I was elected president of the Quinnipiac School of Law Alumni Association. It’s certainly been a very busy year, both for me and for the association and the School of Law. On a personal note, I was married in October and have taken the name of my husband, Joe Markim. I share this information, not because I’m begging for congratulations, but to apologize for any confusion this union may have caused. To set the record straight, my classmate and dear friend Amy Markham is now Amy Markham DeCesare and I have become Amy (Drega) Markim.

I attended several successful School of Law alumni events this year. I joined fellow alumni at the annual bar results party at Union League Café in New Haven on Nov. 17, 2010. This fun event celebrates the success of our most recent bar exam takers. This year’s attendance grew by more than 25 percent! Also, we hosted the second annual Public Interest Law Project alumni party. Alumni bid on alumni-only auction items before joining the school’s students and faculty in the Grand Courtroom for the PILP auction, one of the school’s most popular and successful events.

It’s been great to see so many of you networking and reconnecting with faculty and fellow alumni at these events. If you haven’t been able to make it to an event yet, there’s still time. Join us on Tuesday, April 12, 2011, for the Fairfield County law alumni event, which will be back at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, Conn.

See you there!

Sincerely, Amy E. (Drega) Markim ’08, amarkim@haslaw.com President, Executive Board, Quinnipiac University School of Law Alumni Association

—2008— Michael Brothers is a partner in the law firm of Brown, Werner & Brothers LLP, based in Philadelphia, PA. His areas of practice are energy and employment law and litigation. He lives in Niantic, CT. Sylvia Rutkowska is an associate with Dzialo, Pickett & Allen, P.C., in

Middletown, CT, where she lives. Her practice areas include civil litigation, personal injury and estate administration.

—2010— Refai Arefin of Middletown, CT, is an associate with Trendowski & Allen, P.C., in Centerbrook, CT. He practices in the areas of commercial law, appellate law, personal injury and liquor liability.

In Memoriam Let your fellow alumni know where you’re working and what you’ve been up to.

Submit your class note at www.quinnipiac.edu/qulawnet.xml

Erin Kallaugher ’85 Erika Riebel-Trauring ’93 Gary Roush ’86 SPRING 2011 • QUINNIPIAC LAW

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IN•CLOSING Career services promotes skills for success

Assistant Dean Kathy Kuhar ’02 reviews an alumna’s resume.

Kathy Kuhar ’02, author of this article, is assistant dean for law student and career services.

F

or the past six years, I have helped Quinnipiac University’s School of Law recruit students with dreams of becoming lawyers. I now have the wonderful opportunity to assist these students as they pursue their dreams.

While these are challenging economic times, our staff is prepared to help students find summer positions while in school and reach their career objectives upon graduation.

And please remember, we are here to assist current students and alumni alike.

From networking opportunities to workshops on effective interviewing skills, we provide the services and programming to complement the learning that takes place in the classroom and in our clinics and externships.

Recently, I met with local practitioners, including alumni, who emphasized the need to be flexible in this economy. As many of us know, our careers do not always follow the path we planned. During my last year of law school, I had a job offer from the large accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. This was the type of position I had hoped for when I started law school.

However, the Arthur Andersen I knew ceased to exist by the time I graduated. Seven months later, I was performing title searches and closing real estate transactions in a small local law firm. In this job, I developed new skills, which led to career advancement opportunities. I keep this in mind as I counsel students. I encourage them to be prepared for a changing environment and to make the most of every opportunity they encounter.

Our staff, faculty and alumni work collaboratively to support current students by participating in programs and sharing their expertise. I would like to thank everyone who has delivered presentations on different practice areas and participated in mock interviews! For those 32

QUINNIPIAC LAW • SPRING 2011

alumni who have not had the opportunity to participate, please let me know if you are interested in assisting with any of our initiatives. You can reach me at kathy.kuhar@quinnipiac.edu.

Currently, we are developing a mentoring program between alumni and students. The commitment of the mentor can be as minimal as answering emails from students interested in a particular practice area, or perhaps meeting with students and introducing them to a typical day of a practicing lawyer. This

partnership is an ideal way for lawyers to get to know some of the students who will be joining the legal community soon.

The Office of Career Services is available to assist alumni, whether to help in the search for a new position or to help find a candidate for a position. We encourage alumni to take a look at our online job posting service, QU Law Career Connections at law.quinnipiac.edu/x13.xml Please stop by to say hello if you are on campus. We look forward to working with you!

MAKING CONNECTIONS

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Alumni, faculty and students participated in a variety of events over the last few months.

1. Linda K. Lager, chief administrative judge, Connecticut Superior Court, with Karen Berris ’02, deputy director/jury administrator for the state judicial branch, at the Juries and Justice forum hosted by the School of Law in January.

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At a fall reception for Hartford area alumni at Max’s Downtown Restaurant: 2. From left, Paul White ’93, Joseph Passaretti ’93 and Tad Bistor ’93.

3. From left, Bindi Desai ’10; Michael Dolan, an associate at Sinoway, McEnery, Messey & Sullivan; Adrienne Roach ’10; and Kristen Boyle ’10.

4. Professor Robert Farrell was among the professors socializing with students at the annual Barrister’s Ball in January at the Trumbull Marriott. From left: Alisa Polaski, Kristianna Sciarra, Elizabeth Grimm, Allison Rago, Farrell, Amita Patel and Mikhael Borgonos, all first-year students.

5. Second-year students Alexandra Buenaventura and James Rocco enjoy a dance at the Barrister’s Ball.

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6. Katie Curran ’09, Meaghan Cooper ’09 and Denise Taccogna ’09 at a November reception to honor those who passed the 2010 bar exam at the Union League Cafe in New Haven.

7. Sixty-three alumni passed the 2010 bar exam. Some who attended the Union League Cafe reception posed for this group shot.

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6 SPRING 2011 • QUINNIPIAC LAW

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JOIN US FOR THESE EVENTS March 17 — Join alumni marching in the 250th annual New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade and 2 p.m. reception at the Waldorf Astoria*

April 5 — Author Daniel Pink will present a lecture, “Motivating Creatives,” 7 p.m., Burt Kahn Court, Mount Carmel Campus. Free. Pink is the author of four books about the changing world of work including the New York Times bestsellers, “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” and “Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us.”

April 12 — Fairfield County Law Alumni Reception, 6–8 p.m., Maritime Aquarium, South Norwalk, Conn.*

April 16 — Second annual Sleeping Giant 5K Run/Walk Challenge, 9 a.m., to benefit the Wounded Warriors Project. Sponsors: the QUSL chapter of the Phi Delta Phi International Legal Fraternity, the Veteran’s Advocacy Group, the Sports and Entertainment Law Society, the Federalist Society, Intellectual Property Law Society and the Student Bar Association.

May 15 — School of Law Commencement, 3 p.m., TD Bank Sports Center, York Hill Campus. Commencement speaker: Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Flemming L. Norcott Jr. May 23 — President’s Cup Golf Tournament hosted by President John L. Lahey and Bill ’71 and Barbara ’71 Weldon, The Ridge at Back Brook, Ringoes, N.J. $500 per person. Call 203-582-8641 for details.

July 18 — Alumni Golf Championship, New Haven Country Club, New Haven, Conn. $200 per player* *Register online at www.quinnipiac.edu/events.xml