November 2003
Dean Heidi M. Hurd
David C. Baum Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy
Co-Director of the Program in Law and Philosophy
Telephone (217) 333-9857
hhurd@law.uiuc.edu
Dear Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, Campus Administrators, and Friends,
What a celebration of community this past week has been! It was marvelous that so many of you were able to participate in the events that culminated in and comprised Homecoming Weekend. The College of Law is at its very best when it is able to unite its many different constituencies in celebration of its great strengths. From the inaugural Faculty Book Reception that received such favorable press in last Friday's Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (article available under News link at http://www.law.uiuc.edu), to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey's controversial indictment of legislative integrity in the Piper Rudnick-Vacketta Lecture on Government and the Law, to the moving reminiscences of returning alumni at the inaugural Homecoming Reception and Dinner, this was a week that paid living tribute to the College's commitment to excellence in scholarship, inspiration in teaching, and relevance in public engagement.
This month I want to tell you about the College's:
- Transactions and Community Economic Development Clinic
- Intellectual Property Program
- Forthcoming Symposium on "Owning Nature: Private Property and the Public Interest"
- Newly received major gifts
- Events of the coming month
As an addendum to this Newsletter, you will find a summary by Associate Dean Charles Tabb of the faculty's latest activities and achievements--an addendum that I will attach every few months so that you can appreciate why we feel so fully entitled to boast about the College's intellectual vibrancy.
The Transactions and Community Economic Development Clinic (TCED)
Designed and directed by Professor Cynthea Geerdes, the TCED Clinic introduces students to the skills required for transactional lawyering in a context that simultaneously promotes economic justice. This semester, for example, TCED Clinic students have helped victims of an unscrupulous lender by rescinding their mortgage and refinancing it--for $30,000 less in principal. Students are incorporating, drafting bylaws, and seeking charitable tax-exempt status for eleven not-for-profit organizations, and providing tax and corporate governance assistance to those organizations by offering two BYOB (Bring Your Own Board!) training events in November. They are serving as general counsel to a not-for-profit asset-building program which recently graduated 52 participants who have purchased nearly 60 new assets such as homes and cars. And students are also helping Clinic clients manage their personal financial situations by providing access to financial education, by helping them to assert debtors' rights, and by assisting them to file for bankruptcy protection. The rewards of this experience for students and clients alike are marvelous. As one student put it: "I'm learning the skills that I would need to do lawyering work for America's most powerful corporations, and I'm doing so in ways that help some of America's least powerful people. It can't get better than that."
The Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program
During the past two summers, the College of Law has partnered with the University of Victoria in British Columbia and St. Peter's College at Oxford University to offer an International and Comparative Intellectual Property Law Summer Program. Boasting an internationally renowned faculty that includes College of Law professors Jay Kesan, Peter Maggs, Steve Ross, and Bruce Smith, the Program was held during the Summer of 2003 in Oxford, and will be returning in 2004 to its inaugural location in Victoria.
Through the Summer IP Program, law students and attorneys from countries around the world take comparative law classes in patents, trademarks, copyrights, cyberlaw, and art and cultural law. The Summer Program is composed of two, three-week sessions; the first focused on familiarizing students with the basics of comparative IP law, and the second featuring advanced subject matter. The Program also involves a judicial panel that draws judges from several countries, and high-level symposia conducted by specialist practitioners from major IP law firms around the world: Bird & Bird from the U.K., Smart & Biggar from Canada, and Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione from the United States. Those who are starting to think of next summer's opportunities are encouraged to contact Carolyn Pribble, the College's new Director of International Studies, in the International Studies Office or at cpribble@law.uiuc.edu.
Thanks to the energy of several faculty who teach, write, and consult in the area of intellectual property and technology, including professors Jay Kesan, Peter Maggs, and Bruce Smith, efforts are being made to emphasize the legal, regulatory and public policy issues posed by technology by enhancing course offerings in this area to cover both basic and advanced topics in IP and technology law; by developing international ties with universities and private institutes in Japan and Europe that will facilitate comparative IP research through student and faculty exchanges, international conferences, and reciprocal teaching and fellowship opportunities; by forging connections between the College and the Technology Entrepreneur Center in the College of Engineering, the Office of Technology Management, and other campus units that can improve our students' learning opportunities in the field of intellectual property; and by placing our best patent law graduates as judicial clerks at the highest appellate court in the land for patent matters--the Court of Appeals in the Federal Circuit (CAFC) (for which several of our graduates have clerked in just the past four years).
A Symposium on "Owning Nature: Private Property and the Public Interest"
Building on the
College's long-standing strength in environmental law and theory, the College
and the Environmental Law Society are co-hosting
a half-day Conference on "Owning Nature: Private Property and the Public
Interest," in part as a tribute to Professor Eric Freyfogle's most recent
original work,
Gifts to the College of Law
I am particularly delighted to report this month that the College has recently received two very generous and important new gifts. The first is a new faculty professorship named in honor of John E. Cribbet, who has been much beloved by generations of College students as a faculty member (1947-1988; although he continued to teach until 2001), as Dean of the College of Law (1967-1979), and as the Chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus (1979-1984). Made possible through the generosity of Christian E. (Rick) and Liselotte Heiligenstein, who have already committed two prestigious chairs to the College of Law, this newly established professorship crucially expands the College's ability to attract and retain high-profile scholars whose work importantly changes the way others think about and apply the law.
The second new gift is a new faculty scholar position named in honor of Thomas M. Mengler, a past faculty member and Dean Emeritus of the College of Law (1993-2002). Funded by a very generous friend of the College who prefers to remain anonymous, this gift pays tribute to the decade of dedicated leadership provided by Dean Mengler. The Thomas M. Mengler Faculty Scholar position will rotate among faculty members every two years, and its recipients will enjoy modest teaching relief and increased research support so as to advance cutting-edge scholarly projects.
Inasmuch as only 22% of the University's budget now derives from state funds, it is gifts of this sort, as well as the loyal contributions of all those who contribute to the College's vital annual fund, to which we owe the College's national acclaim as an intellectual center for the study of law. We simply cannot sustain and enhance the faculty's reputation without gifts like this, and inasmuch as our individual reputations as faculty, students, and alumni turn--in significant part--on the collective reputation of the College's faculty, we are all the beneficiaries of the John E. Cribbet Professorship and the Thomas M. Mengler Faculty Scholarship. Many thanks to Rick and Liz; and many thanks to our secret benefactor.
Events of the Coming Month (to which ALL are invited)
November 7, 5:30-8:30 pm, Chicago's BIN 36, 339 North Dearborn (next to the House of Blues and Harry Carey's): An exciting inaugural Welcome Reception for all newly admitted U. of I. members of the Illinois Bar, organized and hosted by Chicago members of the College's Recent Alumni Advisory Board. All Chicago-area alumni are encouraged to join me, College staff, and fellow alumni to welcome the newest admits into our profession. Contact Cal Grant (217-244-6765 or cdgrant@law.uiuc.edu) for more information.
November 10, 12:00 pm, Room A: Death Penalty Discussion, sponsored by the American Constitution Society
November 10, 2:00 pm, Room H: Dean's Open Forum
November 11, 7:30 pm, Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center: Strengthening Gender Studies for Africa's Transformation, featuring Amina Mama, Chair and Professor of Gender Studies, African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town. A CAS/MillerComm 2004 event in conjunction with the College of Law
November 14, 12:30 pm, Room J: Student Lunch with the Dean (sign up in Room 202E)
November 14, 2:00-5:00 pm, Auditorium: Symposium on "Owning Nature: Private Property and the Public Interest" featuring Professor Freyfogle. Additional presentations by Joseph Sax, UC Berkeley (The Cultural Interests in Private Property); Margaret McKean, Duke University (Lessons from Common Property Regimes); and Robert Glennon, U Arizona (Private Rights and Water Scarcity). Reception to follow in Huizenga Commons.
November 14: Lecture by Steven Levitt, University of Chicago, sponsored by the Law and Economics Program (time and location TBA): "The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black First Names" (exploring how naming patterns differ across races, how those patterns have changed over time, and what that tells us about the role of names and race in America).
November 19, 4:00 pm, Auditorium: Investiture ceremony for Professor Thomas S. Ulen as Swanlund Chair. Investiture Lecture: "Law in the Academy." Reception to follow in the Pavilion.
I hope that even as end-of-semester pressures mount, all of you will find the time to share in the events that define and unite us as a community. And I very much hope that this month's holiday reminds all of us to give thanks for the riches in our lives, so many of which derive from the knowledge, friendship, and opportunities made possible by this remarkable institution.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Heidi M. Hurd
Dean, College of Law
David C. Baum Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy
Co-Director of the Program in Law and Philosophy
•
Associate
Dean's Addendum of Faculty
Achievements
From the Desk of Associate Dean Charles J. Tabb
Illinois' very active and productive faculty has been busy this fall. Following is a summary of a few of their recent achievements.
David Meyer (with Harry Krause):
- published their book, Family Law in a Nutshell (4th edition).
Margareth Etienne:
- received a Fulbright Senior Specialists Grant in Law at the Judicial Training Center (Centre de Formation Judiciaire) in Dakar, Senegal, to do work on white collar crime and corruption investigation.
Charles Tabb:
- presented a paper, The Reluctant Contractarian, at the American Bankruptcy Institute's conference commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Bankruptcy Code in Washington, D.C.
- published a 520-page Teacher's Manual to accompany his recently published casebook, Bankruptcy Law: Principles, Policies, Practice.
John Colombo:
- had a paper, The Role of Access in Charitable Tax Exemption, listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for "LSN Tax Law & Policy Journals Recent Hits," which also made the Top Ten download list under the "Health Law & Policy" category.
Francis A. Boyle:
- was inducted into lifetime membership in the Catholic Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, which is limited to fifty Academicians.
Cynthia Geerdes:
- was named Associate Editor of the ABA's peer-reviewed Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law.
Andy Leipold:
- was featured in an article in Chicago Lawyer on clerking for a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Leipold clerked for Associate Justice Lewis Powell.
Michael S. Moore:
- presented a lecture on "Torture and the War on Terrorism," as part of a day-long conference/debate on the topic at the Graduate Center of CUNY in Manhattan, the other plenary session lecturers including Alan Dershowitz and Richard Posner.
- gave the 2003 Keynote Address to the annual meeting of the Argentine Legal Philosophy Association in Cordoba, Argentina.
- led a USC Philosophy Department Faculty Colloquium on "The Counterfactual Theory of Causation," in Los Angeles, California.
Jay Kesan:
- gave a lecture at the Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs on "Global Internet Governance."
- presented a talk and participated in a roundtable discussion at an invited "Workshop on Future Public Policy and Ethical Issues Facing the Biotechnology Industry," organized by the University of Maryland School of Law and the U.S. Department of Energy.
- presented a paper, Imperfect Competition in Internet Markets: The Role of Network Effects in Determining Market Structure, at the 31st Annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference in Arlington, Virginia.
- presented The Private and Social Costs of Patents (Why Bad Patents Survive the Market and How Should We Change?), at a Faculty Workshop at the University of North Carolina College of Law.
Harry Krause (with David Meyer):
- published their book, Family Law in a Nutshell (4th edition).
Larry Ribstein:
- published the latest edition of his treatise on LLPs.
- served as a consultant for the Federal Trade Commission on agency issues related to the regulation of spam.
- presented Sarbox: The Road to Nirvana" at "In the Wake of Corporate Reform: One Year in the Life of Sarbanes-Oxley--A Critical Review, at Michigan State University.
- presented Why Corporations? at the Berkeley Business Law Journal Symposium on "The Role of Law in Promoting Long-Term Value for Shareholders," University of California at Berkeley.
Heidi M. Hurd:
- participated in a conference on "Liberty, Self-Ownership, and Property," hosted by the Liberty Fund in Montreal, Canada.
- gave a nationally-telecast Piper Rudnick Marbury Institute Lecture entitled, "A Critical Evaluation of Hate Crime Legislation," at the Washington, D.C. office of Piper Rudnick.
- gave a lecture entitled "On the Role of a Judge: When the Letter, Spirit, and Justification of a Law Conflict," to the Illinois Appellate Lawyer's Association in Chicago.
- gave a presentation on "Surveying the Justifications for Hate Crime Legislation," to the Champaign Social Science Club.
- gave a lecture entitled, "A Critical Evaluation of Hate Crime Legislation" to the Wyoming Supreme Court and the University of Wyoming School of Law during the University of Wyoming's Law Week.
Richard Painter:
- presented at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences conference on corporate governance in New York City.
- served as plenary session speaker on lawyers' ethics after Enron for the Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference.
- was a speaker at Michigan State University symposium on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
- gave a talk at an Indiana University symposium on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
- published Standing up to Wall Street (and Congress) in the Michigan Law Review, reviewing Arthur Levitt's Take on the Street (2002).
- published Competition and Convergence in Regulation of Lawyers and Auditors, an article in the Journal of Corporation Law, as part of the April, 2003 University of Illinois symposium on regulation of lawyers and accountants in the U.S. and E.U.
- published The Dubious History of Clubs as Self Regulatory Organizations, an essay for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Occasional Paper Series on Corporate Governance.
J. Steven Beckett:
- with U. S. Attorney and Adjunct Professor of Law Jan Paul Miller, discussed current public issues regarding the Patriot Act in a debate at the Law School Auditorium co-sponsored by the Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society.
- coordinated a Teacher Training program at the College of Law with Nina Tarr, which was the first NITA teacher training program brought to the College.
Wayne LaFave:
- published a 3-volume second edition of Substantive Criminal Law, in West's Criminal Practice Series (substantially expanded, from 8 chapters to 21 chapters, from the first edition).
- published the fourth edition of Criminal Law, in West's Hornbook Series.
- published a new work entitled Principles of Criminal Law, in West's new Concise Hornbook Series.
- published the 2004 Pocket Parts to the 5-volume treatise, Search and Seizure, also in West's Criminal Practice Series.
- published the 2003 edition of Criminal Procedure and the Constitution.
- published the 2003 Supplement to the 10th editions of Modern Criminal Procedure, Basic Criminal Procedure, and Advanced Criminal Procedure.
Peter Maggs:
- submitted, pro bono, expert witness statements in two cases in support of battered women from Ukraine, who were attempting to avoid deportation from the U.S.
- prepared a position paper on Tajikistan's legislative needs for the program in aid to development of commercial legislation in Tajikistan sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development.
- served as an external examiner for a thesis on "Electronic Commerce" from the University of Malaya.
- served on the review board for the Fulbright Senior Specialists Program.
- gave a an invited talk on "Recent Developments in United States Intellectual Property Law" to a faculty-student seminar at Queen's College London.
- was an invited guest at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the East European Law Institute of the University of Leiden.
- gave a paper on The Civil Codes of Central Eurasia--a Comparison, at the Central Eurasian Studies Society Annual Conference at Harvard University.
- received a commitment of $28,040 from George Soros's "Open Society Foundation" to support a cooperative program in which Maggs will act as a mentor to Kairat Edish, a young intellectual property professor at Karaganda State University in Kazakhstan.
- published an article on Soviet Law in the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
- was appointed to the editorial board of The Uppsala Yearbook of East European Law.
Congratulations to our faculty, and to all of us, for the luster of their achievements!
