U N I V ER SI T Y OF PI T TSBU RGH
MAGAZINE
FA L L
THE SOLITARY STRUGGLE
Professor Jules Lobel has spent a 33-year career challenging injustice. His most recent landmark case successfully upheld prisoner rights in cases of long-term solitary confinement.
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2016
M A G A Z I N E
DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF LAW
William M. Carter, Jr. EDITOR
Cori Parise ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Jan-Tosh Gerling WRITER
Christine H. O’Toole CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Jan-Tosh Gerling David Harris Cori Parise DESIGN
Landesberg Design PHOTOGRAPHERS
Terry Clark Eric Forberger Jo Hanley Cade Martin Noah Purdy Justin Scott Stephen Simpson Christopher Sprowls Annie O’Neill WEBSITE
law.pitt.edu/magazine COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS?
lawalum@pitt.edu
BOARD OF VISITORS
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Hon. Ruggero J. Aldisert ’47* Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr. ’70 Linda Beerbower Burke ’73 The Honorable Robert J. Cindrich ’68 Senator Jay Costa, Jr. Q. Todd Dickinson ’77 The Honorable D. Michael Fisher Elke Flores-Suber ’96 Brad A. Funari ’02 James M. Gockley ’80 Vincent J. Grogan ’60 Jo Ann Haller ’80 Janice C. Hartman ’75 Gerald T. Hathaway ’79 Dawne S. Hickton ’83 Chairperson Frederick Wells Hill ’78 Joseph A. Katarincic ’60 Richard B. Kelson ’72 James E. Kopelman ’66 Hon. Lisa Pupo Lenihan ’83 Marvin S. Lieber ’58 Roslyn M. Litman ’52 Hon. Frank J. Lucchino ’64 Hon. David J. Mayernik Martha H. Munsch Jack H. Olender ’60 Timothy D. Pecsenye ’87 Diane W. Perer ’76 Robert J. Rogalski ’92 Hon. Eunice L. Ross ’51 Professor Pamela Samuelson Hon. Doris A. Smith-Ribner ’72 Jeffrey P. Taft ’92 Scott E. Westwood ’91
Patrick Sorek ’84 President
* Deceased
Michael S. Nelson ’96 President-Elect 2018 Elizabeth L. Hughes ’04 Vice President Meredith Odato Graham ’11 Treasurer Jill M. Weimer ’07 Secretary Tony J. Thompson ’06 Assistant Secretary Bruce C. Fox ’84 Immediate Past President Joseph J. Bosick ’73 Preceding Immediate Past President Ronald Basso ’85 Maximilian F. Beier ’99 Thomas M. Beline ’07 Kathryn S. Nordick ’05 Roberta R. Wilson ’83 Harvey ‘Chip’ Amoe III ’03 Stuart W. Benson III ’75 Ilene H. Fingeret ’86 Necia B. Hobbes ’11 Dorothy A. Davis ’81 Kevin W. Tucker ’11 Hon. Mary Jane Bowes ’79 Hon. Kim D. Eaton ’81 Hon. Alan D. Hertzberg ’83 Hon. Marilyn J. Horan ’79 Hon. Lisa Pupo Lenihan ’83 Hon. Christine A. Ward ’82
Pitt Law Magazine is published by the Office of the Dean and the Office of Communications
FA L L ’ 1 6
INSIDE PITT LAW
08 T HE CONSTITUTION AND THE SOLITARY STRUGGLE
Professor Jules Lobel, who has filed lawsuits against the past five U.S. presidential administrations, talks about winning, losing, and fighting the good fight.
14 A LAUNCHPAD FOR LAW PRACTICES
An onsite incubator funded by the American Bar Association helps new Pitt JDs build their practices. Free Wi-Fi, anyone?
16 A FORK IN THE ROAD From Pitt Law to Scotland, Los Angeles, London, and back home: three alumni reflect on career turns that capitalized on their JDs.
22 T HINKING OUTSIDE
THE LAW CLINIC BOX Health equity is the big idea behind Pitt Law’s revamped health law clinic.
26 COFFEE. AND RED BULL . When an ambitious young manager enrolls in the MSL program, she trades beers at Hemingway’s for cramming at Crazy Mocha.
02 FROM THE DEAN 04 ON CAMPUS 28 OPINION 30 FACULTY 36
ALUMNI
41
PARTING SHOT
A JUSTIN SCOTT
AN ENERGETIC LAW SCHOOL
FROM THE DEAN
LAW IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD
A
At a time of rapid change, the legal profession must keep pace with a world in transition. As a law school, we remain committed to preparing welleducated lawyers who will seize these emerging opportunities. I am delighted to share with you through this issue of Pitt Law Magazine several new developments here at the Law School.
Our Pitt Legal Services Incubator officially launched in January 2016, with young lawyers building innovative startup legal practices with the support of the Law School and the American Bar Association (see “A Launchpad for Law Practices,” page 14). Our Health Law Clinic has found common cause with the Allegheny County Health Department’s goal of advancing health equity throughout the region, and has tapped faculty expertise in the Schools of Medicine and Nursing to create our first partnership with UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, assisting underserved families with health law issues (see “Thinking Outside the Law Clinic Box,” page 22). Similarly, our Immigration Law Clinic has launched a pilot medical-legal partnership with Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Clinic and has involved faculty and students from Pitt’s Psychiatry Department to provide interdisciplinary education to law students and increased service to immigrant families and children. Our incoming Class of 2019 is remarkably strong and diverse. The size and undergraduate credentials of these students have increased, the diversity of the entering class matches last year’s record-high level of approximately 25 percent students of color, the percentage of out-of-state students has increased, and — for the first time on record — the number of women and men in the entering class is approximately equal. Additionally: our Health Law Program has again moved up in ranking and is now #12 in the nation out of nearly 200 law schools; our faculty is ranked in the Top 50 nationally in scholarly impact; our student selectivity ranking was #36 nationally (up from #114 three years ago); our ranking among legal employers has increased to #48 in the nation (up from #90 four years ago); our overall employment rate has steadily increased for the past four consecutive years,
to a total employment rate of 85 percent of the Class of 2015 according to the National Association of Law Placement statistics; our judicial clerkship placement rate increased by 108 percent for the Class of 2015 (up from 13 graduates in 2014 to 24 graduates in 2015); and our overall U.S. News ranking has increased by 13 places in the past four years (to #78). As you can see, our school is on the move, thanks to the dedication of our faculty and staff, the support of our alumni, and, most importantly, the talents and achievements of our students. You will find in this issue narratives of alumni success (see “The Fork in the Road,” page 16) and student achievement, and you will read how our faculty members’ research and engagement have changed the law and the world for the better (see “The Constitution and Solitary Struggle,” page 8). As the Pitt Law family continues to reach new heights, we remain committed to the most fundamental role of being a lawyer: serving others. As U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson reminded our students in his Commencement Address to the Class of 2016, “You will find more satisfaction in your legal career not from the amount of money you make, not necessarily from the cases you win, but who you help. It will mean more to you if somebody can look you in the eye and say, ‘thank you for helping me.’ ” Like Secretary Johnson, I encourage us all to recognize and seize the opportunity to make a difference, and Pitt Law will continue to train and support our students and graduates in realizing their great ambitions. WILLIAM M. CARTER, JR. D E A N A N D P R O F E S S O R O F L AW
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ON CAMPUS
NEWS & E VENTS HEALTH LAW MOVES UP TO #12
The University of Pittsburgh School of Law’s Health Law program is now ranked 12th in the nation—out of nearly 200 law schools—in the most recent U.S. News & World Report law school specialty rankings. The program was ranked 14th in 2015. PITT LAW STUDENT DANA RITCHEY SELECTED BY PITTSBURGH SCHWEITZER FELLOWS PROGRAM
Professor Ronald Brand, Director of the Center for International Legal Education, welcomes the incoming 2016 LLM class at Ohiopyle State Park at LLM orientation.
PITT LAW WINS SERVICE YEAR + HIGHER ED INNOVATION CHALLENGE
Pitt Law was the winning public institution at this year’s Service Year + Higher Ed Innovation Challenge. The school was the first law school in the country to receive the $30,000 grant for its proposal of a 3+1+3 program, through which students perform a year of service with local social entrepreneurs in between receiving an undergraduate degree in business and a law degree from Pitt Law. Stephanie Dangel, executive director of the school’s Innovation Practice Institute, said the focus on social entrepreneurship distinguished the proposal. “Integrating service into higher education is critically important to students, communities, and higher education institutions,” she said. “And universities attract talented students who are anxious to serve communities, while also saving on the cost of higher education.” During the 2016–17 academic year, Dangel will work to promote the opportunity and select up to five candidates from the College of Business Administration to enter the program.
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Dana Ritchey (2L) will work with Gwen’s Girls to empower young women in middle schools and high schools in underserved communities in Pittsburgh thanks to the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. Ritchey was selected as a 2016–17 Pittsburgh Schweitzer Fellow. Her project work includes providing a safe space for open communication and education on health lifestyle choices and improving the self-esteem and social competence of the young women supported by Gwen’s Girls. Ritchey is pursuing both an MA in Counseling Psychology from Chatham University and a JD from Pitt Law. SEMESTER IN DC PROGRAM LAUNCHES NEW POLICY TRACK
In the spring of 2016, Pitt Law and the university’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) pioneered the nation’s first Washington-based partnership. The Public Policy Track is an addition to the longstanding Semester in D.C. Program, designed to offer the
intensive training for post-graduate policy-related jobs. It includes courses in lawmaking, policy, advocacy, and lobbying taught in conjunction with GSPIA and Washington-area alumni in those fields. PITT LAW BESTS ALL IN INTERNATIONAL MOOT COMPETITION
Pitt Law was victorious at the Fifth LLM International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition held at American University’s Washington College of Law, April 7-8, 2016. Pitt Law defeated American University in the quarter finals, Georgetown Law in the semi-finals, and ultimately the University of Pennsylvania Law School in the final round. The Pitt Law team included Gustavo Arrobo (Ecuador), Nevena Jevremovic (Bosnia), Glory Ohaekwusi (Nigeria), and James Ochieng (Kenya). “This success testifies, in the first place, to the hard work, dedication and tremendous legal skills and intelligence of this group of young foreign-trained lawyers,” said CILE Executive Director and team coach Richard Thorpe. “It is also evidence of the strength of Pitt Law in training JD and LLM students alike in international arbitration law and practice.” The victory followed a strong showing by a team of Pitt Law JD students, who advanced to the Round of 32 in the Wilhelm Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot under the guidance of Professors Ronald Brand and Harry Flechtner.
Renowned human rights defense lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, spoke to a packed Teplitz Memorial Moot Courtroom, moving those in attendance to a standing ovation.
CADE MARTIN
A TRIFECTA OF FELLOWSHIPS
F
or a full-time student, Zach Uram’s carbon footprint during the second half of 2016 was exceptional. Between May and August, the 26-year-old from Murrysville, PA ping-ponged from Pittsburgh to Panama City to Washington D.C. and on to Rio de Janeiro as he earns a joint degree from Pitt Law and Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). Uram’s travels were funded through a trifecta of fellowships: simultaneous awards from the law school’s Nordenberg Fellowship, a Rosenthal Fellowship from the Association of American Schools of Public Affairs, and the highly competitive Boren Fellowship, which provides a year-long stipend for overseas studies for U.S. graduate students. During the summer of 2016, he completed internships at Lombardi Aguilar in Panama City and at the office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington. Though he was also offered a fourth fellowship from the university’s Foreign Language Area Studies Program, his travels precluded accepting it. Uram was in Panama City during the June reopening of the Panama Canal after a seven-year, $16 billion expansion. The city has become almost a second home for him. “It was the first place I traveled as an adult. I’m now living with the same family for a third time,” he explained in a June interview. With fluency in Spanish achieved, Uram set a goal of acquiring Portuguese. His application for the Boren focused on a country he’d already visited: Brazil. His first experience in the northern city of Salvador last year honed his interest in a country whose chaotic current fortunes contrast sharply with placid Panama.
“My proposal for Boren included a plan to study at a Brazilian Law School in Rio called Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV for short), while also taking language classes and living with a host family. The Boren will pay for my proposal and also allow me to waive large portions of the Foreign Service Officer Exam,” he explains. Uram’s interest in comparative politics was honed in classes with GSPIA professor, Charles Skinner. He credits Pitt Law professors George Taylor, Judith Teeter, and the Center for International Legal Education staff for guiding him through the Boren application process. “Originally, I proposed studying how Brazilian regulations affect U.S. industries. It has local content requirements for goods the U.S. buys in Brazil, some of which may be loosened,” he says. “With this changing government and the uncertainty on whether Dilma [Rousseff, the impeached Brazilian president] is coming back, it’s much more chaotic.” Uram intends to spend more time in Washington next year through Semester in D.C. programs offered by both the Law School and GSPIA . And he expects to continue his international travels after receiving his joint degrees at the end of 2018. When asked where he’ll be in five years, his answer is cheerful and immediate: “In the Foreign Service, in some country getting danger pay!”
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UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH S C H O O L O F L AW C O M M E N C E M E N T
2016
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson addressed graduates during the 2016 commencement ceremony, held May 8 at the Carnegie Music Hall of Oakland. The class of 2016 comprised 174 JD graduates, 22 LLM graduates, and seven MSL graduates. 41Â students graduated with honors. Professor Peter B. Oh received the 2016 Robert T. Harper Excellence in Teaching Award, as voted on by the graduating class.
LASTOWKA CYBERLAW COLLOQUIUM COMES TO PITT LAW
The University of Pittsburgh School of Law hosted the 2016 Lastowka Cyberlaw Colloquium, a gathering of scholars in the fields of cyberlaw and intellectual property, Feb. 5–6, 2016. The Colloquium is designed as an intensive workshop to exchange ideas in connection with commentary on academic papers and other works in progress. This year, the Colloquium has been renamed the Lastowka Cyberlaw Colloquium in honor and in memory of the late Professor Greg Lastowka, a founding member of the PTW Colloquium and a pioneering cyberlaw scholar. “I’m thrilled that Pitt Law is able to host this group of outstanding, cutting-edge scholars, and to begin the tradition of honoring one our most beloved and respected colleagues,” said Professor Michael Madison, Director of the Innovation Practice Institute. PEGGY BROWNING FELLOWS
The Peggy Browning Fund has awarded 10-week summer fellowships to three students from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law: secondyear student Sophiko Geguchadze, and first-year students Max Roesch and Yevhenii Shatskyi. For summer 2016, Geguchadze is a Peggy Browning Fund Fellow at the Community Justice Project in Pittsburgh. Roesch is at the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America in Pittsburgh. Shatskyi is at the International Labor Rights Forum in Washington, D.C. DIVERSITY IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Distinguished speakers on race, gender, and marriage equality visited Pitt Law during the past academic year, while a prominent local firm endowed a scholarship to promote diversity among the student body. Evan Wolfson has been called “the godfather of gay marriage” by Newsweek and The Daily Beast. A special Constitution Day program on Sept. 17, 2015 featured Wolfson and Pitt Law Professor Anthony Infanti, who discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges; the history of the effort to attain marriage equality for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community; and what legal and social challenges lie ahead.
From left to right: Dean William M. Carter, Jr., Judge Aldisert’s children Gregory, Lisa, and Robert Aldisert, and Chancellor Emeritus Mark A. Nordenberg.
Rounding out the discussion was Pennsylvania Representative Dan B. Frankel, who serves the 23rd District in Pittsburgh. Renowned human rights defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson spoke to a packed Teplitz Memorial Moot Court room on Jan. 25, 2016, moving those in attendance to a standing o vation. Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu has called Stevenson “America’s young Nelson Mandela.” His work on individual cases has reversed death penalties for dozens of condemned prisoners. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative and one of the most acclaimed and respected lawyers in the nation. His memoir, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, is the story of a young lawyer fighting extreme punishments and careless justice. Professor Ann E. Tweedy of Mitchell Hamline School of Law, one of the nation’s leading experts on bisexuality and the law, spoke at the law school on March 22, 2016 at the annual Norman J. and Alice Chapman Rubash Distinguished Lecture in Law and Social Work. Her scholarship focuses on sexuality and the law, particularly in the area of employment discrimination, as well as tribal sovereignty under federal and tribal law. Finally, global law firm K&L Gates LLP has collaborated with Pitt Law to establish the K&L Gates Diversity Fellowship, which will provide a full tuition scholarship to an entering student at Pitt Law for all three years of law school, as well as a paid summer associate position at K&L Gates in the
student’s first and second summers of law school. The first scholarship was awarded in 2016 to an incoming Pitt Law student. CHIEF JUDGE RUGGERO J. ALDISERT ROOM DEDICATION
On Nov. 16, 2015, family and friends of Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert gathered in the University of Pittsburgh School of Law Teplitz Memorial Moot Court room to witness the Dedication of the Chief Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert Room. Dean William M. Carter, Jr. welcomed guests to the evening’s memorial service, followed by remarks from past recipient of The Honorable Ruggero J. Aldisert Scholarship, John Paul Putney, Esq. (’14). Judge Aldisert’s daughter, Lisa, spoke in remembrance of her father, University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Emeritus Mark Nordenberg expressed Judge Aldisert’s commitment to the University, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit judge, Michael Fisher, Judge Aldisert’s colleague and friend, gave the evening’s closing remarks.
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COVER
THE CONSTITUTION AND SOLITARY STRUGGLE
NOAH PURDY
Jules Lobel:
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I’m not neutral. And I don’t believe academics ought to be neutral. So I challenge that idea,” says Jules Lobel. “I try to write theoretical articles that are sound and carefully researched, but have a point to make — often, a political point.” The Bessie McKee Walthour Endowed Chair at Pitt Law, Lobel has spent a distinguished career challenging ideas on injustices meted out by the U.S. government on the state and federal level. His most recent role as lead counsel in the landmark 2015 case Ashker v. California on the rights of prisoners in solitary confinement led to a historic settlement that has set a prece dent for other states. The result is the most recent of the challenges Lobel has posed across his career, or careers, which combine scholarship and teaching with high-profile cases in connection with his role as president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The breadth of Lobel’s 33-year teaching career is s uggested by the height of the paper stacks filling his fifthfloor office. On a June afternoon, a 21-gear bicycle perches alongside the paperwork as he relaxes, in shorts and s neakers, at a desk surrounded by family photos. Lobel has just hosted a unique conference at Pitt Law. The International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Prolonged Solitary Confinement brought advocates for prisoners’ rights, medical experts, legal scholars, and prison officials together to explore an issue gaining national momentum, thanks to his sustained efforts. He says he’s looking forward to some rest and relaxation. But a review of his work over the past few decades suggests that might be — well, challenging. Lobel has sued every U.S. administration since Reagan, Clinton, both Bushes, and Obama. The common denominators of the work have been issues of social justice and constitutional limits on government. The cases have included questioning the Reagan administration’s funding of the Contras in Nicaragua, challenging the war powers of both President Clinton in Yugoslavia and President George H.W. Bush in the first Gulf War without Congressional PITT LAW MAGAZINE
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approval, suing over the post-9/11 deportation to Syria of a Syrian-Canadian who changed planes at John F. Kennedy Airport, and demanding clearer standards for detention of prisoners at Guantanamo and in U.S. prisons. A Bronx native, the 64-year-old Lobel started his career organizing union activists within unions “where the union leadership was corrupt,” he explains. At Rutgers University Law School, distinguished faculty member Arthur Kinoy — a lawyer for the Chicago 7 — was a mentor. After graduation, Lobel continued pro bono work in union and community organizing when he joined the firm of Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman. The firm’s specialization in international law led to Lobel’s involvement in two major
NOAH PURDY
U.S. Supreme Court cases: challenging Reagan’s travel ban to Cuba, and representing the Central Bank of Iran in defending the deal that resulted in the U.S. hostages being released in 1981. His involvement with the Center for Constitutional Rights led to ongoing work in Nicaragua and Central America. Meanwhile, Lobel made a career shift, joining the Pitt Law faculty in 1983. “I liked writing and teaching. I sought a more reflective life,” he explains. “But I was committed to continue my activism.” “When I started teaching at Pitt, the Cuba travel case was still going on,” he recalls. “While with the law firm, I had written an article in the Harvard International Law Journal. It argued that aid to the contras fighting in Nicaragua violated
the neutrality laws of the U.S. That was one of the first criminal statutes adopted by Congress in 1794. I talked to the Center, trying to figure out some way to sue the CIA. It was sort of a screwy way to develop a lawsuit, namely based on a law review article, but we found a statute which allowed a citizen to seek a special prosecutor in such cases. A U.S. district court judge remarkably granted our request for a special investigation. While the Court of Appeals ruled against us on standing, by that time the Iran-Contra scandal had broken, and a special prosecutor was appointed.” Lobel retains a wry sense of humor about his work. “For many years I mainly lost in court. So I wrote a book about winning by losing,” he explains. (Success Without
A SEA CHANGE IN PRISONER TREATMENT
T
wenty years ago, solitary confinement was a widespread solution to exploding jail populations and high rates of violence. Although few reliable statistics were reported on the number of prisoners held in solitary confinement across the country, it was estimated that some 75,000 were isolated in extremely harsh conditions, many for a decade or more; confined to windowless cells with lights burning brightly for 22 hours a day. The Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996 limited incarcerated people’s ability to bring prison officials to court for violations of their constitutional rights. Hunger strikes rippled among inmate populations across the country beginning in 2011, when Jules
Lobel first filed a suit on behalf of prisoners isolated for a decade or more at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison, on the rural Oregon border. The suit cited expert testimony on the measurable physical and psychological damage inflicted by the practice, defining it as cruel and unusual punishment. In the wake of the California settlement, announced Sept. 1, 2015, states are sharply reducing the use of solitary confinement for nonviolent prisoners across the country. As the suit progressed, prison administrators, health experts and policy leaders began to address the issue. In June 2015, Justice Anthony Kennedy publicly questioned the practice, writing
that “years on end of near total isolation exact a terrible price.” President Obama made similar comments, ordering the Justice Department to review the practice. In Jan. 2016, the department’s report concluded that solitary “should be used rarely, applied fairly, and subjected to reasonable constraints.” The U.S. Senate held three hearings related to the issue, and 15 states considered reform legislation last year. “Although it would have been hard to believe even several years ago, reform of solitary confinement is starting to look inevitable,” wrote The Marshall Project.
Victory: Lost Legal Battles and The Long Road to Justice in America was published by NYU Press in 2003.) In a war powers suit that was reprinted in a leading casebook, the Center for Constitutional Rights worked with former Representative Ron Dellums (D-CA), refuting President George H.W. Bush’s authority to go to war with Iraq without Congressional approval. The judge held that the president did not have the constitutional power to go to war alone, but refused to issue an injunction. “The media asked Richard Thornburgh (Pitt Law, ’57, and then U.S. Attorney General), ‘What do you think of this ruling?’ He said, ‘We won.’ But Congressman Dellums claimed on Nightline that we had won, since the judge had agreed with us. The New York Times and Washington Post wrote a number of articles and editorials saying the court decision shows that the president is wrong. And eventually, Bush went to Congress. So the case was successful, even though we didn’t have a judicial victory. And my students helped me on that case!” Lobel deliberately involves his students in major federal litigation. “I’m not simply interested in teaching them to be good lawyers. I am interested in that, but I also have an interest in inspiring them, having them think about following a non-traditional path. The environment of law school is not fundamentally about social justice — it’s about finding a good career. And in the market they face, to get a public interest job is very difficult, much more difficult than getting a job at a good firm.” Judith Resnik, the Arthur Liman Professor of Law at Yale Law School, has worked alongside Lobel on prison rights issues. “Jules is a remarkable intellectual force. He has transformed the lives of thousands of prisoners by having insights into the theory of constitutional guarantees and the fortitude to pursue legal claims that were once sitting on the fringe of the law.” she says. “Jules has pioneered an understanding of American law that makes profound isolation for individuals unconstitutional.” Lobel’s example has inspired students and colleagues. One former student is both. Bret Grote, ’13, now teaches Pitt Law’s prisoner rights course with his mentor. Grote’s recent advocacy for prisoners’ rights in Pennsylvania has won victories in solitary confinement, examinations of mental health issues for prisoners, changes in health care providers at the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh, and toxic exposures of prisoners in Fayette County, PA. Chaz Arnett joined the Pitt Law faculty in 2015. His research focuses on issues of mass incarceration and educational access for juvenile offenders: the school to prison
“ We were giving up the potential of having the case set a national precedent. Whether you win or settle a case, it’s only one step in the process.”
pipeline. The inquiry aligns with Lobel’s constitutional expertise, albeit from a different perspective. “For youth, it’s reframing the issue away from the right to education issue, looking at it in light of criminal punishment,” Arnett explains. Lobel’s work in incarceration issues, beginning with an Ohio case in 2001, proved even more demanding than his previous international cases. Lobel says that in addition to Eighth Amendment questions, they involved intense factfinding, grinding on for half a decade. The settlement in the California suit, Ashker, brought by prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison, came more than four years after the first filing. Creating the terms of the settlement took four months, and Lobel estimates implementing the details will take another 18 months. Lobel says the hardest part of the case — enforcing the settlement — lies ahead. “I was relieved,” he said of the settlement. “I knew my clients were going to get out of solitary — that we were going to change the system. I was also a little sad that we weren’t litigating the case up to the U.S. Supreme Court. We were giving up the potential of having the case set a national precedent. Whether you win or settle a case, it’s only one step in the process. And in this case, a victory will turn into a loss, unless we are vigilant over the next several years to really get the prison system to change.” PITT LAW MAGAZINE
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F E AT U R E
A LAUNCHPAD FOR LAW PRACTICES
W
ith the support of the Pitt Legal Services Incubator (PLSI), five ambitious JDs are estab lishing practices on the fourth floor of the Barco Law Building, where the fluorescent lights nurture a professional greenhouse. The program helps practitioners build sustainable practices focused on the region’s underserved communities. Led by Faculty Director Tom Ross and Program Director Paula Hopkins, PLSI is in the national vanguard of law school experiments to help graduates establish their careers. Hopkins, a Pittsburgh solo practitioner, shares her first-hand experience in starting a firm with the PLSI attorneys. “I visited an incubator program in Chicago in 2014,” she recalls, “and it was a happy surprise to learn later that Tom and Dean Carter were interested in starting an incubator at Pitt Law School. My job is to support the new attorneys as they develop their solo practices by helping them to focus on the business side of the practices.” PITT LAW MAGAZINE
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PLSI does not provide case management, substantive law training, or client referrals. Hopkins says the program relies on experienced mentors, who include Pitt Law alumni and members of the Allegheny County Bar. As primary contact with the university, faculty director Ross supports that work, while promoting PLSI in the community and developing license agreements with attorneys. The law school provides physical space, office electronics, and subscriptions to LexisNexis and Clio for the attorneys’ use in the incubator. The program’s inaugural participants include Marco Attisano, ’13, Kord Kinney, ’14, Vanessa Love, ’12, Quinntarra Morant, ’12, and Robert Stasa, ’14. Since January 2016, they have gotten plenty of support — both formal and informal.
CHRISTOPHER SPROWLS
criminal work. But now that I’m practicing, I’m realizing 80–85 percent of the work is criminal defense. The economics are better on the criminal side, so that’s good for the business model.” Cash flow is key: several of the PLSI attorneys take on document review work to pay the bills. When a friend from undergraduate days joined PLSI, Attisano found a partner. Robert Stasa, ’14, specializes in ethics and disciplinary board work, resolving issues in character and fitness examinations for bar candidates. “Our practices are somewhat complementary,” Attisano says. “And his potential clients are our classmates. That’s a natural fit.” With a high profile among young attorneys for her community service to the Allegheny County Bar Association and the Schenley Heights Community Development Program, Quinntarra Morant is now rebranding as a solo practitioner after working with the Department of the Treasury and PNC. Her umbrella business covers several specialties: estate planning, non-profit counsel, small business formation and tax planning. “Paula made a presentation at our diversity collaborative meeting. I followed up,” she says. “After much consideration, I felt the timing and the unique opportunity was something I should explore.” Morant, age 30, says the PLSI emphasizes building a sustainable practice. “As attorneys, we’re always thinking about the legal side,” she says. “The incubator brings home that you’re running a business.” With the help of Oded Green and David Lehman, ’85, K&L Gates attorneys who work with the law school’s Innovation Practice Institute, she is cultivating small business clients. Hopkins says that mentoring from Pitt Law alumni is an essential part of the PLSI approach. “Kord Kinney was
Pictured left to right: Paula Hopkins and Marco Attisano, Kord Kinney, Robert Stasa, Quinntara Morant and Vanessa Love
Criminal defense attorney Marco Attisano, age 31, served as an Assistant DA with Allegheny County’s District Attorney’s office for a year and a half before applying for the PLSI with a goal of broadening his practice to civil cases. Since January, he’s gotten a taste of both. When attorney Vicki Kuftic Horne, ’82, lost an associate to maternity leave, she contacted Attisano, who took second chair in a civil jury trial. Horne had met Attisano when she made a presentation about her own solo practice to PLSI attorneys in February. For a federal case, criminal attorney Efrem Grail, another volunteer presenter, requested his assistance. Referrals created other clients. “It’s been a good mix of experience,” Attisano says. “My original business plan included both civil and
representing the defendant in a protection from abuse case. [Criminal defense and family law attorney] Jeffrey Pollock, ’87, took time to walk him through it, and has also offered Vanessa Love the opportunity to shadow one of his custody cases. Vanessa has also increased her substantive law knowledge by doing pro bono work with Neighborhood Legal Services, working with Cathy Martin, ’78.” Hopkins says she welcomes more volunteer mentors in the community. “The support of Pitt Law alumni is critical to our success,” she says. PLSI began accepting applications for this year’s participants on Oct. 1, 2016.
F E AT U R E
1975
single mother 1984
JD, Pitt Law 1990–2011
corporate secretary, general counsel, vice president and board member, Airbus Americas 2007
first grandchild and beginning of LLM in environmental law 2017 (est.)
complete doctoral thesis on the governance of shared international water aquifers, University of Strathclyde
THE FORK IN THE ROAD In the course of a legal career, like many others, directions can shift. Compasses swing. Unlikely opportunities arise. For several Pitt Law alumni, where they stand a few decades after earning their JDs is light years from where they’d imagined. In recent conversations, three alumni talked candidly about the decisions that brought them to their current careers.
RENEE MARTIN-NAGLE, ’84, AGE 61 enee Martin-Nagle’s tiny flat in the center of Glasgow, Scotland, is an ocean away from where she started. At age 20, she was a single welfare mother with few prospects in rural Pennsylvania coal country. Four decades later, she is earning her third law degree — a PhD on the governance of freshwater aquifers shared by two or more countries — and aiming her sights on a new iteration of her professional skills. “The University of Strathclyde found me through my publications and public speaking and invited me to join a very strong groundwater team,” she explains simply. “And I thought, why not? So I sold my house [in Virginia] and moved to Glasgow in March 2015. I see this degree as another step in my shift to the environmental sector, and the work is both fascinating and meaningful.” Martin-Nagle’s 20-plus-year career as chief legal counsel for the U.S. affiliates of Airbus earned her accolades as a pioneering woman executive in the male-dominated aviation industry. At Airbus Americas, she created its legal, compliance and environmental functions and served as corporate secretary and a member of the board of directors. However, consistent with her commitment to link personal values with professional activities, the birth of the first of Renee’s two
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JO HANLEY
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1984
ART DODGE III, ’84, AGE 60 ecoming the fifth generation of a distinguished Lancaster, PA family business held no appeal for Art Dodge when he left Pitt Law in 1984. “I ran as far and as fast as I could!” he laughs. “I was a Millennial ahead of my time — I wanted to travel, to do Europe.” Clerking for Pittsburgh sole practitioner Murray Litmans during law school, he was a quick study on the nuances of the firm’s securities practice. “I think of him often,” says Dodge of Litmans, who died in 2000. “He trusted me enough as a law student to let me do work that practicing attorneys do. That gave me self-confidence. I learned my likes and dislikes.” An encounter with a pair of investment bankers in the middle of his second year resonated. “I remember clearly sitting on the top floor of the U.S. Steel Building, after we’d finished a private placement with Goldman Sachs. I thought—‘wait! I’m getting $15 an hour. You guys got 50,000 times that much. How do
B
1985-1987
Manager, Bain & Company, London, U.K. 1987
returns to family business in Lancaster, PA 1989
founds Ecore International, largest U.S. manufacturer of recycled rubber
I do what you do?’ They told me, ‘we only recruit from business schools.’ I thought, I gotta suck it up and go do this.’ ” A year and a half later, he’d earned an MBA from IMEDE (Institute pour l’Etude des Methodes de Direction de l’Enterprise) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Joining Bain in London, he launched a career in international consulting. “The MBA turbo-charged the JD,” he says. “I experienced a couple of lifetimes of travel in a few years. I saw lots of hotels and offices.” Two years later, a sudden sports injury jolted his young family. “I blew an Achilles tendon in my knee playing squash in London. Then I got an infection after surgery. I had to take a leave of absence. We had a baby and needed help! So I came back to Lancaster.” The family business, Dodge Cork Company, was a small manufacturing company under the direction of his father. “My dad said, ‘I know you hate the family business — but what about this?’ He handed me a piece of recycled, rebounded rubber.” It was a Eureka moment. “I had done work at Bain on recycled man-made materials such as glass, steel, plastic, and aluminum — all had spawned billion-dollar recycling industries, except for rubber. Somebody needed to figure it out. It wasn’t an alien idea.” His idea for the business, now named Ecore International, was to manufacture recycled rubber materials and surfacing in a variety of forms and applications. The firm is now the largest recycled rubber manufacturer in North America, doing business globally. “I’ve embraced a lot of changes,” he says. “Life is funny. The path you least expect may be the one you are destined to take.”
ERIC FORBERGER
grandsons in April 2007 inspired her to focus her energies on making the planet a better place for future generations. So, that same year, while still working full-time at Airbus Americas and chairing the ABA Forum on Air and Space Law, she began taking night classes at George Washington University Law School. In 2010 she earned an LLM in environmental law with highest honors, and her thesis on fossil aquifers won the 2011 Grodsky Prize for Environmental Law Scholarship. While learning about environmental issues in the classroom, she assumed the position of head of environmental affairs at Airbus Americas and established a vibrant internal program that encouraged environmental awareness and activities at all the company’s North American sites. “It made sense that if I was studying about environment stewardship, then I should learn how it could be implemented in the workplace,” she explains. After retiring from Airbus Americas in 2011, she founded an environmental consulting firm, joined the Environmental Law Institute as a Visiting Scholar, and added journalism to her resume before undertaking her doctoral research. “There’s a difference between loving what you do and being passionate about it,” she says. “For 25 years I loved my work in aviation and wouldn’t trade a minute of it. But I’m much more passionate about ensuring that there is enough water for future generations of all species. If you’re thinking of changing the direction of your career, my experience is that you must sit with the question for a while. Listen quietly to the internal voices that guide your heart, and hopefully they will tell you what your passion is. For me the process took a few years, and I’m much more creative in this field, I think, than in my previous one. It takes courage to go in a different direction, but sometimes staying with the status quo is even more terrifying than change.”
JD, Pitt Law, MBA, IMEDE (Institute pour l’Etude des Methodes de Direction de l’Enterprise), Lausanne, Switzerland
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design patent damages case of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Apple, Inc., to be argued in the fall of 2016. “After Srixon / Cleveland Golf decided to do this, we had only two weeks to write, get printed, and file our brief,” Kline says. “Sometimes I work best under pressure. We got it done.” A 2011 reorganization at Coca-Cola, where he had been named senior patent counsel two years earlier, eliminated his job and “threw me a curve ball,” says Kline. At age 53, he had two children in college. He felt he was too young for early retirement, opting to once again become a job applicant. A brief private practice partnership with a former Coca-Cola boss led to a cross-country offer from Srixon/Cleveland Golf, an international golf club brand based in Huntington Beach, CA. Director of intellectual property for the firm, he now also serves as its most senior lawyer and corporate secretary and enjoys developing new ideas for the business. One example: “A few months ago, I was reading about why people play golf. I encountered the term ‘shot euphoria’— the feeling a player gets when that little white ball rockets down the fairway. That’s the main reason I play — for those two or three experiences in an 18-hole round. I got Marketing’s blessing, then filed an intent-to-use trademark application for the suggestive word ‘euphoria,’ and it’s been allowed. Doing things like that is a way to leverage my interest and experience to help my company.” Three decades after enrolling at Pitt Law, he offers modest career advice to young attorneys. “You never know where your next opportunity is going to come from. Keep an open mind to every opportunity. Don’t sell yourself short in terms of your ability to capitalize on your talent.”
1980
BS in chemical engineering, Penn State 1981
files first patent for pulse jet engine system 1985
JD, Pitt Law 1999
joins Coca-Cola as litigation counsel 2008
publishes The Baltimore Plot: The First Conspiracy to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln 2014
files 24th patent for branded weighting system for golf clubs
STEPHEN SIMPSON
MICHAEL J. KLINE, ’85, AGE 58 ichael Kline has represented some of the world’s biggest corporate brands — Sunbeam during the 1990’s, The Coca-Cola Company through the 2000s, then GE and AT&T, and now Roger Cleveland Golf Company, Inc., (“Srixon /Cleveland Golf ”) an international golf equipment manufacturer. But his personal and professional brand ranges across a broad swath of interests: mechanical inventor, author, and intellectual property expert. During his 30-year legal career, he has continually pursued passions related neither to his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering nor to his JD. “My interests are not so much in chemical engineering as in science — scientific discoveries,” he explains. “If I could be better at what I do, I’d aspire to be a Thomas Jeffersontype person — a diplomat, a scientist, a Renaissance man. I have the same kind of diverse interests. I tend to get bored quickly, so I reach out for new pursuits that are challenging.” Case in point: his career switch to law. “People tried to talk me out of law school — no jobs, too many lawyers,” he recalls. “Maybe I was headstrong, but I am happy I made the decision. Legal education is a great basis for pursuing a lot of different careers. It forces you to engage in critical thinking, to challenge and test the merits of what you hear.” And recently, Kline served as a board member of WE ARE GOLF, a national coalition of leading golf organizations, including the PGA and USGA, to apply his diplomacy interests. In May, he attended National Golf Day in Washington, D.C. to meet with congressmen and senators to advocate for legislative changes that would help the golf industry. “When you get not just inside the Beltway, but inside the halls of the Rayburn House Office Building, you really gain an appreciation for how the sausage is made by our government, and an opportunity to argue how to make it better,” Kline says. “Law school never prepared me for that opportunity, but without law school, that opportunity would never have arisen.” Over the past two decades, he built a career in intellectual property law, but other inventions claimed attention. The birth of a daughter inspired one of his several U.S. patents, a wet diaper sensor. Subsequent designs focused on jet engines, including devices to deflect birds or drones during flight. One still-pending patent provides real-time nutritional information on soda dispensing machines. “The common theme through all is health and safety,” he summarizes. When Kline moved from Pittsburgh’s Thorpe Reed & Armstrong LLP (now Clark Hill PLC) to The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, he was inspired by close readings of Civil War history to write his first non-fiction book, after several novels. The Baltimore Plot: The First Conspiracy to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln (Westholme Publishing, 2008) relied on Kline’s legal experience to research and craft a criminal case against the plotters. “I find researching and writing almost more rewarding as a process than the end result. You get to learn so much,” he says. More recently, Kline turned his research and writing skills to the U.S. Supreme Court, writing an amicus curiae brief in support of Apple in the
F E AT U R E
CONFRONTING DISPARITIES ‌
I N FA N T M O R TA L I T Y A M O N G A F R I C A N A M E R I C A N S I N A L L E G H E N Y C O U N T Y I S N E A R LY
HIGHER T H A N
T H AT O F W H I T E S .
THREE TIMES
THINKING OUTSIDE THE L AW CLINIC BOX C O L L A B O R AT I N G W I T H M E D I C A L A N D N U R S I N G S T U D E N T S I N P I T T L AW ’ S H E A LT H L A W C L I N I C , P I T T L A W PROFESSOR TOMAR BROWN’S STUDENTS H AV E P R O P O S E D I D E A S A D D R E S S I N G S O C I E TA L I S S U E S T H AT D E T E R M I N E A C C E S S T O H E A LT H C A R E .
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standard law school clinic asks students to focus on navigating bureaucratic systems, representing clients denied government benefits. Less often does it give them the opportunity to probe the cultural realities behind the legal question. To Tomar Brown, understanding how poverty and discrimination affect access to medical treatment is more than a procedural question: it is a question of justice. Brown has been a proponent of health equity and an advocate for children with disabilities since the beginning of her career. In 2006 she was named an Equal Justice Works Fellow, focusing on education advocacy for youth in the delinquency system. While a senior attorney for the Children’s Law Center, she personally represented youth as their guardian ad litem in abuse and neglect cases while contributing to the center’s advocacy efforts on behalf of children in Washington, D.C.’s foster care system. Brown previously served as a clinical instructor and supervising attorney in the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. When she arrived at Pitt Law in the fall of 2015 as an assistant professor and director of the health law clinic, following the retirement of Professor Stella Smetanka, she saw an opportunity to introduce students to the realities that underlay the cases they handle. PITT LAW MAGAZINE
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TERRY CLARK
“The focus of the seminar is on the social determinants of health. I challenge students to think conceptually about how the existing body of law contributes to, or detracts from, the health of our clients,” she explains. The dual focus on health equity as well as casework allowed Brown to tap the university’s broad faculty expertise in health issues, as well as bringing medical and nursing students into the clinic. The result was a series of student projects, presented to the Allegheny County Department of Health, which proposed solutions to address the daunting health issues facing Pittsburgh’s poorest residents. Allegheny County’s health dis parities reflect its racial divide. The region’s premature mortality rates are exceptionally high, disproportionately affecting young African Americans. Allegheny County homicide rates among African Americans 15–19 were 38 times higher than those of whites; the rate for those 19–24 was 45 times higher. Within Pittsburgh city limits, homicide rates for young Black men are 50 times the national average. Despite high levels of prenatal care, infant mortality is still unacceptably high in the Black community; at 16 infant deaths per thousand, Black rates are nearly three times higher than those of Whites. The Allegheny County Health Department sees those issues as examples of health inequity. Addressing the topic is a priority in its strategic five-year plan, Plan for a Healthier Allegheny. During the spring 2016 semester, law students joined medical
CONSIDERING
JUST SOLUTIONS
Poverty and violence create unhealthy levels of stress. Professor Tomar Brown (left) challenges health law clinic students to propose both legal and practical remedies to reduce stress and improve community well-being.
and nursing students in the health law clinic to explore the intersection of law and policy. Krystin Harper, ’16, was selected as an Albert Schweitzer Fellow during the 2015–16 academic year. The prestigious fellowship — one of four awarded to Pitt Law students that year — allowed her to continue her focus on health disparities close to home. She’s developing a selfesteem workshop for Gwen’s Girls, an after-school program that serves girls enrolled in their foster care, and provides prevention and reunification services. Upon enrolling in the health law clinic, she focused on the legal needs of young pregnant mothers. “If a woman is denied Medicaid or SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, she can’t access nutritional support,” Harper notes. In Pittsburgh’s East End and Northview Heights neighborhoods, Harper discovered a gap: high rates of women were enrolled in Medicaid, but not the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Families in both neighborhoods are routinely exposed to high levels of violence. The finding turned her team’s attention to the stresses that neighborhood violence can induce in mothers and babies.
“ I challenge students to think conceptually about how the existing body of law contributes to, or detracts from, the health of our clients.” TOM A R BROW N
CREATING
ALTERNATIVES
Community yoga classes could alleviate stress and provide an opportunity to connect mothers to social services, suggests Krystin Harper ’16 (right). Allegheny County Health Depart ment’s Abby Wilson ’11 (left) supports Pitt Law students’ efforts to promote access to county programs.
“There are many medical research studies that show how yoga decreases stress,” says Harper. She encountered some skepticism when she suggested that yoga classes might remedy that inequity. “When I presented, the nursing students asked how will it go over, given the yoga stereotype —blond, skinny women. But it’s proven, it’s low impact, and everyone can participate — even young children.” The key to overcoming transportation and transit issues, the group agreed, was “to bring the program to the people.” If a yoga class were offered at a local community center, it could offer participants other programming, even onsite enrollment in benefits programs like WIC. Abby Wilson, ’11, is deputy director for public policy and community relations at the Allegheny County Health Department. In conversations with Brown and her students, she welcomed their input into policy research related to health equity. When student teams made final presentations at her office, she was enthusiastic. “I’m particularly excited about projects that find new ways to promote access to government services. This was a creative proposal for doing that,” she says. For Shayne Harris, ’16, and Saleha Vandal, ’16, a focus on access to family planning stemmed from research that showed unintended pregnancy rates were higher in the Pittsburgh region than elsewhere, suggesting that fewer women found federal Title X services. “The solution is really education,” says Harris. “Lowincome women need to know about all their available resources, from Planned Parenthood to their high school to their insurance coverage, and they must know their legal rights if access is denied.” Wilson says she has encouraged students to address health equity. “I’m hopeful that projects like these will help us all move the needle on the health equity in this county. This theme is central to our five-year Plan for a Healthier Allegheny, and critical to the overall health of our community,” she says.
CLINIC STUDENTS WIN VICTORIES FOR YOUNG PATIENTS
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n August 2015, the Law School entered into a Legal Medical Partnership with Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. This partnership provided students with an opportunity to earn practical experience in providing intake, and in some cases representation, of families who needed legal assistance related to custody and consent, disability income, and other matters that pose barriers to health care. The partnership was first for the institutions and resulted in legal victories for the minor patients and their families. Saleha Vandal, ’16, Bethany Fisher, ’16, and Ryan Adam Davis, ’16 secured wins for parents of disabled youth, appealing the denials of their children’s Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. The students worked together on a case on behalf of the parent of a 12-yearold boy with severe asthma. The Social Security Administration (SSA) stopped benefits to the boy’s family, citing his improved condition. Vandal and Fisher combed through several years of prescription drug records to counter that argument; Davis delivered the opening statement at the hearing. Fisher and Davis repeated their success in a hearing for a nine-year-old girl with severe Attention Deficit HyperActivity Disorder (ADHD). Acknowledging that the child’s condition did not meet the strict regulation-based definition for ADHD, the students argued that the child was extremely limited by the disorder in her home and school life. Their successful appeal to the SSA Office of Disability Adjudication and Review resulted in an award of more than $15,000 in back benefits to the girl’s family. “Getting an ‘A’ in a law school class doesn’t compare to the sense of accom plishment you feel after winning for your client,” says Davis. “Especially,” he added, “when you know how much they are depending on you.”
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PROFILE
COFFEE. AND RED BULL.
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fter three years in administrative work for Western Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Heather Bragg, MSL ’09, wanted to supplement her BA in psychology with another degree, envisioning a switch to a post in research compliance. A friend told her about Pitt Law’s master of studies program in law (MSL). Bragg’s immediate response: “Get half a JD and take the credits that interest me? This is the Best. Thing. Ever. Invented.” She embarked on a whirlwind two years of full-time work while earning 30 credits in the health law concentration. Her days started at 6:30 a.m., when she jumped on an Oakland-bound bus. At the beginning of her coursework, she was employed as an administrative specialist in Western Psychiatric Institute’s Child Disorders Office. “I was lucky. My jobs were willing to work with me. I alternated back and forth to earn my hours and my credits,” she explained. “At Western Psych, my weekly hours were 9-9-9-9 and 4. Fridays were the four — I spent the mornings in Introduction to Legal Writing, a required MSL class, with Professor Teresa Brostoff. She was absolutely wonderful. It turned out to be my toughest course, but she took the time to explain everything. The writing discipline is very different from my undergrad experience. In legal writing, there’s no fluff. From that class, I’d go back to the office and put in four more hours.” Bragg found JD students were her classmates in many topics. “At first, I found that intimidating. But their insights were good, because they have deep grounding in the subjects,” she said. “The torts course was particularly challenging. I had to stay on my toes. When I was a Pitt undergrad, my hangout was Hemingway’s. It became Crazy Mocha. That’s where I’d do some reading.” Long days became the norm. “About half of my classes were evening classes, so I stayed on campus for 12 hours or so. I was living on coffee and Red Bull. On the bright side, I only had to commute once a day. I rarely had a chance
to socialize during the week, but I made time for friends when I could and always got together with my parents for Sunday breakfast.” Halfway through her third semester in the MSL program, Bragg took a new opportunity as a contracts administrator in the university’s Department of Pathology. As a pre-award grants and contracts administrator, she began to integrate her law studies in assembling grant application packages and contract proposal submissions. Bragg believes that having a working understanding in areas like nonprofit law, food and drug law, and torts gave her a greater understanding of relevant contract terms. She also became responsible for assembling the department’s J-1 and H1-B visa applications, which she enjoyed. And she learned an important lesson. “In Pathology, some of the offices are alongside what they call ‘gross rooms.’ Don’t ever look in the window of a gross room,” she advised. “They are aptly named.” Two and a half years later, after completing her MSL, she switched jobs again, to become a federal contracts officer in the university’s Office of Research. Her work is now more directly tied to the legal requirements of negotiating federal contracts and subcontracts and non-financial research documents, and requires familiarity with regulatory standards. Looking back, Bragg is pleased with her career trajectory. “I feel I can take this job anywhere, to any major research university,” she said. “It’s stable and it’s applicable to major companies. Now, I’m considering a PhD in education or higher education management.”
by David Harris
NOAH PURDY
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FAMILIAR STORY, NEW VOICE by DAV I D H A R R IS
AMANDA HOLL
OPINION
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s a lawyer and law professor, I have participated in all of the major debates concerning police procedure in the last 25 years. I have also worked to bridge the divide between police and the communities they serve. From this perspective, the terrible events of July 2016, shocked me. I think they shocked and saddened all Americans. In quick succession, two videos emerged. On July 5, police confronted a man named Alton Sterling, who was selling CDs in front of a convenience store in Baton Rouge, LA. An anonymous tipster had reported that Sterling had a gun and threatened someone with it. A struggle quickly ensued, and the video showed two officers pinning Sterling to the ground. There were shouts of “gun!” and then shots, point blank, into Sterling’s chest, killing him. And the next day, even more shocking, there came an officer’s shooting of Philando Castile, a well-loved school cafeteria worker in suburban Minneapolis. Mr. Castile’s fiancé live streamed the aftermath of the police shooting of Mr. Castile. Outrage and protests followed, in both places and across the country. And then, with almost no time to absorb all of this, five police officers in Dallas died, shot by a man upset about the deaths of Sterling, Castile and other black men at the hands of police. And just 10 days later, another man targeted police officers in Baton Rouge, killing three of them. The outpouring of rage, grief, and anger continues as I write this, over a month later. There were eulogies, f unerals, and speeches; President Obama spoke at the memorial service for the officers in Dallas. Amid all of this noise, there was another voice — a voice not usually heard in the debates over police misconduct. This person spoke on this issue for the first time that I was aware — and he spoke in the most personal terms. For those reasons, I took notice. I believe in the power of stories to help us understand one another. Our personal narratives — telling others what we have experienced, from our hearts — can have a transformative effect. Now as a lawyer, of course I believe in the persuasive power of strong, logical legal arguments. And as an academic, I know that data, properly collected and rigorously analyzed, can illuminate problems and point us to the right solutions. But stories do something more: they create empathy. They give us an understanding of the lived experience of another human being, whose life we have not personally shared — but which we can now see, and even feel. It’s no accident that the title of one of my first law review articles about racial profiling begins with the phrase, “The Stories, the Statistics, and the Law.” The speaker was Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. Senator Scott is a Republican — a very conservative Republican, he would have you know, as befits his representation of one of the most conservative southern states. He is also an African American — and that fact is what prompted him to speak on July 13. Senator Scott began by saying that we should thank and support the many police officers who conduct themselves well. But, he said, “Some simply do not. I’ve experienced it myself.”
He recounted how he’d felt the sting of police mistreatment. “In the course of one year,” Senator Scott said, “I’ve been stopped seven times by law enforcement officers. Not four, not five, not six, but seven times in one year … Was I speeding some times? Sure. But the vast majority of times I was pulled over for nothing more than driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood or something just as trivial.” He then told a remarkable story — a story of something that he, a black United States Senator, had experienced, in the Congress itself. Last year, in his fifth year of service, Senator Scott was entering a Congressional office building. As always, he wore his special lapel pin—a pin designating him as one of the one hundred members of the U.S. Senate. When he attempted to enter the building, a U.S. Capitol Police officer came straight up to him. But it wasn’t for a friendly chat. He looked at me, with a little attitude and said, “The pin I know. You, I don’t. Show me your ID.” I’ll tell you, I was thinking to myself, “Either he thinks I’m committing a crime — imperson ating a member of Congress, or — or what?” Senator Scott described how this encounters with police, and others he described, made him feel: I have felt the anger, the frustration, the sadness, and the humiliation that comes with feeling you’re being targeted for nothing more than just being yourself … There is absolutely nothing more frustrating, more damaging to your soul than when you know you’re following the rules, and being treated like you’re not. Some will discount Senator Scott’s words. They’ll ask where he’s been on these issues for years — why he has not broken with the leaders of his party in Congress, who have opposed and blocked legislatively every action on racial profiling and other police reforms for years. They will ask why he has not broken with them since his very powerful statement. I ask that, instead, we simply listen, and try to understand his story. It’s easy to call a politician inconsistent. For now, let’s regard what Senator Scott said as the story of a man — a very powerful and visible man, who, in the end, finds himself all too often treated exactly the same way that black men (and women too) have long found themselves treated in encounters with law enforcement — even in 2016 — regardless of their age, station in life, appearance, education or achievement. It’s high time that, no matter who we are, or what group we were born into, we all regard these practices as something that must change. This is an issue not just for African Americans or Latinos or other minority groups. It’s an issue for all Americans who values fairness, equality, and the promises of the Constitution that belong to everyone.
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F A C U LT Y
FACULTY T H E F O L L OW I N G I S A S A M P L I N G O F P R O F E S S I O N A L A C T I V I T I E S C O N D U C T E D B Y P I T T L AW F A C U LT Y O V E R T H E P A S T Y E A R .
“ If you deny education to youth in detention facilities, that’s criminal punishment. I would consider it cruel.” Visiting Assistant Professor C H A Z A R N E T T will launch Pitt Law’s first education law practicum in the spring 2017 semester. The practicum takes aim at limited learning opportunities for youth held at juvenile justice facilities, under house arrest, or on probation. “Many law schools across the country have identified this area of law as critical and recognized the importance of students obtaining real experience in this field, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford,” said Arnett.
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Arnett’s experience includes trial practice with the Juvenile Division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. He has received numerous awards and accolades for his youth advocacy and champ ioning of juvenile justice issues. “In partnership with the Education Law Center, based in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, our students will research legal issues and engage in drafting public records requests for data from school districts in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County,” said Arnett.
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ssociate Dean for Research & Faculty Development and Professor of Law, Haider Ala Hamoudi, commented on the Muslim prohibition against charging interest in the context of American banking in a May 16, 2016 interview on NPR’s Planet Money. His answer: it’s complicated. Hamoudi explained that original Islamic texts explicitly prohibit loaning gold and silver, but not other metals. Products like Saudi credit cards backed with platinum with ownership juggled between bank and card user, are “a series of legal acrobatics,” he said.
Arthur D. Hellman, Sally Ann Semenko Endowed Chair and Professor of Law, was widely interviewed in June regarding Republican Party nominee Donald Trump’s attacks on United States District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel. Judge Curiel is presiding over the Trump University class action lawsuits and is therefore precluded from commenting on the cases, despite Trump’s attacks on his Mexican-American heritage and impartiality. “[Curiel] can’t respond directly,” Hellman told The New York Times. “He’s not supposed to talk out of court about proceedings before him. Judges have gotten into trouble defending themselves from attacks.” Hellman cited the well-known opinion of Justice Leon Higginbotham in 1974, now universally accepted: “If a judge could be forced to step aside merely because of membership in a minority group of some kind, judges would constantly be removed from cases,” he told TIME.
CARTER SPEAKS AT SUPREME COURT
Now in its second season, Criminal (In)Justice, hosted by David Harris, digs deep into hot-button issues, “We go into the substance of matters that more traditional methods of news reporting may not have the legal acumen to touch upon,” said Harris. “I’ve never seen a higher level of interest and of anger at what goes on in the system, and I’ve never seen a greater need for real information or a greater hunger for change.” The series, produced in conjunction with Pittsburgh’s WESA-FM, was downloaded over 12,000 times in its first two months after release and shot to the top of iTunes’ New & Noteworthy podcasts charts. Harris also spoke at the White House on Nov. 8, 2015 as part of the 10th Anniversary National Prosecution Summit in a discussion titled “Reducing Implicit Bias in Prosecution.” The session explored how prosecutors can encourage the utilization of procedural justice tenets to promote fairness, efficiency, and integrity in their work.
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n celebration of the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, Dean William M. Carter, Jr. delivered a lecture to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Commission on Judicial Independence and the Pennsylvania Bar Association on May 16, 2016 at the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg. Carter, an expert on the Reconstruction amendments whose ratification is known as the Second Founding, gave a one-hour lecture in the PA Supreme Court and also lectured to visiting high school students to the Pennsylvania Capitol. His appearance followed the U.S. Senate proclamation encouraging state and local governments to join in the sesquicen tennial celebration by organizing ceremonies, activities, and education outreach to explore the history and significance of the Second Founding. The Dean’s lecture was broadcast on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN). PITT LAW MAGAZINE
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F A C U LT Y
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he appointment of a faculty member to a Distinguished Professorship at the University of Pittsburgh constitutes the highest honor that the University can accord a member of the professoriate. Professor Vivian Curran is the first faculty member in the history of Pitt Law to be appointed by the University as a Distinguished Professor. The special honor, held by only a small number of the most accom plished faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, recognized her international impact on the field of comparative law and her contributions to the faculty. In addition to impressive work as an author and editor, she has twice been named a Distinguished Faculty Scholar. She created Pitt Law’s innovative Languages for Lawyers program, in which students study foreign languages in a legal context, and English for Lawyers, in which foreign lawyers study English in a legal context. A Pitt Law faculty member since 2002, she holds a JD and a PhD in French literature and philology from Columbia University.
Arus
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an
CHRISTOPHER SPROWLS
“ The vast majority of scholarship is highly skeptical of this move, sees it as thinly veiled attempt to shield dictators. What’s happening is far more nuanced. Look at the experience of Chad: trying a former leader and finding him guilty.” Assistant Professor M A T I A N G A I S I R L E A F , on the potential role of regional international courts in post-conflict justice and restitution. An expert on the topic, she has recently participated in conferences in Durban, South Africa, Arusha, Tanzania, and Nuremberg, Germany.
Professor Ronald Brand, Director of the Center for International Legal Education, penned a well-received editorial for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on the recent political climate and the incitation of xenophobia. “I find hope both in the process of education and in the students with whom I am privileged to work,” Brand wrote in the July 22 issue. “I have been fortunate to work at the Center for International Legal Education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where we bring lawyers from around the world to Pittsburgh for an American legal education and send American students abroad to experience different cultures and legal systems.” Brand was the driving force behind the creation of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for International Legal Education (CILE) and its Master of Laws Program for Foreign Law Graduates.
Professor Rhonda Wasserman has been appointed as a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School for the fall 2016 semester. There, she is teaching Civil Procedure and Transnational Litigation in U.S. Courts. Professor Wasserman received Pitt Law’s Excellencein-Teaching Award twice, once in 1990 and again in 2005, and also received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000. She has published articles on interstate and international recognition of judgements; federal class action practice; state court jurisdiction; federal removal practice; and selected family law topics from a conflictof-laws perspective, in such journals as Notre Dame Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Emory Law Journal, and Boston University Law Review.
P
itt Law Professor Douglas Branson’s latest book, his 19th, takes on a different subject from the usual legal scholarship. Greatness in the Shadows: Larry Doby and the Integration of the American League explores the oft-overlooked Cleveland Indians career of Larry Doby, the first African American baseball player to break the American League’s color barrier in 1947. It was an equally arduous and important undertaking to Jackie Robinson’s breaking of Major League Baseball’s color barrier in the same year. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier reviewed the book in August. Collier noted, “Branson posits not only that Doby, the talented centerfielder on perhaps the best Indians team ever put together, was arguably the baseball equal of Robinson, but that Doby’s excruciating experiences breaking the American League’s color barrier were, if anything, even more daunting than those accompanying Robinson’s historic immersion in the other league.”
R
ecent presentations on soccer and intellectual property have given rise to the suggestion of a new book by the prolific professor Michael Madison, director of the Innovation Practice Institute. “The soccer ‘book’ isn’t really a book yet,” he reports. “It’s an idea that I spun out at a couple of talks earlier this spring, and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive,” especially during a year that features multiple high-profile international soccer tournaments. The project is titled, Laws of the Game: Who Owns Soccer? But Madison’s more immediate work extends his analysis of knowledge commons, a subject he’s addressed since 2010. “Governing Medical Commons is coming out late in 2016 (or maybe early in 2017) at Cambridge University Press. I am one of three co-editors, along with Brett Frischmann, a professor at Cardozo Law School, and Katherine Strandburg, a professor at NYU Law School. This is a follow up to our 2014 book, Governing Knowledge Commons,” he explains. “Substantively, the basic point of our work is that innovation is a concept for empirical investigation, not just theorizing. The investigation needs to focus on institutions and organizations and how the law and other systems work in that context. And once you really study institutions and organizations, it becomes clear pretty quickly that sharing information and knowledge is just as important to innovation as protecting information and knowledge. Maybe more so.”
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F A C U LT Y
WRITTEN & SPOKEN & PRESENTED
Scholarly Publications in Top Law Journals
DAVID GARROW,
ELENA BAYLIS ,
Declining Controversial Cases: How Marriage Equality Changed the Paradigm, N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y Quorum 110 (2015).
DAVID HARRIS ,
ELENA BAYLIS ,
JULES LOBEL ,
What Internationals Know: Promoting the Effectiveness of Post-Conflict Justice Initiatives, 14 Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev. 243 (2015). DEBORAH BRAKE ,
Lessons from the Gender Equality Movement: Using Title IX to Foster Inclusive Masculinities in Men’s Sport, 34 Law & Ineq. ___ (forthcoming 2016). DEBORAH BRAKE ,
The Shifting Sands of Employment Discrimination: From Unjustified Impact to Disparate Treatment in Pregnancy and Pay, 105 Geo. L.J. ___ (forthcoming 2016).
The Tragedy of Stokely Carmichael, 43 Reviews in Amer. Hist. 564 (2015). Riley v. California and the Beginning of the End of the Third Party Search Doctrine, 18 U. Penn. J. Const. L. 895 (2015-2016). The Liman Report and Alternatives to Prolonged Solitary Confinement, 125 Yale L.J. F. 238 (2016). MICHAEL MADISON ,
Authority and Authors and Codes, 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2016). MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,
Regionalism, Regime Complexes and International Criminal Justice in Africa, 54 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 699 (2016).
Books and Book Chapters Published by Leading Presses
RONALD BRAND,
The Continuing Evolution of U.S. Judgments Recognition Law, 55 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. ___ (forthcoming 2016).
DOUGLAS BRANSON ,
DOUGLAS BRANSON ,
VIVIAN CURRAN ,
Women in Corporate Boards: Challenging Homogeneity or Dictating Heterogeneity?, Canadian Bus. L.J. ___ (forthcoming 2016). WILLIAM M. CARTER, JR. ,
The Supreme Court’s Flawed Assumptions Regarding Race, History, and Unconscious Bias in Whren v. United States, 66 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 947 (2016). PAT CHEW,
Comparing the Effects of the Judges’ Gender and Arbitrators’ Gender and Why it Matters, 30 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. ___ (forthcoming 2016).
Greatness in the Shadows: Larry Doby and Integration of the American League, University of Nebraska Press, 2016. “The Ubiquity and Invisibility of Multinational Corporations in a Global World of Human Rights Violations,” in In Memory Of Patrick Glenn, Cambridge University Press (forthcoming). HARRY FLECHTNER ,
“A Tribute to John Honnold,” in International Sales Law: A Global Challenge, Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Presentations Given at Top Law Schools
MARY CROSSLEY,
Black Health Matters: Disparities, Community Health, and Interest Convergence, 22 Mich. J. Race & L. 62 (2016).
JESSIE ALLEN ,
MARY CROSSLEY,
CHAZ ARNETT,
Health and Taxes: Hospitals, Community Health, and the IRS. 16 Yale J. Health Pol’y, L. & Ethics 51 (2016).
Introductory Speaker/ Respondent. Presented at: Reinventing the Humanities; Georgetown University; Oct. 2015. Electronic Monitoring & the Liberal Undermining of Juvenile Justice. Presented at: John Mercer Langston Writing Workshop; University of Miami School of Law; 2016.
KEVIN ASHLEY,
Legal Argument Retrieval Using LUIMA. Presented at: AI and Law Workshop; Vanderbilt University Law School; April 2016. DEBORAH BRAKE ,
Faculty Workshop: The Shifting Sands of Employment Discrimination. Presented at: Faculty Workshop to Law School Faculty; University of Minnesota Law School; Nov. 2015. DEBORAH BRAKE ,
Lessons for LGBT Equality in Sports from the Movement for Gender Equality. Presented at: Playing with Pride: LGBT Inclusion in Sports; University of Minnesota Law School; Nov. 2015. DEBORAH BRAKE ,
Title IX’s Teach-in on Campus Sexual Assault. Presented at: Title IX: Past, Present and Future, Scholars Strategy Network event; Yale University; April 2016. RONALD BRAND,
A Significant Seven, Panel on “Private International Law: The Year in Review.” Presented at: International Law Weekend; Fordham Law School, Nov. 2015. WILLIAM M. CARTER, JR. ,
Commentator at: Salmon P. Chase Colloquium Celebrating the Sesquicentennial of the Thirteenth Amendment; Georgetown University Law Center; Dec. 2015. PAT CHEW,
Rocking the Boat. Presented at: Conference on Asian American Public Policy; Harvard Law School; Feb. 2016. PAT CHEW,
Understanding the Role of Judges’ Gender in Sex Discrimination Cases. Presented at: Women’s Center and Women’s Law Caucus; Univ. of Texas Law School; Feb. 2016. MARY CROSSLEY,
Black Health Matters: Disparities, Community Health, and Interest Convergence. Presented at: The Present and Future of Civil Rights Movements: Race and Reform in 21st Century American; Duke Law School; Nov. 2015.
VIVIAN CURRAN ,
A Life in Comparative Law. Presented at: Plenary Session, Young Comparativists’ Fifth Annual Global Conference; Tulane University School of Law; March 2016. LAWRENCE FROLIK ,
Loving and Loathing the Elderly. Presented at: Edward J. Kelly Memorial Lecture on Elder Law; Notre Dame Law School; Feb. 2016. DAVID GARROW,
The FBI and Martin Luther King Jr. Presented at: Color of Surveillance conference; Georgetown University Law Center; April 2016.
MICHAEL MADISON ,
Commentary. Presented at: 7th Annual Workshop of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP); University of Pennsylvania Law School; July 2015. Commentary. Presented at: Drassinower Book Roundtable; University of Notre Dame Law School; Oct. 2015. PETER OH ,
Veil-Lifting. Presented at: University of Oxford Faculty of Law; June 2016. Conversations in Human Rights Panel: Debating Trials & Truth Commissions Responding to Violence in Africa. Presented at: Duke University; Feb. 2016.
JASMINE GONZALES ROSE ,
MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,
Race Inequity Fifty Years Later: Language Rights Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Presented at: The Present and Future of Civil Rights Movements: Race and Reform in 21st Century America conference; Duke University; Nov. 2015. HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI ,
Islam and the Modern State (Discussant). Presented at: Buffett Institute for Global Studies; Northwestern University; April 2016. JULES LOBEL ,
Challenging Solitary Confinement. Presented at: Stanford Law School, March 2016. JULES LOBEL ,
Prolonged Solitary Confinement. Presented at: Georgetown Law School; Nov. 2015. JULES LOBEL ,
Prolonged Solitary Confinement and the Constitution. Presented at: Harvard Law School; Sept. 2015. MICHAEL MADISON ,
Authority and Authorship. Presented at: Symposium on Hacking into the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: The CFAA at 30; George Washington University Law School; Nov. 2015.
Cybersecurity Stovepiping. Presented at: Privacy Law Scholars Conference; Berkeley Law; June 2015.
Notable Organization and Government Engagements
MICHAEL MADISON ,
Reproductive Rights from Griswold to Whole Woman’s Health. Presented at: Northwestern Univ. Law School; Mar. 2016.
DAVID GARROW,
DAVID THAW,
MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,
Early Stage Idea on Global Structural Violence and International Responsibility: From Ebola to Zika. Presented at: Culp Colloquium; Duke Law School; May 2016. MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,
Regionalism, Regime Complexes, & International Criminal Justice in Africa. Presented at: International Law Colloquium; Georgetown University Law Center; Feb. 2016; Presented at: Culp Colloquium; Duke Law School; May 2015. GEORGE TAYLOR ,
Ricoeur’s Philosophy of Imagination: The Movement Beyond Kant. Presented at: Conference on Productive Imagination: Its History, Meaning, and Relevance; Chinese University of Hong Kong; May 2016.
WILLIAM M. CARTER, JR. ,
The Second Founding: Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Presented at: Pennsylvania Supreme Court; April 2016. VIVIAN CURRAN ,
Commemoration as a Form of European Resilience. Presented at: Council on European Union Studies Annual Conference; April 2016. HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI ,
Iraqi Law and the Preservation of Antiquities. Presented at: Proceedings for the American Society of International Law; Washington, D.C.; March 2016. DAVID HARRIS ,
Implicit Bias in Prosecution and Law Enforcement. Presented at: National Prosecution Summit; The White House; Nov. 2015. THOMAS ROSS ,
Incubators: Visions, Structure, Hard Choices. Presented at: Access to Justice through Incubator Programs 3; Kansas City, MO.; April 2016. DAVID THAW,
with Craig R., Ramsey J., Gardner C., Chameleon Cyber Threat Intelligence Gathering System. Presented at: Briefing to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security, U.S. Department of Defense; May 2016.
DAVID THAW, with Perri P., Ancient Worries and Modern Fears. Presented at: Yale Law School Conference on Federalism and Fundamental Rights — Europe and the United States Compared; Oct. 2015. DAVID THAW,
Catalyzing Privacy By Design: Lessons from Other Areas — Security and Environmental. Presented at: Georgetown University Law Center; Jan. 2016.
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ALUMNI
NOTES by Kirkus Reviews and Manhattan Book Review. founding partner of Frank, Gale, Bails, Murcko & Pocrass, P.C., has been appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to a three year term on the Committee on Rules of Evidence. FREDERICK N. FRANK, ’70,
was given honorable mention as one of the Most Influential Bankruptcy Judges in History by Law360. JUDITH K. FITZGERALD, ’73,
Eva Tansky Blum Law ’73, A&S ’70 Dean William M. Carter, Jr. Hon. Lisa Pupo Lenihan Law ’83, A&S ’80
Share your continuing story with Pitt Law. Submit an alumni note at law.pitt.edu/alumni.
former name partner and current Senior Counsel at Peacock Keller, has been selected as a co-recipient of the Southpointe CEO Association’s 2016 World Class CEO Award for his service and dedication to the development of the Southpointe Industrial Park. CHARLES C. KELLER, ’49,
a deeply respected Third Circuit federal judge who passed away in 2014, was honored by the United States Congress, which declared the Pittsburgh federal courthouse to be named the “Joseph F. Weis Jr. United States Courthouse” in honor of his lifetime achievements. JOSEPH F. WEIS JR., ’50,
was presented the Spencer Coxe Keystone of Liberty Award at the ACLU of Pennsylvania annual Bill of Rights Dinner. This award honors her lifetime of civil liberties work. ROS LITMAN, ’52,
published Something is Rotten in Fettig, a humorous satirical novel about the criminal justice system 20 years in the making, with Anaphora Literary Press. It has been positively reviewed JERE KRAKOFF, ’67,
joined the law firm of Tucker Arensberg, P.C. as shareholder. Potter focuses his practice on federal, state, and local taxation issues and was previously with Buchanan Ingersoll. CHARLES L. POTTER, JR., ’73,
chairman of the board of Meritas, a global alliance of independent business law firms, has published a new book, FACE: How Saving Face Changes Everything. DENNIS UNKOVIC, ’73,
has been named president-elect designee of the New York State Bar Association. SHARON STERN GERSTMAN, ’75,
published the book Civility Rules!, detailing how a company’s culture is critical to ensuring a healthy and productive workplace. Additionally, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission positively cited Paskoff ’s work at ELI, Inc. several times in its report by the co-chairs on the Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace. STEPHEN M. PASKOFF, ’75,
has joined Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C. as a principal. Brown practices in the areas of municipal law and municipal finance, including governmental bond issues. RONALD J. BROWN, ’76,
a Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas judge, received the 2016 Clarity Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association Plain English Committee. JEANNINE TURGEON, ’77,
has joined Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C. as a principal. DENNIS A. WATSON, ’77,
was elected Jan. 2016 to be Chairman of the Board of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro). JACK EVANS, ’78,
senior advisor at Reed Smith LLP, has been named vice chair of the Philadelphia Media Network (PMN). PMN operates The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Daily News and Philly.com. LISA KABNICK, ’80,
a Berks County Court of Common Pleas judge, was a panelist at the 2016 annual Batdorf Lecture focusing on the Juvenile Justice System in Pennsylvania. SCOTT E. LASH, ’81,
was appointed to serve as the co-vice chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Shale Energy Law Committee. BEVERLY WEISS MANNE, ’81,
currently an adjunct professor at Pitt Law, founded a new law firm, ConboyLaw LLC, with his brother Mark, after 30 years with the preeminent Pittsburgh law firm Caroselli, Beachler, McTiernan & Conboy. TIMOTHY CONBOY, ’82,
joined Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott as special counsel in the firm’s intellectual property group. CHRISTINE R. ETHRIDGE, ’83,
has been elected chair principal of the Lehigh Valley ArtsQuest Board of Trustees. GREGG M. FEINBERG, ’83,
has been named to the Board of Directors of Corporate Angel Network. She previously was the vice chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of RTI International Metals, Inc. DAWNE S. HICKTON, ’83,
joined the Pittsburgh office of Blank Rome as of counsel in the Corporate, M&A, and Securities group. JO ANNE SCHWENDINGER, ’83,
has rejoined Tydings & Rosenberg LLP as counsel in its business, corporate, and tax, real estate, and estates and trusts depart ments, after serving as associate general counsel to a Fortune 500 company subsidiary for the past nine years. JOSEPH M. BELLEW, ’84,
was unanimously reelected to the executive committee of Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky. REID B. ROBERTS, ’84,
MARION LAFFEY-FERRY, ’85,
received the annual Pennsylvania Bar Association Solo and Small Firm Practice Section Award. This award recognizes Laffey-Ferry’s work enhancing the professional reputations and abilities of solo and small firm attorneys in the state. has been appointed chief claims officer for Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. MARK WADE, ’85,
has become a fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA), a trial lawyer honorary society. HOWARD A. CHAJSON, ’87,
has been elected partner of Bowles Rice LLP in Morgantown, WV. He focuses his practice in business and commercial law, real estate law, and estate planning. ERIC H. LONDON, ’87,
was a co-presenter at the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges Mid-Annual Meeting. She is an attorney for McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC and leads the orphans’ court litigation team. KENDRA MCGUIRE, ’87,
KATHLEEN MILLER (NEE DOEPKEN),
has been named president-elect of the National Academy of Arbitrators (NAA), the leading North American organization of labor and employment arbitrators. She will be installed as president at the annual meeting of the NAA in Vancouver. ’87,
Edwin L.R. McKean ’65 Hon. John S. Meyer ’65 Edwin H. Beachler III ’65 Richard H. Galloway ’65
CATHERINE R. O’DONNELL, ’87,
received the Wilkes Barre Law & Library Association 2015 President’s Award. She currently focuses her practice on estate planning and administration at O’Donnell Law Offices. an attorney and award-winning civil war historian, published two new books, Out Flew the Sabres: The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863 —The Opening Engage ment of the Gettysburg Campaign and The Second Battle of Winchester: The Confederate Victory That Opened the Door to Gettysburg June 13–15, 1863. ERIC J. WITTENBERG, ’87,
shareholder of Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky, will co-present the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s Continuing Legal Education Course Internet Defamation. RONALD D. BARBER, ’88,
HARRY F. KUNSELMAN, ’89,
shareholder at Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky, has received the Professionalism Award from the Civil Litigation Section of the Allegheny County Bar Association. Kunselman also was unanimously reelected to the executive committee of the firm in 2016. Additionally, Kunselman published Pennsylvania Commercial Litigation 3rd Edition with The Legal Intelligencer.
was re-elected to serve on the Management Committee of Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP. Dauer currently chairs the firm’s creditor’s rights & bankruptcy group. ROBERT DAUER, ’90,
has been named associate executive assistant director for the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services branch of the FBI by FBI Director James B. Comey. DAVID JOHNSON, ’90,
was re-elected by firm shareholders as managing shareholder and as a member of the executive committee of the law firm Rothman Gordon, P.C. WILLIAM E. LESTITIAN, ’90,
attorney at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP, joined the 412 Food Rescue board of directors as board member and treasurer. BETH SLAGLE, ’90,
was unanimously reelected to the executive committee of Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky. ALAN T. SHUCKROW, ’91,
partner of family law firm Pollock Begg, was elected to second vice president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), serving through July 2016. He will ascend to the position of chapter president over the next three years. BRIAN C. VERTZ, ’91,
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ALUMNI
Leslie M. Cyr ’85 Jeanne M. Howard Lindsay P. Howard ’85 Howard M. Cyr III ’85 Lynda M. Dupre ’85 C. Howie Hodges II ’85
James E. Kopelman Law ’66, A&S ’62 Chancellor Patrick Gallagher Eileen P. Kopelman
joined Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP as special counsel. She is a member of the firm’s commercial litigation, employment and labor, government enforcement, compliance, white collar litigation, and responding to allegations of sexual misconduct practice groups. KOLEEN S. KIRKWOOD, ’93,
has been named court administrator for the Crawford County Court of Common Pleas. HEIDI SHIDERLY, ’93,
participated in a one-week mediation training for judges in Uganda. The mediation training program is conducted in partnership with Pepperdine University’s Global Justice Program. Shultz co-taught 50 judges in a program entitled, “Mediating the Litigated Case.” SELINA J. SHULTZ, ’93,
has been elected as a Pittsburgh CLO Board Member. He is an attorney for Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP and a member of the finance, energy, and real estate group. MICHAEL K. VENNUM, ’93,
joined Debevoise & Plimpton as a partner in the Cybersecurity & Data Privacy practice in the Washington, D.C. office. LUKE DEMBOSKY, ’94,
has joined the Oregon Court of Appeals as a staff attorney. ELIZABETH FERRARINI, ’94,
a partner in Fox Rothschild LLP’s Pittsburgh office, has been elected secretary of the Association of Corporate Growth, Pittsburgh (ACG). Jaffe, who was elected to ACG’s board of directors in May 2012, is serving a year-long term in this new role that began in May 2015. DAVID A. JAFFE, ’94,
has joined BakerHostetler’s Washington, D.C. office as a partner and co-leader of the international trade team. KERRY SCARLOTT, ’94,
was nominated by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf to be Attorney General of Pennsylvania. Beemer will fill the vacancy left by Kathleen Kane’s resignation until Jan. 2017. BRUCE BEEMER, ’95,
has joined the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance. She is a partner in Rawle & Henderson LLP’s Pittsburgh office. JULIE NORD FRIEDMAN, ’95,
was unanimously reelected to the executive committee of Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky. DAVID A. STRASSBURGER, ’95,
partner at Leech Tishman Family Law Practice Group, was appointed to serve on the JENNIFER P. BIERLY, ’97,
Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee (“DRPRC”) of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. She will be serving a three-year term that commenced on June 1, 2016. partner at Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP, was selected as a 2015 Women Leader in the Law in Fortune magazine. ANNE GAZA, ’97,
rang the closing bell at NASDAQ, Aug. 12, 2016, on behalf of her nonprofit, Athletes for Charity, of which she is president. Athletes for Charity partners with professional athletes, sports teams, and corporations to benefit disadvantaged youth. CATHLEEN C. LAPORTE, ’97,
a shareholder in Littler Mendelson’s Philadelphia office, has been honored as a recommended lawyer in The Legal 500 United States 2016’s guide. Harris was recognized in the Labor and Employment Disputes in Defense category. RICHARD HARRIS, ’98,
has joined the Rawle & Henderson LLP’s Pittsburgh office as of counsel. AMY K. POHL, ’98,
has been elected to the Greenwich Land Trust Board of Directors. She practiced corporate law at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and served as in-house counsel at several companies. TARA BRESLIN VITTONE, ’98,
joined Rhoades McKee in Grand Rapids, MI, as a shareholder. Earlier this year, the National Association of Distinguished Counsel named Ostrow to its list of the “Nation’s Top One Percent.” HAL OSTROW, ’99,
STUART H. SOSTMANN, ’99,
shareholder in the Pittsburgh office of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, has been appointed regional director for the Pennsylvania Defense Institute West Region. is now the National Director of Alumni Relations for the American Friends of Hebrew University. ALANA COOPER, ’00,
was appointed executive vice president and general counsel for Univest Corporation and Univest Bank and Trust Co. MEGAN DURYEA SANTANA, ’00,
has been elected a partner of the firm of Connolly Gallagher LLP in Wilmington, DE. She focuses her practice on estates and trusts, advising families in planning their estates, and counseling lay and professional trustees, and executors. TRISHA W. HALL, ’01,
joined law firm Babst Calland as a staff attorney in the firm’s mineral title services and energy & natural resources groups. SUMMERLY KULIK, ’01,
was elected a member of the steering committee of the estates, trusts, and probate section of the District of Columbia Bar. ELI J. GUITERMAN, ’02,
has been appointed as a family court judge for the 9th Family Court Circuit serving Logan County, WV. CHRISTOPHER R. WORKMAN, ’02,
has been elected Westmoreland County’s Register of Wills for the Orphans’ Court. She took office in Jan. 2016. SHERRY MAGRETTI HAMILTON, ’03,
has been elected as a Pittsburgh CLO board member. He is currently the senior director of business development for McKnight Realty Partners. YARONE ZOBER, ’03,
became chief of staff for Rep. Dan B. Frankel of Pennsylvania’s 23rd Legislative District. CAREY CUMMINGS, ’04,
has joined Widerman Malek as partner. He focuses his practice on corporate governance, corporate finance transactions and SCOTT JABLONSKI, ’04,
private securities, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and complex commercial contracts with a heavy cross-border component involving Latin America and Europe. was recognized by the Tri-State Area School Study Council at the University of Pittsburgh with the 2016 Distinguished Achievement in Law Award. She was also named a 2016 Fast Tracker by the Pittsburgh Business Times. The program honors up-and-comers under 40 years of age in the region’s business community. JOCELYN P. KRAMER,’04,
director at Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky, has been named a 2016 “Lawyer on the Fast Track” by The Legal Intelligencer. ERICA LAUGHLIN, ’04,
Samantha A. Quinn Stewart ’10 Lindsey C. Kennedy Law ’10, CBA ’07 Nicholas W. Kennedy Law ’09, A&S ’06 Michael J. Stewart, Esquire ’09
of Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP, was selected by the Homer S. Brown Division of the Allegheny County Bar Association as the recipient of its Young Leader Award. Thompson also was the keynote speaker at Harrisburg High School’s School of Business and Industry 2016 awards dinner, and the Pittsburgh Business Times selected Thompson as a 2016 Fast Tracker. TONY J. THOMPSON, ’06,
has been named partner at Peacock Keller. Lozosky joined Peacock Keller in fall 2008 and concentrates her practice in education and employment law. RACHAEL K. LOZOSKY, ’04,
has been named a principal at Gentile, Horoho & Avalli, P.C. REBECCA A. MYERS, ’04,
joined Sherrard, German & Kelly as a senior associate. He is member of the firm’s energy and natural resources services group. JOHN R. WHIPKEY, ’04,
has joined Blank Rome LLP as an associate in the real estate group. J. DADE THORNTON, ’05,
was elected partner of Blank Rome LLP. Passerini provides legal counsel to clients on a wide range of business issues arising in complex commercial and corporate litigation. KEVIN M PASSERINI, ’06,
founded Porcaro Law Group, which concentrates on personal injury & cannabis law in Florida with a special focus in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties. Porcaro also sits on the national legal committee for NORML.
PETER J. PORCARO, ’06,
has been promoted to shareholder at Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin. Seibert is a member of the firm’s professional liability department and concentrates her practice on legal malpractice matters. CHARLENE S. SEIBERT, ’06,
was elected as shareholder and director of Sherrard, German & Kelly, PC. He focuses his practice on oil and gas, real estate, and general corporate matters. BRIAN R. BOYER, ’07,
joined Babst Calland as an associate in the Energy & Natural Resources Group. GRANT HACKLEY, ’07,
has been named the new director of business development at Shriners Hospitals for Children — Erie Ambulatory Surgery Center and Outpatient Specialty Care Center in Erie, PA. GREGORY HALL, ’07,
was promoted to partner at Reed Smith LLP in the Pittsburgh office. Kontul is a member of the firm’s Financial Industry Group and his practice focuses on financial services litigation. JUSTIN J. KONTUL, ’07,
was named partner at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott. She is part of the firm’s Business litigation, energy & mineral rights law, insurance coverage litigation, employ ment law & employee benefits, and intellectual property groups, and was ANTOINETTE OLIVER, ’07,
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ALUMNI
named “Lawyer on the Fast Track” by The Legal Intelligencer. has been named a shareholder of Babst Calland. Staley is a member of the firm’s public sector and energy & natural resources groups. KRISTA-ANN STALEY, ’07,
has returned to Dickie McCamey as part of the corporate services and the commercial law and litigation practice groups. NATHAN A. KOSTELNIK, ’08,
director of the Northampton Community College (NCC) Learning Center, received the Professional Staff Excellence award from NCC in May 2016. In his three years at the college, he has played a central role in bringing NCC the HERO program which trains wounded, ill, and injured, service members in computer forensics. MICHAEL SPARROW, ’08,
has been named partner at Peacock Keller. Formoso joined Peacock Keller in fall 2010 and concentrates his practice in the areas of business law, estate planning, estate administration, and real estate. DONALD B. FORMOSO, ’09,
has joined the firm of Burns White as an associate. He defends individual professionals, and long-term care and acute care facilities in medical malpractice, health care and general liability litigation. ANDREW C. HAZI, ’09,
DEREK ILLAR, ’09,
joined Eckert Seamans as an associate in the labor and employment group.
Association. He is currently an associate at Rubin, Glickman, Steinberg, and Gifford, P.C.
RACHEL E. JAMES, ’09,
rejoined Babst Calland as an associate in the firm’s mineral title services and energy & natural resources groups.
JEREMY S. RIVET, ’13,
joined Stites & Harbison’s intellectual property & technology service group. His practice focuses on the preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications.
JOSHUA SNYDER, ’13,
SEAN RITCHIE, ’10,
joined Leech Tishman as an associate in the energy practice group. KIMLY C. VU, ’10,
joined Sherrard, German & Kelly as an associate and is a member of the firm’s estates and trusts services group. DANIEL J. GESPASS, ’12,
a litigation attorney with the Pittsburgh office of Fox Rothschild LLP, has been appointed to the Executive Leadership Council for the Tour de Cure, the American Diabetes Association’s signature fundraising cycling event. RICHARD HOLZWORTH, ’12,
joined Tydings & Rosenberg LLP as an associate in the litigation department and employment and labor law practice group. AMBER N. JACKSON, ’12,
was elected as secretary and treasurer of the corporate, banking and business law section by the Allegheny County Bar Association. GARY M. SANDERSON, ’12,
has become an assistant state attorney in Montgomery County Maryland. MARIAH SIM, ’12,
has joined the firm of Robb Leonard Mulvihill as an associate attorney. JEFFREY M. STACKO, ’12,
joined law firm Babst Calland as an associate in the firm’s litigation services group. DeHarde focuses her practice on general civil litigation matters. SHANNON DEHARDE, ’13,
was appointed as the Montgomery Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section Law School Liaison. Levin will assist the section in working with area law schools to inform students of the benefits and opportu nities offered by the Montgomery Bar ANDREW J. LEVIN, ’13,
Hon. Cathy Bissoon Gregory L. Bradley Law ’91, Engr ’88
PITT LAW MAGAZINE
40 | 41
joined law firm Babst Calland as staff attorney in the firm’s mineral title services and energy & natural resources groups. has joined Fox Rothschild LLP’s Pittsburgh office as an associate. joined the McKean County DA Office as a new assistant district attorney. SEAN C. BARRETT, ’14,
has become an associate at Peacock Keller. Previously, Steele served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. THOMAS A. STEELE, ’14,
has joined Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C., as an associate in the Pittsburgh office. She is a member of both the workers’ compensation and medicare compliance practice groups. ERICA DATTILO, ’15,
has joined Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott’s Philadelphia office as an associate in the real estate practice group. SAMUEL FRANKLIN, ’15,
has joined Stradley Ronon as an associate in its Philadelphia office. She focuses her practice on estate, tax and business planning, along with estate and trust administration. LEENA KETKAR, ’15,
has joined the law firm of Frank, Gale, Bails, Murcko & Pocrass, P.C. Pittsburgh’s office as an associate attorney. RYAN MCNEELY, ’15,
has joined Dickie McCamey & Chilcote, P.C., as an associate. Muha concentrates his practice in product liability and health care law, with an emphasis in commercial litigation. MICHAEL A. MUHA, ’15,
joined Sherrard, German & Kelly as an associate in the firm’s corporate and real estate services groups. ENDIA J. VEREEN, ’15,
has joined Frank, Gale, Bails, Murcko & Pocrass, P.C. as an associate attorney. GABE WONDERLING, ’15,
PAR T I N G
SHOT “The last thing I’ll say to you: All of you out there, please consider a career in public service. Please consider a legal career serving your country, your state, your city, your community, your church — whatever it is you can do to help people. You will find more satisfaction in your legal career not from the amount of money you make, not necessarily from the cases you win, but who you help — if somebody can look you in the eye and say, “thank you for helping me.” — U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security J E H J O H N S O N addressing graduates and guests at Pitt Law’s commencement on May 8, 2016.
ANNIE O’NEILL
NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE
School of Law Barco Law Building 3900 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15260 law.pitt.edu
PAID PITTSBURGH PA PERMIT NO 511
u pcom i ng
PITT LAW ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND
fr i day, oc tobe r 7, 2 016 – s at u r day, oc tobe r 8 , 2 016
Join fellow graduates and friends for a Friday evening reception celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Barco Law Building and a Saturday tailgate party at Heinz Field preceding the Pitt-Georgia Tech football game. RSVP at law.pitt.edu/reunion