Pitt Law Magazine | Fall 2017

U N I V ER SI T Y OF PI T TSBU RGH

FA L L

2017

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

PB | 1

M A G A Z I N E

DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF LAW

William M. Carter, Jr. EDITOR

Cori Parise BOARD OF VISITORS ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Jan-Tosh Gerling WRITER

Christine H. O’Toole CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Gerald S. Dickinson Jan-Tosh Gerling Cori Parise DESIGN

Landesberg Design PHOTOGRAPHERS

Terry Clark John Davis Cade Martin Noah Purdy Christopher Sprowls ON THE COVER

David Hickton, ’81 Photo by Noah Purdy WEBSITE

law.pitt.edu/magazine COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS?

lawalum@pitt.edu

Nicole Aandahl, ’01 Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr., ’70 Maximilian F. Beier, ’99 Linda Beerbower Burke, ’73 Hon. Robert J. Cindrich, ’68 Carrie Collins, ’99 Senator Jay Costa, Jr. Q. Todd Dickinson, ’77 Hon. 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 Tremelle Howard-Fishburne, ’97 Joseph A. Katarincic, ’60 Richard B. Kelson, ’72 James E. Kopelman, ’66 Hon. Lisa Pupo Lenihan, ’83 Marvin S. Lieber, ’58 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

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF LAW ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF GOVERNORS

Patrick Sorek, ’84 President 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 Joseph J. Bosick, ’73 Immediate Past President Bruce C. Fox, ’84 Preceding Immediate Past President Stuart W. Benson III, ’75 Shannon O. Braden, ’07 Necia B. Hobbes, ’11 Michael S. Nelson, ’96 Tony J. Thompson, ’06 Jill M. Weimer, ’07 Dorothy A. Davis, ’81 Elizabeth L. Hughes, ’04 Meredith Graham, ’11 Kevin W. Tucker, ’11 Ronald Basso, ’85 Maximilian F. Beier, ’99 Thomas M. Beline, ’07 Kathryn S. Nordick, ’05 Bethany E. Miller, ’08 Ilene H. Fingeret, ’86 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 Hon. Philip A. Ignelzi, ’81

Pitt Law Magazine is published by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law Office of the Dean and the Office of Communications

FA L L ’ 1 7

INSIDE PITT LAW

08 TAMING THE WILD WEST OF CYBER SPACE

Global digital technologies are evolving more rapidly than the means to control them. Pitt’s new Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security aims to quell the chaos.

16 J URIST

A Pitt Law experiment launched from a Mac Powerbook two decades ago has evolved into a global legal news source.

18 S PORTS LAW:

THE FIELD OF DREAMS What does it take to compete in the world of professional sports? Three Pitt Law alumni bring their A game to the business side.

(Yes. There are perks.)

24 T HE GREAT WALL OF TRUMP

President Trump proposes building a massive wall along the southern U.S. border. Assistant professor Gerald S. Dickinson says he’s forgetting one obstacle.

28 A CHOICE OPPORTUNITY

For the first recipient of Pitt Law’s K&L Gates Diversity Fellowship, the offer brings an immediate career boost.

30 R YE REBIRTH

Alex Grelli stepped away from Reed Smith to found a new family business. Now Wigle Whiskey is reviving one of western Pennsylvania’s oldest traditions, creating fans — and new state laws — along the way.

02 FROM THE DEAN 04 ON CAMPUS 32

FACULTY

38

ALUMNI

45

PARTING SHOT

I Pitt Law is now ranked #37 (out of over 200 law schools) by the National Law Journal based upon our Class of 2016’s employment rates at the nation’s largest law firms.

FROM THE DEAN

I

SHAPING CITIZENS

I am delighted to share with you our Pitt Law Magazine. In this issue, you’ll read more about the new programming and initiatives aimed toward advancing our mission of producing graduates who are leaders in the legal profession.

We are proud to welcome to the Pitt Law faculty former U.S. Attorney David Hickton, ’81, and U.S. Third Circuit Judge D. Michael Fisher. Professor Hickton joins Pitt Law as our first Professor of Law, Policy, and Technology, complementing his role as Founding Director of the University of Pittsburgh’s new Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security.

Judge Fisher joins us as our inaugural Distinguished Jurist in Residence. Both Judge Fisher and Professor Hickton offer decades of real-world legal experience and wisdom to our students.

We have also recruited several other new faculty members this year, including Assistant Professor Chaz Arnett, who teaches courses in Criminal Procedure, Professional Responsibility, and Education Law; Assistant Professor Gerald S. Dickinson, who teaches Property, Estates, and Trusts, and Land, Race, and Property Rights; Professor of Practice Marily Nixon, who will add to our environmental law program by teaching Environmental Justice Law; and Professor Lu-in Wang, who rejoins our tenured faculty after teaching at the University of New Mexico School of Law and who teaches Contracts, Civil Procedure, and Employment Discrimination, among other subjects.

Our premier event this past academic year was “Russian Hacking: What Do We Know and How This Is Different?”

Led by Professor Hickton, the symposium provided the opportunity for guests and livestream viewers to hear Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, Washington Post reporter Ellen Nakashima, former Department of Justice cybersecurity official Luke Dembosky, ’94, and Keith Mularski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation discuss critical issues in cybersecurity. We were honored to have these experts’ candid insights on a subject that continues to dominate national debate.

Regarding our graduates’ employment outcomes, I am pleased to report that our graduates made continued gains in all categories, as evidenced in part by the fact Pitt Law is now ranked #37 (out of over 200 law schools) by the National Law Journal based upon our Class of 2016’s employment rates at the nation’s largest law firms. Moreover, 84.5 percent of our Class of 2016 graduates are employed in jobs where bar admission is required or for which a JD is deemed an advantage, exceeding the national average and representing our highest percentage since at least 2011.

The Barco Law Building’s $6.2 million renovation is on track to be complete by the end of December 2017. The renovation will modernize our space and move our Legal Clinics back under the same roof as our classrooms, bringing theory, doctrine, and practice ever closer together.

I am always mindful that the Law School’s progress is made possible by virtue of the support of our friends and alumni. As always, my thanks on behalf of Pitt Law for your ongoing support through your time, talent, and treasure.

WILLIAM M. CARTER, JR. D E A N A N D P R O F E S S O R O F L AW

PHOTO BY TERRY CLARK

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

2 | 3

ON CAMPUS

NEWS & E VENTS NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL RANKS PITT LAW #37 GO-TO LAW SCHOOL IN THE NATION

The National Law Journal released its annual Go-To Law Schools special report for 2017, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law has debuted on the list at 37th in the nation.

The report ranks the top 50 law schools by percentage of JD graduates who took jobs at the largest 100 law firms. In 2016, 16 Pitt Law graduates, or 9.14 percent of the graduating class, landed jobs at prominent law firms such as Jones Day, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, K&L Gates, and Reed Smith.

The report highlighted schools that are a strong value for their combination of lower tuition and ability to place graduates in big law firm positions.

The report also shares data on schools that saw the most alumni promoted to partner and the 20 schools that most outperform their U.S. News & World Report ranking, of which Pitt Law is third in outperformance.

HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI APPOINTED ASSOC. DEAN FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS; DEBORAH BRAKE AS ASSOC. DEAN OF RESEARCH AND FACULTY DEV.

Professor Haider Ala Hamoudi, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, was appointed Associate Dean for Academic Affairs effective July 1, assuming the role from Nancy M. Burkoff, Associate Professor of Legal Writing, upon her retirement.

Deborah L. Brake, the John E. Murray Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law, was named Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, also effective July 1.

Hamoudi became Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development in June 2013. Since that time, Pitt Law has enjoyed consistently high faculty scholarship reputation rankings in U.S. News & World Report and high readership and engagement on the Social Science Research Network.

Brake is a renowned expert on employment discrimination, Title IX, and gender equality law. Her published works include over 25 law review articles and work is often cited and relied on by courts, including twice in the U.S. Supreme Court.

COMMENCEMENT 2017 New York Supreme Court Justice Shawndya Simpson, ’90, spoke to graduates during the 2017 commencement ceremony held May 12 at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall. The class of 2017 comprised 138 JD graduates, 13 LLM graduates, 10 MSL graduates, and 1 SJD graduate. 43 students graduated with honors.

Professor George Taylor received the 2017 Robert T. Harper Excellence in Teaching award, as voted on by the graduating class.

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

4 | 5

“Both Professor Brake and Professor Hamoudi are distinguished teachers, accomplished academic leaders, and esteemed scholars,” said Dean William M. Carter, Jr. “Their commitment to our core mission of teaching, research, and service and their understanding of the Law School’s strengths and opportunities make them the ideal choices for these vital leadership roles.”

HEALTH CARE COMPLIANCE ONLINE RECEIVES CCB ACCREDITATION

Pitt Law’s Health Care Compliance Online Graduate Certificate program (HCC Online) has been accredited by the Compliance Certification Board (CCB) as of May 2017.

HCC Online, a 10-month fully online program, was created in conjunction with senior compliance officers to give people working with health care compliance issues every day the knowledge they need to take on more strategic compliance roles.

“Our goal for HCC Online is to strengthen compliance professionals, attorneys and administrators’ knowledge in this growing and rapidly changing field,” said Program Director

Mary Nell Cummings. “HCC Online helps professionals gain a deeper understanding of new regulations and identify compliance issues and best practices in compliance management.”

PITT LAW ALUMNA MARTHA RICHARDS CONLEY HONORED

BY AFRICAN AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL

The University of Pittsburgh African American Alumni Council (AAAC) honored Pitt Law alumna Martha Richards Conley, ’71, as a Distin­ guished Alumnus this June. The AAAC Distinguished Alumnus Awards are given to outstanding African American Pitt alumni for their professional accomplishments as well as their community stature. Conley was Pitt Law’s first black female graduate and the first black female lawyer admitted to practice in Allegheny County.

PITT RENAMES PENNSYLVANIA HALL TO HONOR K. LEROY IRVIS

Pitt’s Board of Trustees has renamed Pitt’s Pennsylvania Hall the K. Leroy Irvis Hall, posthumously honoring the legacy of K. Leroy Irvis, ’54, a Pitt Law alumnus, emeritus trustee, and legislative leader.

“K. Leroy Irvis’ role in establishing the University of Pittsburgh as a staterelated institution helped fuel our trans­formation into a global leader in education and research and effectively threw open the doors of higher education for generations of students — and generations to come,” said Chancellor Patrick Gallagher. “We are committed to ensuring that the significance of his

work — and his great influence on our University community — never fades.”

2016 NORDENBERG FELLOWS SELECTED FOR SUMMER INTERNSHIPS

For the eleventh year, students at Pitt Law spent the summer overseas as Nordenberg Fellows funded by the Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg University Professorship held by Professor Ronald A. Brand.

Kevin Huber, ’18, interned with the law firm of Al Tamimi & Co. in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Jonathan Niznansky, ’18, interned with the law firm of Ouerfelli Attorneys & Counsels in Tunis, Tunisia; Wen Shu,’19, engaged in summer study and an internship in Tokyo, Japan; and Wade Stephens, ’19, interned with the USAID Contract Law Enforcement Program in Pristina, Kosovo. Stephens also attended the Summer Program on European and International Economic Law at the University of Augsburg as a participant in a new student exchange between Pitt Law and the University of Augsburg.

CILE ANNOUNCES STUDENT EXCHANGES WITH PROMINENT EUROPEAN LAW SCHOOLS

The Center for International Legal Education (CILE) at Pitt Law has entered into agreements with the law faculties of Paris I (Sorbonne) in France and the University of Augsburg in Germany that will allow Pitt Law students to study at both of these promi­nent European institutions, and bring students from the Sorbonne and Augsburg to study at Pitt Law.

In 2008, Pitt also honored K. Leroy Irvis by naming its annual Black History Month observance the K. Leroy Irvis Black History Month Program.

The agreement with the University of Augsburg builds upon a long history of collaboration between Augsburg and Pitt. Four Pitt Law JD students each year will be able to enroll in Augsburg’s Summer Program on European and International Economic Law, a six-week program taught in English each June and July to students from the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. Two law students from Augsburg will join the fall semester of the LLM program at Pitt Law. The new Pitt Law exchange with the Sorbonne will see two Pitt Law JD students travel to Paris each year to study law in France in predominantly French-language classes in the one-year LLM program. In return, two law students from Paris I will join the LLM program at Pitt Law. Professor Vivian Curran will supervise the Paris I program for Pitt Law.

THE HONORABLE D. MICHAEL FISHER, JURIST IN RESIDENCE

M

ike Fisher has been called many things in Pennsylvania: state rep, state senator, prosecutor, attorney general, gubernatorial candidate, and Circuit Judge of the U S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. This fall he adds yet another title to that list: Pitt Law’s first Distinguished Jurist in Residence.

Judge Fisher is no stranger to the law school or the University of Pittsburgh; over a long career in elected office and the judiciary, he has served as an adjunct faculty member and as a University Trustee, the latter in emeritus status since 2004. He will continue to teach his popular course in Federal Appellate Advocacy while adding new responsibilities. He’s looking forward to the challenge.

“I’ve had many different opportunities, and tremendous jobs in the public sector and enjoyed all of them.”

Judge Fisher changed his role on the Court of Appeals last February, electing senior status in order to have more involvement at the law school. “I’ve reduced the number of cases and my administrative responsibilities, which frees me to do more at Pitt Law.” He has no plans for retirement from the bench, having served since his appointment in 2003.

“His role as Jurist in Residence will include teaching Federal Appellate Advocacy and Federal Courts during the fall term, as well as engaging with students and hosting conferences on campus. The position is similar to those held by judges at other major law schools.

“This new program will bring extraordinary judges to the law school to enrich the educational experience of our students,” said Pitt Law Dean William M. Carter, Jr. “We want to encourage them towards the kind of public service to which Judge Fisher has dedicated his career.”

A Pittsburgh native, Judge Fisher received his BA and JD degrees from Georgetown University. Returning to Allegheny County, he became an Assistant District Attorney, handling PHOTO BY TERRY CLARK

nearly 1,000 cases, including 25 homicides. The early job was one of many he relished.

“Learning criminal law and how to try a case — you never forget, it’s like riding a bike,” he says. “When you learn how to conduct yourself in the courtroom, it’s something you can always do.”

Judge Fisher, a lifelong Republican, held state elective office for more than two decades, while practicing law throughout his career in the General Assembly. He was first elected as a state representative for the South Hills, serving six years there and another 16 as a member of the State Senate. He was a member of the Judiciary Committee in both houses. While in Harrisburg, Fisher was a shareholder or partner in law firms, including Houston Harbaugh, where he practiced from 1984 to 1997.

He was next elected state attorney general, a post he held for seven years. “I learned how big Pennsylvania was,” he laughs. In that role, he personally argued major cases: before the Supreme Court of the United States, he successfully argued a precedentsetting case ensuring that paroled criminals meet the conditions of their release. He was also his party’s standard-bearer in the 2002 gubernatorial election, losing to Democratic incumbent Ed Rendell. Named to the federal bench the following year, he found a new challenge.

“The job of appellate judge at the federal level is unique and interesting,” he says. “You get to work on a wide range of issues that go from immigration cases to complex antitrust cases and everything in between — criminal trials and sentencing, civil issues, constitutional arguments. The diversity of the job makes it so interesting. The part I like the best is hearing counsel present oral arguments. We see excellent lawyering on most cases.” He enjoys mentoring law clerks each year. “We have 500 to 800 applicants for four jobs. They’re the best and brightest graduates. Working with them, you become the teacher. And that’s also what makes the Pitt Law opportunity interesting.”

Fisher is looking forward to October 31, when he convenes a conference on “Judges and Journalists,” on the Pitt campus.

This program, co-sponsored by Pitt Law, the Third Circuit, and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of PA , will examine the relationship between the Courts and the media.

Through CILE, the University also recently entered into a memorandum of understanding with Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xi’an, China. That agreement has already produced collaboration resulting in Pitt Law Professors Teresa Brostoff and Ann Sinsheimer traveling to Xi’an to teach English for Lawyers, with the assistance of Pitt 3L Taylor Staiger, who also helped train NPU’s Vis Moot court team.

The Professor Alan Meisel Endowed Scholarship fund will provide scholarship support for students in the Health Law Program.

VETERANS LEGAL PRACTICUM RAISES OVER $5,000 IN ENGAGEPITT CAMPAIGN

Pitt Law’s Veterans Legal Practicum had a highly successful EngagePitt campaign in late 2016, raising $5,050 to support the practicum’s efforts in providing pro bono legal assistance to veterans.

Donations raised through the EngagePitt crowdfunding campaign will provide sustainable funding to allow Veterans Legal Practicum faculty and students to continue serving veterans. Funds will also enable law students to develop and argue actual court cases on behalf of those who have served our country. EngagePitt dona­tions will pay for students enrolled in the practicum to travel to Washington, D.C. to argue cases before the service boards and pay for associated court fees. Most importantly, 100 percent of the monies raised through the EngagePitt campaign will go directly to the Veterans Legal Practicum.

Pitt Law’s Veterans Legal Practicum is the only pro bono provider of military discharge upgrade services in the region. Students, along with supervising attorneys, assist veterans

in securing their entitled benefits and reversing less than fully honorable military discharges. The Practicum has a caseload of approximately 100 veterans, and is split roughly 50/50 between complex VA claims and discharge upgrades. Discharge upgrade cases may involve veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, or other mental health disorders that contributed to mis­ conduct after they returned from over­seas assignments. The Practicum currently has more than ten cases pending before defense department boards, having already won three of the cases they filed at the administrative level, and obtained a court-ordered remand in a fourth.

NEW ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP ESTABLISHED FOR PITT HEALTH LAW STUDENTS

A new opportunity for students in Pitt Law has emerged with the establishment of the Professor Alan Meisel Endowed Scholarship Fund.

u pcom i ng

Pitt Chancellor Emeritus Mark A. Nordenberg and his wife Nikki Pirillo Nordenberg created the fund in honor of Alan Meisel, a leading international authority on end-of-life decision making and founder of Pitt’s Center for Bioethics and Health Law and Pitt Law’s Health Law Certificate Program.

“Not only has Professor Meisel shaped the field of health law through his scholarly work, but he has taken the lead in creating special opportunities for Pitt Law students,” said Nordenberg, who first met Meisel in 1977 when Nordenberg came to Pitt to interview for a position on the Pitt Law faculty.

“We have a very strong group of Pitt Law alumni who have built dis­tin­guished careers as health law professionals, and, for many of them, the education and encouragement they received from Professor Meisel has been critical to their work,” said Nordenberg. He said that it was “very natural” to create a scholarship fund in Meisel’s name.

The fund will provide scholarship support for students in the Health Law Program who meet the University’s eligibility requirement. Most students take two years to complete the certificate.

JUDGES AND JOURNALISTS: ACCURACY AND ACCESS t u e sday, oc tobe r 31, 2 017, 1 1 a m – 4 pm This program has been approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board for (2.5) hours of substantive credit. There is a $75 fee for processing CLE credit for this event. University Club, 123 University Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.

Learn more at law.pitt.edu/events

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

6 | 7

COVER

TAMING THE WILD WEST OF CYBERSPACE Worldwide digital crime threatens privacy, democracy and the rule of law. Does the integrity of our electoral process hang in the balance?

Racing to build new guideposts, the university’s new Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security navigates unknown territory.

PHOTO BY NOAH PURDY

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

8 | 9

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

10 | 11

PHOTO BY NOAH PURDY

aced to a drumbeat of alarming news stories, the inaugural symposium of the University’s new Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security took aim at an issue that blended its threepart mission. “Russian Hacking: What Do We Know and Why Is This Different?” drew a record crowd to the law school’s Teplitz Memorial Courtroom February 2 to hear Pitt Law alumni, Russian and American journalists, and an FBI expert analyze the triple threat.

Headed by David Hickton, ’81, the Institute fuses the expertise of the law school, the university, and local partners to study how to control digital tools and strategies, even as they appear to outwit their human masters. Founding Director Hickton, who brought the first U.S. indictments against Chinese military hackers targeting Pittsburgh firms as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, has compared the frantic, lawless internet to “the Wild West.” He said the new university effort will have impact on a subject that crosses international borders at the speed of light.

University Chancellor Patrick Gallagher opened the symposium. Gallagher joined the university in 2014 after serving as the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which prioritized issues in information technology and cybersecurity. In 2016, he became a member of President Barack Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cyber­security, which delivered its recommendations last December. He told the audience there were two ways of conceptualizing the challenges of cyber issues.

“What’s different about cyber?” he asked. “Are we insecure because we’re too lazy to do it right? Because of bad management? Or do we keep failing because of the complexity and nature of technology?” Gallagher believes the latter.

“We fail because we are trying to solve cybersecurity with analogies to what we knew before.” The timing is critical, he noted. “We have connected billions, most of the people on the planet, with a high capacity light-speed communication with onboard processing. We have become dependent on this tool on an unprecedented scale.”

Universal dependence makes societies more vulnerable to all types of digital threats. As hackers attack U.S. corporations, disrupt Ukrainian power grids, expose state secrets, and meddle in democratic elections, only non-partisan action can create norms for fair use. Hickton argues that Pitt’s Institute is essential to that effort.

“Pitt offers an academic platform to answer tough questions,” he said. “We aspire to be different. Our ability to deliver depends on academic integrity. We’re not interested in becoming a help desk to answer questions. That’s not the role.

Tech companies cannot handle this task, because they have a commercial interest in outcome. They can’t be a credible tribune for analyzing law and policy. And if governments have a tactical interest in the outcome, they are also not credible.”

The issue of Russian hacking created the ideal lens for the symposium panelists to address the overlapping questions of privacy law, national policy, and international security.

C Y B E R L AW

n the past two decades, Fourth Amendment protections have been applied to personal information stored in digital databases. Strict guidelines now protect medical records and student academic files. The hack of up to 18 million records from the Office of Personnel Management, announced in 2015, was a high-profile attack that prompted demands for more security and more effective prosecution of wrongdoers. In 2016, hacks of Democratic campaign emails provoked more outrage. Hickton said the solution to information theft builds on “pre-digital norms.”

“We have the baseline to start with, but we lose our compass. Under the concept of inadvertent disclosure, if I receive privileged information, I am obligated to give it back. If I accidently get your notebook, I give it back. That’s well-established. We need a way to shock us back into our senses regarding norms.”

U.S. laws governing vote-casting systems must similarly protect data, albeit on a state-by-state basis. As Chancellor Gallagher observed, counties and states control the integrity of their systems. Allegations that illegal voters had swayed the popular vote in 2016 have led the Trump-established Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to demand all publicly available voter roll data; many states have refused to comply.

Potential federal cybersecurity legislation became the focus of a fraught two-year battle, beginning in 2013. Ulti­ mately, an executive commission recommended that government should set best practices that would push corporations to create their own industry standards. The action was seen as essential: Western societies, including the U.S., prize an open platform, and 85 percent of the nation’s internet infrastructure is owned by the private sector. But the philosophic direction the commission recommended has not yet stemmed data hacks and disclosure of private communication.

“ Tech companies cannot handle this task, because they have a commercial interest in the outcome. And if governments have a tactical interest in the outcome, they are also not credible.”

D AV I D H I C K T O N

Symposium participant Luke Dembosky, ’94, is now partner at Debevoise & Plimpton’s Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Practice. He is the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security and former U.S. Department of Justice representative at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

He told the audience that disruptive disclosures are an inevitable result of too-little-too-late security and ever more sophisticated cybercriminals. “We will go through a period of cyber-Darwinism,” he predicted. “Things will be exposed — including emails and Ashley Madison accounts.”

N AT I O N A L P O L I C Y AND SECURITY

he Federal Bureau of Investigation has been fighting cybercrime for decades. But since the late 1990s, it has increasingly taken its fight overseas. “Since the dot-com boom, our biggest threat has come from Russianspeaking cybercriminals,” Keith Mularski told the symposium. Mularski is Supervisory Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigations Pittsburgh Division.

“Cyber is the vector right now,” he said. “Traditional crime and espionage are moving in that realm, and are so much more effective. Twenty years of R&D can be stolen in 20 gigabytes in five minutes. This is the new normal.”

Mularski is a well-known cybercrime fighter. He has been the lead investigator of numerous high-profile

SYMPOSIUM PHOTOS BY THOMAS ALTANY

cybercrime cases, including the notorious Gameover ZeuS. A more insidious version of malware that stole from bank accounts throughout the U.S., Gameover ZeuS allowed bank robbers to make withdrawals from accounts remotely, without entering a U.S. jurisdiction. “They knew wealth was here, in online banking and retail. They organized themselves like the mafia,” Mularski explained. Building a criminal prosecution and obtaining court orders to disable servers across the world, while dissembling the malware’s digital infrastructure, the FBI counterattacked its system on May 31, 2014. The State Department put a $3 million bounty on the scheme’s master­mind, Evgeniy Bogachev. He remains at large.

Two years later, analysis of seized data illuminated a shadowy connection: Bogachev’s botnet had also collected sensitive Ukrainian security information. The link between criminal activity and state secrets highlighted the power of cybercriminals to manipulate international relations. And on December 30, when President Obama announced sanctions against Russia for interfering in the 2016 presidential elections, Bogachev was again named, along with Russian government officials Luke Dembosky proposed a prosecutorial analogy. “We took down the mob. Take the John Gotti case — though John Gotti never had a botnet. The person who orders the hit never has his finger on the trigger. These folks are too smart. They know how to build layers in. So, as government develops sources, both human and the equivalent of wiretaps and intercepts, you figure out how to build the case. You do the homework, play the long game, and find the money trails and technology trails to paint the picture.”

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

12 | 13

Dembosky cited the landmark indictment brought by U.S. Attorney Hickton in 2014 against the Chinese military for hacking and economic espionage against Pittsburgh companies. Among the evidence presented to a grand jury was a photo of the five accused members of the People’s Liberation Army in full uniform. “The PLA case was a paradigm of proving nation-state actors with photos. It never got better than that,” he said. “It was worth it, because [Chinese hacking] activity is down.”

Dembosky noted that international prosecutions may require proving a case to European and other nations and declassifying information. But without an international consensus on information sharing, results may be elusive.

“You can prove it, but what is your play? It would be great to have more options, from the United Nations, the World Trade Organization and others: a penalty for the other side that is meaningful.”

Director Hickton agreed, saying that consequences must be “put into the equation for people who hack, or it will go on unabated.”

The symposium concluded with the marquee discussion: Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election of 2016. “In the most celebrated democracy in the world, can we agree that the integrity of our electoral process is critical infrastructure?” asked Hickton. “Can we agree the 2016 election was hacked, as were 2012 and 2008, and we ought to start doing something about it? Can we find areas of agreement, even with adversaries like Russia?”

Scaling Up Programs The high-profile international intrigues discussed at the February hacking symposium are only one aspect of the work of the Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security. In its first year, the Institute has energetically addressed other pressing issues, from national policy to cyber career programs for young learners.

“We look across the spectrum and scale of cyber opportunity and need, from research to policy proposals to education and workforce development,” explains executive director Beth Schwanke. Soon-to-be affiliated faculty from the School of Law, the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and the School of Computing & Infor­ mation add further intellectual depth.

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

14 | 15

Ellen Nakashima, national security correspondent for the Washington Post, told the symposium that Russia made an impact on the election results by giving WikiLeaks a cache of Democratic campaign emails, specifically those of Clinton campaign aide John Podesta. The trove “kept the spotlight on the Clinton campaign,” she said. The Kremlin’s motivation: to prevent Hillary Clinton, seen as someone behind Moscow’s social media-fueled protests of 2012, to assume the presidency and continue sanctions imposed after Putin’s seizure of the Crimean peninsula. “Intent matters,” she argued.

Andrei Soldatov, a Russian journalist who has written about Russia’s security state for 20 years, said the “informal actors” who hacked the DNC were decision-makers with direct access to the Kremlin. “You delegate the work to someone wise,” he said. “Putin’s not about building a positive narrative. It’s about how to confuse people,” he said. “The message is that everyone is corrupt — there is no need to trust them.”

Pitt Law Dean William M. Carter, Jr. concluded the symposium by evoking the role of the entire university in joining the Institute’s work. “The university has an essential role in applying our knowledge in ways that contribute to addressing the many challenges and opportunities in the cyber realm.”

In addition to national media coverage, including founding director Hickton’s frequent interviews, the Institute is building a presence in the nation’s capital. Resident scholar Kirsten Todt testified before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on June 13 on promoting security in wireless technology. This fall, the Institute plans a public event in Washington to which local Pitt Law alumni will be invited.

In mid-summer, nearly 200 highschool students registered for the Institute’s Cyber Camp, part of a national U.S. Air Force Association program.

The week-long program offered handson lessons in cyber security and cyber ethics. Pitt’s registration was double that of the 60 plus programs held elsewhere, indicating a high level of youth interest.

One participant, Liz Getz of Butler, PA , said the program helped her realize the threats in the cyber world. “I knew

it was big. I just didn’t know it was that big,” she said. “It also showed me that there is a big need for young people to go into the cyber security field. Kids my age can do these things when we get out of high school.”

Schwanke says the response to the program, to be offered again in 2018, underscored the region’s deep resources and expertise in the field. “We’re developing young talent in a field that is going to explode in the next decade,” she said.

New Faces Join Cyber Institute Three experts, one a longtime Pitt Law veteran and the others national cybersecurity authorities, have joined the staff of the university’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security.

Mike Madison, an expert in intellectual property

law, will serve as the Institute’s academic director while continuing his work at the law school. His current scholarship focuses on questions concerning the production and distribution of knowledge and on innovation and knowledge commons, the concept of community governance of the sharing and creation of information, science, knowledge, data, and other types of intellectual and cultural resources. He was the founding academic director of Pitt Law’s Innovation Practice Institute and joined the law school faculty in 1998 after nine years in private practice in Silicon Valley.

Kiersten Todt is the former executive director of the

Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

She joins the Institute from her base in Washington, D.C. Todt helped carry out President Barack Obama’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan. Comprising top strategic, business and technical thinkers from outside government, its members included Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher. Todt is the president and managing partner of Liberty Group Ventures, developing risk and crisis management solutions for cybersecurity, infrastructure, homeland security, emergency management and higher education clients. She previously served on the staffs of both the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Vice President Al Gore. A Princeton University graduate, she holds a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and was selected as a Presidential Management Fellow in 1999.

Beth Schwanke previously served as senior policy

counsel and director of policy outreach for the Center for Global Development, a think tank researching international development. In her role, she led the Center’s policy outreach efforts, advised the organization’s senior management, and secured implementation of research and policy proposals. At DLA Piper, Schwanke was an associate in the Federal Law and Policy Practice Group, where she advised clients in congressional investigations and on sanctions compliance. As legislative counsel for the non-profit organization Freedom Now, she directed legal, political, and public relations advocacy efforts to secure the release of political prisoners. Schwanke earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English at Wellesley College as well as her Juris Doctor at the University of Michigan Law School, where she was an associate and contributing editor of the Michigan Law Review.

F E AT U R E

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

16 | 17

<JURIST> An early Internet experiment becomes a worldwide legal news source </JURIST>

I

n February 1996, Professor Bernard Hibbitts dialed a phone modem, clicked “send” on the boxy Macintosh in his office and shared a few pages of links to timely legal resources with a handful of colleagues across the country. “It certainly didn’t begin with a bang. I called it ‘Law Professors on the Web,’ ” recalls the affable Canadian.

Hibbitts’ keystroke was a “what hath God wrought” moment for JURIST, Pitt Law’s interna­ tional resource for both breaking legal news and incisive commentary. Now written and edited primarily by students, with Hibbitts as publisher and editor in chief, the online news source registers 1.3 million page views a year in 192 countries.

“A brief is a story. Lawyers need those story-telling skills.

It is essential that the public understands what judges and lawyers do and why they do it,” says Toni Locy, MSL’07, head of the Journalism Department at Washington & Lee University and former Associated Press Supreme Court reporter who serves on JURIST’s Board of Directors.

“Learning an accessible writing style is essential for wannabe lawyers. That’s what JURIST does. Very few other programs encourage law students to write for the masses.”

When the internet roared into the news realm, JURIST was poised to command a highly specific niche. “After our first year, it became clear we could provide a range of other information and public documents. Then we walked straight into the Clinton impeachment process in 1997 and ’98. There was a huge buzz,” Hibbitts says. “We turned from a traditional academic service to an academically grounded news operation. And we evolved. We were nimble.”

Having formed as a separate non-profit entity in 2008, JURIST operates on in-kind support from the law school, foundations, law firms, online donations, and revenue from user-targeted advertising. “Advertising — we resisted it for a long time, as did other law school-based programs. But we need funds beyond what Pitt Law is able to provide,” says Hibbitts. From its humble origins in Hibbitts’ office, JURIST is now a 501(c)(3) with two professional staff and a volunteer staff of 50 managing a 24/7 online operation. “Having been at this for 20 years, we’ve seen literally hundreds of students choose to spend their precious time and energy working on JURIST,” Hibbitts says with pride.

The site’s news service, Paper Chase, is a continuously refreshed feed that reports legal issues from around the world. Posts might include updates on Russian hackers facing charges in Ukraine, a U.S. District Court decision on a California gun ban, or the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from an international fisheries treaty. Paper Chase, which Hibbitts calls “the main driver, the pulse, the core,” has been led for nearly a decade by Research Director Jaclyn Belczyk, ’08. “We offer our readers concise, timely explanations of

complex legal events, while giving our student staff a chance to explain those events to a large audience. We’re in a pretty unique position.” A separate team of experienced student editors solicits legal commentary from national experts, including Pitt Law faculty members; their posts put the headlines in context.

Executive Director Andrew Morgan, ’11, served as JURIST’s chief of staff while earning his JD in international and comparative law. “We break stuff down: we strive for a balance between facts on ruling and analysis, with a range of story lengths. It’s more substantive than Twitter, but less arduous than reading 100 pages in a law review.”

Incoming managing editor Dave Rodkey, ’18, who earned his undergraduate degree in writing from Pitt, leads the young staff. “The Paper Chase people have a lot of responsibility. They never know what their news issue will be,” he says. The initiation process for staffers begins with self-selection, at first year orientation. “At my orientation, Professor Hibbitts gave us a speech. He’s very passionate about this project, and he exudes that. It sounded worthwhile, and I gravitated to it. It’s one of the very few substantive activities you can do as a 1L.” “We do take first years, which is one of the great things about JURIST. They’re not going to do law review until second or third year, and if they have some journalism background, they’re intrigued,” says Hibbitts. The selection and testing process includes timed writing tests and interviews by senior students.

Morgan says the churn of the news cycle animates classroom theory. “For students, it can be a nice break from the dusty old tomes we use in class to get a sense of what’s happening in the law right now,” he says, comparing the discipline of deadline writing to mental push-ups. “In a writing- and reading-intensive profession, law students don’t produce much written product in the law school setting,” Belczyk points out. “Our news staff each write four stories in two shifts every week, with a novel topic to understand, distill, and communicate in a concise, informative way.”

JURIST has lasted 20 years online through consistent reinvention, improvement and reconsideration of what the service should be. Hibbitts expects, however, that written content will continue to predominate. “We experimented with podcasts even before podcasts — with audio interviews in the late ’90s. But that work is personnel-intense. Neither video or audio, in their current formats, are well suited to what we to do.”

After 20 years, Hibbitts still thrives at the center of the operation, now housed in its own suite on the fifth floor of the Barco Law Library. “It gives me a unique opportunity in legal education. Very few law professors see their students in all three years of their program. On JURIST, I get to watch them grow up.”

F E AT U R E

SPORTS LAW The Field of Dreams

AMY MINNITI, ’07, vice president and

deputy general counsel for the Washington Nationals, can’t choose between her two favorite athletes. “I grew up in the 90s, so it’s a toss-up between Kristi Yamaguchi and Michael Jordan.” Photo by Cade Martin

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

18 | 19

he luxury box at the big game, the breathtaking bling, the celebrity clients: sports law often seems to be the field of dreams for fans and would-be athletes. In fact, say Pitt Law graduates in the industry, you don’t have to be a sports nut to excel in that niche. You might actually have more to offer clients if you’re not.

Joe O’Hara, ’02, who relocated from New York to Los Angeles as an associate at Milbank in 2004, is now a solo practitioner at O’Hara General Counsel. “I am a corporate lawyer who caters to the specific legal needs of pro athletes,” he explains. In the past year O’Hara has handled an adidas deal for one of the top wide receivers in the NFL, the licensing of Tony Hawk’s name for use on skateboards and accessories, and the sale of a 10 percent financial interest in the future earnings of a Major League Baseball All-Star second baseman for several million dollars. With dozens of professional athletes as clients, O’Hara does get some coveted invitations too, including one to the 2017 ESPY Awards.

Serving as vice president and deputy general counsel for the Washington Nationals wasn’t an ultimate career goal for Amy Minniti, ’07, but an internship with the Pittsburgh Pirates starting in 2005 immersed her in a wide range of tasks she enjoyed. She is now in her tenth season with the Nationals.

“I always say, being in-house for a sports team is like being in-house counsel for a mid-sized business. Our business is just a little more fun! We do everything from drafting contracts for all our business units, like sponsorship deals, down to facilities stuff. We manage litigation and intellectual property portfolios, and we do a lot of league rule compliance work. So we’re not sports attorneys first. We have other skills that we bring to the table.”

Larry Silverman, now in private practice and an adjunct professor of sports law at Pitt Law, hired Minniti as an intern while he was the Pirates’ general counsel. “Most of the legal work for a sports team relates to facilities issues, employment laws issues and risk management matters — like injuries to fans,” he agrees. “There are also trademark and IP issues.

Many of these legal issues are not dissimilar to those that a manu­facturing company might face.”

After earning his degree from Pitt Law in 1999, Steve Tanzilli’s first jobs in sports management came in directing two high-profile Pittsburgh events. The start was not auspicious. “Two things I did not enjoy — fishing and golf,” recalls Tanzilli, now dean of Point Park University’s Rowland School of Business. But being sponsorship director for the local Bassmaster Classic and the 84 Lumber Classic landed him his first NFL client: Willie Parker. “As a rookie, there was no thought that he would make the Steelers. But people got hurt, and he rushed against Cleveland for 230 yards.

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

20 | 21

I got a call out of the blue, asking if I could help him.”

James Harrison, Ryan Clark, and other Steelers later joined his client roster.

The popularity of pro sports has skyrocketed over the past decade, with the industry growing from a $20 billion sector in 2008 to $26 billion this year.

“The revenues are staggering,” says Silverman. “The biggest factor is TV. People want to watch their sports live, which increases the value of the rights.”

Joe O’Hara agrees. “The TV deals are where you see disparities between New York and L.A. and, say, Milwaukee.

The Lakers have a massive deal with Fox Spots. The Yankees own their own network. The Cowboys don’t share their merchandise revenue with the rest of the NFL franchises. And merchandise is also a big source of revenues,” he points out.

But he predicts that TV audiences will change. “Younger

viewers are not dialing to watch a full game on TV. So now, teams are looking at different ways to monetize. You want players to share in that.”

O’Hara says his is “a pretty easy story to tell: corporate lawyer trained at big firm in New York moves to Los Angeles and gets staffed on Tony Hawk’s Quiksilver deal in 2005, and benefits from being in the right place at the right time. I was always a huge sports fan, so it was a dream to fall into it.”

O’Hara, 44, still counts Hawk as his biggest name c­ lient.

He has also represented a dozen other professional a­ thletes who have monetized their personal brands through an innovative type of financing. The athletes sell off a percentage of their future potential income to private investors for an upfront lump sum. The instrument gives the athletes — especially NFL players whose salaries are not guaranteed — an alternative to insurance to hedge against future injury risk.

“I was fortunate enough to have Arian Foster [then of the Houston Texans] as a client. Fantex, a Bay Area financial services and brand development company, approached him about being the first athlete to be on their platform,” O’Hara recalls. “I negotiated that deal over the course of about nine months. He was offered $10 million for 20 percent of future income, mostly tied to his NFL player contracts. His salary was unguaranteed — one torn ACL, and he might not see a dime.” Ironically, Foster was injured after the deal was signed but before the IPO closed.

O’Hara argues that allowing talented individuals to capture future brand income is a trend that could spread to entertainment as well as other fields. “Using it in sports makes sense, because you can look at comparable contracts and estimate future income,” he says. But actors, directors, and even aspiring doctors might also use the tool to

JOE O’HARA, ’02, relocated to Los

Angeles in 2004. “Sunday morning football is one of the perks of living in SoCal. I watch the 10 a.m. NFL slate — preferably a Steelers game — on my couch.” Photo by John Davis

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

20 | 21

secure their retirements. O’Hara calls the burgeoning field “human finance.”

Since she joined the Nationals in January of 2008, 35-year-old Minniti has watched her team climb to the top of the National League East. Player success has brought an increased legal workload. “In sports, when the team on the field is doing well, it always trickles down. People say we were the worst team in the league at the perfect time: we got the top draft picks, Strasberg and Harper, and built our farm system. We got our legs underneath us, from the front office perspective. The benefits of having a good team include more sponsorship deals, increased ticket sales, and more revenues, a lot more deals and transactions, and more community activities. All of those efforts need legal support.” She cites the Nationals’ program for underserved youth as an example of an interesting project she’s devoted a lot of time to in the last few years. The team’s non-profit Washington Nationals

Youth Baseball Academy, located in Ward 7 in Washington, D.C., uses baseball and softball as vehicles to foster positive character development, academic achievement and improved health among youth in the District.

Minniti is also an adjunct lecturer in sports management at Georgetown University and at George Washington University Law School, where she teaches a sports contract drafting class. “Teaching makes me better at what I do,” she observes. “It helps me explain what I do to other people, and to think critically about what I’m doing.”

In his sports law lectures, Silverman points out four key skills that attorneys need to compete in the field.

“Commercial transactions law is key,” he says. “You need a broad understanding of indemnity and how to limit liability.

These and other concepts must be analyzed together with interpreting league rules. Intellectual property is a big area and the sports media landscape is increasingly affected

Now dean of Point Park University’s Rowland College of Business, STEVE TANZILLI, ’99, still mourns the departure of his favorite team mascot: Youpii, the Montreal Expos mascot, was famously thrown out of a game by Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda in 1989. Photo by Noah Purdy

“ On the law side, we’re not trying to make them lawyers, but we are teaching them the red flags for when you need a lawyer.”

by the digital world. It’s all transactional, and it’s all IP.” Employment law, including issues like ADA and overtime law compliance, are also relevant, he says.

Minniti agrees, adding that issues of data privacy, security, and understanding a changing employment law landscape will be future requirements for practicing in the field.

While earning joint degrees from Pitt Law and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, Minniti met her future husband working at PNC Park.

Their careers have occasionally intersected; Bryan Minniti served as a Director of Baseball Operations for the Pirates, Assistant General Manager for the Nationals and the Arizona Diamondbacks, and is now completing his first season with the Philadelphia Phillies.

“We’re a pretty deep-rooted baseball family now,” says Minniti. “He’s been very successful at his thing, which is very different from mine.”

Steve Tanzilli built his first firm, Sports Legends Group, into a full-service marketing, finance and law firm for athletes and entertainers. He segued into the role of Point Park University’s business dean after creating the school’s popular program in sports and entertainment management. The SEAM program enrolls 300 undergraduates, with a focus on live entertainment. “We’re working on making Pittsburgh a music city, teaching the skills of managing bands and venues and record labels. On the law side, we’re not trying to make them lawyers, but we are teaching them the red flags for when you need a lawyer.”

To Minniti, the perks of her job are the environment.

“It’s not the lunch options,” she jokes. “Although that’s improved. Stadiums are built where cities are trying to spur growth, and that’s happened in our neighborhood in the last few years, but there wasn’t much here when we first opened in 2008. Her favorite part of her job is the range of responsibilities. “We are a relatively small company, so I have a lot on my plate. I work with our owners, department heads and even interns, which I enjoy. And every day, I get to come to the ballpark, rather than an office. I appreciate that — it’s pretty cool.”

S T E V E TA N Z I L L I

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

22 | 23

OPINION

THE

GREAT WALL OF TRUMP

BY GERALD S. DICKINSON

PHOTO BY TERRY CLARK

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

24 | 25

We will soon begin the construction of a great wall,” said President Donald J. Trump in his first address before Congress in March 2017. It was only a few months earlier that the President signed an Executive Order mandating the federal government to turn its full weight and muscle to fortifying the southern border of the United States with a physical wall. The cost and financing of the EO drew intense scrutiny.

Some estimated that Congress would need to appropriate $20 billion. Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto quickly rebuked the EO, stating that “Mexico will not pay for any wall.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi threatened to shut down the government if demands for funding the project continued.

But the biggest obstacle for the President’s border wall isn’t the money and partisan politics. It’s getting the land.

Several days after the President’s remarks, I wrote an editorial in the Washington Post laying out the case for the American public that the construction of the wall will not begin as quickly as the President thinks. The Fifth Amendment Takings Clause states, “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” That oft-forgotten clause in the Constitution, tacked on at the end of some criminal procedure rights by James Madison, is a powerful reminder of the limitations of an international border wall. Hundreds and thousands of miles of land owned by Native American tribes, the state and local governments and private property owners stand in the path of the Great Wall.

The southern border is 2,000 miles. Today, only about one-third of the land is owned by the federal government.

Sixty-two miles of the Arizona-Mexico border is occupied by the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation. The rest is owned by state and local governments and private property owners.

Texas is perhaps the most daunting obstacle for the Trump Administration thanks to President Theodore Roosevelt, who signed the “Roosevelt Reservation” in 1907 designating a reservation of all public lands within 60 feet of the U.S.–Mexico border in California, New Mexico and Arizona.

Texas, however, retained title to all its public lands within the state. Fast forward over a century later, and the state has sold off most of the land to ranchers, farmers, developers and

The southern border is 2,000 miles. Today, only about one-third of the land is owned by the federal government.

homeowners along the Texas-Mexico border. Indeed, Texas may have the upper-hand in this land duel with the Trump Administration. The government would need to coordinate a massive voluntary sale of the property or rely on lengthy eminent domain proceedings to acquire it. The problem is not only the large volume of land needed to build the wall.

It is the time it takes to acquire the land.

We already have a sense of what lies ahead if the govern­ment attempts to seize property in Texas. In 2008, the George W. Bush administration started building about 700 miles of border fencing under the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Most of the land the government needed was already federally-owned in California, New Mexico and Arizona. But when the Depart­ment of Homeland Security tried to seize just one acre of land in Texas owned by now famous Eloisa Tamez, things did not go quickly. Tamez’s land had been in her family since the late 1700s when it was granted by the king of Spain. She fought the government in federal court.

The battle lasted seven years, after which the government eventually paid Tamez $56,000 for a quarter-acre easement across her land. Imagine this turf war at the border playing out over and over again.

ILLUSTRATION BY MATT CHASE

The President’s proposal would rival the largest national land acquisition projects in history, and those projects did not go quickly either.

The Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida in the 1970s, for example, required the federal government to condemn over 11,000 tracts of land, representing 28 percent of the over 40,000 tracts acquired for the project. It took over 8 years to get the land and the funding to complete the project.

Delays were largely due to litigation over environmental and eminent domain challenges.

During the battle to keep her land in 2008, Tamez poignantly argued, “It is about what the wall represents to the rest of the world. It says something about our democracy being in jeopardy.” Perhaps she was foreshadowing today’s controversy over the wall. Americans do not take kindly to threats to fundamental principles of property ownership, even if some agree with the immigration policies behind building a wall. The complications of the wall go well beyond partisan politics and money. It strikes at the heart of fundamental conceptions of property and freedom in America.

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

26 | 27

PROFILE

A CHOICE OPPORTUNITY: K & L G AT E S F U N D S N E W F E L L OW S H I P

C

heryl Choice arrived on Pitt Law’s campus in August 2017 by way of studying in East Lansing, traveling in South Africa, Malawi, Quebec, and St. Thomas, teaching in Milwaukee, nannying in New Zealand, and earning her master’s degree in public health in Atlanta. The 28-year-old recipient of Pitt Law’s inaugural K&L Gates Diversity Fellowship has worldwide interests.

The fellowship awarded to Choice last fall provides 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.

Choice earned her BA in social studies from Michigan State University in 2009 and spent several years teaching in Milwaukee.

While earning her MPH at Emory University in Atlanta, she worked as a research assistant on a variety of women’s health projects, including HIV and maternal mortality, and contributed to a community needs assessment for the University.

Halfway through her graduate studies, she realized that earning a JD would complement her interests in community health.

“I’m the first law student in my family. I don’t know if I’ll be a traditional lawyer, but I realized that a law degree would stimulate me intellectually and give me more opportunities. And health care is a growing sector. I’m interested in finding out what career paths could emerge from that on the social side, in policymaking.” She intends to earn a health law certificate at Pitt Law. Prospective students who apply to the University of Pittsburgh School of Law are automatically considered for the K&L Gates Diversity Fellowship upon admission.

This year, applications for admission to the Class 2020 surged 28 percent. Charmaine McCall, assistant dean of admissions and financial aid, said, “the increased interest stemmed from the valuable opportunity The K&L Gates Diversity Fellowship offers to non-traditional students considering law school.”

Choice admits Pittsburgh hadn’t been top of mind when she was applying to law schools across the U.S. The fellowship opportunity made Pitt Law her ultimate pick. After visiting the city for the first time in the spring of 2016, touring the campus and talking with attorneys at K&L Gates, she said the decision to move from Atlanta was an easy one.

As she completes her first summer at K&L Gates, Choice is participating in mergers and acquisitions workshops and writing on topics including real estate, non-profit tax matters, and pro bono work. She says she’s enjoying exploring downtown.

“Atlanta and Pittsburgh are more similar than I thought they’d be,” she observes. To Choice, the bigger metro area “feels like a suburb. Pittsburgh feels more like a real city.”

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

28 | 29

PHOTO BY NOAH PURDY

PROFILE

RYE REBIRTH W

igle Whiskey’s website claims that the Pittsburgh craft distillery hosts “about a million events a year.” That’s only a slight exaggeration, according to co-owner Alex Grelli. He says Wigle’s non-stop tasting tours and pop-up events around Pittsburgh provide a casual, friendly introduction of a classic Pennsylvania liquor to the cocktail crowd.

Grelli completed his JD at Pitt Law in 2009 and launched the company with his wife Meredith Meyer Grelli in 2011. During his second year at the University of Chicago Law School (he completed his coursework later at Pitt Law), Grelli wrote a paper analyzing how states regulated sales by craft distilleries and breweries. “I had a good foundation, in terms of how laws were structured and what road­blocks we would encounter,” he says. But it took two years of lobbying the Pennsylvania General Assembly before Wigle was permitted to sell whiskey on-premise at its Strip District headquarters. In the interim, Grelli worked as an associate at Reed Smith LLP in Pittsburgh.

“We wanted to sell directly to the consumer on our premises, at our tasting room, versus going through a distributor. That’s the distinction,” says Grelli.

Legislators agreed that the operation fell under the existing regulations for wineries, and Wigle opened its distillery, festooned with caricatures of Whiskey Rebellion characters, in March 2012. Among those portrayed is Phillip Wigle, the only whiskey tax protestor to be convicted of treason (he was pardoned in the 1790s by George Washington). The firm’s flagship product is Monongahela Rye, a favorite tipple in the Colonies; by 1808, Allegheny County was producing half a barrel of whiskey for every man, woman, and child living in America, in 4,000 documented stills. Wigle has revived the tradition, becoming the first distillery in the City of Pittsburgh since Prohibition.

Wigle now manufactures more than 41,000 gallons of organic spirits each year, including whiskeys, gins, honey spirits, and bitters. The firm has become the most awarded craft whiskey operation in the U.S. by the American Craft Spirits Association. Wigle now distributes through Pennsylvania’s Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores and throughout the Northeast. Two additional locations, an outdoor barrelhouse in the city’s Spring Garden neighborhood and a tasting room at the Omni William Penn Hotel downtown, have opened in the past year.

For Grelli, running a small business is a step away from a big practice.

“I’ve always liked food and drink. On occasion, I miss being able to wear a tie,” he admits. “There were a lot of rewarding and positive things about law.

But ultimately, the big difference is how varied this work is. It’s very physical.

I change gears a lot. It’s rewarding to have a physical, tangible product, and there’s a level of creativity that’s rewarding.” He’s looking forward to introducing a new product this fall. Wigle Walkabout is flavored with cider from — of course — Pennsylvania orchards.

PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER SPROWLS

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

30 | 31

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 want to understand how implicit bias operates, as well as how it affects your decision-making and how it can affect you without you knowing it, then you must go further. Real training like that can take days.”

Professor D AV I D H A R R I S to the ABA Journal on mandatory training for all federal prosecutors designed to prevent implicit bias from affecting their decision-making.

T

he U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently cited Dean William M. Carter, Jr.’s U.C. Davis Law Review article, “Race, Rights, and the Thirteenth Amendment,” with regard to principles of constitutional interpretation.

The case noted: “To determine the commonly understood meaning of the phrase “criminal case” at the time of ratification (1791), we examine dictionary definitions from the Founding era … see also William M. Carter, Jr., Race, Rights, and the Thirteenth Amendment: Defining the Badges and Incidents of Slavery, 40 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1311, 1338 n.99 (2007).” The case quoted Carter’s article where it states that contemporaneous dictionaries “obviously…provide some guidance to the commonly understood meaning of a particular word at the time that word was used in the constitutional text.”

KAGAN MCLEOD

J

ohn E. Murray Faculty Scholar and Pulitzer-winning biographer David Garrow spent the past nine years working on a comprehensive 1,500-page biography of President Barack Obama’s life. The book, Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama was released May 9 to intense critical attention. While many critics disputed Garrow’s conclusions, most acknowledged his exhaustive attention to the development of Obama’s early career.

Commenting to The Daily Beast, Garrow said, “I think that people irrespective of their political views or partisan identification will be astonished — I cannot say that too strongly — will be profoundly astonished by how much important substance of Barack Obama’s life has not previously been known.”

Garrow received the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and is a well-known authority on the U.S. civil rights movement.

After serving at Pitt Law for 7 years, the professor of law and history and Distinguished Faculty Scholar retired at the conclusion of the Spring 2017 term.

The American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL) is the leading organization in the United States promoting the ­comparative study of law, with more than 100 institutional sponsor members, both in the United States and abroad.

Founded in 1951, the Society publishes The American Journal of Comparative Law, the outstanding American publication of scholarship on comparative law. The ASCL is associated with the International Academy of Comparative Law and often cooperates with its counterparts in other countries.

The University of Pittsburgh recently named Professor Curran as a Distinguished Professor in the School of Law. Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher made the appointment based on the recommendation of Pitt Provost Patricia E. Beeson and Dean William M. Carter, Jr. This high honor, held by only a small number of the most accomplished faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, was awarded to Curran based on her record of extraordinary, internationally recognized scholarly attainment and her special contributions to the intellectual advancement of the School of Law and the entire University. Curran was the first faculty member in the history of the School of Law to be appointed by the University as a Distinguished Professor.

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

32 | 33

F A C U LT Y

T

he State Department’s Diplomacy Lab has awarded Pitt Law Professor Matiangai Sirleaf a project for Fall 2017 that will allow Pitt Law students to engage in unusual and innovative research.

Diplomacy Lab is a publicprivate partnership in which students at partner schools conduct research around various topics including climate change, ­democracy and human rights, counter­terrorism, global health, and energy security. Partner universities recruit student teams and faculty advisors.

Students in Sirleaf ’s PostConflict and Transitional Justice Seminar will research how to shape security provisions during the transitional phase following a conflict. They will investigate models for transnational security arrangements and evaluate lessons learned in security sector reform as well as disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation programs.

The research team will provide case studies to the State Department analyzing relevant peace agreements and processes. Students will also have opportunity throughout the semester to discuss their research with State Department officials.

Pitt Law recently partnered with the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity to host Thriving in the Academy: Building Communities of Inclusion Support and Accountability for Under-Represented Faculty Members.

Participants learned to identify the common challenges under-represented faculty face in the Academy, specific strategies for increasing productivity, serving strategically, teaching efficiently, and building strong and healthy professional relationships, and how to connect with communities of support and accountability.

Dr. Anthony Ocampo, faculty member in the Department of Psychology and Sociology at California State Polytechnic University and a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, served as the facilitator. His research and teaching focuses on immigration, race and ethnicity, and gender and sexuality.

O

xford University Press has published General Principles of Law and International Due Process: Principles and Norms Applicable in Transnational Disputes, by Charles T. Kotuby, Jr., ’01, and Luke A. Sobota.

This is Volume 6 of CILE Studies, a series of monographs and edited volumes created by Pitt Law’s Center for International Legal Education.

The title is a successor to Bin Cheng’s seminal 1953 treatise on the general principles of law, which identified core legal principles common to various domestic legal systems across the globe. Such “general principles of law recognized by civilized nations” stand alongside or supplement both treaties and customary international law.

The Vermont Supreme Court cited an article by Professor Rhonda Wasserman in Estate of Lott v. O’Neill, 2017 Vt. 11, 2017 WL 462184 (Vt. Feb. 3, 2017).

The case considered whether the Sixth Amendment bars a plaintiff in a civil wrongful death action from attaching funds the defendant intends to use to defend against criminal homicide charges stemming from the same death at issue in the civil action.

The Court upheld the attachment, citing Wasserman’s article, Equity Renewed: Preliminary Injunctions to Secure Money Judgments, 67 Wash. L. Rev. 257, 271–75 (1992), to support its assertion that the common law history of “pretrial security procedure … stretches back into the English law before the founding of the United States.”

P

From Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development and John E. Murray Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law, D E B O R A H L . B R A K E ’s keynote address at the Living up to a Legacy: Title IX’s Challenge for Women’s Leadership conference at the University of Tennessee College of Law.

TERRY CLARK

“ Far from a distraction or novel diversion, the recent emphasis on ending campus sexual assault is an important part of Title IX’s overarching goal of promoting women’s access to leadership.

Sexual harassment and assault derail women from their educational goals, with lasting consequences for careers.”

itt Law Professor Pat K. Chew has been appointed as the Sullivan & Cromwell Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School for the Spring 2018 semester. She will teach a course on Employment Law and Employment Arbitration, and a seminar on The Reasonableness Standard: Practice v. Theory.

Chew is the Judge J. Quint Salmon & Anne Salmon Chaired Professor at Pitt Law, and a University Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award recipient. She has taught at the University of Texas, University of Augsburg, and the University of California-Hastings.

Her numerous presentations, both in the U.S. and abroad, have recently centered on interdisciplinary and empi­ rical approaches to judicial and arbitral decision-making, discriminatory ­harassment, and the role of culture and race in legal disputes.

Professor Mary Crossley presented “Ending-Life Medical Decisions: Some Disability Perspectives and Parallels to Black Lives Matter,” as part of the Grand Rounds Series sponsored by the Hall Center for Law and Health at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. The series annually brings nationally and internationally recognized researchers, scholars, teachers, and practitioners to the school.

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

34 | 35

F A C U LT Y

WRITTEN & SPOKEN & PRESENTED

Scholarly Publications in Top Law Journals ELENA BAYLIS ,

The Persuasive Authority of Internationalized Criminal Tribunals, 31 Am. U. Int’l. L. Rev. 611 (2017).

DEBORAH BRAKE ,

Back to Basics: Excavating the Sex Discrimination Roots of Campus Sexual Assault, 6 Tenn. J. of Race, Gender, & Soc. Just. 7 (2017).

DEBORAH BRAKE ,

The Shifting Sands of Employment Discrimination: From Unjustified Impact to Disparate Treatment in Pregnancy and Pay, 105 Geo L.J. 559 (2017).

DEBORAH BRAKE ,

The Trouble with ’Bureaucracy’, 7 Cal. L. Rev. Online 66 (2016).

RONALD BRAND,

Arbitration or Litigation? Private Choice As a Political Matter, 8 Yearbook on Arbitration and Mediation 20 (2016).

RONALD BRAND,

The Continuing Evolution of U.S. Judgments Recognition Law, 55 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 226 (2017).

WILLIAM M. CARTER, JR. ,

Class as Caste: The Thirteenth Amendment’s Applicability to Class-Based Subordi­nation, 29 Seattle L. Rev. 813 (2016).

MARY CROSSLEY,

Ending-Life Decisions: Some Disability Perspectives, 33 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 893 (2017).

MARY CROSSLEY,

Living with Alzheimer’s: A Fate Worse Than Death?, 12 Ind. Health L. Rev. 651 (2015).

VIVIAN CURRAN ,

Harmonizing Multinational Parent Company Liability for Foreign Subsidiary Human Rights Violations, 17 Chi. J. Intl’ L. 403 (2017).

VIVIAN CURRAN ,

Law and Human Suffering: A Slice of Life of Vichy France, 28 Law and Literature 1 (2017).

GERALD DICKINSON ,

Inclusionary Takings Legislation, 62 Vill. L. Rev. 135 (2017).

PAUL FINKELMAN ,

Frederick Douglas’s Constitution: From Garrisonian Abolitionist to Lincoln Republican, 81 Mo L. Rev. 1 (2016).

DAVID HARRIS , Riley v. California and the Beginning of the End for the Third-Party Search Doctrine, 18 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 895 (2016).

DAVID HARRIS ,

Terry Stops and Frisks, ‘Common Sense’ Judgments, and Empirical Evidence, with D. Rudovsky, 78 Ohio St. L.J. __ (2017) (forthcoming).

DAVID GARROW,

Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama (William Morrow 2017).

PAUL FINKELMAN ,

American Legal History: Cases and Materials, 5th Ed., eds. K.L. Hall, J.W. Ely Jr. (Oxford University Press 2017).

Toward a Critical Race Theory of Evidence, 101 Minn. L. Rev. 2243 (2017).

The Law of Intellectual Property, 5th Ed. with C.A. Nard, M.P. McKenna (Wolters Kluwer 2017).

MICHAEL J. MADISON ,

MICHAEL MADISON ,

JASMINE GONZALES ROSE ,

Authority and Authors and Codes, 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1616 (2016).

ANN SINSHEIMER ,

Lawyers at Work: A Study of the Reading, Writing and Communication Practices of Legal Professionals, 21 Legal Writing 62 (2016) (with David Herring).

MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,

The African Justice Cascade and the Malabo Protocol, 11 Int’l. J. Transitional Just. 71 (2017).

MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,

Ebola Does Not Fall from the Sky: Global Structural Violence and International Responsibility, 51 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. __ (2018).

LU-IN WANG ,

When the Customer Is King: Employment Discrimination as Customer Service, 23 Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 249 (2016).

Books and Book Chapters Published by Leading Presses KEVIN ASHLEY,

Artificial Intelligence and Legal Analytics: New Tools for Law Practice in the Digital Age (Cambridge University Press 2017).

ELENA BAYLIS ,

“Transitional Justice and Development Aid to Fragile and Conflict-Affected States: Risks and Reform” in Justice Mosaics: How Context Shapes Transitional Justice in Fractured Societies (Roger Duthie & Paul Seils, eds., New York: ICTJ 2017).

MICHAEL MADISON ,

Knowledge Commons, Research Handbook on the Economics of Intellectual Property Law (Vol. II — Analytical Methods) with K.J. Strandburg, B.M. Frischmann, Peter Menell, David Schwartz, eds.

(Edward Elgar 2016).

MICHAEL MADISON ,

“Understanding Access to Things: A Knowledge Commons Perspective,” in Intellectual Property and Access to Im/material Goods (eds. J.C. Lai & A.M. Dominicé) (Edward Elgar 2016).

MICHAEL MADISON ,

“Information Abundance and Knowledge Commons” in User Generated Law: Re-Constructing Intellectual Property in a Knowledge Society, ed. Thomas Riis (Edward Elgar 2016).

Presentations Given at Top Law Schools JESSIE ALLEN ,

Doctrine as a Disruptive Practice. Presented at: 2017 Stanford/ Yale/Harvard Junior Faculty Forum; Stanford Law; June 2017.

CHAZ ARNETT,

Electronic Surveillance and the Undermining of Juvenile Justice. Presented at: The 22nd Annual Mid-Atlantic People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference; George Washington University School of Law; Jan. 2017.

DOUGLAS BRANSON ,

The Future of Tech Is Female (NYU Press 2017) (forthcoming).

Research on International Rule of Law Initiatives.

Presented at: IntLawGrrls 10th Anniversary Conference; University of Georgia Law School; March 2017.

JOHN BURKOFF,

ELENA BAYLIS ,

Acing Criminal Law, 3rd Ed. (West Academic 2017).

ELENA BAYLIS ,

Donors and Hybrid Courts, Presented at: Internal and

External Resilience in Post-Conflict Societies. Presented at: Internal and External Resilience in Post-Conflict Societies; London School of Economics for Hybrid Justice; March 2017.

Shift. Presented at: Vincent C. Immel Lecture on Teaching Law; St. Louis University School of Law; April 2017.

Panelist at: What Comes Next: Title IX Under a Trump Administration; Harvard Law; April 2017.

Criminalization of Trafficking in Hazardous Waste in Africa. Presented at: Symposium on Regional Human Rights Systems in Crisis; University of Wisconsin Law School; 2017.

DEBORAH BRAKE ,

MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,

DEBORAH BRAKE ,

Invited participant at: The Way Forward: Title IX Advocacy in the Trump Era; Stanford Law School; May 2017.

DEBORAH BRAKE ,

Living up to a Legacy: Title IX’s Challenge for Women’s Leadership, Keynote address at: Title IX: History, Legacy, and Controversy, University of Tennessee College of Law; March 2017.

Teaching Arbitration.

Presented at: Cambridge Compendium of International Commercial and Investment Arbitration; University of Vienna Faculty of Law; April 2017.

RONALD BRAND,

Ending-Life Medical Decisions: Some Disability Perspectives and Parallels to Black Lives Matter. Presented at: Grand Rounds Series, Hall Center for Law and Health; Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law; April 2017.

MARY CROSSLEY,

PAUL FINKELMAN ,

The Hidden History of Northern Civil Rights, 1875–1915.

Presented at: Emancipations, Recon­ structions, and Revolutions: African American Politics in U.S. History and the Long 19th Century University of Pennsylvania and the Advanced Research Collaborative of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; Feb. 2017.

HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI ,

Judicial Power and Democratic Transformation in Iraq.

Presented at: Conference on Judicial Ethics; Texas A&M Doha Campus, Qatar; Dec 2016.

MICHAEL MADISON ,

Three Things About Things. Presented at: The Art and Science of the IP Deal; University of Washington School of Law; April 2017.

MICHAEL MADISON ,

What is Law School For? Teaching Through a Paradigm

MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,

Founding Conference; Arizona State University; 2017.

ARTHUR HELLMAN ,

Using Judicial Processes for Political Purposes. Panel speaker at: National Lawyers Conference of the Federalist Society; Washington, D.C.; Nov. 2016

Ebola Does Not Fall from the Sky: Global Structural Violence and International Responsibility.

Presented at: Culp Colloquium; Duke Law School; May 2017.

Bringing Justice Closer to the People: Examining Ideas for Restructuring the Ninth Circuit.

Hearing at: House Committee on the Judiciary — Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet; March 2017.

MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,

HAIDER ALA HAMOUDI ,

Commentator at: Canadian/Anglophone African Human Rights Engagements: A Critical Assessment of the Literature and a Research Agenda Conference; Osgoode Law School; Toronto; Dec. 2016.

MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,

Ebola Does Not Fall from the Sky: Global Structural Violence and International Responsibility.

Presented at: 2017 International Law Colloquium; Temple University School of Law; Feb. 2017.

Notable Organization and Government Engagements ELENA BAYLIS ,

Should the ICC Privilege Global or Local Justice Goals?.

Panel speaker at: American Society of International Law Annual Meeting; April 2017.

DEBORAH BRAKE ,

Panelist at: New Horizons: Navigating the Complex Landscape of Title IX Compliance; American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting; Jan. 2017.

ARTHUR HELLMAN ,

On the Quietist Myth: The Shi’i Waqf in Iraq.

Presented at: Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law; Hamburg, Germany; June 2017.

ANTHONY INFANTI ,

Deductible Medical Expenses Under § 213 Take on New Meaning. Panel speaker at: ABA Tax Section’s Midyear Meeting; Orlando; Jan. 2017.

ANTHONY INFANTI ,

Federal Tax Reform: Beyond Dollars and Cents. Presented at: ABA Tax Section; Washington, D.C.; May 2017.

MICHAEL MADISON ,

Panelist at: Legal Services for Low-Income Social Entrepreneurs; Equal Justice Conference; Pittsburgh; May 2017.

MATIANGAI SIRLEAF,

Ebola Does Not Fall from the Sky: Global Structural Violence and International Responsibility.

Presented at: Mid-Year Research Forum; American Society for International Law; Nov. 2016.

RONALD BRAND,

U.S. Delegation in the Second Special Commission on Judgments of the Hague Conference on Private International Law; The Hague, Netherlands; Feb. 2017.

MARY CROSSLEY,

Panelist at: Future of Medicaid at the Annual Health Law Professors Conference; Atlanta; June 2017.

DAVID HARRIS , Racial Profiling.

Presented at: The Academy of Justice

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

36 | 37

ALUMNI

NOTES Share your continuing story with Pitt Law. Submit an alumni note at law.pitt.edu/alumni.

EUNICE ROSS, ’51 ,

was recognized in Marquis Who’s Who for Excellence in Law. ALLAN COHEN, ’55 ,

was honored at the ACBA’s 50–60 Year Practitioner Award Ceremony as a 60 Year Practitioner.

CYRIL WECHT, ’62 ,

was the featured speaker at The Sixth Floor Museum’s program, “A Case for Conspiracy.”

FRANK LUCCHINO, ’64 ,

retired as a judge from Orphans’ Court of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.

BRUCE SMITH, ’64 ,

was featured in The Titusville Herald article “After 50 Years of Law, Attorney Recounts his Winding Journey.”

JOHN DAVIDSON, ’67,

was featured in the South Dakotan Lawyer magazine article, “Defending Nature.”

VINCENT BARTOLOTTA, JR., ’70 ,

was selected by the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego as the recipient of the 2017 Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame.

ROBERT HARPER, ’71 ,

participated as a panelist for the Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Branch of ASALH Pittsburgh African American Trailblazers event.

MARTHA CONLEY, ’71 ,

participated as a panelist for the Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Branch of ASALH Pittsburgh African American Trailblazers event and was honored at the Pitt Law Women’s Association’s Marjorie Matson Day reception and by the University of Pittsburgh African American Alumni Council (AAAC) with the AAAC Distinguished Alumni Award.

ARTHUR MURPHY, JR., ’72 ,

joined the faculty of Georgetown University as Professor of the Practice of Public Speaking.

DAVID POSNER, ’72 ,

received the 2017 Gilbert Nurick Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association Conference of County Bar Leaders.

AUGUST COSTANZO, ’73 ,

was featured in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for contributions to the American Contract Bridge League.

JUDITH FITZGERALD, ’73 ,

was appointed to the Board of Directors for Tucker Arensberg, P.C. THOMAS LILLY, ’73 ,

was appointed as member of the Long-Term Care Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

DENNIS UNKOVIC, ’73 ,

was invited by the Northwest Commission, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the economic and community development of northwestern PA, to present at a training event on “The Do’s & Don’ts of International Agent & Distributor Contracts.”

SHARON GERSTMAN, ’75 ,

assumed office as President of the New York State Bar Association.

THOMAS AGRESTI, ’76 ,

received the 2016 Conflict Resolution Day Award from the Mediation Council of Western Pennsylvania.

JOHN BLAHOVEC, ’76 ,

received the Alumnus of Distinction award by the Pitt-Greensburg Alumni Association for 28 years as a judge for the Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas.

BRIAN ENGELHARDT, ’76 ,

an Assistant General Counsel in the BB&T Legal Department, has published a book, Reading’s Big League Exhibition Games.

All royalties have been donated to the Berks County Historical Society, and to Baseballtown Charities.

ROSEMARY CORSETTI, ’77,

received the Elizabeth Ann Seton Medal from Seton Hill University, the highest honor given by the university.

JOHN EVANS, III, ’78 ,

was honored by the Woman’s National Democratic Club (WNDC) with a Dinner & Dance event.

LAWRENCE FRIEDEMAN, ’78 ,

was named to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio by Gov. John Kasich.

PHILIP FRIEDMAN, ’78 ,

was appointed to the Pennsylvania Bar Association Board of Governors to represent Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, McKean, Venango, and Warren county lawyers.

JOHN GISMONDI, ’78 ,

was noted by The Daily Courier of Pennsylvania for his recent donation of $100,000 to The Fayette County Meals on Wheels program.

MICHAEL HANNA, ’80 ,

was ­ re-elected by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as the Democratic Whip.

LAWRENCE STENGEL, ’80 ,

was named Chief Judge of U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

BLANE BLACK, ’81 ,

is now solicitor for the Washington County Department of Tax Revenue, handling all litigation arising from its recent county-wide reassessment of 121,000 parcels.

PAUL BURKE, ’81 ,

became Vice President and General Counsel of Huntley & Huntley and is serving his second term as the chair of the legal committee of the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

KIM EATON, ’81 ,

received the Philip Werner Amram Award at the ACBA’s 55th Annual Bench Bar Conference.

LAUREN THOMASSON, ’86 ,

KATHLEEN MCKENZIE, ’89 ,

was honored at the annual AfricanAmerican History Program luncheon, Trailblazers: African-American Women Firsts.

JANE TUTOKI, ’86 ,

received the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award.

was appointed founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security.

was appointed by Federated Investors, Inc. Board of Director’s to the Audit, Compensation, and Compliance committees.

MICHAEL REED, ’81 ,

was named share­ holder at Mette Evans & Woodside.

DAVID BRUNORI, ’87,

VICKI HORNE, ’82 ,

ELIZABETH CRUM, ’87,

DAVID HICKTON, ’81 ,

was elected to the role of President of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County.

JOSEPH QUINN, ’82 ,

joined Cozen O’Connor as a member.

THOMAS SMITH, ’82 ,

was certified as a specialist in the practice of workers’ compensation law by the Pennsylvania Bar Association Workers’ Compensation Law Section.

DEBRA TODD, ’82 ,

was honored as the recipient of the 2017 Susan B. Anthony Award by the Women’s Bar Association and served as a panelist in the, “Problem-Solving Justice: Treatment Courts in Pennsylvania” program at Pitt Law. JOHN ZOTTOLA, ’82 ,

served as a panelist in the “Problem-Solving Justice: Treatment Courts in Pennsylvania” program at Pitt Law. LUANN DATESH, ’83 ,

has joined Sherrard, German, & Kelly, P.C. as director and received the 2016 Women in Energy Leadership award.

DAVID NIKOLOFF, ’83 ,

joined Centric Bank as a client relationship manager.

DENISE SULLIVAN, ’83 ,

joined Dingess, Foster, Luciana, Davidson & Chleboski LLP as an associate.

GREGORY JORDAN, ’84 ,

was honored at Israel Bonds Pittsburgh Legal Division’s tribute dinner.

BRIAN CUBAN, ’86 ,

published The Addicted Lawyer: Tales of The Bar, Booze, Blow & Redemption.

JOSEPH BARTOLACCI, ’87,

joined Quarles & Brady LLP as a partner. received the Pennsylvania Bar Association Workers’ Compensation Law Section Irvin Stander Memorial Award.

ELIZABETH DETWILER, ’87,

was elected Vice President of The Forum of Executive Women.

DEANNE D’EMILIO, ’87,

was named the sixth President of Gwynedd Mercy University’s Board of Trustees.

BRIAN LYNCH, ’87, was appointed Chief Financial Officer at Callaway Golf Company.

KENDRA MCGUIRE, ’87,

was elected as the first woman President of The Hamilton Club.

MAX LAUN, ’88 ,

was named the 2017 Exemplar Award Honoree at the annual Exemplar Award Dinner.

WILLIAM MOORHEAD, JR., ’88 ,

joined

Cozen O’Connor as a member.

PATRICIA CAMPBELL, ’89 ,

was promoted to professor at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, and has been appointed Director of the Intellectual Property Law Program.

NANCY HARRIS FARESE, ’89 ,

has been a workers’ compensation judge since 2015. She was previously in-house counsel for 19 years with PMA Insurance Company.

CAROLINE HENRICH, ’89 ,

received the 2016 General Counsel Impact Award.

JUI JOSHI, ’89 ,

joined WQED as Director of Development.

HARRY KUNSELMAN, ’89 ,

published a fourth edition of his book, Pennsylvania Commercial Litigation.

was appointed by Highmark Health to oversee its corporate grants manage­ ment, community programs, and employee volunteerism for central and northeast PA and the Lehigh Valley.

ANDREW REINHART, ’89 ,

was hired by Burns White as a member in the firm’s Pittsburgh headquarters.

CRAIG FISHMAN, ’90 ,

has been elected to the position of chair of the Allegheny County Bar Association Civil Litigation Section Council, and selected to be a senior hearing committee member serving the disciplinary board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on a pro bono basis.

LISA M. FOWLKES, ’90 ,

has been named Chief of the FCC’s Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau.

WALDO JONES JR, ’90 ,

was promoted to partner at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. SAMUEL D. LEVY, ’90 ,

moved to the corporate litigation department of Blank Rome LLP in July 2016. He focuses on representing luxury goods companies in litigation around the country.

EDWARD MILLER, ’90 ,

joined Steptoe & Johnson PLLC as a member.

PAUL BERNSTEIN, ’91 ,

was recently board-certified as an Estate Planning Law Specialist by the Estate Planning Law Specialist Board, Inc. LUCIANA FATO, ’91 ,

joined Nardello & Co. as Managing Director, Head of the Americas, as well as global General Counsel.

JOHN G. HARSHMAN, ’91 ,

has been named a Shareholder at Frank, Gale, Bails, Murcko & Pocrass, P.C. BARBARA POWELL, ’91 ,

was appointed the federal security director at Southwest Florida International Airport and at Punta Gorda Airport.

SHAWN STEVENSON, ’91 ,

founded the law firm Stevenson Law Offices, PC. JOHN DONOVAN, ’92 ,

was honored as a Distinguished Advocate for the Philadelphia Support Center for Child Advocates at the support center’s Annual Benefit Reception & Auction.

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

38 | 39

ALUMNI

SEEN 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

1 Justice Debra Todd,’82 ,

The Honorable David J. Hickton, ’81, Dawne S. Hickton, ’83

2 Dean William M. Carter,

Jr., James E. Kopelman, ’66, Patrick Sorek, ’ 84 3 Amy Recupero, ’11, Lauren

Bowden, ’11, Louise Marencik, ’11, Stephen Marencik,’11, Michelle Bodian,’11, Alexander Gluhovsky,’ 11 and Amar Williams,’ 11

4 Anthony C. Mengine, ’91,

7 Jay L. Fingeret, ’71,

11 Carol Sikov Gross, ’ 84,

5 David F. Tuthill, ’ 55, Judith

8 Eva Tansky Blum, ’73

12 James E. Kopelman, ’66,

Beth Mengine, George M. Kontos, ’91, Carolyn Kontos

Lerach, Richard F. Lerach, ’65, Alfred G. Yates, Jr., ’73 6 Brenda L. Truesdale, ’96,

Regina S. Jansen, ’96, Barbara A. Dunlap, ’96, Angela S. George, ’96, Elke Flores-Suber, ’96

Ilene H. Fingeret, ’86, Necia B. Hobbes, ’11, Neil Jones

9 Richard F. Lerach, ’65,

Justice Debra Todd, ’82

10 Lori W. McMaster, ’86,

Joshua L. Berger, ’86, Amy J. Ceraso, ’86, Frederick S. Longer, ’86, Cynthia Longer

The Honorable Arnold I. Klein, ’86 Eileen Kopelman

ROLF PATBERG, ’92 ,

founded the

Patberg Law Firm.

MICHELLE PROIA ROE, ’92 ,

is now Vice President, General Counsel of Thirty-One Gifts, a Columbus-based private company.

STEVEN SEEL, ’92 ,

was promoted at Metz Lewis Brodman Must O’Keefe LLC to Equity Member.

DEAN TUCKMAN, ’92 ,

was appointed Immigration Judge by Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch for the El Paso Immigration Court.

JOSH T. WYMARD, ’92 ,

was hired by Eckert Seamans to its Pittsburgh office and Business Division.

MADELAINE N. BATURIN, ’93 ,

is serving a third term as Chair of the Disability Services Committee of the PBA and was a featured speaker at the Department of Labor & Industry’s 2016 Hearing Loss Expo.

JOSHUA GOLDBERG, ’96 ,

will author the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s book Driving After Imbibing: Evaluating Cases in Pennsylvania. Goldberg was an instructor at PBI’s 2016 motor vehicle CLE seminar.

JESSE HIRSHMAN, ’96 ,

was promoted to director at The Webb Law Firm.

CHARLES LAMBERTON, ’96 ,

was elected President of the Western Pennsylvania Employment Lawyers Association.

MICHAEL LAZZARA, ’96 ,

joined Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl LLC as a partner.

DELIA BIANCHIN, ’97,

joined The Lynch Law Group, LLC as a senior legal counsel.

IVA FERRELL, ’97,

was named to serve as Widener University’s Chief Diversity Officer.

was named the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s first director of Western Pennsylvania Services.

was appointed vice chair of the American Bar Association Solo, Small Firm, and General Practice Division’s Tax Committee for 2017–18.

ERIC LOUTTIT, ’93 ,

JULIE KLINE, ’97,

BRIDGET GILLESPIE, ’93 ,

joined Fairmount Properties as chief investment officer.

MAX MILLER, ’93 ,

was featured in the Observer-Reporter for his work at Washington & Jefferson College’s entrepreneurial studies program.

BRIAN M. SCHWARTZ, ’93 ,

received the Saul Tischler Award for Lifetime Achievement from the New Jersey State Bar Asosciation Family Law Section.

STACEY BARNES, ’94 ,

joined the Board of Directors at Robins’ Nest Inc. JEFFREY MILLS, ’94 ,

joined Cozen O’Connor as a member.

DENNIS CARLETON, ’96 ,

joined Kacvinsky Daisak Bluni PLLC as counsel.

REBECCA FENOGLIETTO, ’96 ,

received the Westmoreland Bar Foundation 2017 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year award.

JEFFREY GETTY, ’96 ,

has been elected Fellow by American College of Trust & Estate Counsel.

KARIM HUSAIN, ’97,

has been promoted to Shareholder at Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky.

SCOTT MILLER, ’97,

named Dean of Edinboro’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

THEODORE SCHROEDER, ’97,

has taken the helm of Littler Mendelson P.C.’s office managing shareholder role in its Pittsburgh and Morgantown, WV, offices.

CRAIG SILVERSTEIN, ’98 ,

founded the law firm March Counsel LLC. CHRISTOPHER STOFKO, ’98 ,

was appointed to the executive committee of Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C. MATTHEW COLLINS, ’99 ,

joined Stark & Stark in Philadelphia as a shareholder.

HAL OSTROW, ’99 ,

recently joined Grand Rapids, MI, law firm Rhoades McKee as a shareholder.

STUART SOSTMANN, ’99 ,

was named the new Supervisor of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin’s Casualty Department.

STEPHEN TANZILLI, ’99 ,

was appointed Dean of Point Park University’s Rowland School of Business.

RONALD DEAL, JR., ’00 ,

has joined the Nashville Soccer Club, the city’s new professional soccer team, as Director of Operations & Supporter Relations.

DENNIS GRADY JR., ’00 ,

joined Cohen & Company as a partner.

TROY MOUER, ’01 ,

has been promoted to a GS-15 Senior Counsel position with the United States Department of Agriculture, Office of the General Counsel.

MICHELLE REYES, ’01 ,

has moved in-house to do state government relations for UPMC after 11 years at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.

KUYOMARS “Q” GOLPARVAR, ’02 ,

joined Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. as a director.

was awarded the Honey Nashman Spark a Life Award for Faculty Member of the Year by George Washington University.

AMANDA BEAMON, ’98 ,

was named corporate secretary of Industrial Scientific.

JODI HAUSE, ’02 ,

RICHARD HARRIS, ’98 ,

joined Weiss Burkardt Kramer, LLC as of counsel.

ROBERTA ANDERSON, ’98 ,

has joined Littler Mendelson P.C.’s Board of Directors.

BONNIE KRISTAN, ’98 ,

has been appointed by Littler Mendelson P.C. as office managing shareholder of the firm’s Cleveland office.

joined Reed Smith

LLP as a staff attorney.

JESSICA QUINN-HORGAN, ’02 ,

MARC NUZZO, ’02 ,

joined the law office of Stanley E. Pecora Jr. as an associate.

ROBERT PAULSON, ’02 ,

General Counsel at the West Virginia Department of Administration, was selected by The Council of State Governments as a 2016 Toll Fellow.

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

40 | 41

ALUMNI

LARA NORTHROP QUEEN, ’02 ,

was promoted to director at The Webb Law Firm.

TAMSEN L. BARRETT, ’06 ,

was promoted to partner at Norton Rose Fulbright and concentrates her practice on intellectual property matters.

ANNE BAUER, ’08 ,

STEVEN CHADWICK, ’06 ,

joined Dinsmore & Shohl LLP as of counsel.

JANET DRABECKI, ’08 ,

was appointed General Counsel of Dotdash (formerly About.com) in 2017.

CATHERINE MARTIN CHRISTOPHER,

FELICITY HANKS, ’08 ,

’06 ,

is an Associate Professor at Texas Tech University School of Law.

was named the new human resources director for the Bensalem Township School District.

ERICA LAUGHLIN, ’04 ,

PARIMAH HASSOURI, ’06 ,

KATERINA OSSENOVA, ’08 ,

JAMISA GITTINGS, ’04 ,

was named the new executive director of the Kolbe Fund.

JEFF HARTWIG, ’04 ,

was named shareholder at Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky.

JOE NGUYEN, ’04 ,

joined Stradley Ronon as a partner in its Philadelphia office.

ALICIA PASSERIN, ’04 ,

joined Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl LLC as a partner.

BRYAN SEIGWORTH, ’04 ,

was named Equity Member by Metz Lewis Brodman Must O’Keefe LLC. BRIDGET BARANYAI, ’05 ,

joined Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C. as an associate.

FREDERICK BROWN, III, ’05 ,

was named general manager at iMatrix.

was named partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP. TONY THOMPSON, ’06 ,

was named partner at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP. HELEN WARD, ’06 ,

was promoted to director at Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. JILL WEIMER, ’07,

was elevated at Littler Mendelson P.C. from associate to shareholder.

LAUREN GOLDBERG, ’05 ,

was promoted to counsel at Brach Eichler LLC. DAVID KIRK, ’05 ,

published Section 1411 — Net Investment Income Tax, a new Tax Management Portfolio with Bloomberg BNA. MICHAEL MONYOK, ’05 ,

was named partner at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP. LARISSA PARK, ’05 ,

joined DLA Piper’s Intellectual Property and Technology practice as a partner in the Boston office.

joined McDonald Hopkins LLC as a member in the firm’s National Healthcare Practice.

LAURA BUNTING, ’09 ,

was appointed as President-elect of the Pennsylvania Counseling Association.

ELIZABETH COLLURA, ’07,

partner at Dilworth Paxson, was named to the list of Lawyers on the Fast Track by the Legal Intelligencer.

ELIZABETH SULLIVAN, ’08 ,

RICHARD BEHUN, ’07,

JULIE COLTON, ’05 ,

JERRY DESIDERATO, ’05 ,

was one of the principal authors of a Supreme Court brief in a case involving the interpretation of the Hague Service Convention.

has joined Duane Morris LLP’s Pittsburgh office as a partner in the firm’s Trial Practice Group.

RANDAL WHITLATCH, JR., ’06 ,

was appointed Administrative Hearing Officer for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

was appointed to a three-year term on the Neighborhood Legal Services Association Board.

was promoted to director at Cohen & Grigsby, P.C.

joined Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP as counsel, focusing his practice on banking and commercial finance matters.

joined Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP as an associate.

JEFFREY B. CADLE, ’05 ,

joined the visiting faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law as Visiting Assistant Professor of Law.

TAHIRA BLAND, ’07,

joined Travelers Insurance as senior counsel.

JONATHAN F. FECZKO, ’07,

has been elected to partnership at Tucker Ellis LLP. JAMES HAWKINS, ’07,

joined Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP as of counsel.

LEVI LOGAN, ’07,

was named partner at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP. SCOTT SHERWIN, ’07,

was named partner at Morgan, Lewis & Brockius LLP. JANINE SMITH, ’07,

has joined Peacock Keller as an associate, focusing her practice on civil litigation.

JULIE VANNEMAN, ’07,

was promoted to director at Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. STEPHANIE SCIULLO, ’07, received the 2017 In-House Counsel General Excellence award from the Pittsburgh Business Times.

DAVID ALDOUS, ’09 ,

joined the Pittsburgh office of the law firm Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP as an associate in the Employment & Labor Practice Group.

ANTHONY CARNA, ’09 ,

was named partner at McGuireWoods LLP. JAMES FRANKLIN, ’09 ,

was accepted to the Leadership Harrisburg Area class of 2017.

STEPHEN FRANKO, IV, ’09 ,

was selected to serve on the board of directors for Johnson College.

AMANDA GERSTNECKER, ’09 ,

was promoted to director at Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. JOSHUA GUTHRIDGE, ’09 ,

has been elevated to Partner at Robb Leonard Mulvihill. Guthridge has been with Robb Leonard Mulvihill for seven years, handling a variety of civil litigation matters.

LAUREN HOYE, ’09 ,

was promoted to partner at Willig, Williams & Davidson Hoye. She joined the firm in 2010 and is experienced in employee represen­ tation for unions and individuals.

KATIE JACOBS, ’09 ,

was promoted to director at Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. SANJAY NAIR, ’09 ,

has joined Littler’s Long Island office as an associate, focusing his practice on complex commerical litigation and civil rights issues.

MICHAEL BERGONZI, ’10 ,

joined Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote as an associate.

DIMITRI J. FACAROS, ’10,

is an active duty Judge Advocate for the United States Army and was deployed to Bagram Airfield Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom Sentinel and the Resolute Support Mission. He served as the Chief of Legal Services, Chief of Foreign Claims, Special Victim Counsel, and legal advisor for Commanders’ Emergency Response Program.

WILLIAM FRANKOVITCH, ’10 ,

was named partner at Bowles Rice LLP. CHRISTIAN EHRET, ’11 ,

was promoted to senior associate at The Webb Law Firm.

BRIAN JACKSON, ’11 ,

was promoted to senior associate at The Webb Law Firm.

LOUISE MARENCIK, ’11 ,

and were married on December 3, 2016 in Philadelphia.

Several 2011 graduates were in attendance, including bridesmaids Amy Recupero, Michelle Bodian, and Lauren Bowden, and groomsmen Alexander Gluhovsky and Amar Williams.

STEPHEN MARENCIK, ’11 ,

DANIEL SEIBEL, ’11 ,

recently joined Sherrard, German & Kelly, P.C. as an associate.

DESTERNIE SULLIVAN, ’11 ,

was appointed executive director at Garland County Court Appointed Special Advocates.

KEVIN TUCKER, ’11 ,

joined Carlson Lynch Sweet & Kilpela, LLP as an attorney.

DAVID WEBER, ’11 ,

joined The Lynch Law Group, LLC as an associate.

LACEE ECKER, ’12 ,

joined American Eagle Outfitters as Assistant Corporate Counsel.

IN MEMORIAM

ROZ LITMAN One of Pittsburgh’s foremost attorneys, a tenacious civil rights advocate, and a role model for two generations, Roslyn “Roz” Litman died on October 4, 2016. She was 88.

Joining the American Civil Liberties Union while still at Pitt Law, where she graduated first in her class in 1952, she went on to argue a series of high-profile discrimination cases. She and her husband S. David Litman, along with Howard Specter, won a suit against the NBA on behalf of basketball star Connie Hawkins. In her first argument before the U.S. Supreme Court, she persuaded the bench that displaying a Christmas nativity scene at the Allegheny County courthouse was unconstitutional.

Litman’s deep support of the ACLU spanned five decades and included service on its national board of directors and as general counsel. “Roz had a remarkable ability to issue-spot — to identify injustice and develop novel legal theories that bring about systemic change in very entrenched institutions,” Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU ’s executive director, told the New York Times.

“If she had been a man in the same generation, she would be more of a household name, like an Atticus Finch.”

As a Jewish American woman, Litman understood the pernicious effects of discrimination. In the Hawkins case in the mid-1960s, Litman argued that in banning Hawkins from the league after gambling allegations, the NBA deprived Hawkins of earning a livelihood. Citing antitrust precedent, she won the case against David Stern, the league’s future commissioner. Hawkins, then a player for the Pittsburgh Rens, became a friend and houseguest of the Litmans, and later called her “the Jewish mother I never had.” He went on to play for Phoenix Suns and was named to the Hall of Fame.

Facing discrimination at the city’s largest legal practices, Litman formed a lifelong personal and professional partnership with her husband, S. David Litman, ’51. Her career included securing a $415 million settlement for 3,000 workers who had unlawfully been denied pension benefits while representing United Steelworkers in 1991. She won a $12.5 million in a class action lawsuit against Scripps Howard Inc. that recovered severance and vacation pay for 350 former employees of The Pittsburgh Press.

Later in her career, she fought for LGBT rights on both the state and national level. She also served as a long-time member of Pitt Law’s Board of Visitors from 1995 until her passing in 2016 and as a faculty member teaching trial advocacy.

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

42 | 43

ALUMNI

STEPHANIE FERA, ’12 ,

joined Campbell Durrant Beatty Palombo & Miller, P.C. as an Associate.

EVANGELIA MORENO, ’13 ,

DANIEL GESPASS, ’12 ,

LEIGH COOGAN, ’14 ,

joined Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. as an associate.

BETH HACKNEY, ’12 ,

has been named Partner of Family Legal Center, LLC. AMBER JACKSON, ’12 ,

joined Miles & Stockbridge P.C. as an associate in their Labor, Employment, Benefits & Immigration practice.

LAUREN KELLY, ’12 ,

was selected for

WHIRL Magazine’s 13 Under 30 Class

of 2017.

MALLORIE MCCUE, ’12 ,

joined FedEx Ground as an employment law staff attorney.

JESSICA B. MICHAEL, ’12 ,

started a solo practice in Pittsburgh, J.B. Michael Law. JAKE ORESICK, ’12 ,

published The Schenley Experiment: A Social History of Pittsburgh’s First Public High School (Penn State University Press).

GARY SANDERSON, ’12 ,

has been elected chair of the Corporate, Banking and Business Law Section of the Allegheny County Bar Association for the 2017-2018 term. Sanderson previously served as the section’s secretary and treasurer.

CARRIE SCHIMIZZI, ’12 , received the 2016 Women in Energy Leadership award.

CHARLES YEOMANS, ’12 ,

joined Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl LLC as an associate.

ERIK BERGENTHAL, ’13 , joined Houston Harbaugh P.C. as an associate in its litigation practice.

ALISON ANDRONIC, ’13 ,

joined Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP as an associate.

MEGAN CROUCH, ’13 ,

was selected for the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

NATHAN MARINKOVICH, ’13 ,

joined Babst, Calland, Clements and Zomnir, P.C. as an associate.

PITT LAW MAGAZINE

44 | 45

joined Yukevich, Marchetti, Fischer & Zangrilli PC as an associate. joined the visiting faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law as the Visiting Professor of Legal Writing.

SLOANE O’DONNELL, ’15 ,

joined Tucker Arensberg, P.C. as an associate.

CHRISTOPHER OWENS, ’15 ,

joined Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl LLC as an associate.

BRETT FISCHER, ’14 ,

was named associate at Brach Eichler LLC in the Health Law Practice.

was featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, “Pittsburgh law firm focuses on serving agriculture, food industries,” for co-owned firm Trellis Legal, LLC.

ERICA KELLY, ’14 ,

DAVID BASSI, ’16 ,

was selected for

MARLENE VAN ES, ’15 ,

of 2017.

joined Bassi, Vreeland & Associates P.C. as an attorney.

MARIAH MCGROGAN, ’14 ,

ALLISON L. EBECK, ’16 ,

WHIRL Magazine’s 13 Under 30 Class

was elevated to associate at Jackson Lewis P.C., focusing on representing employers in labor and employment-related litigation in federal and state courts in both Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

PETER NIGRA, ’14 ,

joined Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP as an associate.

KYLE PERDUE, ’14 ,

joined Edgar Snyder & Associates as a personal injury lawyer.

JACK RYAN, ’14 ,

joined HB Retirement as a client service associate.

CRESSINDA SCHLAG, ’14 ,

joined Winstead PC’s Austin office as an Associate working in areas of environmental, health and safety law, including regulatory compliance, dispute resolution and litigation.

STEPHEN ZUMBRUN, ’14 ,

joined Blank Rome LLP in its Philadelphia office as an associate.

JACLYN CLIFFORD, ’15 ,

joined Eckert Seamans as an associate in the Litigation Division.

EMILY FARAH, ’16 ,

joined Bowles Rice LLP as an associate.

JOHNATHAN FOSTER, ’16 ,

joined Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. as an associate.

TAYLOR GILLAN, ’16 ,

joined Samuel J. Cordes & Associates as an associate attorney.

ALEXANDRA GOOD, ’16 ,

was selected for WHIRL Magazine’s 13 Under 30 Class of 2017.

CASEY GRAFFIUS, ’16 ,

joined Hollenbeck Law Offices as an associate.

WILLIAM HELBLING, ’16 ,

is an associate with Knox McLaughlin Gornall & Sennett, P.C. focusing his practice on business and tax and intellectual property and technology law.

NICHOLAS KATKO, ’16 ,

joined Matis Baum O’Connor as an associate.

was featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, “Pittsburgh law firm focuses on serving agriculture, food industries,” for co-owned firm Trellis Legal, LLC.

GABRIELLE LEE, ’16 ,

CASEY KURETICH, ’15 ,

JOSEPH SANTORO, ’16 ,

joined Sherrard, German & Kelly, P.C. as an associate attorney.

MARK LAIRD, ’15 ,

joined Cooper, Adel & Associates as an associate.

ZACHARY LAPLANTE, ’15 ,

was named as an honoree for the 2017 Pittsburgh’s 50 Finest.

joined Cozen O’Connor as an associate.

STEPHEN MATVEY, ’16 ,

joined Cili & Perrotta, P.C. as an associate. joined Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. as an associate.

KYLE STELMACK, ’16 ,

joined O’Malley & Langan as an associate.

The Barco Law Building’s yearlong facelift is nearing completion after a $6 million project that closed elevators, opened ceilings, moved walls, and tested its users’ patience.

The interior upgrade of the 1976 design by Pittsburgh architects Johnstone, Newcomer, & Valentour creates space to move the school’s law clinics back into the main building after 15 years across Bouquet Street in Sennott Square.

The 1976 structure is considered a classic example of brutalist architecture. A 2015 renovation softened its edges, landscaping an energy-saving rooftop garden and patio on the second floor with a terrace for outdoor events.

PARTI NG

SHOT

TERRY CLARK

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

u pcom i ng

SEVENTH ANNUAL JUDICIAL, GOVERNMENT, AND PUBLIC INTEREST LAW RECEPTION w ednesday, nov ember 15, 2017 5 p.m.

Celebrate the bench and the public interest bar with colleagues, practitioners, and students interested in careers in the judiciary, government and public interest law.

RSVP at law.pitt.edu/events