WINTER 2016/2017
THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE FOR VERMONT LAW SCHOOL
In search of justice
WINTER 2016/2017 Volume 30, Number 1
PRESIDENT AND DEAN Marc Mihaly VICE PRESIDENT FOR INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT Mary L. Welz EDITORS Maryellen Apelquist Hannah Morris CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jennifer Lawrence Ashley Patton Melissa Harwood MELP'12 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kathryn Flagg Corin Hirsch Cirri Nottage DESIGN, ART DIRECTION, AND PRODUCTION Corin Hirsch Bill Strecker PRINTING Puritan Capital PUBLISHED BY VERMONT LAW SCHOOL 164 Chelsea Street, PO Box 96 South Royalton, VT 05068 vermontlaw.edu Send address changes to alumni@vermontlaw.edu or call 802-831-1312. Alumni can also update contact information on the web at connect.vermontlaw.edu. Printed with soy-based inks on recycled paper. © 2016 Vermont Law School
DEFENSE L AWYER ALEX MANNING JD'06, A FORMER L AW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER, PRACTICES IN ATL ANTA, GA. READ MORE ABOUT MANNING AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE WORK OF OTHER VLS GRADS. PAGE 30. PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHNATHON KELSO
C ON TE N T S
Spinning the Barrel Firearm sales are on the rise, even as some American cities undergo spasms of gun violence. Are gun control laws due for an overhaul, or is it law enforcement that needs a boost? BY CORIN HIRSCH
11
DEPARTMENTS LETTER FROM THE DEAN
Finding Peace in Justice................... 5
DISCOVERY USDA Funding for Food Work; ENRLC Welcomes Alumna; Who Deserves Punishment?; Putting the Bite Back in the Law; Alumnus Takes on Walmart, and Wins; Animalia; On Workers’ Rights..............................................6
GALLERY Portraits of VLS graduates working in criminal justice......................... 29
CLASS NOTES News from the VLSAA, regional groups, your classmates, and friends.................................... 39
INTER ALIA
Caption This................................... 51
VERMONT ALBUM ..............................52
Black Lives Matter BLM is changing the narrative and disrupting the status quo—but how is it affecting the criminal justice system? We hear from VLS alumni, students, and faculty. BY CIRRI NOTTAGE
21
The (Public) Defense Rests Voices of VLS public defenders. BY KATHRYN FLAGG
16
ON THE COVER: IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE. PHOTOGRAPH BY ADOBE STOCK. THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADOBE STOCK; GETT Y IMAGES; JOHNATHON KELSO.
Rob Bossi
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT AND DEAN, VERMONT L AW SCHOOL.
LOQUITUR
4
“INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE.”
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
LETTER FROM THE DEAN
FINDING PEACE IN JUSTICE Dear Alumni and Friends, Like many Americans, I have watched with a mix of concern, anger and sadness as current events replay across online news platforms and social media, alerting us to the latest tragedy—from mass shootings to fatal shootings of and by police officers, some recorded in graphic detail. Tweets and Facebook comments depict a growing divisiveness among our nation’s citizens, driven by fear and insecurity, and ignorance. And yet I find at VLS and in our alumni, reason to hope. It is rooted in our collective understanding that fair and equal treatment before the law is foundational to a civilized society. I find hope and solace in the commitment of our school and our alumni, those many among us who fight the good fight to deliver access to justice and shine a light in the darkest of corners where inequality and hate still prevail. My hope lies in the good work of our Fighting Swans—alumni and current students who call for and believe in justice, who use the power of the law to increase access to justice, and who work to bring to justice those operating in our darkest corners. Among you are defenders, prosecutors, judges, victim advocates, civil rights advocates, retired police officers, former military, prosecutorsturned-public defenders and vice versa. In this, our criminal justice issue, we tell your stories. We learn about your lives as public defenders and as state’s attorneys. We explore the Black Lives Matter movement through the experiences of alumni, current students, and faculty. We look at gun laws in the U.S., and hear from those advocating both for and against stricter controls. In a different time, facing different crises, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “. . . only justice, fairness, consideration, and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.” Vermont Law School alumni bring these principles to their daily work, in spades. I am inspired by Capitol Hill-based alumna Kendra Brown JD’12, policy director for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), who tells us of the CBC and House Judiciary Committee working together to pursue solutions to “what we see happening around the country and also in an effort to find a path forward on overarching criminal justice reform.” By alumnus Bobby Sand JD’87, VLS professor and former state’s attorney, a pioneer for restorative justice in Vermont. And by the many Gallery spotlights and stories we share here in these pages. This issue of Loquitur is weighty. It asks tough questions, and (we hope) inspires further conversation and consideration. Let us know what you think.
All best,
Marc Mihaly President and Dean
5
WINTER 2016/2017
Maclean
DISCOVERY
USDA FUNDING FOR FOOD WORK
THE CENTER FOR AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS (CAFS) AT VLS this fall announced $749,798 in new funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Library (NAL) to continue its Healthy Food Policy Project and support new work. The grant extends the project to January 2020 and brings CAFS’ total USDA NAL funding since 2014 to $2,237,071. The mission of the Healthy Food Policy Project is to advance knowledge about local laws and policies that improve access to healthy food and promote health equity, support local economies, and/or foster improved environmental outcomes. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is a longtime supporter of the Healthy Food Policy Project and CAFS’ partnership with NAL, the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut.
ENRLC WELCOMES ALUMNA THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES LAW CLINIC (ENRLC) was fortunate to welcome Lizzie Tisher JD’14/LLM’18 to its ranks earlier this year. Lizzie joined the clinic as a staff attorney and LLM fellow in June, and will be pursing her LLM degree while working on cases and supervising students in the clinic. Lizzie is no stranger to the clinic, having participated as a student clinician during the spring of 2014 and staying on for an additional summer. Now, Lizzie is focused primarily on work related to the PFOA contamination in North Bennington and recently drafted extensive comments on Vermont’s proposed groundwater protection standard. “We’re thrilled to have Lizzie re-join our team,” says ENRLC Acting Director Laura Murphy. “She is an extremely talented attorney and is a natural at working with students, who have already sung her praises for giving them super LOQUITUR
Photo courtesy of Lizzie Tisher
helpful, thorough, and thoughtful feedback.” Prior to starting her LLM Fellowship, Lizzie clerked for Vermont Supreme Court Justice John A. Dooley and served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. While in law school, she excelled on the Pace National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition team and received the Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing with her paper, “Re-Stitching the Urban Fabric: Municipal-Driven Rehabilitation of Vacant and Abandoned Buildings in Ohio’s Rust Belt.” In addition to her work in the ENRLC, Lizzie will be teaching Advanced Appellate Advocacy in the spring.
6
vermontlaw.edu/enrlc
DISCOVERY
WHO DESERVES PUNISHMENT? SCHOLARS, ATTORNEYS, AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE EXPERTS from across the country joined Vermont Law Review to examine “Criminal Culpability—Who Deserves Punishment?” during a daylong symposium Sept. 16 at VLS. Participants discussed the differences in how society treats white-collar criminals versus drug offenders, and explored solutions for both corporate crimes and Vermont’s opiate epidemic. Jim Kenyon of the Valley News discusses the symposium in his Sept. 17 editorial titled “Drug Abuse Is No Crime.” “The symposium provided a good history lesson that helps explain how the U.S. now has a half-million people locked up for drug offenses.” Kenyon quotes panelist Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit who now teaches law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, who told attendees, “Narcotics is a market driven by demand. We’re the world’s leading consumer of recreational drugs. Americans like drugs.” “That’s a serious public health problem,” writes Kenyon, “which has very little to do with criminal justice.” vjel.vermontlaw.edu
PUTTING THE BITE BACK IN THE LAW
Rob Bossi
PROFESSOR EKOW N. YANKAH OF CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW SPEAKS DURING THE 2016 VERMONT LAW REVIEW SYMPOSIUM.
7
IN OCTOBER, NATIONAL LEADERS IN environmental law and advocacy joined the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law (VJEL) at VLS for “The Endangered Species Act: Putting the Bite Back in the Law,” VJEL’s annual symposium. “Biodiversity is one of the biggest challenges for our generation—we are on the brink of the sixth mass extinction,” says VJEL Symposium Editor Elizabeth Smith JD/MELP’17. “From the charismatic megafauna to the species known by only a few scientists, we need to protect them all.” Look for VJEL’s upcoming book on the Endangered Species Act; it will include articles written by symposium panelists.
WINTER 2016/2017
DISCOVERY
ALUMNUS TAKES ON WALMART AND WINS
ON WORKERS’ RIGHTS IN SEPTEMBER THE INTERNATIONAL LAW SOCIETY AND THE Center for Applied Human Rights hosted Janelle Diller of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for a talk titled “Workers’ Rights and Corporate Responsibilities Across Borders: Perspectives on Law and Social Justice.” Diller, a senior legal adviser at the ILO, an agency of the United Nations, led the ILO role in international negotiations that resulted in a compensation arrangement for the victims of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. The collapse, in 2013, was the deadliest factory disaster in the history of the garment industry. “Ms. Diller has been at the very center in negotiating with businesses, workers’ groups and international organizations to address the human rights impacts of globalization,” says Professor Stephanie Farrior, director of the Center for Applied Human Rights. “We are privileged to have such a leader speak at our school.”
“WAGE THEFT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED, AND CLASS ACTIONS ARE AN optimal way for large numbers of workers to recover wages stolen by their employers,” says attorney Michael D. Donovan JD’84. His remarks follow an April 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision to reject Walmart’s appeal of a $187.6 million verdict in Wal-mart Stores, Inc. v. Braun. Michael, who represents 187,000 Walmart employees in the class action case, was featured in the Fall 2015 “Unusual Suspects” issue of Loquitur, in an article detailing the suit brought against Walmart by hourly employees of Walmart and Sam’s Club for failing to compensate employees who were forced to work through lunch breaks. Congratulations to Michael—and the workers—on this victory.
vermontlaw.edu/academics/centers-and-programs/center-forapplied-human-rights CONNECT.VERMONTLAW.EDU/ LOQUITUR-MAGAZINE
LOQUITUR
8
DISCOVERY
ANIMALIA THE VLS ANIMAL LAW SOCIETY, A STUDENT CHAPTER OF THE ANIMAL LEGAL Defense Fund (aldf.org), has been keeping busy this fall as the group continues the school’s tradition of advocating for voiceless animals through the law. ALS events cover a wide range of animal issues. September started with Pet-APalooza, which included a photo contest of student animals, along with food, drink, local veterinarians and animal businesses. October was an especially busy month, as ALS sent representatives to the National Animal Law Conference in New York City to learn about current legal issues facing animals and network with professionals in the field of animal law. Also in October, the group hosted a screening of the documentary “The Champions,” about the Michael Vick dogfighting dogs, and hosted a video conference with Rebecca Huss, professor of law at Valparaiso University and former legal guardian of the Vick dogs. These events were planned to honor National Pit Bull Awareness Month, which happens each October. Other events throughout the fall include a volunteer day at the VINE Sanctuary in Springfield, Vt., to help care for rescued farm animals, and a continuation of the yearly “Vegan Thanksgiving” tradition that has been a big hit around campus for several years. ALS is excited to welcome many new students from the incoming class and is prepared for a great year advocating for animals. –Will Lowrey JD'17
Photos courtesy of Animal Law Society
Follow the VLS Animal Law Society on Facebook.
VLS STUDENTS ADVOCATE FOR ANIMALS.
9
WINTER 2016/2017
10
Adobe Stock
LOQUITUR
Firearm sales in the U.S. are on the rise, even as some American cities undergo spasms of gun violence. Are gun-control laws due for a dramatic overhaul—or is it enforcement that needs a boost? ON A SULTRY LATE-SUMMER DAY, I STEP INTO an exhibition hall at the otherwise deserted Orange County Fairgrounds in Middletown, N.Y. As I hand my ticket to the man at the front, he asks a startling question. “Do you have a firearm on you?” If so, it’s no problem, he adds—I simply have to check my ammo at the door. Once inside, though, it looks like I could quickly rearm. Many of the dealer tables at the North East Gun & Knife Show are stacked with boxes or buckets of ammunition. Others are decked out in tidy displays of rifles and shotguns, pistols and vintage handguns, air guns, hunting knives, handcrafted axes, and assault weapons. There are dealers selling target-practice posters, military memorabilia, pepper spray, even hot sauce; one sits on a lawn chair beneath a “CA$H FOR GUNS” sign. The show feels sort of like a flea market, albeit one aimed almost exclusively at men—some of whom have guns slung over their shoulders. I stop at a display of AR15s, which start at $850, and hold one aloft with my left hand. A dealer wearing a T-shirt that reads “Black Guns Matter” comes over and asks, “Will this be for you?”
BY CORIN HIRSCH
11
WINTER 2016/2017
R
North East Gun Shows puts on about four regional shows per year, mostly in Massachusetts, and a brisk business seems to be unfolding inside the pavilion as I walk through its rows. Gun sales are up in the United States, at least based on the number of background checks that the FBI conducted in August 2016: 1,853,815, a 6 percent increase over the previous August, the 16th month in a row with an increase, and the most monthly background checks that the FBI has conducted since recording began in 1998. Even so, legal gun ownership is lower than it was 40 years ago—just over a third of Americans report owning a firearm. Concurrently, gun violence has spiked in some U.S. cities this year, most notably in Chicago, which is in the midst of its most violent year in two decades. Mass shootings, such as the one in Orlando in June, fuel debates over gun access and the ongoing American romance with firepower. Pro- and anti-gun rights rhetoric peppered the presidential campaign, too, with some gunrights advocates saying firearms sales spiked because of Hillary Clinton’s promise to intensify background checks. “The gun business is a really interesting business,” says Mark Latham, VLS professor of law. “It has had several near-death experiences in terms of sales. Few people hunt anymore, and that was a big part of what their businesses sold. Fewer people [now] own guns in the U.S., but those that do own lots of them.” Latham, who grew up in Chicago and saw his share of gun injuries as a critical-care nurse there, points out that despite anti-gun sentiment that kicks up after high-profile mass shootings, gun owners have a powerful legislative advocate: the National Rifle Association. “The NRA is, in my estimation, the most powerful lobbying organization in the country and the world,” Latham says. The NRA’s fierce defense of the Second Amendment—which protects individual Americans’ right to keep and bear arms, even as firearm violence continues to devastate communities such as Chicago—has kept Americans’ access to guns largely unfettered in most states. For instance, “There’s no justifiable use for so-called assault weapons,” Latham says, but efforts to ban them wither under pressure from the NRA. Yet should the interests of gun owners trump the rights of those who want to live free of gun violence?
A PATCHWORK OF LAWS
Adobe Stock
ules, licensing, and waiting periods for purchasing guns vary from state to state, which makes obtaining a gun a very different experience in, say, Oregon than in Alabama. In California, for instance, a prospective gun owner must wait 10 days from purchase to possession. In Vermont—a state with some of the least restrictive gun-control laws in the U.S.—it simply takes proof of Vermont residence, as well as an instant background check, to leave a gun retailer with a concealed, licensed firearm. In Texas, you can carry your firearm openly in most public places. In New York City, your chances of getting a handgun permit from the police are close to nil. And so the relative ease of obtaining a gun in southern U.S. states has fueled a conduit of illegal firearms into more restrictive northern states such as New York, a trail that law enforcement calls the “Iron Pipeline.”
LOQUITUR
12
In Arizona, as in six other U.S. states, it is legal to carry a concealed weapon without a permit—called concealed carry—but if you have a prior felony, and get caught with any kind of weapon, you will garner mandatory prison time. “In Home Depot, you can carry and no one really cares,” says Jeffrey Heinrick JD’10, a senior attorney with the Pinal County Public Defender’s Office in Florence, Ariz. “At the same time, you never know who’s packing, which is why when road rage happens in Phoenix, you do not want to get into a confrontation with anyone on the road, because you have no idea if someone will shoot you.” While guns may be easier to obtain and carry in Arizona as opposed to other states, “At the same time, if you’re not using a handgun correctly, commit a crime, or have a prior felony, you will get annihilated,” Heinrick says, and his office defends several such cases. “If you’re not ‘doing it [guns]’ correctly, [Arizona has] zero problem locking you up for as long as possible.”
Maldonado to join the New York City Police Department— after leaving the Academy, he was assigned to a housing precinct that encompassed some of Brooklyn’s most violent housing projects. There, he became intimately acquainted with guns and gun violence. “In the summertime, there were shots fired all night,” says Maldonado, now a second-year student at VLS. “You’d go up onto the rooftops in public housing, and there’d be shell casings. It was a very tough place.” With the neighborhood awash in firearms, many of them illegal, he often wondered, “'How can guns be coming so easily in the hands of bad guys?' It was very sad and nerve-wracking.” New York City’s powers tried to address this very issue a century prior. In 1911, in response to rising gang violence and a heinous murder-suicide, the city passed the Sullivan Act, one of the first and most restrictive guncontrol laws in the country. The law, which still stands today, requires a police-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon within city limits. The permits are notoriously
“...You never know who’s packing, which is why when road rage happens in Phoenix, you do not want to get into a confrontation with anyone on the road, because you have no idea if someone will shoot you.” Heinrick—who owns two guns, including a .38-caliber snub nose Smith & Wesson he keeps in his car— cites a recent case of a 60-something-year-old Pinal County resident who, when out building fences on his desert ranch, “carried an ancient rifle in the back of his truck to ward off animals,” Heinrick says. When he was pulled over for a road violation and the police ran his criminal history, they discovered a felony from 1982, and the man eventually had to serve time behind bars. “He thought [the felony] had disappeared in the court system, but they never forget your felony convictions. He had a rifle, and so he had to get prison time. Every once in a while you get those cases where you think, ‘this sucks.’”
O
Urban Warfare
n Sept. 11, 2001, Jose Maldonado Jr. JD’18 was a teenager living in Westchester County, just north of New York City. The events of 9-11 compelled
difficult to obtain from police, and visitors to New York are sometimes arrested while carrying weapons that are legal on their home turfs. Even so, gun violence remains high in some New York neighborhoods. Of the 200 arrests he made while on the force, Maldonado had four illegal-gun “collars,” or felony arrests, including one during his rookie year. When he or someone in his department would run a seized gun’s serial number, “99 percent of the time [the gun] was reported stolen. You could see there was that pattern,” Maldonado says. “I don’t think I ever heard of somebody that was arrested with a firearm when it came back that he had a permit. A lot of the people who have illegal guns are pretty bad news.” Taking at least a few of those stolen guns off of the street was gratifying for Maldonado. “There was that feeling that if you took one off the street, you knew this [illegal gun] wasn’t going to hurt anyone else—a mother, a child, or another police officer.” Of his decision to leave the NYPD and attend law school, Maldonado says, “I had accomplished everything
13
WINTER 2016/2017
Kaldari
CANDLELIGHT VIGIL IN ALBUQUERQUE. THE PUBLIC RALLIES IN SUPPORT OF THE VICTIMS OF THE JUNE 2016 ORL ANDO NIGHTCLUB SHOOTING. I wanted as a police officer, and it was time for me to move on and make a difference in a new capacity.” And yet there is another element to it, he says. “Things are getting more difficult for police officers in this country. Sometimes, you’re put under the microscope, and when you have to keep interacting with dangerous criminals, it impacts morale because the majority of cops want to be appreciated by the public we protect.” Still, his attitudes about guns remain on the side of restraint. While Maldonado respects the Second Amendment, he says “there needs to be a balance, and some accountability, when guns fall into the wrong hands.”
W
In a 2014 NDVH study of 4,721 people using its phone and online chat services, 16 percent of respondents had partners with access to guns—and 22 percent of that group said their partners had used that firearm to threaten them, their children, their pets, or their families. Nearly 52 percent said they would feel safer if law enforcement took their partner or ex’s firearm away, as two-thirds said they thought their partner was capable of killing them—but only a third realized a court could force that person to give up their weapons and ammunition. Rather than crucifying the NRA or other gun-rights advocates for domestic firearms gun violence, Valente points to another factor: The agency charged with enforcing federal firearms laws, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), is overextended and “hugely underfunded,” she says. “There are just not enough agents to really deal with the problem. We need to enforce the existing laws, and it takes people to do that. We’re all in agreement that we have a list of people who should not have guns because they have demonstrated violent proclivities. We should have agents who are able to remove firearms, and investigate if somebody has committed a crime.” Valente also points out that there have been strong ties to domestic violence in recent mass shootings—including in the Orlando nightclub tragedy. “We have to look at those as red flags more consistently,” Valente says. “I feel like we’re always saying this, but when we try to keep guns out of the hands of abusers, we’re not trying to keep guns out of the hands of everyone. This is about making sure that people who have tried to terrorize other people don’t have the ability to continue causing that kind of harm.”
On the Home Front
hile a prior felony will automatically prohibit someone from purchasing a firearm during a background check, the only misdemeanor crime that limits someone’s access to a gun during a background check, at both federal and state levels, is a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction, points out Roberta “Rob” Valente, vice president of policy for the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) and a steering committee member of the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. “I’ve trained a lot of law enforcement in my life about domestic violence, and they’ll tell me how volatile these situations are, and how they’re terrified,” Valente says. “These are armed policemen coming onto the scene, and the greatest fear they have is that the abuser is going to kill them with the gun. It only takes a split second. A firearm in the hands of someone who is completely enraged or completely explosive is just too dangerous.”
LOQUITUR
14
alancing individual access to guns with the rights of other law-abiding citizens is something that Richard Feldman JD’82 thinks, and writes, about a lot. “I’m not one of those gun-rights people who are all or nothing,” says Feldman. After graduating from VLS, Feldman worked in politics for many years, eventually becoming a lobbyist for the NRA. Now, he’s president of the New Hampshire-based Independent Firearm Owners Association, as well as an author and frequent speaker. “I don’t have a problem with gun control laws. I have a problem with stupid and silly gun control laws that have no relationship to the problem [of gun violence].” Feldman was first exposed to firearms law, and guns themselves, during his time at VLS. “Five years before law school, if you had asked me about guns, I would have told you I’m for gun control,” he says. After he heard a distinguished lecturer at VLS talk about firearms law, his stance began to shift. He bought his first gun, a Smith & Wesson revolver, at the general store in East Braintree after showing his driver’s license—without the waiting period that became law after the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act passed in 1993. “I walked out of the shop with the gun loaded and concealed on my person.” Since then, Feldman has acquired more guns, as well as well-honed opinions on gun control. “The history of gun control in America is a history of sexism and elitism,” Feldman says, citing the Sullivan Act as an example of a law aimed at a particular ethnic group—in that case, Italian-Americans. “I’ve never heard politicians say, ‘I want to [give] up my guns to make society safer. It’s, ‘Certain citizens should give up guns.’ Guns are a symbolic issue, and the symbolism is the relationship between the government and the governed. We always talk about the balance of interest in the law, and this is about the balance of power.” Though Feldman supports mandatory background checks at gun shows and in gun shops, he thinks that private person-toperson sales—notably with close relatives, friends, neighbors, or coworkers you’ve known for at least one year—should be exempt. The so-called “gun show loophole” is oft cited as a driving force in illegal gun
sales and possession, but Feldman disagrees. “Anyone who thinks they’ve stopped a person with criminal intent [with a background check], you’re kidding yourself. Some criminals get guns [that way], but the bulk are stolen.” Professor Latham touches upon the gun business during his class on Torts, pointing out to students that governmental immunity from negligence claims granted to U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors is not necessarily enjoyed in other sectors—for instance, auto manufacturing. “It’s really startling,” Latham says, recounting how the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act stemmed out of the city of Chicago’s 1998 effort to sue gun manufacturers for violence there. Latham—who owns several firearms—recalls that after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, “I practically drove home in tears. I was sure this was going to result in Congress doing something about gun violence, particularly assault weapons.” That did not happen. Now, Latham talks to his students about “if there’s anything lawyers can do [about gun violence], or is there even a role for lawyers?” he says. “Many of my students parrot the NRA and say the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to be a good guy with gun.” He adds, “Today, what really fuels the gun business is a fear of violence, a fear of terrorism, and the fear of a Democratic administration.” At the North East Gun & Knife Show, I see those mechanisms in action. After handling a few guns and watching dealers perform on-the-spot background checks, as per New York law, I inquire about acquiring a weapon—and dealers look at me as if I’ve just landed from another planet (I have no license). Seeing so much weaponry in one place, and those weapons changing hands, can instill a fear that’s hard to put one’s finger on—that to be unarmed is to leave oneself vulnerable, maybe. Whether or not this is a valid concern, it’s easy to see how guns beget more guns, or how having one leads to having another, and another. I leave the hall without a firearm, but with a fresh can of pepper spray, a credit-card knife I probably don’t need, and the newfound knowledge that an AR15 can be held in one hand. Adobe Stock
B
Balance of Interests, or Balance of Power?
15
Corin Hirsch writes from New York’s Hudson Valley.
WINTER 2016/2017
The (Public) Defense Rests. Voices of VLS Public Defenders
Johnathon Kelso
By Kathryn Flagg
17
ALUMNUS CHRIS MIDDLETON JD'06, A PUBLIC DEFENDER IN SAVANNAH, GA. FA L L 2 0 1 6
Chris Middleton's office is spartan and nondescript. No degrees or certificates or awards adorn the bare walls. “When clients walk into my office, it’s a clean slate,” says Middleton, a Chatham County assistant public defender in Savannah, Ga., who earned his JD from VLS in 2006. “We have to establish that attorneyclient relationship.” It’s not about Middleton’s academic successes or community service awards or his college football career. “It’s more, ‘I’m Chris Middleton. I’m a person just like you. You’ve got a problem. Let’s work together to solve it,’” he says. In big cities and rural towns and quiet suburbs and forgotten backwaters across the country, Vermont Law School alumni are having these conversations with clients. For alumni choosing the path of the public defender, the work is often akin to a calling—the chance to hold the government accountable, to fight overzealous prosecution or government overreaching. To give voice to individuals who might otherwise go unheard. To meet another person at a dark moment in their life, and provide some guidance and assistance. The stakes are incredibly high. The days are long, the work often grueling—large caseloads, long nights. Many public defenders report that it’s hard, if not impossible, to leave work at work come the end of the day. Loquitur interviewed seven public defenders, ranging from relative newcomers to seasoned veterans, to learn about the motivations, challenges, and day-to-day life of the public defender.
LOQUITUR
T
An Unequal Playing Field
he Sixth Amendment establishes the right to counsel in criminal court proceedings. The tradition of public defense as we know it today dates back to the 1963 Supreme Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, in which the court acknowledged that all accused criminals have the right to a lawyer—regardless of income. The way states and localities deliver indigent criminal defense services can vary widely, however. Some use public defender programs. Others assign counsel from a pool of private attorneys, and some contract with private practices and attorneys. And often a defendant’s access to resources—ranging from a district attorney’s willingness to make a plea deal to mental health and drug court alternatives—varies widely, too. In Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Zachary Weight JD’12 works for Northeast Kingdom Law, a private firm in Newport. The state contracts Weight’s firm to do public defense work for three counties. His case load is a mix of juvenile cases and adult criminal work.
Weight is struck by what he sees as the geographic disparity in resources for defense clients. The Northeast Kingdom is poor, rural, and remote. The overwhelming majority of Weight’s clients struggle with legal drugs like alcohol, or illegal drugs such as meth, cocaine, or heroin. Some have serious and complicated mental health issues. And yet, in his county, Weight says, “We’ve got nothing.” There’s no drug court, no mental health court— services his clients desperately need. The work can be draining at times. “Most of these people out here, they don’t have anybody,” says Weight. “I’m not sure that most of them ever had anybody. It’s me and my senior counsel and my staff— we’re it.”
“I
Focusing on the Wins represent clients as young as 15, charged with armed robbery, who are facing a mandatory minimum of 10 years without parole,” says Middleton. His job is to shepherd that client—and oftentimes, their family members— through a legal process that can be scary and overwhelming. “The lawyer has to be so much more than just a legal specialist,” he says. “You wear so many different hats. You have to be a counselor. You have to be a job specialist. You have to be a public relations specialist.”
"Most of the people out there, they don't have anybody... It's me and my senior counsel and my staff — we’re it." 18
Adobe Stock
Should a case go to jury, Middleton finds himself boning up on medicine, psychology, forensic science. But the wins, when they come, can be sustaining. Middleton recalls a high-profile burglary case involving a 16-year-old defendant. He strategized with his client, and worked out a resolution with the prosecution for the first-time offender that kept a felony conviction off of the young man’s record. The boy went on to college. He married, and had three children. “This kid hadn’t even lived life yet,” says Middleton. “When you give someone a chance, or a second chance, you will be amazed at what can happen.” In another case, he represented a woman charged with murder, arguing self-defense. The woman, Middleton recalls, had been living in an abusive relationship for seven years. The jury came back with a not guilty verdict in 15 minutes. “A lot of stuff that you learn in law school is black-and-white, letter of the law, textbook stuff,” says Middleton. “When you get into the real world, and you’re dealing with people’s lives and hopes and dreams and aspirations, it can be somewhat overwhelming—and rewarding, with the right result.”
F
The Common Questions
rom laypeople, the questions often sound like, “But how can you defend someone who committed that crime?” Or, “What do you do if you know your client is guilty?” Misconceptions about the role and work of the public defender abound among clients themselves, too. Defendants might complain about their “public pretender” or “dump truck”— in other words, in cahoots with the prosecution, and eager to “dump” cases rather than fight tooth and nail on behalf of defendants. In both cases, public defense attorneys say those questions fundamentally misinterpret their roles and their approach to their jobs. “Representing someone on a criminal case is not a stamp of approval on their conduct,” says Nicolas Campbell JD’11. “I loathe crime, but I couldn’t really care less what someone did or is accused of when I’m their advocate.” Campbell spent several years as a public defender in Colorado before recently moving to Brooklyn Defender Services in New York. He pointed to the analogy of the doctor, getting ready to operate on someone who may have been a lifelong smoker. A patient’s behavior doesn’t influence the doctor’s ethical duty and responsibility to treat them—just as a defendant’s alleged crime does not affect that person’s right to fair representation.
19
Having represented individuals accused of terrible crimes—homicide, sexual abuse of children—Campbell says bluntly that such accusations don’t enter into the equation of his feelings toward that person or his advocacy on their behalf. “My role is not to judge somebody,” agrees Weight. “I’m literally, by law, allowed to hear that person’s deepest, darkest secrets, and I can’t tell anybody or my license is gone.” It’s a sentiment that’s echoed by many VLS alumni working in criminal defense. “I have children. I don’t approve of crime, and I don’t approve of people hurting each other,” says Chris Dearborn JD/MSEL’95, a tenured clinical professor at Suffolk University Law School. “That’s different than thinking that everybody deserves to be represented in court.” In other words: The crime doesn’t matter. Before moving to full-time teaching, Dearborn spent 10 years as a public defender in Massachusetts, followed by another two in private defense work. Now he directs the Suffolk Defenders Program, an adult criminal defense clinic for third-year law students. Dearborn says out of the thousands of individuals he represented, only a handful are what he’d consider “bad people.” The vast majority were simply people who made bad choices, he says, and there’s a huge difference between the two.
WINTER 2016/2017
“When we sit with our clients, this is another person on the other side of the table that we’re working with,” says Adam Us JD’11, an appellate defender in Massachusetts. “I’m lucky. I’m sitting on this side of the table. A different day, a different set of parents, whatever it is—it’s only by the grace of God I’m on this side of the table.” Beth Stang JD’04 agrees. “I try to tell myself, ‘I’m not so different than a lot of these folks,’” says Stang, a public defense lawyer in western North Carolina. “I took some different roads, and had some different opportunities, but that’s about it.”
panel. He left a job in corporate law about three years ago to establish his defense practice, and early on heard an adage from other defense lawyers: When a client is sentenced, you often “do the time with them.” Perrone recalls a trial that he thinks should have gone his way, but didn’t. For a week afterward, he had trouble eating and sleeping. He finds it all but impossible to leave work at work—but then again, maybe it should be that way. “I have an ethical obligation that I take very seriously to treat every case the same, and give it my full attention,” says Perrone.
"To have someone's future and rights in your hands is really a high honor."
I
Thick Skin
t’s not a very popular position to be in, defending people who are oftentimes charged with very serious crimes,” says Dearborn. “You don’t win a lot of elections, you don’t win a lot of popularity contests, and it’s a very thankless job.” But Dearborn says public defenders’ thick skin must be matched by sympathy for their clients. His first outing with students in his criminal defense clinic is to a local jail. “I want them to graduate with a sense of humanity,” says Dearborn. “I want them to know what’s at stake.” “What’s at stake” weighs heavily on many public defenders. Matthew Perrone JD’09 is a defense attorney in Westchester, N.Y.; about two-thirds of his caseload is public defense work assigned by a local
LOQUITUR
And that’s perhaps what drives a problem that even the most tireless of defenders can encounter: burnout. “It’s very hard for people to be able to turn this into a career if they want to raise a family,” says Dearborn. Ten years into his own run as a public defender, he was still working long nights and weekends for relatively little pay. “That’s just not sustainable over a lifetime,” says Dearborn, and the result is that many good lawyers move on to different jobs or private practice. Even on the private side, it can be hard to make money as a defense attorney. Dearborn pointed to the “justice gap”—that growing number of individuals who do not qualify for a public defender, and yet can’t truly afford to hire a private lawyer. “People end up representing themselves, and they don’t get very good representation,” says Dearborn.
20
W
Staying the Course hat does keep public defenders going, then, in the face of low pay, long hours, and burnout? Campbell, now at Brooklyn Defender Services, says he remains grounded by remembering, and focusing on, his role. It’s noble to try to lift people out of dire circumstances, and to devote oneself to fixing a cycle of incarceration and poverty that propels many of his clients into a public defender’s office. And yet, several years into his career, he says he’s also made peace with a realization that “I can’t change as much as I’d like.” “People, especially the indigent population, are so at the mercy of this system, and the consequences can just be so devastating,” says Campbell. He tells himself, “It’s not my case. It’s this person’s case. I’m just merely their mouthpiece and their advocate.” And that, he says, “frees you a little bit” from the emotional burden of the work. The work can be much more than a burden, notes Perrone. “To have someone’s future and rights in your hands is really a high honor,” he says. “You have to take it seriously.” In Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Weight takes pride in his job, and his duty to hold law enforcement and prosecutors to their constitutional burden. “I believe if the government’s going to make an accusation, then they’re going to have to prove it,” says Weight. “They should be held to account.” “My thing is, you know what, at the darkest moment in my life, I want somebody standing in my corner, whether it’s my friend coming at me or the government coming at me,” he says. “It’s not my place to judge people, but to make sure their rights are being respected.” Freelance writer Kathryn Flagg is a former Middlebury Fellow. She writes from Shoreham, Vt.
Black Lives Matter Adobe Stock
& the Law
By Cirri Nottage
IAISING AWARENESS, challenging norms, galvanizing voters, Black Lives Matter (BLM) has permeated the national consciousness. From city hall to the NFL, BLM is changing the narrative and effectively disrupting the status quo. Much more than a slogan, BLM is part of The Movement for Black Lives, a political force demanding transformative change as outlined in their comprehensive policy platform “A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom & Justice.� (see inset, next page)
The Movement for black lives in a rigorous process to collect, to interact, to challenge, to build and strengthen an analysis that generated the platform released August 1. We were very intentional around centering people who were most marginalized, and also centering the work of folks who are most marginalized within Black communities. So that includes folks who are women, queer, trans, youth, differently abled, low-income, incarcerated, undocumented, etc. We knew we had to center this movement and its vision from those. If we did not, we were not going to get free. What was the strategy? We built our united front around three principles: community control, invest-divest, and building Black infrastructure. First, we knew we had to fight for community control. We knew that it was not enough to fight for just access but for control, and you fight for control by building power. We are not just begging people to be right to us, hoping that those that are oppressing us, systems that are violent and killing us, would one day stumble into doing the right thing. We knew that if we were to see liberation in Black communities, Black people as a class must have power over the institutions that were impacting our lives. Second, we must divest from systems that are harmful to us and instead invest in systems that will build up, repair and nourish our communities. Third, we must build up Black community infrastructure, which means protecting [Historically Black Colleges and Universities], other forms of community schools, freedom schools, etc. It can also look like restorative justice systems. Whatever those systems are—there are so many different things our community actually needs. We also considered what can we do to improve our communities immediately. Through this process we developed the platform that consists of six demands and 40 policy recommendations. (https://policy.m4bl.org)
This is a condensed and edited interview with M Adams, co-executive director of Freedom Inc., a grassroots nonprofit that seeks to end violence within and against low-income communities of color. As a member of the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) Policy Table Leadership Team, M has been integral to the development of their platform “A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom, and Justice.” How would you describe the Movement for Black Lives? M4BL is a broad united front encompassing over 50 organizations like Freedom Inc, Project South, BlackBird, BLM, BYP100, and its power lies in the fact that it is no single organization. Its impetus comes from the history of Black folks' exploitation, colonization, enslavement and many other issues including our ongoing legacy of resistance, resiliency. More recently, our history points to the Ferguson uprising. Around the country, the need to have transformative policies for people to galvanize around was felt strongly. In 2015 M4BL convened in Cleveland where over 2000 Black folks came together. One of the themes was we need something united that we can collectively get behind and push forward. From those calls we created a united front of about 50 organizations that took up that charge.
Why is it important to elevate the experiences of the most marginalized? It’s important to center those who are most marginalized in order to create a different kind of system. We want freedom for all Black people so we had to take that charge seriously. In centering queer folk, women, trans people, when you think about police violence, not only do you include more people who were murdered and attacked, that analysis also provides a better understanding of the full scope of police violence. Police violence is not just racial, it is also gendered. When you begin to think about the way that women, queer, trans people are attacked you will understand the way police violence is patriarchal. Similarly, we couldn’t talk Black freedom without talking economics; we couldn’t talk freedom by looking at single sectors, without looking at multiple identities. We couldn’t just say race, class, education, police or
What was the process involved in developing the platform? The process included in-person convenings, working groups around particular subjects or sectors, advisory councils, one-on-ones. We engaged
LOQUITUR
22
financial institution. We also have to say gender, ability, sexuality—intersectionality teaches us that. We’re very clear that the structure that we’re against has interlocking systems of oppression. We know when most marginalized people win, everybody wins. Many of us have been in the streets, have put our bodies on the line, have been leading, and we have done too much to go home with anything short of freedom. We’re going to do it for all. That has been central for this entire platform. You’ve said elsewhere solving racial prejudice is not the primary issue we need to solve. Why not? Kwame Toure said, “If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power.” We think ending racial prejudice is important but that work has to be done in the white community. Our organizing and thinking is about creating power. This is too critical of a moment, too important of a movement to misdiagnose. If all that comes out of this is six hours of police training we have failed this movement, this moment. If black cops started to kill white kids because they were afraid, it would be unallowable. Saying cops just need to get trained on how to not to shoot white grandmothers or white kids skateboarding, they just need therapy, we would reject that. The white community as a class is powerful enough [that] even if you have racial prejudice, that can’t happen—which is a direct result of power. That’s what we need. Not that we shouldn’t change the hearts and minds of people, but there should be something so strong in the structure to not allow violence against our community whether or not people like us. What does positive change look like? Can you name some victories? It is incredibly important to recognize our victories because we are fighting hundreds of years of oppression and colonization. Sometimes we feel like we’re not doing anything but we’re actually doing incredible work. The creation of this united front and this vision is no small feat. It’s the result of hard work and is a community tool for people to organize around. That is a huge victory. Other victories include our new generation of young black leaders, who are engaged in political work—inspiring folks to become more active in changing their society than they were five years ago. We’ve seen resistance throughout the country to the violence and the harm done in our communities. Whenever oppressed people organize, take their power back, you get victory. Every time we showed up, it absolutely mattered. There are many cities who’ve fought really hard over the last few years and who’ve achieved some level of victory in terms of policy change, but we don’t see policy change as the only victory. We’ve seen people create urban gardens, take back homes, land, and communities. We’ve seen freedom schools established, organizers training more organizers, more demonstrations, and more challenges to elected officials. We’ve seen more Black political agendas discussed in mainstream places; we’ve seen a challenge to the dominant narrative of hegemony—all of those are victories.
Loquitur spoke with VLS alumni, professors and students who are practitioners, policymakers, and activists about the movement’s effects and its potential to impact the criminal justice system. “Activism, protest and civil disobedience can be ‘extralegal,’ meaning that they are often outside the established legal strategies and may even be illegal,” says VLS Professor Jessica West, who teaches Criminal Law and writes on race and the criminal justice system. Over the course of her career, West has represented protesters, and as an academic, she writes about protest and the law, especially focusing on the legal responses to protest and the tensions between the law and the right to protest. Despite being outside recognized legal structures, protest “may be the only option for marginalized and disenfranchised voices. It may be the only way for an issue to get on the societal agenda” says West. Nonviolent protests “inject into the public discourse” issues that may not otherwise be heard. West highlights America’s activist roots, noting that “our country was not born in the confines of legality but through many acts of protest”—and that protest provides a safety valve for disenfranchised voices in lieu of actual revolution. Despite the country’s activist roots, West says there is a deep tension between law and activism, and it is not entirely clear how much protest conflicts with an orderly and lawful society. West admits that policing issues are complicated and the problems entrenched. “The police operate as a quasi-independent societal entity and that entity is entrusted with an important public role. Most police believe strongly in the honor of fulfilling that role. While understandable, the strong perception of police as honorable protectors along with the insular nature of the institution has led to the failure to acknowledge the very real deficits they have.” Some of those “very real deficits” are outlined in a Department of Justice (DOJ) report on the Baltimore Police Department released in August 2016. The report validates what the black community in Baltimore and elsewhere has said all along—that the criminal justice system generally, and policing in particular, have a problem with racial bias, which brings to light the systemic inequities. West is not enamored with individual prosecutions of police officers, however. “The problem is bigger than a couple of bad apples. The real culprit is biased procedures and systems. For example, stop-andfrisk procedures and ‘broken window’ policing are justified to ‘protect’ black communities. These policies are applied unevenly and have deeply racist implications.” West believes that protests by BLM and other activists have already accomplished much. “Recent videos
23
WINTER 2016/2017
LOQUITUR
Jay Mallin
have done a lot to undercut the pervasive perspective of police as community protectors. Most of mainstream America now sees that their vision of policing is not everyone’s experience. This is huge and it could not have been accomplished without the social movements,” West says. Because of that shift, police departments are now looking at their procedures, talking about implicit biases, beginning to grapple with some systemic changes. “And it’s not courts that are making them do that—it’s more organic. Probably, that’s a good thing,” West says. “The law is at its core a deeply reactionary and conservative institution and tends to be uncomfortable getting out in front of social change. And anyway, social change is most secure when it happens through evolving social norms rather than through mandates.” On Capitol Hill, a recently launched Bipartisan Working Group between the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the House Judiciary Committee is pursuing legislative and non-legislative solutions to “what we see happening around the country and also in an effort to find a path forward on overarching criminal justice reform,” says CBC Policy Director Kendra Brown JD’12. Working with a variety of civil rights groups and nonprofits, Brown says there is a strong likelihood that Congress will move forward on criminal justice reform. “I know that certain bills have moved through the judiciary committee and have passed markup. As we move forward with criminal justice reform, there is a lot of bipartisan energy looking at what needs to be considered, what are the issues that cut across all of our communities, where are the areas that we know we can find common ground. Everyone really understands that this is a time when we need to act.” But Brown is quick to add that there are many different areas that need attention. “So many statistics show, unfortunately, in many key areas African Americans are not doing well and that really needs to be addressed.” Brown cites an extensive report that shows many black communities are hurting compared to other demographics, including in access to wealth, employment, education, health, and incarceration. “Over the years, certain policies have had a disparate impact on African Americans and that’s why when BLM started a majority of Americans didn’t understand,” Brown says. “With the murder of Trayvon Martin there was an overwhelming sense that in the grand scheme of things African American lives did not and were not receiving the attention and the same level of commitment that others were receiving. When you have Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner—and that is just three— you have all these individuals that have been killed and then it seems as if there is no accountability? It makes one feel as if my life may not count and matter as much as someone else’s. Now people in our nation are starting
24
'The problem is bigger than a couple of bad apples. The real culprit is biased procedures and systems.'
KENDRA BROWN JD'12, POLICY DIRECTOR FOR THE CONGRESSIONAL BL ACK CAUCUS, PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL.
to understand, taking another look and saying, ‘Let me see if I can change my perspective and fully understand why African Americans feel this way.’ She credits BLM. “What BLM has helped to do is really illuminate the impact of some of the policies that over the years have led to the numbers of minorities being incarcerated.” The CBC is also focused on recommendations set forward by the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Brown says Barack Obama is issuing a record number of pardons because he understands the many roadblocks the formerly incarcerated face when reentering society. “I really think BLM has helped to infuse a sense of pride, a sense of my life matters, I matter,” Brown says. “I am not a statistic, I am a living, breathing individual, and I matter. They have helped to infuse that reflective component into all that we do.” James Moreno JD’88/MSEL’93 is an assistant federal defender in the Federal Community Defender’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He represents individuals awaiting trial on capital charges and those individuals who have been convicted and sentenced to death. His office handles cases in Pennsylvania and throughout the country. Moreno has been doing capital work for almost 24 years and says race is a constant factor. “I have a lot of experience watching how race plays a role in who gets charged, who their lawyers are, and how the criminal justice system has pretty strong bias against people of color.”
25
CONTINUED ON PAGE 27 WINTER 2016/2017
A Delaware judge recently displayed such bias toward a client’s family members who were wearing BLM shirts that said “Free” and the client’s name, says Moreno. “When the judge walked into the courtroom he launched into them about how there would be none of this in his courtroom, there would be no wearing shirts, there would be no protest. He wasn’t having any of it and [said] how it didn’t help, and he went on and on. Very interesting that is the first thing the judge gravitated toward. These folks were doing nothing but sitting there listening. They were sitting in the back respectfully showing their support for the client.” Moreno says bias also affects the level of representation. “We sometimes deal with lawyers who are representing our clients at trial level who use phrases like ‘these people,’ ‘those people,’ really differentiating themselves [and] not making any attempt to connect.” Moreno maintains the resistance to BLM within the law is real. “The defense and capital defense communities have been raising issues of jury discrimination and discrimination in charging decisions for years but courts don’t like to hear this stuff. It challenges the status quo.
LOQUITUR
No one wants to think of themselves as being involved in a system that’s biased and we are.” Articles about bias and racial sensitivity trainings are “becoming more mainstream in the law community and can really help a lot,” says Moreno. At his own office, where “Everyone here is anti-death penalty, pretty damn liberal, a number of us tested out as racists,” he laughs. “It was stunning, really very interesting.” Ultimately, Moreno is hopeful but acknowledges the difficulty. “I like the BLM movement. It’s bringing awareness in a real way by people who are truly affected by the criminal justice system. I’m hoping that it has an impact on the judicial system, but it’s really hard to make that kind of impact. It takes time to get judges that are receptive to the notion that race really does play a role. Everyone wants to believe they’re colorblind in matters of justice but bottom line is we’re not. ... No one wants to confront their own prejudices if they don’t have to.” Former deputy defender general and longtime VLS Professor Anna Saxman JD’85 echoes Moreno’s assertion that judges and the system can be biased. Saxman has worked in Vermont’s public defender system for 26
26
Adobe Stock years, training criminal defense and juvenile law attorneys. “I think looking carefully without assigning intentional racism to our prosecutors or judges, but perhaps unconscious bias, will operate to the disadvantage of minorities—in police stops, bail, charging decisions, and sentencing.” The numbers tell the story. According to the Vermont Department of Corrections, black people constitute 1.2 percent of the state’s population but nearly 11 percent of Vermont’s inmates—one of the most disproportionate ratios of incarceration of blacks in the U.S. Saxman cites the Shamel Alexander case as “emblematic of what’s been going on for years.” Alexander, a black man from Brooklyn, was racially profiled and subjected to an unlawful search and seizure in Bennington, Vt. During the search, heroin was found and he was arrested. His motion to suppress the evidence was denied and he lost at trial. On appeal, Saxman convinced the Vermont Supreme Court to rule that the police did not have sufficient suspicion to expand the stop into a drug investigation. The court agreed that the description of Alexander as “a large African-American male” coming
into town in a cab was insufficient to provide suspicion that he was the alleged drug dealer. “The judge gave him an incredibly harsh sentence, ten to ten years and a day. No time for rehab, no recognition that rehab could be an issue, no possibility of parole, zero.” Saxman has noticed a belief that Vermont’s drug problem exists because people are bringing drugs into Vermont, not because Vermonters are addicted. Defense attorneys at sentencing are now trying to help judges view defendants as individuals. For example, some attorneys show a video of the client’s family, where they grew up or the particular factors that led to becoming a drug mule. Saxman says, “It’s one hopeful step. Our country had to adopt insane myths in order to justify slavery and the inhumane treatment of slaves. Many of those myths are still with us.” Like many other states, Vermont has a problem with stops. VLS student Shakia Woods JD’17 has been stopped a number of times. “Someone said to me, ‘Do you mention you are at the law school when you get pulled over?’ I always say no, because not every minority has that option. I would like to be treated like everyone else.” Jordan Gaither JD’17 also has been stopped. In Arkansas, Gaither was cuffed and taken in for having an expired license. At the station, he says, the sheriff declared, “You can take those cuffs off. He’ll make a good target if he runs.” Woods says BLM is effecting positive change through “making people aware of many injustices around the country. It has been providing a platform, organizing people, asking questions, and forcing cities, towns, and states to respond to situations. This has been a young persons’ movement that has gotten everyone involved.” Brittmy Martinez JD’17 agrees. Martinez is a Black Law Students Association (BLSA) parliamentarian and works with Black Lives Matter VT in building relationships with community advocates and pairing the movement’s initiatives with BLSA’s interests. “BLM sets a millennial tone to a perpetual issue that our country tries to move past but refuses to address and properly heal from. BLM challenges the notion of a post-racial America and forces all of us to pierce the veil of colorblindness and see our community in its true colors so that we can work together in achieving equity and justice for everyone.” Martinez says VLS students are becoming more comfortable discussing the intersectionality of race in classes. “I personally have had students come up to me to grab a cup of coffee and just talk about my experiences before VLS and during my time here. People are beginning to accept that progression toward equity and justice starts with a conversation with those that are being marginalized.”
27
WINTER 2016/2017
'People are beginning to accept that progression toward equity and justice starts with a conversation with those that are being marginalized.'
Officer Jose Maldonado Jr. JD’17. Maldonado came to VLS because he wanted to make an impact in the criminal justice field. “I became a police officer after 9/11. I wanted to give back to the community and I hope to continue to do that as a lawyer.” Maldonado is well on his way. During his internship with the Windham County State’s Attorney, he and former victims advocate Patrina Lingard brought citizens, law enforcement, educators and activists together as a response to the Dallas and Baton Rouge shootings. “I think it was a great conversation,” Maldonado says. “You saw citizens talking to police, [saying,] ‘This is what happened, this is what I’ve seen going on,’ and police answering, ‘This is where we are allocating officers, where we usually try to patrol.” Maldonado says there was an emphasis on positive police interactions in the community, like “shooting hoops with some kids.” Maldonado views the BLM movement as a positive. “The good thing about BLM is they’re bringing issues to the national consciousness. If you look at what happened in the cases of [Philando] Castile and [Alton] Sterling, people can see it online and form their own reactions and be out there talking about something very important.” Further, Maldonado says BLM will influence police training. “With the rise of social media—people being able to record—that also has got to be in a police officer’s mind. Everything you say is going to be out there. You have to pay attention to how you conduct yourself, how you do your job, making sure a stop is lawful. You are going to see a lot of things brought into training.” Maldonado emphasizes the humanity and diversity of police officers. “Even though we wear blue, we are all races as well. In Baton Rouge, Montrell Jackson was a black police officer. I’m Hispanic and served with a lot of minority officers. We’re all different races. These heroes wanted to go home. It’s a tough job and sometimes they make the ultimate sacrifice.” It remains to be seen what will be the long-term legal implications of BLM. Will the movement effect substantive and/or procedural change? We’ve already seen change in some policing procedures, e.g. body cameras, and a willingness among some prosecutors to bring charges against officers who use deadly force without valid justification. But what is clear and seems unlikely to fade is the sense that the system does not present a level playing field for people of color in this country.
Because BLM has forced some police departments to change their techniques and review community relations, Woods says laws will change. “BLM has continued to show the world how people are being treated. BLM is showing people they have power. For instance, voting for a candidate that may help with issues in your community or voting someone out.” Indeed, last February, outraged voters in Cook County, Ill., and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, ousted veteran prosecutors for their roles in the aftermath of the heinous murders of Laquan McDonald and Tamir Rice. Ferguson, Mo., voters have also flexed their power. For the first time, the city has almost equal representation on the city council. Martinez also sees BLM having success demanding a higher level of transparency and accountability from institutions. BLM VT is compiling narratives from marginalized communities, capturing a comprehensive history of the misconduct, discrimination, and prejudice institutions have conducted against these communities. BLM VT and Justice for All are also interviewing local candidates about efforts to hold these institutions accountable if elected. Such transparency and accountability were on display at a community-policing forum this summer in Brattleboro. The event was co-organized by retired NYPD
LOQUITUR
Cirri Nottage is a writer, educator and producer whose work includes film and video, lecturing in film and media, African and African-American studies and women’s and gender studies, and writing for digital and print publications.
28
Adobe Stock
In Search of Justice A GALLERY
of VLS Alumni By Kathryn Flagg
Amanda GeorgeWheaton JD’11
Photo courtesy of Amanda George-Wheaton
THE ADVOCATE
E
VERY VICTIM HAS A CRIME.”
That’s the lesson Amanda George-Wheaton took from her time as a victim/witness advocate in the months and years following a mass shooting in 2012 at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater. It’s the message that, today, she wants defense attorneys, prosecutors, and judges to keep at the forefront of their minds as the wheels of the criminal justice system turn. For two years following the Aurora attack, George-Wheaton and her colleagues—a four-person, federal grant-funded team devoted to assisting victims of the crime— threw themselves into the work of identifying and supporting victims. All told, they identified 1,200 individuals. They provided information and resources throughout the investigation, trial, and sentencing, and sat by victims’ sides during the months-long trial. Acting on the prosecutors’ request, the judge in the case allowed
victims to be present without being sequestered—just one of several rulings in the case that GeorgeWheaton says protected victims’ rights. “It makes a huge difference for victims to feel and to know that they have a right to be there, and to feel that their voices are being heard,” says George-Wheaton. She urges prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges alike to build trust with victims, include victims in the criminal justice process, and provide resources and referrals for additional assistance. More broadly, she believes the United States needs better policies and funding for victim witness programs. “I believe we can be doing better for our victims across the board, from the night when the crime happens to the completion of trial, should we get that far,” says George-Wheaton. “Victims need a lot of assistance, and it might be that we’re the only people who can give it to them.”
JD’11
W
HEN JEFFREY HEINRICK LEVELS WITH HIS COURT-
SIDES
JD’10
Jeffrey Heinrick
Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Heinrick
appointed clients about what’s likely coming down the pike, the Arizona public defender speaks from experience: Not long ago, Heinrick was on the other side of the courtroom, serving as a prosecutor in Maricopa County, Ariz. “It’s the best legal experience and legal college that I ever had in my life,” says Heinrick. “They throw you into it, and you have to learn.” Learn he did—and today, Heinrick puts SEEING BOTH many of those same lessons to work defending clients from the other side of the aisle. As a public defender, he’s worked with clients facing charges ranging from misdemeanor trespass to deadly assault involving prison gangs and the Mexican mafia. He’s litigated more than 40 felony trials, and earned kudos as the 2014 “Young Trial Attorney of the Year” from the Arizona Public Defender Association. He’s currently one of only 34 attorneys in Arizona qualified to do death penalty defense.” “That’s part of the fun as a defense attorney,” he says. “You see everything, you do everything, and you learn everything.”
JD’15
Hope Lemieux
NEW LOOK AT AN OLD CASE
W
Dave Barnum
HEN HOPE LEMIEUX SAW THE JOB
posting for a senior paralegal specialist to work on a capital punishment case in Vermont, her interest was piqued. A little Googling led her to one conclusion: This could only be the Donald Fell retrial, the latest in a 16-year saga following the murder of a Rutland, Vt., woman. For Lemieux, the case offers a chance to bring a fresh perspective to an old case. A jury convicted Fell of murder in 2005, but that conviction was overturned in 2014 on the ruling of juror misconduct. Since last October, Lemieux has been busy prepping for trial and sifting through files that sat dormant for years. That’s meant extracting files from
31
floppy disks and sending old photographic negatives off to specialists to be developed and enlarged, and tracking down witnesses who’ve retired or moved. Prosecutors in the case are fighting for the death penalty—a harder sell in today’s political climate than it was just 10 years ago. The case will take an estimated four months in trial, likely beginning in late winter next year. “I just look at the family, and sixteen years later, they’re still showing up at every court hearing,” says Lemieux. “Even when [the work] gets disheartening, you can look at them [and remember] you’re fighting for justice for the victims.”
FA L L 2015
CO P T O C O U R T RO O M
A
LEX MANNING HOLDS LAW enforcement of-
ficers to a high standard. When the Atlanta, Ga., defense lawyer takes on a case, she scrutinizes officers’ work. And she knows when that work doesn’t pass muster: For 15 years, Manning worked as a law enforcement officer, doing everything from undercover work with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigating cases for the DA’s office. “I like to look at cases as if it had been a case I would have worked. What would I have done?” says Manning. Her advice to officers, many of whom she trained and taught, is simple: “If you do your job right, it’s going to make my job a lot harder.” Together with her law partner, Manning does criminal defense work, family law, and some pro bono work for Legal Aid. She also serves as a magistrate judge in one Georgia county. How did a law enforcement officer go from investigating crimes to defending those accused of them? Manning has been motivated at each step by a desire to help people. Now she’s passionate about helping those who are “victims of the system.” She sees her role as, in part, keeping the criminal justice system accountable, responsible, and fair. “I believe in everything I do, and I believe in the clients that I represent, and getting them the best outcomes I can get,” says Manning.
JD’06
Johnathon Kelso
Alex Manning
LOQUITUR
32
JD’01
JD’88
Wendy Fuller & Joe Perella
ON THE FRONTLINE OF THE HEROIN EPIDEMIC “We’re trying to work up the chain to arrest and convict the larger-level distributors,” says Perella—those who are driven not by addiction, he says, but by greed and profit motive. The problem is fueled by simple economics: Heroin commands a much higher price in Vermont than it does in major cities. “Even if we pull off what we think is a pretty sizable operation … there’s a void and it is automatically filled,” says Fuller. Even so, both Fuller and Perella find ways to be optimistic about their work. They’re rooting for the lower-level offenders, addicts themselves, to succeed, and cherish the stories of those who’ve found success in managing their addictions. “I’ve had people that I’ve prosecuted who have thanked me for saving their lives,” says Fuller. “I feel like I’m helping, even if we are not fixing the problem entirely.”
Dave Barnum
A
S TWO OF FOUR ASSISTANT
U.S. attorneys in Vermont focusing on heroin-related cases, Wendy Fuller and Joe Perella are on the front lines of a battle that sometimes seems unstoppable. “Wendy and I could work seven days a week, 12 hours a day, and we wouldn’t catch up,” says Perella. “There are always targets out there that we could potentially charge.” Since early 2015, this team of AUSAs has gone deep on heroin, each tackling a geographic region of the state to better understand—and prosecute—those who bring drugs into Vermont. The prosecutors were especially interested in identifying the “facilitators”—often local addicts who let out-of-state dealers set up shop in their homes. Their office typically doesn’t charge low-level addicts with little or no criminal history—but by concentrating on a region, prosecutors know when facilitators squander second, third, and fourth chances.
JD/MELP’10
Tim Fair
T
IMOTHY FAIR WAS LEADING A DOUBLE
Dave Barnum
ADDICT TO ATTORNEY
life. He earned accolades and praise as a student at Montpelier’s Woodbury College, but begged out of class early to go home and get high. Fair was addicted to cocaine. It all came to a head in 2004, when he was arrested on possession of cocaine. He was facing a felony charge. “I thought my life was over,” says Fair. In fact, it became a turning point. “If I hadn’t been arrested that night, I most likely would be dead. I was incapable of quitting.” What followed was a series of what Fair considers lucky breaks—a lenient judge who believed in second chances, an understanding probation officer, a lawyer who negotiated the right plea deal. The felony disappeared, replaced by three consecutive misdemeanors. Fair spent six weeks in prison, several of those at a work camp, and then spent the next year getting clean. And though no one could guarantee he’d pass the bar’s character assessment, he set out to become a lawyer. His passion now is litigation, specifically criminal defense. As an associate at Burlington practice Blodgett, Watts & Volk, Fair sums up his job as part social worker. Outside of work, he’s passionate about advocating for criminal justice reform. “I’m a living example of second chances,” says Fair. “It allows me to not judge a person based on a limited set of actions. Just because somebody breaks the law, because somebody does something we would consider horrible or evil, that doesn’t define a person.”
G
Gary Medvigy JD’81
Adobe Stock; inset, photo courtesy of Adam Schmelkin
F
OLLOWING HIS SECOND YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL, ADAM
Schmelkin landed what he thought was his dream internship: a position with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York, working on litigation and environmental justice. Yet to his surprise, Schmelkin—who’d long planned to pursue work in environmental law—began to wonder if his goal missed the mark. “Day in and day out, you’re not really involved with people, and helping clients so directly,” says Schmelkin. This fall, following a yearlong clerkship with the appellate division of the New Jersey TH E N E WC O M E R Superior Court, Schmelkin made his first steps into a career as a family defender at Brooklyn Defender Services. He’ll help families navigate heartbreaking cases—abuse, neglect, the threat of termination of parental rights. It’s not what he imagined he’d be doing a few years back, but Schmelkin sees a connection between advocating for the environment and serving as a family defender; in both cases, he’s interested in what it takes to build healthy and sustainable communities. “You can’t look at what the client is being accused of without considering the impact of poverty,” says Schmelkin. “Public defense, and family defense in particular, is social justice lawyering.”
Johnathon Kelso
JD’11
Photo courtesy of Gary Medvigy
ARY MEDVIGY’S WIDE-RANGING CAREER HAS TAKEN
him from the fragmented world of post-war Bosnia to the northern prisons of Afghanistan. Now retired after 33 years in the military, 15 of which he spent on active duty, the former major general isn’t slowing down: Medvigy serves as a Superior Court judge in the criminal division in Sonoma County, Calif., a post he’s held since 2007. During his multifaceted career in the military, Medvigy’s job was often to advise on the development of legal systems in post-war countries. In Bosnia, he wrote a code of ethics for prosecutors. In Kabul, he led the charge for establishing a secular school of law at the AG TO JUDGE University of Kabul for judges, prosecutors, and defendants. “It didn’t ignore Sharia Law,” Medvigy says, “but it was fundamentally trying to get statutes in place, laws recognized, and practitioners trained.” Stateside, Medvigy spent years as a prosecutor before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to the bench. From Kabul to California, Medvigy says one lesson he learned is that there’s no one perfect way to shape a criminal justice system. “It was mind-blowing to realize there are no right or wrong answers,” says Medvigy. “There are no black-and-white solutions. A culture and a country like ours shapes how justice is carried out, and that can be a very different process in California versus Texas, or New Jersey.”
Adam Schmelkin JD’15
Anna Saxman JD’85
Rob Bossi
A
NNA SAXMAN GOT HER FIRST TASTE of legal work as a paralegal with Legal Air, representing patients at the Vermont State Hospital during the “golden age of mental health law.” Representing autistic children and elderly people who were being “warehoused” at the state facility, Saxman got a crash course in mental health law. And when she went on to practice criminal law slightly later in her career, she came to a startling realization. “In criminal cases, I began to realize that a lot of our clients had some form of emotional or mental disability,” says Saxman. As Vermont’s deputy defender general, and as a professor at VLS, NE V E R B O R IN G she went on to investigate the intersections of criminal and mental health law. Her goal, she says, is to better understand ways to avoid “locking people up who may not have the cognitive ability to really understand what they’re being charged with, or are not really responsible for what they did.” Saxman was among those who led the charge to establish the Criminal Law Clinic at Vermont Law School. Though many students come to VLS for its reputation in environmental law, Saxman stresses that criminal law has much to offer prospective lawyers—particularly at a moment when the country is beginning to investigate what real criminal justice reform might look like. “It’s never boring,” says Saxman, of criminal justice work. “Though it’s hard and sometimes sad, it’s never boring.”
THE CRUSADER
JD’87
Robert Sand
F
Rob Bossi
OR A LONG TIME, ROBERT SAND—“LIKE
almost every prosecutor in the world”— measured his success by the number of convictions he obtained or the duration of sentences he achieved. These days, Sand thinks differently. Over time, the former state’s attorney of Windsor County, Vt., saw those metrics as skewed; as he and colleagues racked up convictions and sentences for drug offenses, other cases languished. So Sand spoke up. As one of the first elected prosecutors in the country to publicly support significant marijuana and other drug policy reform, he ruffled feathers. But he also made headway. He rallied colleagues around collaborative initiatives like the Sparrow Project, a drug and mental health support program for
those who enter the criminal justice system, and went on to lay the groundwork for Vermont’s first DUI treatment court. Now a professor at VLS, Sand is championing more treatment courts in Vermont. “For under three million dollars a year we could have a drug, DUI, and mental health court in every county in this state,” says Sand. It’s not “chump change,” he acknowledged, but it’s also not beyond the realm of possibility. More broadly, he hopes his legacy could help prosecutors find a new way of measuring success in their work. “Maybe to some small extent I helped people think about how the role of a prosecutor could be different, and that prosecutors could absolutely do their job with full fidelity to their oath, and still support criminal justice reform.” 37
FA L L 2015
Barnum Photography
CLASS NOTES
NOTES FROM THE VERMONT LAW SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION This issue of Loquitur, examining criminal law, justice, and guns, highlights issues and concerns that deeply resonate with many alumni. By reaching out to the entire Vermont Law School community, we all benefit from learning more about the work and commitments that motivate our peers and former classmates. The new school year provides an occasion to look back on the recent efforts of the Vermont Law School Alumni Association. This winter and spring, the VLSAA advised the VLS trustees and the administration during the development of the 2016 Strategic Plan, unveiled this summer. The Strategic Plan sharpens the school’s focus on its aspirations, readies current students for the modern profession, and invests in the commitment to the faculty and community. The VLSAA counseled the school on alumni priorities, particularly bar passage, the alumni debt load, and job placement—with a specific emphasis on increasing overall resources, and dedicating more resources to Master’s students.
In addition to developing a thoughtful strategy, the administration and trustees have identified tactics to achieve the goals during the coming years. VLS will build on its strengths and continue to make alumni proud. June marked the annual reunion and homecoming. During a sunny weekend in South Royalton, 40 years of alumni convened to celebrate the law school and to consider the greater ideals for which the school stands. Alumni speakers and panelists described their personal and professional experiences serving the law and bettering their communities and their worlds, from small towns in Vermont to the corridors of Washington, D.C., to farther-flung corners of Europe and Africa. The reunion also provided an opportunity to honor the remarkable accomplishments of several alumni whose impact on the VLS community and in the field of human rights, deserved special recognition. The Office for Institutional Advancement yet again surpassed itself in planning and orchestrating a joyful celebration. As we look ahead, the VLSAA Board of Directors will advise on implementation of the Strategic Plan, cultivation of the first-year student-
39
mentoring program, and expansion of the regional groups, which most recently welcomed a new chapter in Paris. We will continue to celebrate and support ties between alumni, connect the generations of classes, and ensure that the alumni voice and perspective enhance the school. For the accomplishments of the past year and for efforts yet to come, I am grateful to the leadership of the alumni regional groups, the VLSAA Board of Directors, the Board of Trustees, and the alumni trustees. The steadfast work of those alumni is one of VLS’s greatest strengths. In closing, I thank Mark Sciarrotta JD’96 at the end of his second term as an alumni trustee. His tenure and leadership as a trustee and with the VLSAA Board of Directors— including serving as president—has greatly enriched VLS and the alumni for years to come. Sincerely, Brian E. J. Martin JD’10 President, Vermont Law School Alumni Association brian.e.j.martin@gmail.com connect.vermontlaw.edu/vlsaa
WINTER 2016/2017
CLASS NOTES
NEWS FROM THE DC REGIONAL ALUMNI GROUP The D.C. Vermont Law School Alumni Association (DCVLSAA) continues our streak of events offered every month. We’ve been trying out new activities beyond our annual rooftop event—which was so much fun!—and happy hours to see what interests D.C. alumni. We hosted another “Swan Talks” (a TED-style talk by alumni), attended professional
soccer games, went to a ballgame at Nationals Park Stadium, and organized our annual Achievement Awards in November. We continue to foster skills and increase employment with a mentoring program and a career panel for students and graduates alike. We hope to see you all at future events.
As always, we want to hear from you. Contact us at dcvlsaa@gmail.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram to keep up-todate on the D.C. activities. You can also contact D.C. Chapter President Jami Westerhold at jwesterhold@gmail.com.
1976
1980
1981
Elaine Williams Crockett JD’80, former Attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. is pleased to announce that her 2015 novel, “Do Not Assume,” is the winner of two national book awards: the 2015 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award for Best Mystery and the 2016 National Indie Excellence Award for Best Political Thriller. “Do Not Assume” is the story of a Federal Judge who discovers a mysterious link between the President of the United States and the rape and murder of a beautiful teenage girl in a Maine resort town forty years earlier. Elaine is working on a new novel, due to be released in 2017. www.elainewilliamscrockett.com.
Gary Medvigy JD’81 writes, “I am now retired from the US Army after 33 years of active and reserve service. My oldest daughter, Elyse (USMA 2012), was just promoted to captain and recently summited Everest on behalf of veterans and to draw attention to soldier suicides and overcoming war wounds. One of her fellow climbers summited with a prosthetic leg after losing his to an IED in Iraq. My youngest daughter is entering her last year at West Point and will be commissioned a second lieutenant in May 2017. I have a son working in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and a daughter living in Vermont. I retired as a Deputy District Attorney in 2007 and have been serving as a Superior Court Judge in the criminal division continuously since then (when not performing military duty).”
Mark Portnoy mhportnoy@gmail.com
1977
Thomas Donnellan tomlaw333@comcast.net
1978
alumni@vermontlaw.edu Please email alumni@vermontlaw.edu if you are interested in serving as class secretary.
Scott Cameron jscameron@zclpc.com
1979
Deborah Bucknam dbucknam@vtlegalhelp.com
EL AINE WILLIAMS CROCKETT JD’80. LOQUITUR
40
Tim McGrath timbomcg@juno.com
CLASS NOTES
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
1982
Larr Kelly photolarr@verizon.net John Shea MSEL’82, of Mackie Shea, PC, has been selected by his peers as Best Lawyer for Environmental Law and Environmental Litigation. He is included in the 23rd Edition of The Best Lawyers in America.
1983
Martha Lyons malyonsesq@hotmail.com
MARK MILLER JD’83
1984
Charles Van Gorder chase@vglaw.com
1985
alumni@vermontlaw.edu Please email alumni@vermontlaw.edu if you are interested in serving as class secretary. Kevin Bernstein JD’85, an environmental and energy attorney at Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC in Syracuse, New York, was elected to chair the firm’s management committee in November 2015. This year, he has been recognized in the 2016 Upstate New York Super Lawyers list in the category of Environmental Law. Kevin also practices in other areas such as land use, condemnation, and real estate. Fulbright Specialist Dr. Robert Robertson MSL’85 was appointed as the first president of The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institution in August of this year.
Years ago a teenaged Mark Miller and his father solved a problem that had been hounding the elder Miller’s friends in the medical field: how to avoid contamination of blood flowing into the uncovered top of a device called a manometer, used to measure central venous pressure or, in essence, blood pressure. The father-son inventing team developed a device to measure blood pressure that wasn’t open to the air, thereby preventing airborne contamination from infecting the blood. Having grown up under the guidance of a physicist and inventor father, this endeavor was par for the course for Mark whose proclivity for science, the mechanics of invention, and his father’s efforts to patent his inventions, led him to pursue an undergraduate degree in physics at the University of Connecticut. Mark surprised everyone by not pursuing an advanced degree in physics and instead choosing to attend law school, which, “at the time, was pretty much unheard of for someone with a science background.” Choosing a school where he could balance his studies with a passion for skiing, Mark landed at VLS. He managed to teach skiing and to pursue a musical partnership with classmate Peter McGee, all the while maintaining his studies. He took Torts with Ralph Bischoff and Contracts with Grant Gilmore, and fondly recalls his first experience with a true “audio book” when reading Gilmore’s “The Death of a Contract ”: “It was one of the few times in my life that I read a book, and heard it in the voice of the author.” Mark pursued a career in intellectual property (“IP”), and upon graduation, procured a job at an IP boutique in Washington, D.C. He met his future wife in the bar review study course, and the couple stayed in Washington, D.C., for three years before moving to San Francisco, where he joined another IP boutique. “It was a classic IP practice, where I handled all phases of the practice—transactions and litigation. That was the model, IP counsel would do everything that the client needed in the IP space.” The trend of general practice firms in the mid1990s was to either grow organically or swallow up IP boutiques. As the use of patents grew in an increasingly competitive marketplace, particularly in the chip industry in the Silicon Valley, Mark realized that to continue litigating he’d have to move to a large firm. In 2002, he joined O’Melveny & Myers, where he works today. Mark currently has patent, trade secret, copyright, and trademark cases pending in New York and California, and several proceedings pending before the Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board and Trademark Trial and Board. He also handles many trademark matters relating to the selection and clearance of new trademarks and brands. He works in a landscape of IP law where now “the first to file gets the patent,” and where, as Mark describes, the 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International held that–in essence–an invention (idea) that can be performed with pen and paper is an abstract concept and not patentable. The structure and operation of cellphones has stabilized, and as Mark described, “Patent litigation around those devices has settled down, and people are wondering, what is the next new technology?” Illustration and story by Hannah Morris
41
FA L L 2015
CLASS NOTES
1991
1993
1992
1994
Carole Wacey JD’92, Vice President of Education at WNET in New York City, hosted Ali Cohen for a summer internship, where she learned how WNET supports underserved youth in New York City and beyond. Ali is the daughter of Dan Cohen JD’91 who is a partner with Newman & Simpson in New Jersey. Ali will be a Junior at Penn State in the fall where her major is Education and minor is Spanish. Carole writes, “I don’t think we would have envisioned during our hours of playing chess at VLS that one of us would be hosting the other’s child for an internship.”
Leza Driscoll JD’94 writes, “I am excited to share a bit of professional news. I am very honored to have been selected to the 2017 North Carolina Super Lawyers list. I practice in the area of Federal Criminal Defense; Federal Appeals; and State Criminal Defense. It was a thrilling surprise.”
Peg Stolfa margaret.stolfa@gmail.com
KEVIN BERNSTEIN JD’85.
1986
M.P. Zimmerman pattyzim@comcast.net
1987
Mark Ouellette mouellette01@gmail.com David Galgay, Jr. JD’87 of Verrill Dana, based in Portland, Maine, was recognized by Best Lawyers© 2017 in Real Estate Law.
Margaret Olnek mlo@olneklaw.com
Joseph Galanes joseph.galanes@gmail.com
1988
Karen Moore kj.moore@judicial.state.co.us
1989 Kim Montroll kimmontroll@gmail.com
Mario Gallucci mfg7102@aol.com LOQUITUR
John Gilroy MSEL’94 writes, “I graduated with a MSEL in 1994 . . . on a Marsh Teaching Fellowship. I have just earned my Ph.D. in law from the University of Cambridge. It is my second Ph.D., my first being in Political Philosophy from the University of Chicago.”
1995
Sandra Allen sallen19@roadrunner.com
1990
Elaine Schwartz geowoman3@aol.com
FROM LEF T TO RIGHT: CAROLE WACEY JD’92, ALI COHEN, AND DAN COHEN JD’91.
42
Sam Angell JD’95 is pleased to announce that Amelia Darrow JD’15 joined Corum Mabie Cook Prodan Angell & Secrest, PLC this past fall. Amelia’s practice includes estate planning, probate administration, business law, and intellectual property law. Amelia joins fellow VLS alumni Angela Prodan JD/MSL’94, and Joe Cook JD’97 currently practicing at the firm. Along with Jesse Corum JD’77 (1950–2014), she is the sixth VLS alumni to work at the firm.
CLASS NOTES
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Karis North JD’95 was named to the Board of Directors of the Straits Pond Watershed Association, a local advocacy organization that promotes and educates surrounding residents about the 100-acre tidal estuarine pond, which is a Massachusetts Area of Critical Environmental Concern.
1996
William Fewell williamfewell@vermontlaw.edu Adam Necrason JD/MSEL’96 recruited Rebecca Ramos JD/ MSEL’97 from her post as the chief of staff for the Senate President to join Necrason Group, which is a busy Vermont government and public affairs firm. Rebecca joins Jessica Oski JD’92 at the center of the firm’s lobbying action. The firm’s clients include major clean energy interests, affordable housing and land conservation groups, health care providers, progressive social change campaigns, labor unions, and major telecommunications, technology, and cooperative banking companies. For the recent Legislative Session, they hosted VLS semester-in-practice students Karen Oelschlaeger JD’16 and Alicia Artessa JD’16, and intern Brittmy Martinez MELP’16. Mollie Roth JD’96 writes, “After a decade of working remotely or for myself on the business side of the house (business development, marketing, COO, managing partner) and avoiding all things legal to the extent possible, I have taken a hard left and reentered the world of law. In March of this year I took a position as Assistant General Counsel, Compliance for medical device manufacturer CR Bard, covering their Tempe, Ariz., and Salt Lake City divisions, ensuring compliance
MARC HOLZAPFEL JD’95 Marc Holzapfel’s interest in space can in part be traced to his appreciation of Star Trek. But it is environmental law that was his primary interest, and in the vast terrain of space, Marc has the opportunity to utilize law in a relatively unchartered environment. Hired in 2007 as the first U.S. employee to manage the legal affairs for Virgin Galactic, part of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group that focuses on commercial space transportation, Marc is the company’s senior vice president and general counsel. He contends with the challenges of delivering proper legal advice while “still being mindful of the need for speed and nimbleness,” he described, especially in a business breaking into intergalactic frontiers. Virgin Galactic—“the world’s first spaceline”—is one of an increasing number of commercial space flight companies seeking to start the next generation of space travel. Since NASA retired the space shuttle fleet in 2011, manned space flight from the United States has been in a state of suspension. Forward-thinking and futuristic companies have stepped in. Virgin Galactic’s goal—once commercial spaceflight becomes more established—is to lower the ticket price from the current $250,000 to something the general public can afford. “I found that VLS prepared me exceedingly well,” Marc described, surveying a career that now finds him in charge of a legal staff of five people, leading all legal and corporate transactions and regulatory compliance matters involved in bringing the business to commercial launch. “Although it was over 20 years ago,” said Marc, recalling Professor David Firestone, “I vividly remember the first day of contracts, and am surprised at how much of his teachings I use in my day to day life. I found tax with him invaluable, and don’t think I ever would have grasped basis or debt/equity without him.” He fondly recalled Professor Stephen Dycus and the poem he would read before class started—“a gentle reminder that life existed beyond the mundane, daily tasks.” Marc learned the nuts and bolts of lawyering working for two large law firms in New York City. He became in-house counsel for The Linde Group, an industrial gas company, “primarily because I felt that working for a company let you become more involved in the business side of things.” Enjoying the greater range of issues and the stability of working with one, long-term client, Marc continues to appreciate “the continuity as opposed to hopping from one matter to the next.” Commercial spaceflight will continue to present legal issues and challenges. Marc is quick to point out, though, “regardless of how novel an area of the law is, some of the basic underpinnings are still there—minimizing risk and liability. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the piece of paper people negotiated and the allocation of risk that was agreed.” Illustration and story by Hannah Morris
CLASS NOTES
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
JEN DUGGAN JD/MSEL’07 The corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana— known as Cancer Alley—was a catalyst for Jen Duggan. Born in south Louisiana, Jen regularly traveled this area to visit family, observing all the while the clusters of industrial and chemical plants. “The communities, toxic odors, and polluted air left a big impression on me,” Jen described. “It planted the first seeds of awareness of the connection between public health and the environment and was the foundation for my passion to fight for equal access to a clean and healthy environment.” Nowadays, in her role as General Counsel at Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources, she utilizes this passion in service of the agency’s mission to protect public health and the natural environment on behalf of the people of Vermont. As a working parent of two young children, Jen faces many of the same challenges other lawyers face—“there are never enough hours in the day,” Jen adds. “One of the most important skills a lawyer needs to have is the ability to prioritize limited time to advance important priorities instead of only putting out fires.” In managing legal services for the Agency’s Central Office and its three Departments (Environmental Conservation; Fish and Wildlife; Forest, Parks, and Recreation), Jen’s spends her time working to improve the Agency’s legal systems and processes and working directly on significant permit, litigation, and enforcement matters. Jen never considered becoming a lawyer until a friend suggested Vermont Law School. With an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and Anthropology, she had taken several years off to travel in the U.S. and British Columbia, working various jobs along the way. Spurred by her passion for the environment, public health protection, and environmental justice and human rights, and inspired by Vermont Law School’s commitment to public interest law and the environment, she enrolled. Working as a student clinician for the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic with professors David Mears and Pat Parenteau was invaluable, preparing her for a job with the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) in Washington, D.C. “Just a few months after I joined EIP, I was assigned to work on a citizen suit enforcement case to clean up leaking coal ash landfills,” Jen recalled. “I don’t think I would have known where to start without the experience I gained as a student clinician. Ultimately, the lawsuit resulted in a settlement agreement to clean up the three landfills.” Reflecting on her current role, which she has held since the spring of 2015, Jen remains inspired by the power of environmental law in combatting injustice as well as offering opportunities for growth. “As an environmental lawyer, you not only have to know the law, you have to also understand the underlying scientific and technical issues, which can be complex.” She continued: “Each new case is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the science, work with talented technical experts, and learn something new.” Illustration and story by Hannah Morris
with the False Claims Act, antikickback statute and Sunshine Act among other things. Not only am I working for an actual corporation but it’s the first time in my career I have had to DRIVE to work every day! Couple that with not being able to sit around in my work out gear all day and it’s a big, big change, but going well so far. Thankfully, my company has afforded me the opportunity to continue to work on a conference and coalition I started a couple years ago in the microbiome space, focused on the hurdles that industry faces in commercializing new microbiome based therapies, diagnostics, and consumer products. This is a burgeoning area of research with some fascinating correlations between the microbiome and human health and disease going on so I get to keep my hand in an emerging field of scientific inquiry while feeding my creative side as I try to figure out how to run a conference and coalition. Aside from that, Arizona is actually welcoming its first full size aquarium this year, which clearly makes no sense from anything other than an economic perspective. But I am helping sort out the volunteer diver program and look forward to actually being able to dive in the desert (and see something other than lake weeds) in short order.”
1997
Cheryl Deshaies Davis davis4nh@comcast.net
1998
Thomas Leary thomas.f.leary@gmail.com
CLASS NOTES
1999
2003
2005
Meredith Hatfield JD’99/MSEL’96 recently joined the Barr Foundation in Boston as Clean Energy Program Officer after many years of energy work in New Hampshire state government. “I’m loving the walking commute over the Charlestown Bridge and through the North End (wondering what it will be like in snow!)” writes Meredith, “and adjusting to going from 1,200 square feet to about 100 for the same price. Crazy real estate market in this town! Looking forward to reconnecting with VLSers in Boston.”
Samara Anderson JD/MSEL’03 writes, “I left the Attorney General’s office on August 19, and started a new legal position at Health & Human Services Enterprise (HSE) as the Sustainability Legal Lead on complex projects to modernize the IT environment that delivers health and human services to the most vulnerable members in Vermont. This is a very exciting time to be at HSE as these projects have never been tackled before by Vermont. I have been given the opportunity to be a part of ground-breaking programs to reshape and enhance internal business processes and optimize the utilization of information to provide a better platform for both the providers and the beneficiaries of these human service benefits programs. Additionally, I will become an expert in this integrated project as well as every health and human service program that delivers benefits in the State of Vermont. Overall, I am excited to be a part of addressing Vermonters’ needs by creating a person-centric system that streamlines management and access to health and human services. And, I am able to do this and continue to teach yoga and mindful practices workshops throughout New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire! Life couldn’t be better.”
Steven Kelton JD’05, is now the Litigation Support Supervisor for the Colorado Department of Law. His team uses technology to support the department’s 270-plus attorneys with eDiscovery, document review, case management, and trial presentation solutions. Steve and his family live in Boulder, Colorado.
Joy Kanwar-Nori joy.kanwar@gmail.com
2000 Anna Fry adafry@aol.com
Kristy Caron kristycaron@gmail.com Kelly Baetz JD/MSEL’00 of Verrill Dana based in Portland, Maine, was recognized by Best Lawyers© 2017 in Land Use and Zoning Law.
2001
Shannon Maher Bañaga vlsmaher@yahoo.com
Meg Munsey and Kelly Singer vermontlaw2005@gmail.com
Amy Manzelli JD’05/MSEL’07, Jason Reimers JD’05, and Elizabeth Boepple JD’97 are excited to have joined forces. Their firm, BCM Environmental & Land Law, PLLC, is now expanding from New Hampshire to Vermont and Maine. Evan Mulholland LLM’05 writes, “In March 2016, I began serving as the Compliance Bureau Administrator for the Air Resources Division of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. The Bureau is tasked with ensuring that all stationary sources of air pollution comply with the Clean Air Act and state law.” Evan and wife, Liz (Vires) Mulholland JD’07, are celebrating their ten-year wedding anniversary this September.
Karen Murray kmurray9515@gmail.com
2004 2002
Spencer Hanes spencer.hanes@duke-energy.com
AMY MANZELLI JD’05/MSEL’07, JASON REIMERS JD’05, AND ELIZABETH BOEPPLE JD’97 HAVE JOINED FORCES AT THE FIRM BCM ENVIRONMENTAL & L AND L AW, PLLC.
Paige Bush-Scruggs paigescruggs@comcast.net
45
WINTER 2016/2017
CLASS NOTES
2006
2007
Ebony Riggins erriggins@gmail.com
Liz Lucente liz.lucente@gmail.com
Christopher Middleton JD’06 was awarded the Robbie Robinson Award by the Young Lawyers Division of the Savannah Bar Association. The Robbie Robinson Award, named in honor of the late Civil Rights attorney, recognizes a member of the legal profession who has demonstrated dedication to the principles of service to individuals and of advancement of the legal, political, social and civil rights of the Savannah community. Christopher is Deputy Chief Assistant of the Other Felony Division at the Eastern Judicial Public Defender’s Office in Savannah, Georgia. He is also treasurer of the Port City Bar Association—a bar association comprised mostly of minority attorneys who live and practice within the greater Savannah area. He is the recipient of the State Bar of Georgia’s Justice Benham Award for Community Service, member of the Chatham-Savannah Citizen’s Advocacy Association, and recipient of the 2015 Savannah Youth City Community Leader Award.
Stephen Ball JD’07 writes, “On May 24 we welcomed our second daughter, Abigail Elizabeth. We are having a blast and her big sister Eleanor (now 3) is loving the company. We live in Stamford, Conn., where I am a patent and trademark attorney. Please drop me a line if you are ever in the area.”
Ashley Carson Cottingham ashleybrey@gmail.com
Greg Dorrington gregdorrington@gmail.com
Ellen Crivella MSEL’07 received the Women of Wind Energy Rising Star award, which is given to one woman annually at the American Wind Energy Association conference.
ELEANOR BALL HOLDS HER NEW YOUNGER SISTER ABIGAIL ELIZABETH BALL.
Ben Blank JD’07/MSEL’08 and Christine Romero welcomed their son, Charlie Blank, into the world on May 21, 2016. They were supported lovingly by a team of midwives during their home birth. Charlie is happy, healthy, and starting to allow his parents to sleep every now and then. Christine is a kindergarten teacher in Baltimore City, and Ben continues his employment with the Department of Legislative Services in Maryland.
LOQUITUR
BEN BL ANK JD’07/MSEL’08 AND CHRISTINE ROMERO CELEBRATED THE BIRTH OF THEIR SON, CHARLIE BL ANK, THIS PAST SPRING.
46
Jessica Fox JD/MSEL’07 will be awarded the first ever President’s Special Recognition Award by the Ingham County Bar Association. Jessica has served on the Board of Directors for the ICBA since 2009. She has served as Secretary, Treasurer, Vice-President, and it is anticipated that she will be President-Elect during the 2016–2017 bar year and President during the 2017–2018 bar year. Elizabeth (Vires) Mulholland JD’07 writes, “On March 9, 2016, I was appointed as an Assistant Attorney General for the N.H. Department of Justice. I serve as a litigator in the Civil Bureau, defending the state in court.” Liz and husband, Evan Mullholland LLM’05, are celebrating their ten-year wedding anniversary this September.”
CLASS NOTES
2008
New Hampshire Business Review about the craft beer industry’s effect on New Hampshire’s economy.
Samantha Santiago santiago.samantha@gmail.com Jamie Williams willjamie@gmail.com On April 23, 2016, Laura Furrey JD’08 married Kristopher Olson in Tempe, Arizona. Celebrating with them were Samantha Santiago JD’08, Jami Westerhold JD/ MSEL’08, Alison Share JD’08, Andrea Steiling JD’08, Maggie Stubbs JD/MSEL’07, and Victoria Aufiero JD/MSEL’08. Laura is currently a Senior Resource Analyst with the Salt River Project, the nation’s third largest public power utility, working in their resource acquisition and analysis department. Kristopher is a criminal defense attorney with the Phoenix law firm Storrs & Storrs. They live in Gilbert, Arizona, with their dog, Gucci, and tortoise, Houdini.
L AURA FURREY JD’08 MARRIED KRISTOPHER OLSON THIS SPRING, CELEBRATING WITH FELLOW CL ASS OF 2008 ALUMNI.
VLS ALUMNI FROM THE CL ASS OF 2008 CELEBRATE THE WEDDING OF ELIZABETH NOL AN JD’08. Elizabeth Nolan Davis JD’08 writes, “I married Brian Davis on June 11, 2016, at Hauser Estates Winery in Biglerville, PA, just outside of Gettysburg, PA. In attendance were Laura Baker JD/ MSEL’08, Samantha Fredieu (Simmons) JD’08, Brian Fredieu JD’08, Frank Skiba JD’08 and Ashley Martin JD’08.”
2009
GEOFFRE Y SEWAKE AND FELLOW ALUMNI GATHERED IN VERMONT’S MAD RIVER VALLE Y THIS PAST SPRING. TOP ROW (LEF T TO RIGHT): A ARON LOTLIK AR JD/MELP’09, PE TER GILL JD’09, JAKE MARREN JD/MELP’09, ROBB SPENSLE Y JD’09, SYBREN SPENSLE Y. THIRD ROW (LEF T TO RIGHT): RUBY SPENSLE Y, GUS MARREN, IYL A SPENSLE Y, FAYE SPENSLE Y. SECOND (LEF T TO RIGHT): REGINE (MONDE) LOTLIK AR JD’09, K ATIE GILL JD’09, ELL A THODAL, GILL AN SEWAKE, GEOFFRE Y SEWAKE JD/MELP’09. FIRST ROW (LEF T TO RIGHT): A ARYAH LOTLIK AR, E VERE T T GILL, COR A MARREN, WILLIAM SEWAKE.
Jennifer McDonald jmcdonald@drm.com
2010
John Miller johndmillerjr@gmail.com
Geoffrey Sewake JD/MELP’09 reports, “This past Memorial Day Weekend, VLS grads and their families, Aaron Lotlikar JD/MELP’09 and Regine (Monde) Lotlikar JD’09, daughter Aaryah; Peter Gill JD’09 and Catherine McLinn JD/MELP’09, son Everett; James “Jake” Marren JD/MELP’09 and Ella Thodal, daughter Cora and son Gus; Geoffrey Sewake JD/MELP’09 and Gillian Sewake, son William; Robb Spensley JD’09 and Sybren Spensley, daughters Iyla, Ruby, and Faye, gathered in Waitsfield (Mad River Valley), Vermont for a few days of relaxation and fun in the sun.” On another note, Geoffrey, a community and economic field specialist for the UNH Cooperative Extension in Grafton County, NH, recently published an article in the
47
Cara Cookson caracookson@yahoo.com Laurie Wheelock lauriewheelock@gmail.com Shelbie Lewman JD’10 and Peter Norris JD’10 welcomed their daughter, Josephine Anna Margaret
JOSEPHINE ANNA MARGARET NORRIS, DAUGHTER OF SHELBIE LEWMAN JD’10 AND PETER NORRIS JD’10, WAS BORN THIS PAST JUNE.
WINTER 2016/2017
CLASS NOTES
Norris, on Father’s Day (June 19, 2016). Peter took three months of family leave and will return to his job as Assistant Public Defender for the State of Maryland in midSeptember. Shelbie took six months of family leave and will return to her job as an attorney for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in January 2017. Jillian Riley JD/MELP’10 and Joey Solomon JD/MELP’10 were married last September in Stowe, Vermont. The “Hung Jury” gang joined them back in Vermont to celebrate: Derek Hasek JD/ MELP’10, Robert Betts JD’10, Andrew Rouchka JD/MELP’10, Markell Ripps JD/MELP’10, Patrick Munson JD/MELP’10, Louisa Yanes JD/MELP’10, Matt Johnson JD/ MELP’10, Hayley Williamson JD’10, Scott Souers JD’10, David Huber JD’11/MSEL’08, and Kaveh Navab JD/MELP’10.
JILLIAN RILEY JD/MELP’10 AND JOEY SOLOMON JD/MELP’10 WERE MARRIED L AST SEPTEMBER, AND WERE JOINED IN THEIR CELEBRATION BY FELLOW ALUMNI FROM THE CL ASSES OF 2008, 2010, AND 2011.
2011
2012
Sarah McGuire sarah.mcguire18@gmail.com
Lauren Miller lauren.miller.e@gmail.com
Amanda George-Wheaton amanda.georgewheaton@yahoo.com
Merrill E. Bent JD’11, formerly an associate attorney at Witten, Woolmington, Campbell & Bernal, P.C., is now a director. The firm has changed its name to Woolmington, Campbell, Bernal & Bent, P.C. Elizabeth Newbold JD’11 and Cory Steckler JD/MELP’11 celebrated their one-year anniversary this year after getting married in September 2015.
CELEBRATING THEIR FIRST WEDDING ANNIVERSARY THIS YEAR, CORY STECKLER JD/MELP’11 AND ELIZABETH NEWBOLD JD’11 WERE MARRIED IN SEPTEMBER, 2015. PICTURED HERE: ELIZABETH SCHILLING JD’12, JORDAN GONDA JD/MELP’11, FALKO SCHILLING JD’11, LESLIE WELTS JD’11, JP ISABELLE JD’11, MICHAEL ROHWER JD/MELP’11, CORY STECKLER JD/MELP’11, ELIZABETH NEWBOLD JD’11, RIAZ MOHAMMED JD/MELP’11, KEISHA SEDL ACEK JD/MELP’11, BRAD LEISER JD’11, MEGAN DICKIE JD/MELP’11, BETSY CRUMB JD’11.
Susan Lettis susanlettis@gmail.com
Véronique Jarrell-King JD/ MELP’12 and her husband, Jake Pippenger, welcomed their son, Callum, to the family on January 28, 2016. “He is such a wonderful addition to our family, with his joyous smiles and love for exploring the outdoors. We couldn’t be happier.”
VÉRONIQUE JARRELL-KING JD/MELP’12 AND HUSBAND, JAKE PIPPENGER, WELCOMED THEIR SON, CALLUM, TO THEIR FAMILY THIS PAST JANUARY.
2013
Brian Durkin brian.o.durkin@gmail.com Rae Kinkead rmkinkead@gmail.com
Jack Peters JD’11 writes, “I am still working for the Boulder DA’s Office, where I prosecute felonies and handle appeals. I recently argued— and won—a case before the Colorado Supreme Court. That was really cool! And my son, Owen, who was born a few months before I graduated, just started kindergarten. Five years have gone by fast!”
LOQUITUR
48
Annie Honrath JD’13 reported that she and husband, Jeff Aslan JD’13, recently received a NetZero Energy Certification for their home from the International Living Future Institute—the only home in Whatcom County, Washington, to have done so—and they are one of only 33 certified in the world! According to Annie, her husband,
CLASS NOTES
Jeff, the program manager at Sustainable Connections, doesn’t just talk the talk: “Jeff and I were in the JD class of 2013, and Jeff was in the Energy Institute at VLS. He is still walking the walk here in Bellingham.” Stephanie Tavares-Buhler JD/ MELP 2013, and Brendan Buhler welcomed a son, James Mark Buhler, into the world on May 11, 2016.
STEPHANIE TAVARES-BUHLER JD/MELP’13 AND HUSBAND, BRENDAN, WELCOMED THEIR SON, JAMES MARK BUHLER, INTO THE WORLD THIS PAST MAY.
2015
2016
Alona S. Tate alona626@yahoo.com
Paul Tuck JD’16 married Leah Giffin, Development Officer and MELP candidate, on May 28, 2016. Karen Oelschlaeger JD’16, Shannon McClelland JD’16, Rick Contino JD’16, Kerrie Johnson JD’16, and Rebecca Blackman JD’17 attended their wedding. Paul and Leah went to southeast Asia on their honeymoon. Paul began working as a judicial law clerk in Syracuse, NY, for the Honorable Frederick Scullin Jr. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. Leah continues to work as Development Officer for the Office of Institutional Advancement at Vermont Law School.
Crystal N. Abbey cnabbey88@gmail.com
Patrick Larkin MELP’15 writes to us that he completed the Appalachian Trail this year. In his note to us, he wrote, “Look closely at the shorts!”
James LaRock jamesmlarock@gmail.com
PAT L ARKIN MELP’15 COMPLETED THE APPAL ACHIAN TRAIL THIS YEAR.
2014
Whitney Standefer whitneystandefer@gmail.com Cristina Mansfield cristinaleila@hotmail.com
PAUL TUCK JD’16 MARRIED LEAH GIFFIN, DEVELOPMENT OFFICER AND MELP CANDIDATE AT VERMONT L AW SCHOOL ON MAY 28, 2016, IN SYRACUSE, NEW YORK.
49
WINTER 2016/2017
IN MEMORIAM Elizabeth Anne Leopold JD’80, 62, died peacefully in the company of her family on April 19, 2016. Her death was a result of a traumatic brain injury following a fall in her home in Greensboro, Vt. The beloved daughter of Barbara S. Leopold and Jonathan P.A. Leopold, M.D., she was born November 11, 1954, in Buffalo, NY. Liz (her family and childhood friends called her “Anne”) was a 1972 graduate of Champlain Valley Union High School and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1976. She earned her JD in 1980 and became a member of the Vermont Bar. As a teenager and young woman, Liz was enthusiastically involved in her family’s Morgan Horse program, Enterprise Farm. She loved animals and maintained a lifelong passion for animal rights, including volunteering countless hours to the Lucy McKenzie Humane Society in Woodstock, Vt. Throughout her life, Liz appreciated all genres of music and loved attending live musical events, including the Vermont Mozart Festival and James Taylor concerts. Following her graduation from law school, Liz pursued a career in law devoted to public service. She served Vermont in several capacities, including deputy state’s attorney in both Caledonia and Chittenden counties, assistant attorney general to the Department of Mental Health, and later as a traffic court judge. Throughout Liz’s career she was a strong advocate for children, crime victims, and animals. She possessed a strong sense of compassion, fairness and justice for all. Liz struggled with clinical depression and mental illness during her adult life. In her later years she also experienced severe
LOQUITUR
chronic pain and debilitating arthritis. The last several months of her life were filled with a sense of optimism, hope, and a commitment to wellness. Liz leaves her beloved friend of 33 years, devoted partner and spouse, Jane Woodruff, and their beloved Doberman Pinscher, Emma. She is also survived by her three brothers. Liz was predeceased by her parents. She delighted in her many nieces, nephews, and grand nephews. Marianne Kennedy JD’86, 66, passed away on September 18, 2016, at her home in Shaftsbury, Vt., surrounded by family, friends, and her beloved golden retriever, Maggie. Marianne was born to William and Elizabeth Kennedy in the Bronx, New York. She attended St. Helena’s Catholic School in the Bronx. She began her professional career at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, assisting doctors on important research. In the mid-1970s, Marianne and her first husband, Robert Cutler, moved from the Upper West Side of New York City to a 103-acre mountain parcel in Sandgate, Vt., where they built and engineered a round house by hand. She gave birth to her only child, David, in 1979. Marianne received her law degree from Vermont Law School in 1986, an achievement made more exceptional by raising her son as a single mother. She practiced law with the firm of Joseph O’Dea, opened her own private practice, and formed the law firm of Windburn, Kennedy & Ameden, primarily focusing on family law. Beginning in the 1990s, she devoted herself to non-profits and public agencies, serving as a consultant, a
50
health policy analyst, and expert in restorative justice. She was Executive Director of the Bennington County Court Diversion Program and Executive Director for the Rutland Women’s Network and Shelter, and was tapped to work for the Administration of Governor James Douglas on his Long Term Care & Medicaid Program. Her work there led to her role in the formation of the Battenkill Valley Health Center in Arlington, Vt. She returned to law again, joining the Rutland, Vt., firm Kenlan Schwiebert in 2006. She taught and lectured at area colleges, and provided testimony regularly before the Vermont State Legislature. She received the Vermont Bar Association Pro Bono Award for providing distinguished legal services to underprivileged citizens of Vermont. In 1987 she met and married Shane Sweet of East Arlington, Vt. The inseparable couple found common love for dogs, nature, and home renovations as they moved often to accommodate their ambitious careers. Marianne was known for her gregarious nature, her Bronx street-smarts, and her passion for life. She made a strong impression on nearly everyone she met. She will be missed by her many friends who fondly recall her gift for telling fantastic stories from her life: hiding razor blades in her hair; nailing herself to a roof overnight when her ladder fell; outrunning a bear down the road near her house; and many more. She is survived by her husband, Shane Sweet; her dog, Maggie; her son, David Kennedy Cutler, and his wife, Mellissa Huber, of Brooklyn, NY; and her sisterin-law, Mary Jane Kennedy, of Rowayton, Conn.
Caption This
INTER ALIA
WE’RE PROVIDING A CARTOON IN NEED OF
Angela Boyle
a punchline. As the reader, you can submit your caption idea to us at alumni@ vermontlaw.edu (with “Caption Contest” in the subject line.) We will choose the top three finalist captions, and will then post them online at connect.vermontlaw.edu/ captioncontest (not yet set up) where you can vote for your favorite. The winning caption, along with the cartoon (and the winning submitter), will be printed in the next issue of Loquitur. Vermont Law School alumni, students, faculty, staff, trustees, and former trustees can enter their caption idea.
VERMONT ALBUM
CONTRA DANCING DURING FALL 2016 ORIENTATION.7
LOQUITUR
52
REPORT OF GIVING
Dave Barnum
FISCAL YEAR 2016
REPORT OF GIVING FY 2016 THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS WILL TACKLE OUR WORLD’S MOST PRESSING PROBLEMS. Vermont Law School is investing in those who will make a difference. We are committed to providing the most expansive kind of preparation: small class sizes, clinical settings, on-the-ground training. We couldn’t do it without the generous support of those included in this report. On behalf of the Vermont Law School community,
thank you!
LEADERS’ CIRCLE
The Leaders’ Circle giving society recognizes the commitment and contributions of donors who support Vermont Law School at a leadership level, year after year. To become a Leaders’ Circle member, donors make a five-year forward pledge of $1,000, $2,500, or $5,000 per year, and/or have demonstrated a five-year, consistent giving history at a minimum of $1,000 per year.
Anonymous (5) Adour and Helen Aghjayan P’16 Christopher ’94 and Marietta ’94 Anderson Steve ’79 and Ellen Ankuda Abby Armstrong ’84^ Bradford T. Atwood ’90 Vice President Lorraine Atwood^ Richard* and Beth Ayres Professor Betsy Baker Dr. Marilyn Bartlett ’91 Edna Y. Baugh ’83* Joshua L. Belcher ’08 and Sarah E. Belcher Glenn J. Berger, Esq. ’78*^ and Rachel S. Cox Sandra L. Bograd ’83 Brent Bohan ’10 Heather Bowman ’98 Chantelle*^ and Andrew^ Brackett The Honorable Jaclyn A. Brilling ’79 Judson ’89 and Carol Burnham Ingrid Busson-Hall ’99 Leslie A. Cadwell ’94* J. Scott ’80** and Cathleen Cameron Lisa M. Campion ’11 J. Lee Clancy, Ph.D. ’92 Caryn J. Clayman ’83 Jim ’91* and Joni ’91 Clemons Alexa A. Cole ’98 Peter B. Colgrove ’84 Torend L. Collins ’09 Colleen H. Connor ’85* and Brian P. Kelahan Joe Cook ’97 David J. Coviello ’99 John ’78 and Janet Craven Scott M. Cullen ’97* and Carrie G. Cullen ’98 Ann T. Debevoise** Mr. and Mrs. Whitney Debevoise* Michelle T. Delemarre ’91 and Ronald L. Vavruska ’91 Priscilla B. Dube ’80 Chip ’97 and Ashley (Brown) ’99 Duffie Brian Dunkiel ’96* and Leslie Halperin Tom ’85 and Susan Durkin P’14 Christopher* and Ann Dutton Michael H. Dworkin P’13^
Earth Asset Partnership LP Douglas Ebeling ’97 Professor John Echeverria^ and Carin Pratt Matthew J. Ellis ’04 Robert A. Fasanella ’86 Tom Federle ’96 Jennifer Feeley Hyzer ’02 and Cameron Hyzer Steve Feldman ’93 Caroline Fisher ’04 Robert B. Fiske, Jr. P’90* Mary E. Fletcher ’92 Mr. Philip B. Flynn and Ms. Lois G. Golde P’18 Janice A. Forgays, Esq. ’85** Michael J. ’85 and Mary C. Franco Marjorie Northrop Friedman ’99 and Peter J. Friedman Bridgette G. Gallagher ’11 Mario F. Gallucci ’90 Jackie Gardina**^ Edward Gillis ’92 and Linda Mandell Gillis ’94 John R. Gonzo ’90 Sheppard** and Joan Guryan Peter W. Hall* and Rebecca M. Dunton Zoe ’06 and Spencer ’04 Hanes James E. Hanson ’83* Christopher ’77 & Martha Harold P’12 Harris Family ’76 Todd M. Heine ’11, JD, LLM, Master 2 Droit, Suitless Inc. Lou Helmuth ’84 and Lisa Steindler Stuart ’83 and Janet Hersh Stephen T. Hesse ’89 Professor Barry E. Hill, Esq.^ Michael O. Hill ’84 Jerry Howe MSL ’83 and Jodi Frechette Anthony Iarrapino ’03** and Joslyn Wilschek ’03 W. Owen Jenkins ’77 Jeff Johnson ’82 and Mary Kehoe Gerard E. Jones** and Emily G. Jones Harold V. Jones* Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Jones III P’17 Howard ’01 and Karolina Kanner Karl A. Karg IV ’94 Edward T. Keable ’86 and Scot M. Rogerson
2
*= TRUSTEE DURING FY 2016 **=
Dianne Kenney ’91 Patrick ’03 and Cara Kenney Michael Kessler ’80 and Christine Kessler Kathryn C. Kilguss LLM ’05 Kolleen Kirk ’99 Adam M. Kushner ’84 Susan G. Lacoste ’03, P’11 John ’87 and Claudine Lanahan Professor Mark A. Latham^ Joan Sarles Lee ’80 William G. Madsen ’90 Sun Hill Foundation and Lori** & Timon Malloy** Margaret A. Mangan ’86 Edward G. Martoglio ’82 Kirk Marty ’96 Edward C. Mattes, Jr. ’83** The Matule Family* Bob Maxwell ’86 William L. McCoy ’96 David M. McCullough ’07 and Melissa C. McCullough Alice and George* McKann M. Andrew McLain ’05 Michael and Jane McLain P’05 David ’91**^ and Nancy Mears David ’97 and Erin ’97 Meezan Kevin R. ’87* and Lori J. Mendik Sharon D. Meyers ’79 and Andrew L. Meyers Marc*^ and Chris Mihaly James Moreno ’88 and Sarah Nicklin Constance Neary ’89* Gail H. Nichols ’80** Karis L. North ’95* Mara Williams Oakes Margaret L. Olnek ’92 Jessica L. Olson ’07 Anne Debevoise Ostby ’88* James A. Ostendorf ’13 W. Bruce Pasfield ’84 Christian H. Pedersen ’99 Frederick V. Peet ’93 Joseph Perella ’88 Pamela J. Pescosolido ’90 Jill Pfenning ’07 Alex S. Polonsky ’98
TRUSTEE EMERITUS/FORMER TRUSTEE
†= DECEASED ^ = FACULTY/STAFF
Brian H. Potts ’04 and Abigail Wuest ’04 E. Miles Prentice III, Esq.** Andrew A. Reich, Esq. ’91 Christopher M. Reid ’99 and Tara A. Reid ’98 Lamar S. Rhodes ’04 Katie Rowen ’05 and Jen Willis ’05 Robert Schweitzer ’93 S. Mark Sciarrotta ’96* Charles E. Shafer ’77** and Judith W. Shafer Robert M. Shafer ’79** Alison Share ’08 and Jami Westerhold ’08 M. Jane Sheehan, Esq ’87 Alexandra B. Sherertz ’12 Alexander D. Shriver ’95** Mr. Don A. Smith and Mrs. Rachel C. Smith P’02 Karen and Fernando Sotelino P’09 Adam G. Sowatzka ’97 Kemp ’87 and Edith Stickney Steven F. Stitzel ’79 Robert D. Taisey, Esq.* William E. Taylor ’83 David Thelander ’87** Brian ’08 and Vicky Thompson Richard L. Vanderslice ’01 Jeremy T. Vermilyea ’96 Jonathan R. Voegele ’12 Margaret I. Waldock ’92 Alma Walls ’01 Scott M. Watson ’06 Donna Watts ’83 and John Monahan ’83 John S. Webb, Esq. ’92 Rob^ and Nora Webber Mac Webster ’99 Vice President Mary L. Welz^ John Westerman ’82 Stephanie^ and Stephen Willbanks Sean B. T. Williams ’10 Karen Willis ’95 and Marty Collins Bradley D. Wine ’95 Ned ’89 and Mary Witte and Sons Kinvin**^ and Deborah Wroth Andrew J. Yoon ’99 Peter H. Zamore ’79
PRESIDENT’S SOCIETY
The President’s Society honors Vermont Law School’s most generous supporters, those distinguished alumni and friends whose lifetime contributions have reached $25,000 or more.
Anonymous (6) Jessie-Lea Abbott David M. Anderson Richard* and Beth Ayres Glenn J. Berger, Esq. ’78*^ and Rachel S. Cox Melvyn† and Maxine Bergman P’94 Mr. and Mrs. Arthur W. Berndt Ms. Margaret C. Bowles Judson ’89 and Carol Burnham The Byrne Foundation Leslie A. Cadwell ’94* J. Scott ’80** and Cathleen Cameron Wick R. Chambers ’78 David P. Chang† Caryn J. Clayman ’83 Jim ’91* and Joni ’91 Clemons Ms. Amy Cohen** David N. Cole ’86 Ed** and Nancy Colodny Colleen H. Connor ’85* and Brian P. Kelahan Julien Cornell† Thomas† and Ann T. Debevoise* Mr. and Mrs. Whitney Debevoise* Christopher* and Ann Dutton Professor Stephen Dycus^ and Elizabeth R. Dycus Ms. Gillian C. Ehrich Mr. Perez C. Ehrich** Terry M. Ehrich† ** Ms. Shannon K. Ehrich Warren Joel T. ’94 and Carolyn Faxon Anthony M. Feeherry, Esq. Carl and Judy Ferenbach Alden L. Fiertz
The Estate of Beverly F. Fiertz ’86† Stuart Fiertz Robert B. Fiske, Jr. P’90* Janice A. Forgays, Esq. ’85** Edwina Gillis The Estate of Ben Gingold† Maxine Jo Grad ’85 Sheppard** and Joan Guryan Mickey Haggerty ’77 James E. Hanson ’83* Mr. and Mrs. Jon Hanson Robert Haydock† ** Mrs. Elizabeth D. Healy Harold H. Healy† Professor John W. Hennessey** and The Honorable Madeleine Kunin Heather** and Patrick Henry Stephen T. Hesse ’89 Nicholas E. Heyl ’88** Michael O. Hill ’84 The Honorable Philip H. Hoff** Mr. Lawrence S. Huntington Barbara Mulligan Huppé ’88 The Honorable James M. Jeffords† Jeff Johnson ’82 and Mary Kehoe Gerard E. Jones** and Emily G. Jones James Kalashian ’83 and Pat DeLuca ’84 Edmund H. Kellogg† Max** and Paige Kempner Patrick ’03 and Cara Kenney Mr. and Mrs. Edward Kimball P’86** Barbara G. Kirk† John M. Kirk† Professor Kenneth Kreiling^ and Ms. Blanche Podhajski Gerry and Bill ’82** Leckerling
DOUGLAS MEREDITH LEGACY SOCIETY
Vermont Law School recognizes the following donors to the Douglas Meredith Legacy Society for including VLS in their estate plan through a will or living trust, creating a charitable remainder trust (naming VLS as the remainder beneficiary), entering into a charitable gift annuity agreement with VLS, or naming VLS as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy or retirement plan.
Anonymous (8) Caryn J. Clayman ’83 Edwin** and Nancy Colodny Colleen H. Connor ’85* and Brian P. Kelahan Thomas M.† and Ann T. Debevoise** Mr. Perez C. Ehrich* Terry M. Ehrich† Robert A. Fasanella ’86 Lillian and Ben Gingold† Mickey Haggerty ’77 Dorothy Behlen Heinrichs Randy A. Hertz** James and Sally† Hill
The Honorable Philip H. Hoff** and Joan Hoff Barbara Mulligan Huppé ’88 R. Scott Johnston ’82 and Marsha G. Ajhar ’81 Gerard E. Jones** and Emily G. Jones Roger† and Frances Kennedy Michael Kessler ’80 and Christine Kessler Alex Manning ’06 J. Michael McGarry III, Esq. L. Douglas Meredith† Marc*^ and Chris Mihaly Francis E. Morrissey ’88† Daniel G. Murphy ’81 *= TRUSTEE DURING FY 2016 **=
Mr. Adam J. Lewis Crea S. Lintilhac Dunbar Lockwood ’83† Mrs. Irene L. Lockwood† Mr. Dan Lufkin Edwin A. Malloy† ** Sun Hill Foundation and Lori** & Timon Malloy** Edward C. Mattes, Jr. ’83** The Matule Family* J. Michael McGarry III, Esq.** William D. McGuire Alice and George* McKann Michael and Jane McLain P’05 Bernard Mendik† Kevin R. ’87* and Lori J. Mendik L. Douglas Meredith† ** Marc*^ and Chris Mihaly Phoebe A. Mix ’79** Gail H. Nichols ’80** Marjorie Northrop Friedman ’99 and Peter J. Friedman Mr. Dwight D. Opperman† Anne Debevoise Ostby ’88* R. Allan Paul, Esq.** and Elsie E. Paul Pamela J. Pescosolido ’90 E. Miles Prentice III, Esq.** Robert D.** and Catharine B. Rachlin Mr. and Ms. Stephen Ramsey Mrs. Evelyn Redlich Norman Redlich† ** Bill Reynolds ’87 The Estate of Marcus T. Reynolds† Laurance S. Rockefeller† Elizabeth Ross† ** Robert L. Sand ’87**^
Andrew H. Neisner ’84† Katherine E. Nunes† The Honorable James L. Oakes† and Mara Williams Oakes Margaret L. Olnek ’92 J. Brian Potts ’81 Elizabeth Ross† Charles E. Shafer ’77** and Judith W. Shafer Robert M. Shafer ’79** The Estate of Janice C. Shields† Dean Jeff Shields† and Genie Bird Shields Denton Shriver† Gus and Cameron Speth
TRUSTEE EMERITUS/FORMER TRUSTEE
†= DECEASED ^ = FACULTY/STAFF
Jay A. Scherline, Esq. ’76† Lorrie L. Scherline Robert Schweitzer ’93 Charles E. Shafer ’77** and Judith W. Shafer Robert M. Shafer ’79** Dean Jeff Shields† ** and Genie Bird Shields The Estate of Janice C. Shields† Mr. John W. Shields† Mrs. Anna Simon Mr. Don A. Smith and Mrs. Rachel C. Smith P’02 Ms. Elizabeth Steele Peter D. Sudler Robert D. Taisey, Esq.* Richard K. Teitell ’77 David Thelander ’87** Bill T. Walker, Esq. ’76** Alma Walls ’01 Lucy McVitty Weber ’85 The Estate of Patricia H. Weisberg† John Westerman ’82 Ann W. Wick Hilton A. Wick† ** Mara Williams Oakes Norman† and Jeanne Williams Karen Willis ’95 and Marty Collins Mary G. Wilson** Charles B. Yates ’93† ** Mr. Craig Yates Dr. Fran Yates** Jean and Jeffrey Young
Kemp ’87 and Edith Stickney William E. Taylor ’83 David Thelander ’87** Harry F. Waggoner ’00 The Estate of Patricia H. Weisberg† Professor Burns Weston Hilton A. Wick†** Norman and Jeanne Williams† Mary G. Wilson* Dr. Fran Yates* Jean and Jeffrey Young
3
REPORT OF GIVING FY 2016
DONOR LIST Anonymous (22) Jen Abdella ’07 and Charlie Benjamin David and Elaine Abraham P’11 Chris Adamo ’04^ Amy K. Adelman ’85 Robert H. Adkins Maria L.C. Mendoza Adleman ’94 Steve ’82 and Lisa ’82 Adler Richard, Lori, and Mary Adrianse Maurice and Angela Agresta P’16 Peter Agresta ’16 Ryan and Jill Ahrens Dorothy M. Aicher ’81 The Honorable Frederic W. Allen† Sandra Allen ’88 Eric Alletzhauser ’92 Marisela Alonso P’16 Ian D. Altendorfer ’16 Cornelia Alvarez ’16 Mrs. Esther D. Ames P’07 Sam Ames ’07 Mr. Francis P. Anania Julia Anastasio MSEL ’96 Christopher ’94 and Marietta ’94 Anderson Erik ’01 and Melissa ’01 Anderson Samara D. Anderson, Esq. ’03 Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas B. Angell Steve ’79 and Ellen Ankuda Lori Anthony ’97 Peter D. Anthony, Ph.D. ’88 Cynthia Corlett Argentine ’91 Abby Armstrong ’84^ Robin Arnell ’89 Al Arpad ’02** Penny Huss Asherman ’99 Chuck ’85 and Jennifer Marindin ’87 Assini Bradford T. Atwood ’90 Katelyn ’10^ and John Atwood Vice President Lorraine Atwood^ Jeffrey B. Axelrod ’85 Richard* and Beth Ayres Mr. Bruce A. Baird, Esq. Professor Betsy Baker^ Laura M. Baker ’08 Steve Baker ’88 Steve Ball ’07 Jenny and Joe Ballway Raymond Baribeault ’89 The Barnowskis P’17 M. Robin Barone ’85^ and Sydney Lea Professor Margaret Martin Barry^ and H. Patrick Barry ’14 4
Dr. Marilyn Bartlett ’91 John R. Bashaw ’87 Edna Y. Baugh ’83* James and Carol Baum James L. Beausoleil, Jr. ’94 Diane Runyan Bech ’89 Jonathan Beck ’95 and Suzi Black Beck ’94 Liz and Bill Becker P’15 Colin G. Beckman ’14 Robert and Ini Beckman P’14 Joshua L. Belcher ’08 and Sarah E. Belcher Adam ’06 and Kayte Bellusci Barbara and Bill Bennett P’99 Joe Benning ’83 Robert R. Bent ’81 and Jacqueline A. Hughes ’81 Kelly L. Berfield ’01 Glenn J. Berger, Esq. ’78*^ and Rachel S. Cox Gene Bergman ’94 and Wendy Coe John D. Bernetich P’11 Clare Cragan ’11 and John Bernetich ’11 Andrea Berlowe ’93 and Jonathan Binder ’92 Veronica C. Boda ’78 Sandra L. Bograd ’83 Brent Bohan ’10 Michael W. Borkowski ’76 Robert B. Borowski ’11 Rebecca E. Boucher ’03 Heather Bowman ’98 Rachel M. Boylan ’92 Chantelle*^ and Andrew^ Brackett Roberta S. Bren ’78 Sheila A. Brennan P’97 Richard L. Breyer P’17 Brian Barrett for Essex County Court The Honorable Jaclyn A. Brilling ’79 Mr. and Mrs. John A. Brilling P’79 Claudia Horack Bristow ’78 Cynthia L. Broadfoot Randy* and Andrea Brock Elizabeth Bailey Brodeur ’95 Professor and Mrs. Richard O. Brooks Charles ’93 and Tracy Brown Edward A. Brown ’93 Katie Brown ’95 Kendra Brown ’12 Vanessa L. Brown ’12 Mr. & Ms. Henry P. Brubaker P’98 Carolyn L. Buckingham ’06 Clare A. Buckley ’92 *= TRUSTEE DURING FY 2016 **=
Katherine A. Buckley ’14 Peter ’82 and Tia Bullard Brent Burgee, M.D. ’01 Emily E. Burgis ’14 Judson ’89 and Carol Burnham Amanda Bush ’10 Ingrid Busson-Hall ’99 Rep. Sarah Buxton ’10 The Byrne Foundation David B. Cabrera ’91 Leslie A. Cadwell ’94* Heather S. Calderwood ’14 Christopher Callahan ’01 Shannon Slowey Callahan ’04 J. Scott ’80** and Cathy Cameron Lisa M. Campion ’11 Gregory V. Canale ’89 Paul R. Cantilina ’91 Deb Carlson ’88 Mary F. Carlson Dave Carpenter ’97 James and Kathleen Carr P’17 Ashley Carson Cottingham ’06 and Carroll Cottingham Peter H. Carter, Esq. ’78** Pat Casey ’87 and Amy Walker-Casey John J. Cavanaugh, Jr. ’11 Richard A. Cawley ’84 Michael Jay Chernick ’91 Edward J. Chesnik ’76** Alford & Lana P. Chin P’92 Nesha R. Christian-Hendrickson ’08 Ana M. Cimino ’17 J. Lee Clancy, Ph.D. ’92 Peter M. Clark ’07 Kenneth Clarke ’81 Scott D. Clausen ’03 Caryn J. Clayman ’83 Mary Stubblefield Clemmensen ’13 Jim ’91* and Joni ’91 Clemons Christopher Cocoma ’93 Mr. Edmund Coffin Jamie ’80 and Jill Coffrin Kathryn H. Cogswell P’95 William D. Cohen ’84 Kevin E. Colangelo ’94 Alexa A. Cole ’98 Nancy J. Colfax ’79 Peter B. Colgrove ’84 Daniel E. Collins ’95 Torend L. Collins ’09 Christian Colwell ’91 and Kathleen Bradley Colwell ’91
TRUSTEE EMERITUS/FORMER TRUSTEE
†= DECEASED ^ = FACULTY/STAFF
Helene L.J. Combes Charles S. Conerly ’96 Caryn Connolly ’16 Colleen H. Connor ’85* and Brian P. Kelahan Elizabeth A. Cook ’13 Joe Cook ’97 Peter H. Cooper ’95 Thomas N. Cooper ’81 and Susan H. Cooper ’81 Robert W. Corbisier ’03 Tyler E. Corn ’12 Andrea Courtney ’01 and Robert Fisher David J. Coviello ’99 Stephen J. Craddock ’84 John ’78 and Janet Craven Jeffrey C. Crawford ’87 and Shirley J. Hoeppner-Crawford ’87^ Elaine Crockett ’80 John Milton Cross, Jr. ’79 Eric and Kathy Crowell Martha E. Csala Scott M. Cullen ’97* and Carrie G. Cullen ’98 James M. Cunningham Carolina T. Curbelo ’05 Stephen and Catherine Curtis P’16 Robin C. Curtiss ’86 M. Douglas Dagan ’13 Adam ’98 and Andrea ’97** Daly Peter F. Davis ’97 Polly D. Davis ’91 Timothy B. Davis ’99 Ann T. Debevoise** Mr. and Mrs. Whitney Debevoise* Larry and Connie Deetz P’10 Ms. Melody DeFlorio^ Colleen M. DeShazer Ashley J. DeVerna ’11 Charles E. Di Leva ’78 Natalia C. Diaz ’06 Megan Dickie ’11 William Dietrich ’02 Marianne Donahue Perchlik ’92 John and Sandra Dooley Norman and Harriette Dorsen Michael G. Dowd ’82 Robert C. Downey ’93 Andrew Dressel ’07 Priscilla B. Dube ’80 Chip ’97 and Ashley (Brown) ’99 Duffie Mr. Joseph C. Duggan and Ms. Teresa K. Duggan P’07 John P. Dumville
^ 2016 SPA OFFICERS INCLUDE (front row, left to right) Elise Iannone JD/MELP’18, EmmaRose Boyle JD’17, (back row, on right) Joseph Haase JD’19, and Michael Ferrari JD/MELP’19. Not pictured: Robert Reeves JD/MELP’18.
SPA (Student Philanthropy Ambassadors) ELISE IANNONE ’17, A JD/MELP CANDIDATE, JOINED THE STUDENT PHILANTHROPY AMBASSADORS (SPA) DURING HER FIRST YEAR AT VERMONT LAW SCHOOL. “What initially attracted me to the group were the practical skills we would gain from participating,” Elise described, reflected on her decision to participate in this newly formed group of students dedicated to spearheading each year’s class gift campaign. “There is a lot of networking going on, making phone calls and writing letters and e-mails, all of which have to be professional and well-written, so I knew right off the bat this was going to be something that would not be your run-of-the-mill extra-curricular activity.” Conceptualized by Leah Giffin, Development Officer, and Rachel Noyes, Advancement Operations Coordinator—both working out of the Office for Institutional Advancement—and guided by Giffin, Noyes, and a team of faculty and staff advisors, SPA formed in 2015 with the mission to foster a culture of philanthropy at Vermont
Law School. Through organizing student body events to raise money for the class gift to hosting a commencement barbecue, SPA endeavors to create legacies that persist for generations of students to come. Through participating in learning activities, SPA members prepare for their own future professions by gaining experience in fundraising and organizational advancement. In her role as events manager for SPA, Elise brings enthusiasm and conviction to the group: “SPA is an important group because it builds upon so many skills that we will all have to face in the years of our careers.” She continued, “I’ve had the privilege of working with a talented and inspiring group of people who always put 100 percent into what we’re working on, and I’m looking forward to bringing in a new group of students.” Learn more about SPA at connect.vermontlaw.edu/spa. Follow their activities on Twitter @VLS_Philanthrop and on Facebook: facebook.com/VLSSPA.
5
REPORT OF GIVING FY 2016
DONOR LIST CONTINUED
Jarrett B. Duncan ’06 Brian Dunkiel ’96*and Leslie Halperin Ms. Suzan Dunkiel P’ 96 Tom ’85 and Susan Durkin P’14 Christopher* and Ann Dutton Lucie Bourassa Dvorak ’95 Michael H. Dworkin P’13^ Douglas Ebeling ’97 Professor John Echeverria^ and Carin Pratt Jonathan Eck ’06 Professor Arthur Edersheim^ and Ms. Susan Elder Earth Asset Partnership, LP
Patrick M. Egan ’76 Kelsey M. Eggert ’16 The Honorable Warren W. Eginton Jenna ’06 and Matt Einstein ’06 Craig and Dianne Eldred P’13 Matthew J. Ellis ’04 Noura Eltabbakh Mr. J. R. Emens and Ms. Beatrice E. Wolper P’95 Lisa and Eli ’02 Emerson Bradley K. Enterline ’84 Dr. Michael Epstein and Mrs. Susan Epstein Carla Erskine
Joanne M. Ertel ’92 Seth A. Eschen William S. Eubanks II ’08^ Timothy M. Eustace ’96 Todd M. Everts ’91 and Cynthia A. Everts Lucy and John Eysenbach P’17 Christine A. Faris George T. Faris ’78† Laura J. Farkas ’11 Joseph A. Farnham ’89 Barbara Farr ’91 Stephanie Farrior^ and Jeff Schumann Robert A. Fasanella ’86 Tom Federle ’96
Anthony M. Feeherry, Esq. Jennifer Feeley Hyzer ’02 and Cameron Hyzer Steve Feldman ’93 Richard L. Ferguson Joseph Fierros ’16 Steven W. Firsichbaum ’76 Viggo C. Fish Amanda Jacquette Fisher ’13 Caroline Fisher ’04 Robert B. Fiske, Jr. P’90* Courtney A. Flanagan ’97 Mr. Ken Fletcher Mary E. Fletcher ’92
#COUNTMEIN
Cronin Photography
2016 REUNION GIVING CHALLENGE
FOR A SECOND YEAR IN A ROW, THE ANNUAL #COUNTMEIN REUNION GIVING CHALLENGE DRUMMED UP POSITIVE FEEDBACK AND ALUMNI PARTICIPATION, not to mention fundraising success. The four-week campaign that started mid-May came to a competitive end on Friday evening of Homecoming Weekend, June 17–18, 2016. #countmein posed a challenge to Vermont Law School reunion year classes (those classes ending in ’01 and ’06): which class could close the fiscal year with the highest participation rate in giving?
6
With a 16 percent participation rate, the Class of 1976 won the challenge, earned the Reunion Class Participation Award, and helped VLS reach its fundraising goal of $100K. The campaign was created to assist students with financial aid packages, provide student services, and attract and retain quality faculty and staff, through the generosity of an anonymous donor who pledged a $50K match for money raised during the campaign. All contributions by each reunion year class paved the way for VLS to successfully raise the specified amount.
GIVING BY CLASS YEAR Mr. Philip B. Flynn and Ms. Lois G. Golde P’18 The Honorable ’92 and Mrs. David Foley Susan Boyle Ford ’84** Janice A. Forgays, Esq. ’85** David Foster ’90 Warren E. Foster ’87 James and Diane Foust P’14 Andrew W. Fowler ’14 Megan C. Fowler Myers ’11 Susan L. Fowler ’80 Robert J. Fox ’83 Michael J. ’85 and Mary C. Franco Steven Freihofner, Esq. ’80 Kay and Neal Frey P’16 C. John Friesman Allison Nassau Fulcher ’91 Gary A. Gabree ’84 David L. Galgay, Jr. ’87 Bridgette G. Gallagher ’11 Mario F. Gallucci ’90 Joshua Galperin ’08 and Sarah Kuebbing Jackie Gardina**^ Peter ’99 and Victoire Gardner Stephanie Gardner ’14 William C. Garlow P’16 Paul W. Garrity ’94** Elizabeth Georg ’03 Robert P. Gerety, Jr. ’80 Ernest and Charlotte Gibson Edward Gillis ’92 and Linda Mandell Gillis ’94 Robert and Betty Gilson P’13 Clare Ginger ’83 Diedre M. Gish ’11 Kristin Hines Gladd ’10 and Nicholas Gladd ’12 Suzanne Fay Glynn ’78 Richard A. Goldberg ’78 Rachel Goldwasser ’06 and Christopher Aslin ’06 Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Golian P’98 John R. Gonzo ’90 Richards Gordon ’82 Robert D. Gray P’18 Joseph T. Griffo ’07 and Shannon Vallance Griffo ’07 Ken and Diane Grimes P’18 Daniel F. Grossman ’80 Jeff Guevin ’12 Sophie A. Guilfoyle ’15 Sheppard** and Joan Guryan Michael J. Hall ’99 Peter W. Hall* and Rebecca M. Dunton Judith Halsema P’11
Petra A. Halsema ’11 Susan L. Hamilton ’88 and Edwin C. Krebs Seth H. Handy ’96 Molly Shubert Hann ’12 James E. Hanson ’83* Tom S. Hanson ’95 Christopher ’77 and Martha Harold P’12, ’13 Elizabeth Grace Harold ’13 Harris Family ’76 Cammie Hart P’02 Jennifer B. Hartman ’14 Kathleen A. Hassey ’84 Bill ’93 and Kathy ’93 Hatfield William D. Hayes ’12 Don Hebert ’89 and Holly Fazzino Karen A. Heggen ’91 Job C. Heintz ’95 Lou Helmuth ’84 and Lisa Steindler Gary L. Helton ’15 Karen L. Henderson ’07 and Brian E. Jensen Professor John W. Hennessey** and The Honorable Madeleine Kunin Stuart ’83 and Janet Hersh Michael B. Hershberg ’16 Elizabeth B. Hessami Stephen T. Hesse ’89 Aaron J. and Barbarina M. Heyerdahl Professor Barry E. Hill, Esq.^ Michael O. Hill ’84 Shelley Hill ’81 Charles and Karen Hines P’10 Venice and Peter ’82 Hochman Maureen Bayer Hodson ’07 The Honorable Philip H. Hoff** Kevin Hogan ’91 Neil Holzman ’13 Jefferson C. Hooper ’89 Julia H. Horrocks ’08 Rachel H. Houseman ’93 Jerry Howe MSL ’83 and Jodi Frechette Richard J. Howrigan, Jr. ’02 Deborah S. Hudler Jehmal T. Hudson ’06 Don C. Hunter ’78 Mr. Raymond L. Hurt and Mrs. Kathy F. Hurt P’01 Jason Hutt ’98** and Maria O’Donnell Peter S. Hyndman ’89 Anthony and Martha Iarrapino P’03 Anthony Iarrapino ’03** and Joslyn Wilschek ’03 Erin Jacobsen ’11^
W. Joe Jacumin ’04 Jessica E. Jay ’97^ Associate Dean Shirley A. Jefferson ’86^ W. Owen Jenkins ’77 William and Mary Jo Jesmer P’13 Professor Gregory Johnson^ Jeff Johnson ’82 and Mary Kehoe Richard A. Johnson, Jr. ’97 Keith Johnston ’04 R. Scott Johnston ’82 and Marsha G. Ajhar ’81 Harold V. Jones* Professor Kevin B. Jones^ Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Jones III P’17 Elizabeth Kahn ’14 Michael R. Kainen ’92^ James Kalashian ’83 and Pat DeLuca ’84 Renata Z. Kalnins ’79 Byron S. Kalogerou ’86 Darwin Holder ’89 and Katrina Kamantauskas-Holder ’88 Howard ’01 and Karolina Kanner Karl A. Karg IV ’94 Edward T. Keable ’86 and Scot M. Rogerson Christopher J. Keach ’14 Peggy and Robert Keach P’14 Peter C. Keller Yolanda L. Kelly-O’Neill ’06 Max** and Paige Kempner Heather Spurlock Kennealy ’02 and Brian Kennealy Alyson H. Kennedy ’12 Frances Kennedy J. Patrick Kennedy ’93 Bryan L. Kennelly ’10 Dianne Kenney ’91 Patrick ’03 and Cara Kenney John R. Keough ’80 John W. Kessler ’88** Michael Kessler ’80 and Christine Kessler Richard A. Kessler ’78 Shazia A. Khan Benjamin A. Kia ’17 Susan Kidd ’83 Gail Killefer ’80** Patricia A. Killigrew ’98 Michelle Brandt King ’03 and Jason King ’02 Kolleen Kirk ’99 Elizabeth C. Kline ’84 Karen Weidner and Kurt Klotzbuecher P’12 Marilyn L. Komessar ’93 Eula Lee Kozma ’08 and Josh B. Sattely ’08
1976
17.39% PARTICIPATION
1977
8.08% PARTICIPATION
1978
20.45% PARTICIPATION
1979
28.77% PARTICIPATION
1980
17.82% PARTICIPATION
1981
14.29% PARTICIPATION
1982
15.15% PARTICIPATION
1983
18.18% PARTICIPATION
1984
17.12% PARTICIPATION
1985
11.4% PARTICIPATION
7
REPORT OF GIVING FY 2016
1986
13.85%
DONOR LIST CONTINUED
PARTICIPATION
Melissa A. Krah ’11 Pamela Kraynak ’84 Professor Kenneth Kreiling^ and Ms. Blanche Podhajski Jane Woldow ’99 and Kurt Kuehl ’99 William C. Kuehn ’88 Michele Kupersmith ’82 Kathleen M. Kushi-Carter Adam M. Kushner ’84 Susan G. Lacoste ’03, P’11 Katherine M. Lamson ’07 John ’87 and Claudine Lanahan Alison R. Landis ’13 Gary W. Lange ’82 Professor Mark A. Latham^ Peter and Hrysa Lazaropoulos P’16 Christine LeBel ’94 Amory A. Ledyard Joan Sarles Lee ’80 Robert D. Lees Benjamin Leoni ’11 and Reade Wilson ’11 Christopher ’78 and Jennifer Leopold Lepionka-Lacroix Family Kevin O. Leske ’99 Lewis S. Levin ’77 Cynthia Lewis^ Lori J. Lewis ’93 Tracey L. Lewis ’09 Crea S. Lintilhac Bernard Lisman, Esq.† ** Timothy and Jane Lochhead P’11 Reed Elizabeth Loder^ Harvey Loeb ’79 Jonathan and Jessica (Frohman) Lubetsky ’02 William B. Lytton, Esq.* Joseph A. Maccario ’77 Ms. Catherine MacKenzie*^ William G. Madsen ’90 Jerry Magee MELP’08 Mr. and Mrs. Fred Maier P’81 Philip L. Maier ’81 Ms. Margarita Maldonado P’17 Margaret A. Mangan ’86 Zachary Manganello ’08 Nicholas D. Mangold ’10 Alex Manning ’06 Patrick I. Marass* Joseph and Linda Maressa P’17 Peter Marshall ’88 Brian E. J. Martin ’10 and Katherine L. Martin ’11 Jeffrey ’79 and Deanna Martin Laurie Martin^
The Honorable Stephen B. Martin Edward G. Martoglio ’82 Kirk Marty ’96 Katharine A. Marvin ’92 Sarah E. Mason ’08 Richard A. Matasar* Edward C. Mattes, Jr. ’83** The Matule Family* Bob Maxwell ’86 James^ and Natalia E. May ’09^ William J. Maynard P’16 Karen McAndrew, Esq. Justin W. McCabe ’08^ and Kathleen M. Whelley McCabe Joe W. McCaleb ’95 Michael G. McCann ’94 Ellen Young McClain ’81 Shannon J. McClelland ’16 Beth McCormack^ William L. McCoy ’96 Jack and Mitzi McCrory David M. McCullough ’07 and Melissa C. McCullough Kristine A. McDonald Jampel ’92 Larry ’80 and Ginny McGovern The Honorable Mary McGowan Davis and Mr. Frederick T. Davis Patty McIlvaine Jennifer McIvor ’07 Alice and George* McKann Mr. William E. McKay and Mrs. Carol McKay P’94 M. Andrew McLain ’05 Michael and Jane McLain P’05 Susan Keane McManus ’07 and Daniel McManus ’01 Scott D. McNamara ’91 Christopher J. McVeigh David ’91**^ and Nancy Mears Sharon Mee^ Andy Meeks ’03 David ’97 and Erin ’97 Meezan Mr. and Ms. James E. Meketa Craig A. Melodia Alfred B. Mencuccini ’82 Kevin R. ’87* and Lori J. Mendik Peg Merrens ’94 Katie^ and Jason Merrill Professor and Mrs. Philip N. Meyer ’80^ Sharon D. Meyers ’79 and Andrew L. Meyers Gary R. Michael ’76 C. K. Middleton ’06 Bob Miessau ’93 Elena M. Mihaly ’13
Marc* and Chris Mihaly Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Mikolop P’00 E. David Millard ’79 John D. Miller, Jr. ’09**^ Mark E. Miller ’83 Mike Miller ’91 Natalie A. Mims ’04 Joe Minadeo ’94 Clayton R. Mitchell ’96^ Lynne Mitchell ’86 and Dick Lewis ’85 John and Nancy Mohr P’97 Tony and Julie Mollica P’18 Megan Foote Monsky ’02 Maureen Moriarty^ Daphne Moritz ’90 Dick and Faith Morningstar Hannah Morris^ Bruce C. Morrissey ’76 Jim and Gretchen Morse Dr. Jill Mortensen P’14 Andrew Robert James Muir ’12 Teresa M. Munson ’86 Laura K. Murphy^ and James G. Murphy ’06 Paula Murphy Karen A. Murray ’01 Barbara and Gilbert Myers GP’17 Michael Myers ’93 Jeffrey Neal and Susan Cellmer Constance Neary ’89* Sirotkin & Necrason, PLC Professor Katharine F. Nelson Betsey S. Neslin ’80 Elizabeth Newbold ’11 and Cory Steckler ’11 Grace G. Newcomer Newman Family Professor and Mrs. Phillip J. Nexon Gail H. Nichols ’80** Leslie A. Nielsen ’84 Karis L. North ’95* Marjorie Northrop Friedman ’99 and Peter J. Friedman Jeanne O’Brien ’86 Michael O’Brien ’02 Keely O’Bryan ’99 Tom ’96 and Shannon ’97 O’Donnell Mara Williams Oakes Terry and Linda Oelschlaeger P’16 Margaret L. Olnek ’92 Jessica L. Olson ’07 Nicole Allard ’01 and Yates Oppermann ’01 Opticus IP Law PLLC Susan E. Oram ’83 ^
1987
13.64% PARTICIPATION
1988
10.91% PARTICIPATION
1989
12.31% PARTICIPATION
1990
7.24% PARTICIPATION
1991
15.88% PARTICIPATION
1992
10.65% PARTICIPATION
1993
9.30% PARTICIPATION
1994
9.89% PARTICIPATION
1995
10.37% PARTICIPATION
1996
13.48% PARTICIPATION
8
1997
8.64% PARTICIPATION
Anne Debevoise Ostby ’88* James A. Ostendorf ’13 George H. Ostler ’83 George A. Overstreet Elise N. Paeffgen ’09 Alexander B. Pankonin Steven K. Parady ’81 Professor Patrick Parenteau^ Matthew S. Parish Todd K. Parker ’06 Danielle M. Parkinson ’12 Vikram S. Patel ’13 David C. Patterson ’76 R. Allen Paul, Esq.** and Elsie E. Paul Nadege (Charles) Paulson ’02 and Kyle Paulson ’00 Christian H. Pedersen ’99 Frederick V. Peet ’93 Joseph Perella ’88 Mr. Jean R. Perrette and Ms. Virginia S. Perrette P’94 Pamela J. Pescosolido ’90 Christine G. (Berry) Peters ’00 David Peterson and Laurie Reiss P’16 Ian R. Peterson ’16 Joanna J. Peterson Pam Peterson P’16 Melinda J. Petter ’15 Jill Pfenning ’07 Joseph J. Pizonka ’76 Alex S. Polonsky ’98 David L. Polow ’79 Jeffrey O. Polubinski ’13 Professor Brian Porto^ Brian H. Potts ’04 and Abigail Wuest ’04 Marjorie Power ’84 E. Miles Prentice III, Esq.** Tom Puchner ’04 Rebecca S. Purdom ’96 John C. Putney ’81 Brian C. Quiros ’11 & Carly Weiland Christopher Recchia ’83 Mr. Richard O. Redder and Mrs. Eleanor C. Redder P’ 83 Mrs. Evelyn Redlich Charles L. Redman Kristen Michelle Reed ’09 Gabrielle A. Regney ’17 Todd M. Rego and Lori A. Rego P’18 Andrew A. Reich, Esq. ’91 Christopher M. Reid ’99 and Tara A. Reid ’98 Tara A. Reilly ’83 and John H. Reilly ’83 Anthony and Jess ’11 Reiss Stephen A. Reynes ’79
Bill Reynolds ’87 Lamar S. Rhodes ’04 Rowland Richards III ’96 Ellery R. Richardson ’13 Caleb B. Rick ’88^ Jillian Meade Riley ’10 Laurie Ristino^ Diane and Tom Ritland P’13 Dawn and Kevin Roche P’16 Craig and Amy Roebuck P’16 Curtis H. Roggi ’79 Gabor Rona ’78 Margaret P. Roraback ’87 Jeffrey ’78 and Lea Ann Rosenthal P’12 David ’01 and Tiffanie Ross Mollie D. Roth ’96 Catherine Johnson Rothwell ’82 Mr. Douglas Ruley^ Gary D. Russell ’96 Dr. Rosemarie Russo ’86 Donna L. Russo-Savage ’89 Richard A. Sadlock ’86 Jennifer Deck ’96 & Matthew C. ’96 Samuelson Robert L. Sand ’87**^ Gail Sanderson ’87 and Beverly Fiertz ’86 Timothy W. Sargent ’03 Professor Melissa Scanlan^ Gary M. Schaff ’76 Charles R. Schaller ’90 Jerome C. Schaub, Jr. ’79 Donald G. Scheck ’77 Chris Bullard and Todd Schlossberg ’90 Robert & Carol Schwartz P’10 Paul Schwartzberg ’87 Robert Schweitzer ’93 S. Mark Sciarrotta ’96* Patricia Scribner P’81 Raquel Sefton James and Mimi Segel C.J. and Gail Seitz P’07 Mr. Ranbir Sekhon and Dr. Shobha Sekhon P’17 Mark Seltzer ’08 Jan M. Sensenich ’83 Geoffrey Sewake ’09 Charles E. Shafer ’77** and Judith W. Shafer Robert M. Shafer ’79** David Shanks ’06 Jay and Jill Shapiro P’16 Alison Share ’08 and Jami Westerhold ’08 Jeramy A. Shays ’08 M. Jane Sheehan, Esq ’87
Robert Sheftman ’78 and Elisabeth Sheftman ’85 Kim Shelton ’06 Alan R. Sheredy ’77 Alexandra B. Sherertz ’12 Genie Bird Shields Elizabeth A. Shienbrood ’94 Nathaniel Shoaff ’07 Alan M. Shoer ’83 Alexander D. Shriver ’95** Christa Shute ’12 and James Peterson Morris L. Silver ’86 Debbie H. Silverwolf Camilla Simon ’14 The Simpson Family P’16 John P. Simpson ’96 Robert V. Simpson, Jr. ’78 Mr. Michael D. Sirotkin, Esq. Jeremy G. Clemans ’06 and Emma M. Sisti ’06 William E. Slade ’84 Emily K. Slagle ’12 Samuel E. Slaiby Professor Linda O. ’79 and James D. ’79 Smiddy Beriah C. Smith ’16 Bonnie L. Smith ’17 Christopher M. F. Smith, Esq. ’14 Mr. Don A. Smith and Mrs. Rachel C. Smith P’02 James E. Smith Allen Smith ’15 Taylor C. Smith Dain Smoland ’12 Matthew J. Snyder ’10 Daniel ’09 and Mariah Sotelino Karen and Fernando Sotelino P’09 Scott W. Souers ’10 Adam G. Sowatzka ’97 Lindsay Speer ’14, Creating Change Consulting Elizabeth L. Spellman ’13 Professor Gus Speth^ Dr. and Mrs. Donald Spicer P’96 Andrea Spinale P’16 Vivien Spyra James R. Standring ’99 Ms. Elizabeth Steele Mark L. Stephen ’76 Professor Pamela Stephens**^ and Rick Melberth, Ph.D. Kemp ’87 and Edith Stickney Steven F. Stitzel ’79 Kurt Terwilliger ’90 and Margaret Stolfa ’91
1998
6.02% PARTICIPATION
1999
10.56% PARTICIPATION
2000
1.27% PARTICIPATION
2001
9.09% PARTICIPATION
2002
7.03% PARTICIPATION
2003
8.33% PARTICIPATION
2004
8.02% PARTICIPATION
2005
3.59% PARTICIPATION
2006
12.14% PARTICIPATION
2007
9.90% PARTICIPATION
REPORT OF GIVING FY 2016
DONOR LIST CONTINUED
Frederick W. Stolle, Jr. ’79 John P. Stonner ’89 Charles Storrow ’82 Paula M. Stuart ’01 Hilary (Hurt) ’01 and Karl Stubben Pat and JJ Sullivan P’05 Timothy Sullivan ’05 and Dana Barile ’04 William G. Sullivan ’13 Allen ’77 and Andrea Susser Tyler J. Sutton ’01 M. P. Sweeney, C.P.A. ’80 Robert D. Taisey, Esq.* Brenda K. Taite, M.S., J.D. ’05 Alan L. Talesnick Michelle A. Tarnelli ’12 Alona S. Tate ’15 Professor Jennifer Taub^ Richard W. Taussig ’11 Stephanie M. Tavares-Buhler ’13 Ashley W. Taylor ’02 William E. Taylor ’83 Professor Peter R. Teachout^ and The Honorable Mary M. Teachout Isabelle M. Thabault ’77 David Thelander ’87** Johanna ’07 and Rory ’07 Thibault Charlotte E. Thomas ’84 Brian ’08 and Vicky Thompson Claire Z. Thorp ’95 David A. Tilton ’04 Tamara D. Toles ’09 Beverly S.K. Tom ’90 Sandra Torget ’99 Paul D. ’78 and Lynn W. Trimper Margarita and Larry Trotter P’16
Tom ’79** and Nancy Truman Jim and Lea Tuck P’16 Paul ’16 and Leah^ Tuck Frank Twohill ’85 Oliver L. Twombly ’85 Anthony Q. Vale ’95 Margaux J. Valenti ’13 Chase Van Gorder ’84 Tammara M. Van Ryn ’90 Elisabeth S. Van Woert Richard L. Vanderslice ’01 Michelle T. Delemarre ’91 and Ronald L. Vavruska ’91 George Vernon Peter M. Vetere ’11 VLS 2012–2013 Frenchies Jonathan R. Voegele ’12 Ms. Sarah W. Vorder Bruegge P’92 Margaret I. Waldock ’92 Victoria S. Wallin Forman ’13 Alma Walls ’01 Lawrence S. Walters, Jr. ’81 Martin and Brooks Walton P’16 Morgan B. Walton ’16 Shengzhi Wang ’16 Paul A. Ward, Jr. ’81 Jonathan and Susan Wasserman James L. Watson ’76 Scott M. Watson ’06 Donna Watts ’83 and John Monahan ’83 John S. Webb, Esq. ’92 Rob^ and Nora Webber Mac Webster ’99 Stephen W. Webster Patricia Weisberg P’01†
Robert F. Weisberg ’01 Craig Wells ’95 Vice President Mary L. Welz^ John Westerman ’82 Emily ’04 and Michael Wetherell Patricia A. Whalen Dr. James N. Whipple P’98 Steven ’07 & Rebecca ’07 Whitley Jess Wilkerson ’12 Stephanie^ and Stephen Willbanks Sean B. T. Williams ’10 Katie Rowen ’05 and Jen Willis ’05 Karen Willis ’95 and Marty Collins Bob Willson ’86 Craig P. Wilson ’92 Zaw Win ’08 Bradley D. Wine ’95 Timothy R. Winslow ’06 Ned ’89 and Mary Witte and Sons Dinah G. Wolff ’91 P. H. Worrall ’89 Christopher S. and Jacqueline M. B. Wren P’99 Daniel Wright ’96 Kenneth and Judith Yalowitz Professor Carl Yirka^ and Ms. Micki Colbeck Andrew J. Yoon ’99 Peter H. Zamore ’79 Jennifer C. Zegarelli ’03 Mike ’96 and Katie ’96 Zeliger Frederick N. Zeytoonjian ’92 Haoling Zhang Pat Zimmerman ’86 Robert Zywno ’13
2008
8.96% PARTICIPATION
2009
4.87% PARTICIPATION
2010
6.40% PARTICIPATION
2011
10.50% PARTICIPATION
2012
6.15% PARTICIPATION
2013
7.57% PARTICIPATION
2014
6.77% PARTICIPATION
2015
2.53% PARTICIPATION
2016
7.82% PARTICIPATION
2017 Cronin Photography
2.41% PARTICIPATION
10
TRIBUTE GIFTS In Memory of Robert H. Bahner Tom ’85 and Susan Durkin P’14
In Memory of George T. Faris Christine A. Faris PwC
In Memory of Rodney K. Jones C. K. Middleton ’06
In Honor of Matthew D. Roche Dawn and Kevin Roche P’16
In Honor of Sarah A. Bandomer Mr. Ken Fletcher
In Honor of David B. Firestone W. Owen Jenkins ’77
In Honor of Environmental Health Jason King ’02
In Honor of Melissa Shapiro Jay and Jill Shapiro P’16
In Honor of Jaclyn A. Brilling Patricia A. Whalen
In Honor of Caroline A. Fisher Keith Johnston ’04
In Memory of Elizabeth A. Leopold Christopher ’78 and Jennifer Leopold
In Honor of Matthew J. Carr James and Kathleen Carr P’17 Raytheon Company
In Honor of Jackie Gardina Jehmal T. Hudson ’06
In Memory of Kenneth R. Marshall Ms. Suzan Dunkiel P’ 96
In Memory of Geoffrey B. Shields The Honorable Warren W. Eginton Dick and Faith Morningstar Charles L. Redman
In Memory of Cheryl Hanna Andrea Courtney ’01 and Robert Fisher Raquel Sefton
In Memory of Karen A. Partyka Veronica C. Boda ’78
In Honor of Environmental Health Jason King ’02
In Honor of Denise R. Johnson Rebecca E. Boucher ’03 Anthony Iarrapino ’03 and Joslyn Wilschek ’03
Tom ’79 and Nancy Truman
In Memory of Marcus T. Reynolds Bill Reynolds ’87
Cronin Photography
In Honor of Herbert Cohen William D. Cohen ’84
In Memory of Michael G. Sullivan
REPORT OF GIVING FY 2016
DONOR LIST CONTINUED
FOUNDATIONS Anonymous (3) The Braxton Fund, Inc. Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Inc. The Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation The Chicago Community Trust Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley The Dow Chemical Company Foundation Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
Food and Nutrition Resources Foundation, Inc. The Ford Foundation General Electric Foundation Institute of International Education James Scott and Sally Foss Hill Foundation Jephson Educational Trust The Johnson Family Foundation The JPMorgan Chase Foundation
Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust Lintilhac Foundation The Mary W. Harriman Foundation Mascoma Savings Bank Foundation The McLain Family Foundation Inc. Nuveen Benevolent Trust Organic Consumers Fund Overhills Foundation The Pew Charitable Trusts
PwC Rockefeller Family Fund, Inc. Schwab Charitable Fund The Cortes Foundation The John Merk Foundation The McKnight Foundation Vermont Bar Foundation Vermont Community Foundation The Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation
Dunkiel Saunders Elliott Raubvogel & Hand, PLLC Earth Asset Partnership, LP Eversource Gensburg, Atwell & Greaves Google IBM Corporation Leidos Markel Underwriting Managers, Inc. Melendy Moritz PLLC
MidAmerican Energy Company MMR, LLC Necrason Group, PLLC Notis Professional Services Phillips, Dunn, Shriver & Carroll, P.C. Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer, P.C. Raytheon Company Shobha Sekhon, MD Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
Thomson Reuters United Technologies Corporation United Technologies Matching Gifts Program Walls Law Firm, PLLC Wells Fargo Matching Gifts Program Zalinger Cameron & Lambek, P.C.
Anonymous AmazonSmile Foundation Benchmark Coffee Traders The Benevity Community Impact Fund The Boeing Gift Matching Program Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Cohen and Rice CR Bard Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C.
www.vermontlaw.edu
Vermont Law School 164 Chelsea Street | PO Box 96 South Royalton, VT 05068 802-831-1000 alumni@vermontlaw.edu
Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy within this report. If you find an error, please accept our sincere apologies and notify the VLS Office for Institutional Advancement by emailing jlawrence@vermontlaw.edu or by calling (802) 831-1325.
Dave Barnum
CORPORATIONS
SAVE THE DATE
Homecoming 2017 SOUTH ROYALTON + KILLINGTON, VT FRIDAY, JUNE 23-SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 2017
There’s no place like Homecoming! Come home to VLS for Homecoming 2017. All alumni are welcome to attend this memorable summer weekend. Classes ending in 2 and 7 will celebrate milestone reunions!
Cornin Photography
connect.vermontlaw.edu/homecoming2017