Pitt Law Faculty

Linda Tashbook, Pitt Law International Law Librarian and Pitt Law JD student Marko Zivanov have published the only complete and current guide to Serbian legal research. Because electronic resources are the best and in some cases the only publicly available versions of law from the newly created Republic of Serbia, this guide presents and annotates all public and private internet accessible sources of Serbia’s codes, legislation, regulations, instructions, explanations, case reports, and forms. Find the guide here on NYU’s Globalex legal research portal.

Professor Michael Madison was quoted in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on lessons that Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) might learn from Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) as the former adopts a county executive and commission model.

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Professor Jules Lobel is the lead attorney in a lawsuit filed on November 12 by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of the antipoverty group ACORN and several other plaintiffs challenging Congress’ defunding of ACORN as an unconstitutional Bill of Attainder. The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the statute. Professor Lobel was quoted in conjunction with the filing of the lawsuit by the New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters, NPR, the NYDaily News, Fox News and various other media outlets.

The Pitt Law Family Law Clinic is featured in the current issue of the City Paper. (11.11/11.18.09). The author, Marty Levine wrote a feature “day in the life” of a student in the clinic that included observing morning student client interviews, student pleading preparation and student argument in court in the afternoon. A photograph including two clinic students accompanies the article.

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Professor Larry Frolik was featured in the WTAE-TV special report on the impact of Pennsylvania’s Filial Responsibility Law. The report detailed how nursing homes use the law, which dates back to the Colonial era, to force adult children to pay for the cost of care of their parents. Frolik noted that nursing homes use the law when older residents either fail to apply or qualify for Medicaid and the cost of their care is going unpaid. Frolik supported the report’s conclusion that the law should be repealed.

The University of Pittsburgh Press has published a new book by Professor James Flannery:  “The Glass House Boys of Pittsburgh Law, Technology, and Child Labor.”

The publisher’s description of the book:

“An original examination of legislative clashes over the singular issue of the glass house boys, who performed menial tasks, received low wages, and had little to say on their own behalf while toiling in glass bottle plants. Flannery reveals the many societal, economic, and political factors at work that allowed for the perpetuation of child labor in this industry and region.”

The publisher’s website.

On November 7, Dean Mary Crossley was an honoree at the 5th Anniversary Celebration of the Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania.  The event, “The Art of Justice:  Women Shaping the Law,” recognized “prominent attorneys, judges, advocates and policymakers who make our region a better place for women and girls to live, work and thrive.”

The program for the event is here.

On October 29, Dean Mary Crossley spoke at the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s fourth annual Diversity Summit in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Speaking on the “Educational Pipeline” panel, she addressed Pitt Law’s efforts to support diversity and its leadership of a collaborative diversity pipeline program reaching out to high school students from underrepresented groups.

The agenda for the meeting is here.

Professor John Burkoff was quoted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in connection with the practice of collecting a DNA sample from somone arrested by federal authorities – without a warrant.  A local federal judge ruled recently that the practice violates the suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights.

University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff said the ruling prevents the government from collecting DNA only from [the person arrested], but it puts the FBI and other federal agencies on notice that they’re likely to lose similar arguments in other cases.

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A new article by Professor Vivian Curran, Comparative Law and the Legal Origins Thesis, has been published at 57 American Journal of Comparative Law 863 (2009).

On Friday, November 6, 2009 Professor Peter B. Oh presented the collective results of his empirical studies, “Corporate Disregard in the U.S. and the U.K.,” at “New Views of Corporate Separateness,” an international conference held at Vanderbilt University Law School.

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Professor Michael Madison was quoted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in connection with the pending Bilski appeal, in which the Supreme Court of the US is likely to address the fundamental scope of US patent law.  The Court hears arguments in Bilski, which concerns an innovation by Pittsburgh-based inventors,  on Monday, November 9.

“This is as major a patent case the Supreme Court has heard in about 30 years.”

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On October 23rd Professor Harry Gruener was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Pitt Law Alumni Association at its annual reception at the University Club.  Professor Gruener joined prior recipients Senator Orrin Hatch, the Honorable Richard Thornburgh, the late Justice Ralph Cappy and other notable alumni as a recipient of this coveted annual award.

Professor Pat Chew and her co-author, Professor Robert Kelley of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, published “Secrets of the Stars: Looking Outside the Legal Profession for Inspiration” in the November 5, 2009 issue of The American Lawyer. A sample:

Like every other enterprise hit by the meltdown, law firms need to rethink their entire business model. Doing so could be the key to making it through the crisis. For particularly forwardthinking firms, this recession could be an opportunity to adopt a new business model that helps them thrive.

So although lawyers are not accustomed to it, they need to look beyond their current business practices to innovative approaches outside the law firm world that can help them gain a competitive advantage. They should begin with the presumption that their traditional business practices are not good enough anymore.

One of us (Pat Chew) is a law professor, and the other (Robert Kelley) has, along with his company, spent 25 years studying what separates stars from average performers in intellectual-capital jobs at such companies as Hewlett-Packard Company and 3M Company. Law firms could use this business research to get higher productivity from their partners. Instead of firing less productive partners, get a higher return on your investment in them by teaching them how to become star performers. Instead of being satisfied with your current solid-performing partners, improve their productivity even more.

Success is not just about having expert knowledge on a legal subject, managing clients’ work well, or bringing in business. These things are a partner’s baseline job. Instead, partners need to learn how to perform these basic functions with optimal outcomes. This requires an understanding of the work strategies that star performers use.

Abigail Salisbury, Pitt Law ‘07 and Executive Director of JURIST, the award-winning legal news site published by Professor Bernard Hibbitts, has published a new article titled “Skills without Stigma: Using the JURIST Method to Teach Legal Research and Writing” in the most recent issue of the Journal of Legal Education, the official scholarly publication of the Association of American Law Schools.

Max Miller, Director of Pitt Law’s Innovation Practice Institute and an adjunct faculty member, has been recognized by the ABA Journal as one of fifty “Legal Rebels,” whom the magazine describes as “some of the profession’s leading innovators.”

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Professor John Burkoff was quoted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in connection with the possibility that individuals arrested during the recent G-20 summit in Pittsburgh might pursue police misconduct charges.

“If you’re convicted of something, you have to explain that to a judge or a jury in a civil case. It makes it more difficult to be successful,” said University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff. “If you’re acquitted it makes it easier.”

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The judges in the Luzerne County corruption case are probably immune from civil liability, Professor Arthur Hellman told the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. The account begins:

We checked in with Pitt law professor and expert on the judiciary Arthur Hellman to talk about this strange notion of judicial immunity.

Hellman indeed backed the notion that the plaintiffs might end up high and dry. He said that while the immunity isn’t absolute, it extends to actions taken while judges were engaged in a judicial function.

Hellman explained that the Supreme Court in 1978 upheld the notion of judicial immunity in a case in which an Indiana judge ordered the forced sterilization of a woman, a naked breach of state law. Because the judge was acting under his stautorily granted jurisdiction, he was covered by the immunity. The rule does not, Hellman continued, apply to judges working in official but non-judicial capacities. For example, a judge would not be immune from suit if he or she fired an employee for discriminatory reasons.

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On Friday, October 16, 2009, Pitt Law hosted a day-long symposium titled “The Past, Present, and Future of the SEC,” planned and hosted by Professors Douglas Branson and Peter Oh. The event was co-sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Law Review and the SEC Historical Society. Scholars from Boston College, Georgetown University, Vanderbilt University, University of Indiana, the College of William and Mary and the University of Minnesota, among others, presented papers. Also presenting papers were the recently retired Secretary of the SEC as well as three former Chief Economists of the SEC and the General Counsel for NASDAQ. Commissioner Troy Parades of the SEC delivered the Keynote Address. Chancellor Mark Nordenberg attended portions of the program and introduced Commissioner Paredes. Approximately 200 academics, area lawyers and law students attended the program.

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On October 16, 2009, Professor Douglas Branson presented a paper at a conference hosted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law (“The Past, Present, and Future of the SEC”). The title of his paper was “Trekking Toward an Uber Regulator: Meaningful Change for SEC Enforcement?’ The paper will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Law Review, along with other papers presented at the conference.